HIV / Drug Test - Obama! - Bar Fight - Koreans!

Hey, hey, my, my! So the past couple of days...

As part of our application for residence permits, we are required to take a drug and HIV blood test at the hospital. First thing, I knew we were in Korea after walking into the hospital. It was not an entirely pristine atmosphere and looked like a free clinic from the Bronx. Some basic check-up tests were done. I think I'm partially color blind :-/. Blake tried taking the piss out of me in front of the director but I rebutted with, "We'll see who fails the HIV test. Then who'll be laughing". Great stuff. Also included a piss test. Which was a laugh in the bathroom since they are grotty here. They don't flush the toilet paper but toss them in bins here, bleugh. The cups we had to do the business in were like paper coffee cups with no lids. The final part was a needle up the brachial vein/artery? I believe to take out some blood. Blake got a bit pale but mine went smoothly so let's hope we passed! Otherwise you'll be seeing us real soon!

We were really excited at work also the other day for the election. I had CNN streaming on my laptop at work and when the blow-out came, I made a sign and held it up against the glass of a classroom for the other American teacher, Pam, to see. Naturally she yelped with glee. 

We were all excited to celebrate and hit up the Tacsa Bar where a lot of the other foreign teachers go to get their whistles wet. We met Kat, a 40 some year old from the Bronx who decided to come here because of the job situation back home. She was glad to see us and was excited for Obama's win as well. Another teacher, Frankie from New Zealand also came later and we had some interesting chats. 

Korean people love to drink! And there was a group of students sitting near us who came up and offered both Blake and I drinks which was pretty cool. Apparently blonde, white males are like Gods to these people. Now I know how the Europeans felt when they took the Native American's land and conquered the many indigenous peoples.

Next up was our first uni-sex bathroom! Blake had a nice chat with a Korean man, in too close of a comfortable proximity while he was draining the main vein.

And last but not least, first bar fight! As we were sitting, a bigger Korean bloke came into the bar, and just sucker punched a guy sitting down and kicked him in the head while he was down. Frankie, bless her brave soul, got up and pushed the bugger away and that was that. Shocking to say the least. We guessed it was an act of passion.

Korean People:

The Korean people are extremely hospitable! We've had a lot of meals covered for us. A couple people give us their phone numbers and saying to let them know if we need help with anything. An older man at a cafe even told me that I should meet his 19 year old daughter! His wife was probably 20 years his younger and not too shabby, haha. He said if we ever want to, we can check out his home in the city nearby.

My address: - If you want to send me stuffs or letters!

Alex Titkov

Saekyung College

English Language Village

230-809, 57, Hason-ri,

Yeongwol-eup, Yeongwol-gun

Gangwan-do, South Korea

Hope all is well with everyone and thanks for reading! We miss you all, so please keep in touch!