I haven't been noraebang-napped since September, so I was due for one.
I had stayed in my nice work clothes because L-Friend wanted to study at our favorite coffee shop at 5:30 and I was throwing a birthday party for AB-Friend at the same coffee shop at 7. Our local coffee shop sees a lot of action, really. It's the site of parties, study sessions, and late-night post-theater film-discussions.
They Also Have Coffee.
Anyhoodle, I had gotten several little presents for AB-Friend, and written up a card (designed by L-Friend) and made certain that the guys in the group were getting her a card at least (they exceeded expectations and got her a lot of cute presents in addition to the card--you go, boys.) .
Also, I had planned ahead and gotten 2 Paris Baguette cakes in case we had a lot of people. In Korea, cakes are tiny. At home, you can buy a cheap sheet cake at the Wal-Mart and feed 20-40 people easy, depending on how you cut it. Small Korean cakes serve 4 if you're getting big slices, 8 if you skimp, and even the largest cakes can't feed more than 12-ish, if no one wants a second slice.
Smaller Than They Look, and My Store
Only Has Single-Layer Cakes.
But man, do they ever look pretty. So I bought a Walnut Cake (Cake 2) and a backup cake (Oreo), in case we had 20 people show up (it was more like 13), but then AB-Friend came in with a third cake (Strawberry) that her co-teacher had given her.
What to do. Because the Walnut Cake is visible, as is the Strawberry Cake, but the Oreo hasn't been spotted yet. If anybody sees my back-up Oreo cake, AB-Friend is going to feel awkward--I know her--and then people are going to ask me what we're going to do with my extra cake and ask whether they can help pay for it, and debate which cakes we should or shouldn't eat.
It was going to be socially awkward and take the focus off of AB-Friend's birthday and off of having fun, so I decided to make it a non-issue by not allowing anyone to know about Oreo Cake. I secured Oreo cake under my laptop case, where it couldn't be seen. I also obtained the co-operation of AM-Friend (not the Birthday Girl), who was going to leave the cafe after 40 minutes, hiding Oreo under her jacket. The things my best friends do to help me preserve order...
Strawberry was all eaten, and people began eating Walnut, but things did not go exactly according to plan. AM-Friend and I were trying to make 3 cakes and the garbage thereof look like two cakes, so she was able to smuggle out Oreo by saying it was the "box and trash" from Strawberry, while I still had the giant box and trash of Strawberry, which couldn't be dumped in the cafe garbage cans because it would be making the staff deal with our mess.
So at exactly 8, I stealthily put the Strawberry cake box and trash in my laptop case. I was going to leave Walnut behind, so people could still nibble on (it also became breakfast for Birthday Girl this morning--she loved it and instagrammed pictures of it, so it was put to good use).
Only problem left was that I couldn't fit my laptop into my laptop case, and I didn't want the guys to see that because they Just Can't Leave Things Alone. But I managed to slide past 5 chairs and 3 large potted plants while holding my purse, laptop case and loose laptop all in my arms, culminating in hugging the Birthday Girl goodbye, all without tripping or garnering commentary from the guys.
I was out the door, and turning toward home with no one the wiser! A win. An awkward, unwiedly win, but a victory nonetheless.
Only I could manufacture this much Cake Angst.
Don't Taunt Me, Cake. You Don't Know What I've Lived Through.
But the night doesn't end there. No sooner had I turned down my street than I heard my name being called, by at least one male and one female voice.
I turn, arms completely full of stuff, to behold Mr. B, my co-teacher. With him are PE Teacher, NG, and at least 7 moms from the PTA. Mr. B runs to catch up with me and tells me that the moms wanted to take Mr. B specifically out to dinner since the semester was ending. They had just gotten out of the barbecue restaurant and they wanted to know if I'd join them for "Round 2".
I already know what Round 2 is going to be. It's going to be noraebang. Like any sane person, I accepted immediately.
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11 AM: I didn't have to teach my first class, so here's the rest of the story.
Mr. B walked me back to my apartment to drop my stuff off. I mentally prepared myself for the awesomeness and awkwardness that lay ahead.
I under-prepared.
Int he giant norebang room, there was a constant whirlwind of conversation, food, and singing. Or rather, mostly of the moms and Mr. B making us, the three younger teachers sing stuff. I went first. I was told to sing in Korean, so I went with SNSD's "Gee," which is a song as pink and fluffy as a my Little Pony.
I got bonus points with the moms for singing first and for singing in Korean, no less. And as I sit down I'm just hoping that NG's not rolling his eyes at my aegyo-filled song choice, because while Mr. B looooves when I do cute stuff, NG seems to look down on anything less than practical, and I still have to work with him after all this is over.
11 AM: I didn't have to teach my first class, so here's the rest of the story.
Mr. B walked me back to my apartment to drop my stuff off. I mentally prepared myself for the awesomeness and awkwardness that lay ahead.
I under-prepared.
Int he giant norebang room, there was a constant whirlwind of conversation, food, and singing. Or rather, mostly of the moms and Mr. B making us, the three younger teachers sing stuff. I went first. I was told to sing in Korean, so I went with SNSD's "Gee," which is a song as pink and fluffy as a my Little Pony.
I got bonus points with the moms for singing first and for singing in Korean, no less. And as I sit down I'm just hoping that NG's not rolling his eyes at my aegyo-filled song choice, because while Mr. B looooves when I do cute stuff, NG seems to look down on anything less than practical, and I still have to work with him after all this is over.
Yes, Please Take Me Seriously After You've Heard Me Sing
"Gee, Gee, Gee, Gee, Gee, Baby, Baby".
As it happens, I shouldn't have worried. Because NG had a weirder night than I did. He has a good voice and sang about 3 nice-sounding slow-tempo songs I didn't know. But he also had to live through a lot more teasing than I got, and had to endure/fend off the very pressing attentions of one of the moms. There are things you expect moms to do, and none of her behavior fell under those categories, let us say, but none of it was bad enough that I felt I needed to verbally intervene.
The same basic thing happened to me in September, with one of the former guy teachers--it seems to be a rule of noraebang than someone will lavish upon you way, way more affection than you want to receive, but still not quite enough that you could sue them for. Professionalism has its own, very different standards here.
I sang a Taylor Swift song they didn't know, then later did a sassy breakup song in Korean (and the crowd goes wild). The PE teacher probably had the best, strongest voice of anyone, but he left early. I couldn't leave, not until Mr. B did, because I know my manners. You don't skip out on your elders, because that is impolite. Even if your elders are dancing on tables (yes, that happened), you wait like a good girl until they tell you everybody's leaving.
Noraebang Tables Are Sturdy As A Great Mountain,
And Well-Used to Adversity.
I had some great conversations in the midst of this craziness, though. HH's mom showed up, and since she has English, we could talk about family and vacations and my Korean study. Yoonjae's Mom was charming as always, and I met the moms of 3 other students of mine. It was pretty sweet.
I was exhausted soon, though. The nerves of having to sing in Korean in front of moms I've just met, combined with the effort of trying to understand the conversation and trying to make intelligent 2nd-language replies, was just tiring. So for my closing song, I went with Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know," which is calm and lovely. It was exactly right for the final song of the night. I just now found out that Lily Allen covered the song last year, but previously I had only known the boy version:
