"Second place ... "

and no, not first loser, but the second place last Friday evening.

As you may recall from the last post, I was out to dinner with the male teachers from my school.

Here in Korea though, it's rare that you go one place. If you go to dinner, you almost always go to a second place for more booze and fun. So when my vice principal told me the English translation, "Singing Room," I happily shrieked the Korean word, Norebang.

Many of you in the states know I love karaoke. Maweja in Turkey knows I like it so much that if I can't find karaoke, like I couldn't in Turkey, I will sing live when I can.

Norebang is different from Karaoke in it's a small room where you get a personalized big screen television and remote control to enter in song names. There is a decent variety of English songs here in Korea, but I am already researching a method to get more. (I'll keep you posted.)

A group goes to a Norebang studio and rents the room per hour, commencing to sing and have a merry good time. It's like your own private karaoke lounge.

To me it has its pluses and drawbacks.

Pluses: You're only with your friends, so there is an increased freedom to try new songs that you normally wouldn't sing. (Some of you have seen me do multiple songs over again, a shame, but sometimes you have to go with what you know.)

Minuses: There isn't a huge crowd cheering when you nail it. That is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

But there with my Korean coworkers, I belted out a few tunes and even did some experimenting.

I sang, "What a Wonderful World," with a raspy tribute to Sachmo and was given the compliment, "You sound just like Neil Armstrong."

Thanks ... I think.

I as really impressed with my coworkers. These Koreans have some pipes on them. They can sing really well. I wouldn't just say this because I was drunk and everything sounds better when you're wasted.

Norebang is going to be it's own post next time, because I just can't write enough about this.

More later,

annyonghi kaseyo,

James