It seems another week has snuck past without any updates from me. I hadn't been intending on leaving it this long - I never do, of course. Excuses this week include stressing out about Christmas shopping at the weekend, and then a possible case of food poisoning earlier in the week. I'll spare you the details. Saturday night was our staff Christmas party. It was held at a local wedding hall, and included free food (Korean buffet, so-so) and free beer and soju (no complaints here). Hightlights of the meals - wait, 'hightlights' is the wrong word; most noteworthy dishes included green fish eggs (which maybe tasted like cavier, but I've never eaten caviar), and...well, I'm no expert, so can someone tell me: is this this a cricket or a grasshopper? Whatever you want to call them, they were slightly sweet, and not at all unpleasant; the texture on the other hand, and the fear of getting bits of leg or wing stuck in your teeth, is not one I plan on getting used to. The key is not to think about it, and drink lots of alcohol beforehand. After the meal came the speeches and of course, karaoke. As entertaining as it is to see the school directors bumping and grinding on the dancefloor (again), you can only listen to so many obscure Korean hits before needing a break. Rob had passed up an invitation to attend a Korean Wedding earlier in the day, but as it happens, there was a wedding reception going on downstairs at the same time as our party, so Rob figured maybe he didn't need to miss out on the experience after all. After reassuring each other that yes, in fact, we were both being serious, the two of us set off downstairs to gatecrash. Thinking we would be turned out sharpish, I set my stopwatch going as we entered, to see how long we could last. After loitering by the door for only a minute, we were dragged onto the dancefloor by a couple of middle-aged drunken Korean women. After stomping along with them for a handful of traditional Korean tunes (which always sound a little Bollywood to me), one of the guests decided it was our turn to do a number. Maybe we'd drunk more than I thought, for we agreed very readily. I thought a good old crowd pleaser to keep the dancing going, while Rob was focusing on what would make the best story later. As it is, we went with Rob's choice, which is how we ended up singing Radiohead's Creep at a Korean stranger's wedding. The dancefloor being strangely empty after we'd finished, we beat a hasty retreat amid polite applause... Our own party was quite conventional in comparison, and we didn't stay much longer. All of the school's staff had been out, but after the meal we splintered into separate groups. Mine went to a nearby bar for more drinks and cake. It was also Christa's birthday today, hence the cake, and tequila. We can only have been in there a couple of hours, but when we came out again everyone was amazed by the blanket of snow that had fallen (and was still falling) in the meantime. After an impromptu (and I'm sure, quite disrespectful) snowball fight in the middle of town, we went into a singing room (and smuggled in a few more drinks of course). After paying for the first three hours we realised that the place had stopped charging us, meaning that we had no incentive to leave, ever. However, after all of our other friends had leaked away, and our voices had turned to gravel, Christa, Vanessa and I finally slip-slided our way home through the snow sometime after 5am, happy and tired.