I have a date...with a big piece of flying steel that I'll call an airplane, and it's Monday November 3rd, so maybe I'll be home in time to play hoops at Urban on Tuesday, wouldn't that be loverly? I think so. All the same I will miss this crazy peninsula more than I let on sometimes, and in all likliehood I'll be back eventually. I'm beginning to pass of my private lessons to a new teacher, and seriously it's like entrusting a part of my life for the past year to him, as ridiculous as that is to say. I had a going away party in my honor from a family last night. They prepared quite a spread for me, and then we drank our faces off for a solid hour and half. Then the most remarkable thing happened, the father of one of the students, with whom I had not exchanged more than a friendly subservient bow with in a year, stumbled home, already drunk from... wherever it is that he works/drinks. He sidled right up next to me and started yammering at me in the thickest Daegu dialect (which is thicker and more incomprehensible than most Korean dialects) for a good 15 minutes. I took one look into his bloodshot eyes and fell in love (he had his hand on my inner thigh, what was I supposed to do?) I didn't understand a word, and so I drank, then his wife farted. I pretended I didn't notice, because she gave me a bottle of fragrant shower wash, but I caught it. Diplomacy at all costs. Speaking of, there was more absurd talk of negroes last night which always spices up the lessons. As we were saying goodbye near the elevator, the father started gyrating in a bizarre circular motion and grinning maniacly, as if to suggest that this farewell needn't be so somber. It was truly an indelible image. This morning I went to the last of the LIKE teaching workshops that I will ever be attending, and as per usual it was mind-numbing and horrifying to see the collection of people that I work with, and the company which I work for. Kim In-Hwan, the major-domo of the Mickey-Mouse operation known as LIKE, kept the stupidity to a minimum today, although he did find time to pantomime the hand motions to the "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" which he mistakenly sang as the "Eensy-Weensy spider" which was a spectacular acheivement--that man has some pipes, he lent some deep emotion to the spider's unfortunate accident. Also, he invited all the foreign teachers to a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner at one of the local Army bases, but then he excused himself because he and his wife would be taking a $1000 trip to Hawaii instead. We were all wondering where he would be and how much it would cost him, so I'm glad he cleared that up. And that's about it.