Soju 1000 and other Halloween characters

Friday was Halloween Day (as they call it here)! So all this week we had Halloween classes and we carved pumpkins and ate pumpkin seeds and dressed up and went to a costume party and showed Koreans what Halloween's all about. Korea loved it. The kids were crazy about the jack-o-lanterns, trick or treating, candy, and It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. And even the grown ups, who are usually pretty serious, were excited to see authentic Halloween costumes roaming the streets with people inside.

Our budgets were small and our time limit short, but I think we came up with some great costumes. Brian was Soju 1000, the drinking robot. I was Graffiti with a green mohawk. David was Tiny Princess, which was both disgusting and hillarious. And Duck was Tiny Princess's Knight in Shining Armour (I prefer the Brittish spelling). Tiny Princess was undoubtedly the most popular with the locals, but they loved us all and even gave us free Soju for our troubles. David and Duck came to our area, and the four of us and Young Jae, the PE teacher at Brian's school, went out for dinner and then to a Soju Bar. At the Soju Bar we met some locals who were fans, and another teacher from Brian's school - Sunny- met up with us. Then we were off to belt out our vocal cords at a norebang (pronounced nor ray bong), which is a room where you sing Kareoke with your party. And then to Vinyl Underground dance club, and then to Ol 55 costume contest (grand prize trip to Thailand, keep your fingers crossed) , and then to Girl Fighter, and then to Ghetto Bar. It was a long night of big fun. Behold. Parents be assured, Soju is only 40% alcohol, so though there are many shots in these pictures, they only do half the damage.

This is Soju 1000 showing off some of his functions. The more soju you put in, the more functions you get out. This was in the middle of the street in a culture that does not know Halloween (but they secretly love it).

And that was Halloween Day in South Korea.