Drinking culture

I got this nice little message the other day from kbf.  The "he" in the message is the CEO of the school he works at.  They went out after school, 10 pm-ish until 5 am.  This made me think about the drinking culture in Korea and work-related meetings.

It's totally common and acceptable to go out drinking with co-workers and bosses.  You will be encouraged to drink a lot and potentially sing a terrible song at a norebang with them.  You must accept any shots that are poured for you, otherwise, you are rude.  (I have seen some of the female teachers at my school just pour the shots out into an empty water glass when the person who poured it isn't looking)  In fact, these meetings have a name in Korean, 회식 (hweshik), and you are expected to attend (even if you already have plans).  

However, as a foreigner in Korea, I often  try to wiggle myself out of these and (I think) it's not looked down upon as much as if a Korean person were to refuse to attend.  A lot of times, they tell me about some dinner with very little notice so I am usually not lying when I timidly say I already have plans.  Sometimes, I just don't want to go so I just act strange about it..like "oh, I didn't know..." or "oh, nobody told me.." or "I forgot.."  These dinners are not really all that fun for me.  For one, everyone is just speaking Korean which is fine during school, everyday, but do I really want to be spending my time outside of school sitting alone looking at my phone while everyone talks to each other?  Granted, my main coteacher does usually sit next to me so sometimes she will translate something for me, but still, I mainly feel like a burden to her and it's just uncomfortable all around.

My friend posted this as his status yesterday, "Sometimes I miss my old job where I was only forced to socialize with coworkers once a year."  This is so true life.  At my job back home, I never hung out with coworkers (except for like maybe 2 who were my age, and not really all that often).  The only time we did anything outside of work together was maybe a holiday party/retirement party, and actually, these were usually in the office anyway.

I've already committed on going on my 2nd overnight trip with school next week.  It usually goes over like this...coteacher: "can you join us on the teacher's trip?" me: "where are you going?" cot: "we haven't decided yet.." me: "oh.." cot: "so can you come?" me: "I guess so.."  And, there you have it.  I don't know why they think an overnight trip is necessary at all.  Like couldn't we just go eat dinner somewhere in Seoul and then go home to our own beds (or floors for some)?  Instead, I'll most likely have to go on some outdoor adventure in negative degree weather, eat dinner sitting on the floor, drink soju, and then sleep on the floor with 4 other Korean ladies who don't really talk to me.  Awkward.  Can you tell I'm excited?