Staff Dinners

   I'm writing this for two reasons.
Reason 1: To share the crazy experience called a "Staff Dinner" with the rest of the world
Reason 2: To find out if this happens with all English teachers in Korea
   Staff dinners usually start off nice. There's shop talk, the occasional cheers, food... maybe a short speech from the school director. At some point in the night it turns into a frat party. Soju gets introduced and all hell breaks loose.
   You would think that the director, principal or school owner would be keeping everyone in check, but that's hardly the case. They always seem to be the ring leader. From the days when I was in a smaller, sketchy establishment out in Suwon, to these days when I'm working for a solid, upstanding company in Seoul... One thing has always been certain- "Staff Dinner" always... always translates to "Crazy Night with your Coworkers". I love it.
   The other night my school treated us all to a dinner at a Japanese restaurant. We had tons of sashimi and soju served to us for free. The director and principal of my school shared a private room with whoever stumbled in from time to time. The photo above was taken in that little room at what seems like a very tame moment. It really wasn't. I'm not going to go into details as to what was said or done. I will say, however, that everything was in good fun and kind spirited... Oh, and noisy as hell.

   That night I ended up catching fish out of the restaurant's outdoor tank with some fellow employees. The coolest thing about it was that the restaurant was totally okay with us doing this. Actually no... The coolest thing was that we caught the fish with our bare hands. Check out the hilarious video of it on Youtube...              

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFDah55UZU0)

   Does the crazy staff dinner night happen to everyone here in Korea? Is it just a Korean thing? If you have any good stories please leave em' in the comments. I gotta' know if it's just me this happens to...