The other day I was teaching the kids in my Beauty and the Beast class what the term "bent down" means. I did this by bending down to pick up something off the floor. Well, the kids went nuts. I thought maybe my pants had ripped or I was drooling. Turns out there was a perfectly good explanation. The word "bent" has a very similar sounding counterpart in the Korean language and the meaning of bent in Korean: panties. Yeah, so when I kept saying bent down over and over again in class, the students all heard "panties down, panties down, panties down." It took them a while to explain this to me, but when one of them went to the board, drew a pair of underwear and wrote "Lion" across them, I got the point. And then that lesson ended immediately.

I went bowling last night with my co-workers and it was awesome. There's actually two bowling alleys within a half mile of my apartment. The one we went to had 16 lanes. When I handed the cashier my sneaker, which is 10.5 American, her eyes opened wide. Well, they still weren't open because she is Asian, you know. But, um, they weren't as closed as usual? There was no one else there, really, so when I kept running down the lane and kicking things, my co-workers had to scold me. I don't what it is about bowling, but it always get me really juiced up. Maybe it's just all the horrible memories from Sparks Bowling Nights at home, where things (see Rob and see teenage girls on the lane next to us) happened that should never be spoken of again. All I know is I'm going to force Bender to bowl with me all the time, and he's gonna love it.

Tomorrow is the last day of work for three teachers in the office, including Erika. Erika's replacement is a 55-year-old American guy who seems like a decent guy, but there's always something creepy when you're 55 with no family and you've been teaching English in Asia for 12 years. My mom actually told me to take make sure he doesn't touch me inappropriately. Thanks for the advice, Mom. This guy also called me last week as I was getting on a train and he tells me he has a stock certificate that he needs mailed to a U.S. address and then sent here. Um, OK, so you'll get someone you know, a friend, a relative to take care of that, right? Yeah, no. He's now mailing this thing to my parents. My dad will probably throw it out.

I know people are worried about Bender, mainly because I said he died in my last post and because he has neglected his own blog. But let me clear this up: Bender is fine. He was never sick. He just wanted a story for his blog. So anything you read about him feeling sick or being ready to die or thinking about going home is complete b.s.

Something else I like about Korea: restaurant bills. You never need to ask for one. They are always already on the table. Whenever you order something they just add it to the bill. It eliminates the whole ask for the bill and then wait a half hour to get it nightmare. Most places also dish out free ice cream with your meal, and that is a big plus in my book.

Something weird: apparently they are no American-style parking garages in Korea. They have garages but you don't drive up them. You take an elevator. You drive your car into the elevator and it takes you up the garage. I mean, I guess I can see the point. Forget it, I can't. The elevator only fits one car at a time so if you're ever in a full garage and some concert has just ended, you're basically screwed. You might as well sleep in your car and head out the next morning.

(Photos- Erika and Lina at a bar and the city.)