Towards the middle of June, I was getting a bit depressed and lonely. Most of my closest friends had left Korea, others were too busy or too poor to meet, and no one else really has the same work schedule that I do. Boo hoo.

Fortunately, that changed in the middle of the month, when a bunch of the new summer program teachers arrived. I had been in touch with one of them (Will) for a while, and it was good to finally meet him and put a face with the name. Also, my friend Eric returned for his third summer, and my replacement, Barmak, also arrived. Not only was it good to have new people to hang out with, but some male bonding time was well appreciated.

Our first big outing was to Platinum microbrewery, my favorite bar in Seoul. I'd say there were about a dozen of us, and it was sort of a "Friends of Chris" gathering. Mostly people whom I know, but who don't really know each other. I love that sort of thing. Towards the end of the night, a few of us ended up at the Sauna bar to drink some Sam Adams.

Since there are a bunch of people who are new to Seoul, it was inevitable that someone would discover The Flair and tell everyone else about it. The one near my first apartment is long gone but there is another one near our school, and we've been there a few times. Now that I'm impervious to its charms, I can see how people would really love it the first few times they go, but would probably tired of it soon after. I think I went there three times in the past week, which is more times than I've been in the past year.

One of those three times was when my friend Kevin visited me. He is my brother's wife's sister's fiancee. Say that five times fast! He is in the Marines and is stationed in Japan, but popped up to Korea on business and then took the train to Seoul for the weekend.

Originally we wanted to go to Murphy's Irish Pub, scene of my infamous 30th birthday party. However, I am very sad to report that it is now a Japanese restaurant. Sigh. Well, at least we have the memories.

We went to a pretty cool bar that serves Sam Adams (notice a trend here?) and then to... The Flair. It was Will's birthday, and they gave him the royal treatment, including some sort of drink that was on fire. But I do hope that we will be limiting our trips to The Flair; it is already getting old.

I also went to a really great restaurant in the suburb called Bundang, which always reminds me of "boon docks". It makes me think it's really far away. Anyway, two of the teachers from Princeton Review took me there, and basically I'm just typing this so I could show you their picture.

The other big, big news is that I am no longer a full-time teacher of The Princeton Review. As of July 1, I am only going to be teaching on Saturdays. I'm not completely on vacation yet, as I have to spend time training my replacement and documenting everything I know, but I can already feel how relieved I am not to have to teach for six hours each day. Especially when the weather is hot and humid like it is now.

Time is certainly running out for me in Seoul, and everyone asks what I plan on doing. I was thinking of traveling and I hope to do that, but mostly I want to spend time with my friends and just enjoy my last few weeks here.