Roasted Duck

Last night the school went out for dinner at a quiet little duck restaurant tucked between the folds of a mountain nearby. We were welcoming a new administrator to work the books here. It was a mostly quiet night until Mr. Oh started to pressure a few of the teachers to "drink until death" (it's a sign of friendship in Korea). Around this time the Olympics came up and Mr. Oh refused to believe me that Calgary held the Winter Olympics in 1988. He is a pretty big sports fan and was confident (with soju) in betting me that they were held two years after the Seoul Olympics meaning 1990.

I gave him many opportunities to back out of the bet by subtlety reminding him that:I was from Calgary, I was in Calgary in 1988 and I went to a ski jumping event at the Olympics we were talking about. These truths hardly even dented his confidence. He held onto his position tighter than the grip around his shot of soju and called up his friend to settle the bet.

While he talked, in my head I just kept repeating 1988 in Korean waiting for it to match Mr. Oh's dialogue. When it finally matched I followed his hand reach into his pocket and pull out a man won to hand over to me. It was the easiest ten bucks I've made in a long time.