Clubbing

Yes, that's me caught in a pub. No, I'm sober.

I like to dance through the night, but it is something I very seldom do. The reason I tend to avoid going clubbing is because my incentive is different than most people's. Usually when people go clubbing they do so with the intend to pick someone up or to go and get drunk with their buddies. I'm teetotaler so that cancels out the latter. And as for picking someone up, a club is just not the place where I would like to pick someone up. I'd rather hook-up with someone based on more criteria than those you can profile in the noisy, flashy, senses-numbing environment of a night club. I'm looking for connections, not one-nightstands.

In South Africa I have some friends that would go clubbing with me. Particularly my "sister" Yolandi and I. (She's not really my sister, but we've known each other so long that it feels like it. She's my brother's ex, but after they split up the two of us were still good friends and we didn't see any reason for breaking up our friendship just because her and my brother's six-year relationship didn't work out.) Yolandi is also a teetotaler and like me she enjoys going out just for the fun of dancing, rather than hunting. We would go dancing through the night, especially on special occasions like New Year's Eve, and so on.

In any case, since I've been to Korea I've never gone clubbing. The main reason is that I am a university lecturer and the idea of meeting my students at a night club makes me uneasy. I'm very careful about keeping clear professional teacher-student boundaries. Since I'm a young unmarried guy, things can easily get messy, so keeping very clear and strict boundaries with students are important. One has to be careful about these things. A year back a (foreign) professor at my university was accused of sexual harassment and was sacked. That type of stigma is bound to follow him for the rest of his career and that's not something I want. For this reason I avoid dance clubs in Korea.

The past Saturday night that changed. A friend from Taekwon-Do returned to Belgium so the gym decided to have a farewell party. We went out for dinner. Afterwards we went to a noraebang. This is basically a Karaoke  literally noraebang translates as "singing room". Then we went to Hongdae, an area famous for its nightlife. Soon the subway had closed and there was no feasible way for me to get back home until the subway opened again the next morning at 5:30. Instead, I enjoyed the night dancing till 5am.

It was immensely enjoyable. I just hope none of my students saw me and took photos of me and published it on their blogs online. At least I know the photos cannot be too incriminating as I was sober and remember every part of the evening. I cannot say the same for some of my Taekwon-Do friends whose pictures are better kept offline.