OK so my last post was depressing. I think there were a couple days there where I was depressed. It's a natural, normal thing to go thru as an expat living in a new country. The "honeymoon phase" lasted a little shorter than expected, but I refuse to be a miserable person here.

Since I really haven't written about my daily life in a while, I will be writing a blog in 3 parts.

I'm calling it "Making Up With Korea" because Korea has offered various types of "make-up sex" which has led me to better spirits.

Korea surprises me. In both good and bad ways. Every single day there is a new adventure, a new cultural nuance, a new way to see things. It's fascinating -- and I think it will be what keeps me from being miserable.... I always gotta be on my toes.



------------

Friday was an all-day teacher in-service for all the March 2010 EPIKers and our Korean co-teachers. A few seminars and lectures, a pretty great lunch, and a Q&A session with our coordinator. This was really the first we have all been back together since orientation. It was great seeing everyone again. I know for a fact that we are lucky we got such a great group of people. March 2010 EPIK-Daegu is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

The next 9 hours saw almost non-stop drinking and celebration. It was manic. It was messy. It was memorable. I had so much fun.

Saturday night was also fun. Since Daegu Weather has decided to take its antidepressants, we were blessed with its good graces all weekend. Sunshine, 70-80º, hell today it was almost HOT. So of course downtown Daegu was packed wall-to-wall.

Saturday evening started with a dinner-adventure to Taco-holic, a Mexican restaurant. Now, I totally went into this restaurant knowing that it was going to suck. There is something about Mexican food that makes it impossible to replicate overseas. Many have tried, and most have failed.



So with those expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Mexican food there. Of course it was simple -- tacos, burritos, chimichangas, enchiladas, quesadillas, nachos and taco pizza. Instead of chips and salsa, they gave us fried wonton chips with a sweet-n-sour duck sauce. It was good, just not chips and salsa. The margaritas were also something to be noted. It was a damn decent margarita. And all reasonably priced.
Plate-sized chicken quesadillas + margarita = 13,000 won (roughly $12). Not too shabby.

Most notable to me, however, was the brilliancy of its loyalty program.

Loyalty programs are very common here in Daegu, most of us already have a number of various punch/reward cards, from bars to coffee shops to shoe stores.

Taco-holic has no such thing. They have a dart board. If you hit a space, you get something free the next time you come in.
Point. Aim. Shoot. Free beer.
Hell yes I am going back to Taco-holic. Why wouldn't you go back if you were getting something free?
While you may think they are losing a lot of money, they aren't. They are getting serious repeat business. It's well worth the cost of a beer or enchilada. Just brilliant.

So the search for decent Mexican food was successful. And I would go back even without the free beer.