Day 147: The Gang's All Here

So I was totally excited all day today!  Today was Friday and the night of my big debut on television!  It was the night that my episode of The Contenders was going to be aired across Korea - *nation-wide!* and I was totally stoked about it!  How cool would it be to see yourself ON TV!!!???  haha!!

Because of this pivotal moment in my life, the exact moment when I instantly transform from humble English Teacher to international superstar extraordinaire, I naturally wanted to share it with absolutely everyone I knew in Korea!  Steve and I decided that a Viewing Party was in order and that we would gather up all our buddies to come out and watch our stellar performance on TV together.  None of our friends knew if we had lost or won cause Steve and I wanted to build up the anticipation and watch it all unfold on TV...it's gonna be a great night!!!

I don't even have the Arirang channel in my apartment, but Rick & Tracey who live below me kindly offered to host my little soiree.  I made a million phone calls and then waited and watched as the crowds rolled in...  There was Steve and myself, Kelsey, Ben, Pauline, Rick, Tracey, Michael and Eric drove in from Seoul, and even Mark and Ailish bussed in all the way from Shihung.  What a great turn-out!

With about twenty minutes or so left before the launch of my Career In Fame a TV commercial for the show came on that quickly caused me to have a short panic...  It was showing glimpses of the upcoming episode...and none of them had Steve or I in it!!  Uh-oh...  Could it be that tonight's episode is actually the one that was filmed on the same day as ours, just before we competed?  Nahhh....we were told by the Arirang staff that *tonight* was gonna be our night...

Oh boy...

11pm hit and we all crammed into Rick & Tracey's place and had our eyes glued to the tube.  The show rolled out, the music started up, the host walked out on stage and introduced....

...not Steve and I!

DOH!!!

Uhhhhh sorry guys...looks like Steve and I are actually gonna be on TV *next week!* 

(insert sheepish grin and nervous giggle here)

No worries, everyone was a good sport about it.  We all just laughed about the circumstances (Murphy's Law eh?) and enjoyed the show.  We had some beers and had a blast jeering the other contenders, knowing that whoever won that show would be our competition.  It was great fun and actually a really awesome impromptu party at Rick & Tracey's.  This was actually the first time ever that I've had all my various groups of friends here in Korea together in one room!

After the show we just hung out and chatted for quite a while, and then some of us went for drinks later on.  Steve and I were teased incessantly about the little 'schedule mix-up' tonight but it was all in good fun.  Looks like we'll have to reschedule the Viewing Party for next week!