Followers and Creepers:
Here's the deal. I am pretty sure that I am not allowed to be anywhere in this school unsupervised. I think it's their equivalent of safe environment standards. I can't even go to lunch unsupervised. It is not an issue of knowing where and when to go, because I have eaten there every day. It may be an issue of etiquette though. I have heard it is not only strange to eat out alone here, but that some restaurants wont even seat you unless you are with someone else. So even if the other teacher doesn't speak a word of English, I am being escorted to wherever it is that I need to go. This of course is not the case when I am going to a classroom where the teacher is already there, which makes me think that it's more of an etiquette thing than them giving me minders that report my actions or something of the sort. My class with one of my high school teachers was cancelled today, and it's a real shame, cause she's a total fox. Seriously. It must be all the kimchi or something, cause it seems like a good majority of my female co-teachers are total foxes.
Speaking of kimchi. It's delicious. I know that. But is it delicious enough to eat for every meal? Is anything? Apparently to the Koreans it is. That and rice. Me and the students had a nice little conversation about breakfast this morning where they explained to me that a traditional Korean breakfast is rice, kimchi, some sort of broth, and maybe bread or eggs depending on how adventurous you are. I have never been a fan of breakfast, but seem to be drinking this stuff called coffee milk every morning. This is funny to me because I don't necessarily like milk, and I definitely don't like coffee, but the two together is fantastic. In fact, as I am typing this I looked over and saw my neighbor of a nun Sister Veronica drinking some. I guess it's good at any time of day. Today at lunch we had this dish that I thought was spinach, so I took a big bite and was like, "Hmmm, spinach is never this spicy, and its never slightly silver, and come to think of it, it definitely doesn't have little eyes and OH MY GOD THESE ARE ANCHOVIES!!!" So yeah, I can at least say I've tried them. The grapes were strange too, apparently you don't eat the outer skin, and the inside has a ton of little seeds. This I think is what the purple rice is that I ate the other day. I am fairly certain they added some grape to the rice for flavor. While they tasted good, the texture sure was funny. I already forgot the name of the soup, but it was delicious. It consisted of sausage and bean sprouts with kimchi in a broth. Of course there was a heaping helping of rice, and of course more kimchi. Honestly I am just shocked at the sheer efficiency with which they are able to move kids through the cafeteria. Nobody is standing around looking for a seat, even though there is more kids than seats. After they finish, they go outside and play badminton without a net. Of course whenever I walk by its "Teacher! Teacher! Hello! (giggle giggle giggle)" I had a great conversation with a kid this morning that consisted of "Teacher, where are you from? Texasu? Ooooooooooh! Texasu movies top! (pantomiming bayonet) Raaaaah! (pantomiming getting shot) Ahh, my arm! Ahh, my leg! Texasu! (thumbs up)" Nothing like that to get you smiling on your walk to school.
Going out. Hmmmm. Where should I start? Let's do it Quentin Tarantino style: start at the middle, go to the beginning, then finish where most stories do, at the end. Yesterday walking home from school I see a dude standing outside of my apartment complex smoking (almost every man I have met here smokes). He looks vaguely Korean, and I just assume that he is another tenant in the building. As I get closer he says "Hey!" and in my mind I'm like "still not sure if you are Korean, but either way he knows enough English to not just say hello." So I say whats up and it turns out he is the new TALK scholar that is in our building named Nate. He moved in a couple days after me, and is from Austin. He is 22 and quite sociable. So last night me and him and Graham, the Scottish dude who lives upstairs from me went out for a couple of pitchers. Interesting side note, here you don't just buy a pitcher, you buy one and tell them what size you want. They generally only have Hite on draft which is by far my favorite of the Korean beers. I met Graham the other night after asking one of the training coordinators if there were any other English teachers in my city (it's not that unlikely that I would be here all alone with the size of this place) and apparently there's a few. On top of that he lives one floor above me. So me and Graham went out for a beer and met up with a couple English teachers. I went from not knowing a single person to meeting a couple of dudes who it looks like I will spend a majority of my social energy hanging out with. Tonight me and Graham are supposed to go out and get a bite to eat with Shaneel, the South African English teacher who I helped with her bags, but have not really had a chance to talk to yet. Nate will probably join us after he gets done with his boxing workout, which according to him is two hours of jumping in place. This weekend I am trying to make it up to Chungju for the World Martial Arts Festival. I mean how can you pass that up?
My health is fine. The food sits nicely with me, unlike others who I have talked to. I did cut my foot open during Tae Kwon Do class at orientation when a metal volleyball poll covering came out of the ground and I stepped on it while running backwards (that was the exercise, I wasn't just running backwards like some jack-ass). So I had this big gash on the side of my heel which was very painful and hurt like hell whenever I put on shoes. I believe compensating for the pain caused my back to hurt a bit because I wasn't stepping on one of my feet, and then I never really got over that because the beds here are so damn hard and I am required to sit then stand then sit then stand. It's like sleeping on a carpeted floor. Then on top of all of this, my dumb ass decides to buy new shoes before I come over here, and we all know what happens when you walk a lot in shoes that haven't been broken in yet. So yeah, cut foot, hurt back, blistered heels. Good times. The bright side of all this is that I laid down my bedspread and put my sheets over that, so now I am sleeping on a whole bunch of padding. This has let my back relax, and my feet are rapidly healing (once again, gotta be the kimchi), so I think by the time the weekend gets here I should be ready to go. In typical Eagle Scout fashion I haven't let any of this stop me from exploring though. I would guess I walk at least two miles a day. When I start feeling better I am going to be a little more adventurous, because I have heard of some great places I should check out, and I really want to hike up this hill that is behind the high school. It's a giant hill with a crucifix on top that is lit at night and you can see it from my apartment. I assume with the height that you can pretty much see the entire city and the neighboring city across the river (which is where I usually go when I go have a beer.) I plan on making it to Chungju for the festival like I mentioned before, so I may not post this weekend, but I assure you whether I get out of the town or stay in there will be more stories for you on Monday.
And now, I leave you with some of the oldest, finest, culturally significant music that has ever been produced by an auto-tuner and a sythesizer. 2NE1 - Hate You
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