It is Friday night and I am writing this from a PC Bang. I put off the trip to Chungju till tomorrow so that I could sleep at my own place tonight. Hopefully I will meet up with a couple people I know over at the martial arts festival, but if not it would be the perfect chance to make some new friends. I pretty much scream foreigner, so I have that goin' for me, which is nice. I'll be sure and post about my first trip out into one of the larger cities in Chungcheongbuk-do when I get the chance, but for now you are going to have to hear me talk about peaches.
Peaches are like a metaphor for life. They are sweet, they are fuzzy, they bruise easily, and they are EFFING EVERYWHERE IN GAMGOK!!! Seriously. Every single day I have been at work I have gotten a peach. I think I may have messed up today and accidentally left mine on my desk, but I'm sorry, I have eaten more peaches this week than I have in my entire life. They are apparently good for warding off evil, and I have to say, its probably because of the fuzziness. I mean, thats why I grew my beard of course, to ward off evil. Why else would all the biblical patriarchs have sweet beards like mine if they weren't good for warding off evil? They would have just Brauned that shit and let God deal with their disgustingly smooth faces. Whats that you say? They didnt have electric razors back then? May I suggest you go back and read your bible my friend? Start with the book of Genesis. Oh, you've read Genesis and it says nothing about electric razors? Obviously you are not reading the correct version. Whats that, you say you searched biblegateway.com and found nothing about electric razors on any version? Well thats just ridiculous. Gamgok is totally famous for peaches and it shows. The ones here are gihugenormous. They are huge, and they are juicy, and they are bought by my co-teacher by the box. I have a couple in my fridge because I can't eat them at the rate that they are given to me.
Today I had my two classes with my ridiculously cute co-teacher. Dont know how a Korean girl can be so cute. Gotta be that Kimchi. The classes went ok. They were High School level. The boys class was tougher because they didn't want to ask me any questions. I didn't have any lesson prepared because I have no idea what level they are or if they were in the middle of a book like the younger ones were. I don't think it was that they were shy, but they just didn't really have much interest in me in general. I also lost to one of them in arm wrestling, but damn was that kid strong. I can already tell that my arm is gonna be super sore tomorrow. They didn't want me to leave because they would have to learn, and didn't want to ask me anymore questions, so they asked to play "american game." That kind of put me on the spot, so I had the teacher translate to them how to play "heads up seven up" and it went over well. For those not familiar with the game, everyone in the class puts their head down and has their thums up. Seven students walk around and touch the thumbs of those with their heads down without giving clues as to who they are. When all are done and the students are back up at the front, the ones who were selected stand up and try and guess who picked them. If you guess right you switch places. A popular strategy involves looking at the shoes of the person who picked you, then guessing that person, but they wear slippers in school, so they just switched slippers to negate that strategy. They enjoyed the game, and tortured fellow classmates while playing it. I swear, the more I observe these teenagers, the more I think that teenagers are all the same no matter where you are. They are all a bunch of jackasses, and I mean that in the most endearing of ways, as I remember being quite the jackass myself.
The girls class on the other hand was a trip. They were really interested in me and asked a ton of questions. I got the whole "teacher, tell us a story about the first time you fell in love" followed by "do you still love her?" They were very curious about my beard, and about America in general. It looks like there is a movie lover who sits in the back of class who wanted to know if I had seen "American movie inception" and was quite impressed when I listed Park Chan-Woo as one of my favorite Koreans and could actually list a few of his movies. For the record, he is a friggin great director, and you should check him out if you havent. They were curious about my family and about my impressions of Korea and Koreans. They also wanted me to tell them about my brother and my friends. They said my sister in law was pretty, and were totally excited that she was pregnant. They wanted me to speak Korean to them, and when I did they said "teacher you are cute!" which made me blush, and made them say "teacher your face is red like your shirt!" All the classes I have taught this week max out at about twenty minutes of question asking, but this one went straight to the end, and when we were done, they all went "awwww." It honestly has me prety psyched, cause that was the last class I have during the week, and they will probably be my favorite. The energy of that group of girls is good, so we can turn that into some good energy for learning which will in turn help them to have a positive view of the English language and perhaps study it further. I would be so excited if some of my students eventually made a trip to America and I got to see them. Some talk about how they have relatives in America, and one even had a sister in Dallas who was 22. I tried asking what school she went to, but that conversation got lost in translation.
I met a cool cat last night, but I can not for the life of me remember his name. He was the first Korean my age that I have had a conversation with that wasn't tied to my school or the EPIK program. He asked my age in Korean and began laughing when I stated my age as "i-ship-pal" (twenty eight). Apparently the emphasis I was using made it sound like I was saying "Two. Fuck you!" and he laughed for a good five or ten minutes at my mistake. In fact, I am laughing right now just thinking about the horror my co-teachers must have had as I was saying it to the students, because I have probably said that exact phrase maybe fifteen times already this week. Not a single person corrected me though, so it can't have been that bad. He is an actor, and we tried having a conversation about acting, but that didn't get very far before our communication broke down. Super nice guy though, and I think if he is around for awhile that me and him will get along famously.
Wish me luck on my adventure tomorrow, and let me know how you all are doing on facebook and such. I love hearing from former students and old friends, because my family is so boring :) kidding... kidding... I miss them the most of all. Heres a little K-pop for you: proving that even in a highly confucian culture, you can still get away with looking like this.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Wandering out of my cave.
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
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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