So this week at school has been mostly filled with desk warming. For those of you unfamiliar with that concept, it is exactly what it sounds like: me sitting at a desk doing nothing. They told us during orientation that this would be the worst part of the job, but honestly, if the worst part of the job is getting paid to update my blog, facebook and look at ridiculous youtube videos all day, why would I ever complain? So I made the mistake of finding out earlier in the week that I can watch entire movies on youtube. Of course, first thing was first, I had to watch the premiere of "The Walking Dead" on AMC. I had only recently finished reading the graphic novel and was excited that the season started on my birthday. I assume most of you don't read graphic novels, but this would be the one to start with. The character development is so strong, the plot so thick, and the animation so horrifyingly realistic that it is not hard to see why it got picked up by AMC. I like the show a lot, and it sort of put me in a zombie mood, so I have spent this week watching horror films, mostly about zombies, that I had not seen before.
I should take this time to thank my parents for their awesome gifts. My air mattress is very comfortable, and will serve me well when I crash in different cities. The video game is awesome, and arrived about a day before my power cord. The jacket is very warm, and even repels water, as I found out the other night. The sonic screwdriver is sufficiently nerdy, just as I wished it would be.
All week long the students have been taking exams, and the teachers have been coming in to ask me questions like: "does 'after graduating from college' mean the same thing as 'having graduated college?'" The English teachers here are very proficient in the language, it just seems that in English there is like ten different ways to say the same thing. Well we rounded out exams with what is apparently the traditional teachers volleyball game. We met up in the gym and began by playing ping pong. Apparently I am pretty good because my arms are so long, but they do this thing where they play doubles and switch. By switch I mean one player stands in front of the other and when he hits it, lets his partner come forward and hit one before returning to his spot and getting the next shot. It was very fun to watch. Then we warmed up for volleyball by playing a variation where you can only kick the ball over the net. That was also fun. Then they brought in a couple tables and I knew I was in trouble. Just like I thought, out came the Makoli. We drank some thick rice wine, then ate some squid stew, then more rice wine, then fish soup, then rice wine, then dried cuttlefish, then rice wine. After we had quite a bit to drink, they summoned me over to the volleyball court and put me on a team. The "Young Boys" or "YB" is what our team was called, against the "Old Boys" or "OB" which was obviously the older teachers. Of course it didn't help that it made me think of the movie "Old Boy" in which a Korean man in locked up in a hotel room for fifteen years then suddenly released with only five days to take revenge on his captors. Here is probably one of the best fight scenes I have scene in a movie, and it is Kurosawa-esque in its reality of how awkward it would be to fight in a hallway like that. Anyway, we had a great time playing volleyball, and I really felt like I bonded with some of the teachers. It seemed like we all had a good time, and our team even won! One of my co-teachers kept telling me how impressed she was that I attended the events that they invited me to, and how natural it felt to have me there. I am quite sure she was being nice about things, but it was still good to hear.
All in all this week has been pretty uneventful. Normally I would say that's the way I like it, but over here I plan on trying to do something adventurous whenever I can. This weekend should be interesting, as I will be making my way to Busan to hang out with some of my friends from orientation, and see a fireworks festival. I will be taking the high speed KTX out of Daejeon, and I have no idea where the station is. I also don't know how long it will take to get there. I don't know a single landmark in Busan, and I don't even know if I will be able to get a ticket on the KTX. There is something about all of that chaos that makes me feel great. The weekend after this upcoming one I will probably be returning to Seoul for a show with Graham (englishman) and the weekend after that going to visit him and all my orientation buddies down in Gwangju again. I am hoping if this KTX thing goes as planned, then I can take it to get to Gwangju, thereby cutting my trip time in half. In fact, if it is as fast as the website says it is, I may just buy myself a standing ticket so I don't have to pay full price. Anyway, as always, I hope all is well with you my friends and family, and hope that you are watching the Rangers for me, since I would totally be watching them if I could get to my computer more than ten minutes out of every hour.
Here is your K-pop for the week. This is a group called Girls Generation.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Bearthday weekend. :o)
So this weekend started off kind of awesomely. I had been invited to the departmental dinner that was going to be taking place, and I was excited to get to see all the teachers outside of the classroom for the first time. We met at some restaurant in Sangook. I should probably explain how the area is laid out. I live in Gamgok "which is pronounced more like Kamgook" and next to me is Sangook. If I caught a bus there it would probably be about ten minutes of countryside and 80 cents. After Sangook is Muguk. Muguk is also called Geumwang, and would be another dollar and another ten minutes of country side. Neither one of these places are as big as my town + Janghowon, but Muguk is also attached to Geumwang like my town is attached to Janghowon. Mine is laid out in a much more linear fashion, while this is several blocks deep and several long. I went to Muguk earlier in the week to eat some Korean barbecue, as there is this place that does an all you can eat thing. you go and pick up all your sides and acoutrements, then you pick whatever meats you want and throw them on the grill at your table. It is totally delicious. I got to see a bunch of the teachers in our area, and there ended up being about six of us total. It was a good chance to talk with people in a similar position as me, but to be honest, the conversation that night was a little dark. I am a fan of more upbeat conversations about fun things that happened, and this was more about failed relationships and the like. Those darker conversations didn't come till almost the end, so I hate to say it like that was the whole night, because it wasn't. I even saw some of my high school students walking home when I was leaving the barbecue place. That is funny because it was like 9:30 at night and these kids are just getting home, plus they would probably be there at about 7:30 or 8:00 the next morning, in class before I am even out of bed. So back to the teachers dinner: We met at a restaurant in Sangook, and my main co-teacher gave me a ride out there. It was about 6:30 when we arrived, and the restaurant was in the middle of nowhere. It was set up like a house, and out front was the principal and the vice principals. They shook our hands and bowed as we entered, welcoming us to the dinner. We sat at a table, which they explained was for me, so that I would not be uncomfortable, and I was given the seat at the head of the table. The importance of this was not lost on me, and I thanked the principal profusely. Throughout the night we were brought many small dishes of food, which we would eat bit by bit when we weren't drinking, speaking or clapping. Basically the formula was this. Principal said something, everyone clapped and then we drank. Principal asked someone to speak, and they would give a short speech, then when they were done they would say "Kumsamnida" and we would all clap, the principal would give them his soju glass and would fill it, then they would drink, give the glass back to him, fill it for him to drink, then the rest of us would drink. This continued for every person at the table and there were thirteen of us total. My speech was basically "I have only been here for one month, but you treat me as if I have been here for a year. I am halfway across the world from my family and my home, but I feel as if Kamgok and Maegoe are my home in Korea. I am very impressed with the faculty and students of Maegoe high school, and I hope that we can work together to teach the students valuable lessons inside of the class and out." It was then translated for my principal and vice principals. They also asked me to say grace at the beginning and end of the meal, which was not something I was new to, so it went pretty well overall. It was fun to be at a dinner with pretty much everyone who I knew at the school, and I was seated in between my main co-teacher, and the co-teacher who lives in my building. So whenever something needed to be translated, they helped me out. I also learned some drinking etiquette. When pouring from a bottle one holds the bottle with their top hand on the base, and their bottom hand on the neck. When drinking a shot that a superior has poured, you turn away from them and drink. Also as I looked around, almost no one was looking each other in their eyes, but it did happen, so it doesn't look like its disrespectful, just not exactly common. Either way, this was very good experience for me, and I can't wait to make a fool out of myself at one of these again.
The dinner only lasted about two hours, and at the end I was dropped off at home. I met up with Graham (the Scottsman from my building not the Englishman from Gwangju who was my orientation room mate) and went out for a couple of beers. He invited a couple of guys out who were Korean and knew a bit of English, so we hung out for a bit. Graham had to be up early the next day so he left, and it was just me and the Koreans. They were a nice bunch, and our first stop was the noraebang. Noraebang!!! By far it is my favorite past time in Korea, and as of the time that I have arrived here, I have only done it twice. Once at orientation, and once here in town. You get a private room that can seat about six to eight, and then you input a song number and sing it just like karaoke. I picked a bunch of American pop and classic rock songs, and they picked a bunch of Korean pop songs. What I love about noraebang is that they just keep feeding you drinks, and they always have a good selection of Muse to sing. This is a song that I sung that night to bring the house down. It is both right in my range of singing, and it's a very melodic song that gets really high energy during the parts when you need to belt it out. There is a reason they are one of my favorite groups, and it's because their songs are just so damn fun to sing. Case in point this song which is ALWAYS my first choice at noraebang, but this one didn't have it. So after the noraebang we decided to try and get more drinks, only by this time it was two something in the morning. We were not able to find any sort of hof that was still open, so we got a couple of beers and adjourned back to my place. We also got some munchies which was kind of entertaining. My Korean friends got some hot pepper tuna in cans, and we got some cuttlefish/cheese stick combo. We also got some beef jerky, then we ate it all up. We ended up being awake till very late at night/early in the morning, and it left me with surprisingly little of a hangover.
The next day Justin came down from Seoul, Alex over from Geumwang, and John Smith came up from Gwangju. They all arrived within about an hour and a half of each other, and since I live so near the bus terminal, they all stopped at my place before we headed out. We initially were walking to where the famous chicken place was, but when we got there it was closed. We decided we might as well go right next door to the Korean barbecue place and eat some of that, and man was it delicious. We had duinjon jigae, which is a hot bean soup, as well as some samgyeopsal and galbi. if you don't know what any of that is, I suggest you read some of my past posts or go try some delicious, delicious Korean food. We drank a bunch of beer and soju at the restaurant, and then went right around the corner to the western bar. We had a shot of whiskey and budweiser, then decided it was time to go somewhere cheaper. We then went to where we thought we should be going, "Harry P's", but it was closed, so we continued back towards my place. It was only about 12:30 on a saturday night at this point, and several hof's had already closed. We walked past a group of high schoolers who said "Where are you from?" "Miguk." "Coowol!" "Odie hof?" "K-1." "Odie?" "Dokbaro, orencho." "Okay guys, it's ahead and on the right." Eventually we cross the river back into Gamgok and on the side of a tallest building it says "K-1" so we go in for a drink. Well we were just gonna have a pitcher, but that turned into a couple when a group of Koreans wanted to come have drinks with us. Justin put it best: "Up where I live foreigners are pretty common. We don't really get stared at, but around here you are a celebrity. Everyone wants to say hi to you or talk to you." It is true. When I am in Seoul or Gwangju nobody looks twice at me. Out here though they all want to have drinks or say hi, or meet my friends, or know where I'm from. So one of them, this young girl, took a liking to us and was hanging out with us having conversation. Eventually her oppa (older brother, not actually, just socially) didn't like that so he came to take her away. She didn't want to go, and kept throwing off his hand, and he kept pulling her. Eventually they got into some huge argument out in the hallway. None of us said a single word throughout the ordeal, as we didn't want any sort of incident, but if this were the states, this would have been one of those times where you would have to intervene on behalf of a girl. He literally drug her away from the table. At one point, when she came back, he even talked to the barmaid who told her to go back to their group. It was weird, but not like totally totally weird, just kind of weird. Anyway, I am glad I didn't get my ass kicked on my birthday by a giant ripped Korean who looked like he could probably take us all on at the same time. After a bit more drinking, and a bit more eating, we ended up back at my place and before I knew it we were all passed out. I awoke the next morning to a Rangers win, and a half empty apartment.
All in all it was a great birthday. It was my first one overseas, and probably not my last. I thoroughly am enjoying myself here so far, and can't wait to try and make a trip to Busan, which I think I might be doing this weekend. No K-pop today since I gave you Muse, but there will be more soon. Be well young and old, and I hope that your birthday is as adventurous as mine was this year.
The dinner only lasted about two hours, and at the end I was dropped off at home. I met up with Graham (the Scottsman from my building not the Englishman from Gwangju who was my orientation room mate) and went out for a couple of beers. He invited a couple of guys out who were Korean and knew a bit of English, so we hung out for a bit. Graham had to be up early the next day so he left, and it was just me and the Koreans. They were a nice bunch, and our first stop was the noraebang. Noraebang!!! By far it is my favorite past time in Korea, and as of the time that I have arrived here, I have only done it twice. Once at orientation, and once here in town. You get a private room that can seat about six to eight, and then you input a song number and sing it just like karaoke. I picked a bunch of American pop and classic rock songs, and they picked a bunch of Korean pop songs. What I love about noraebang is that they just keep feeding you drinks, and they always have a good selection of Muse to sing. This is a song that I sung that night to bring the house down. It is both right in my range of singing, and it's a very melodic song that gets really high energy during the parts when you need to belt it out. There is a reason they are one of my favorite groups, and it's because their songs are just so damn fun to sing. Case in point this song which is ALWAYS my first choice at noraebang, but this one didn't have it. So after the noraebang we decided to try and get more drinks, only by this time it was two something in the morning. We were not able to find any sort of hof that was still open, so we got a couple of beers and adjourned back to my place. We also got some munchies which was kind of entertaining. My Korean friends got some hot pepper tuna in cans, and we got some cuttlefish/cheese stick combo. We also got some beef jerky, then we ate it all up. We ended up being awake till very late at night/early in the morning, and it left me with surprisingly little of a hangover.
The next day Justin came down from Seoul, Alex over from Geumwang, and John Smith came up from Gwangju. They all arrived within about an hour and a half of each other, and since I live so near the bus terminal, they all stopped at my place before we headed out. We initially were walking to where the famous chicken place was, but when we got there it was closed. We decided we might as well go right next door to the Korean barbecue place and eat some of that, and man was it delicious. We had duinjon jigae, which is a hot bean soup, as well as some samgyeopsal and galbi. if you don't know what any of that is, I suggest you read some of my past posts or go try some delicious, delicious Korean food. We drank a bunch of beer and soju at the restaurant, and then went right around the corner to the western bar. We had a shot of whiskey and budweiser, then decided it was time to go somewhere cheaper. We then went to where we thought we should be going, "Harry P's", but it was closed, so we continued back towards my place. It was only about 12:30 on a saturday night at this point, and several hof's had already closed. We walked past a group of high schoolers who said "Where are you from?" "Miguk." "Coowol!" "Odie hof?" "K-1." "Odie?" "Dokbaro, orencho." "Okay guys, it's ahead and on the right." Eventually we cross the river back into Gamgok and on the side of a tallest building it says "K-1" so we go in for a drink. Well we were just gonna have a pitcher, but that turned into a couple when a group of Koreans wanted to come have drinks with us. Justin put it best: "Up where I live foreigners are pretty common. We don't really get stared at, but around here you are a celebrity. Everyone wants to say hi to you or talk to you." It is true. When I am in Seoul or Gwangju nobody looks twice at me. Out here though they all want to have drinks or say hi, or meet my friends, or know where I'm from. So one of them, this young girl, took a liking to us and was hanging out with us having conversation. Eventually her oppa (older brother, not actually, just socially) didn't like that so he came to take her away. She didn't want to go, and kept throwing off his hand, and he kept pulling her. Eventually they got into some huge argument out in the hallway. None of us said a single word throughout the ordeal, as we didn't want any sort of incident, but if this were the states, this would have been one of those times where you would have to intervene on behalf of a girl. He literally drug her away from the table. At one point, when she came back, he even talked to the barmaid who told her to go back to their group. It was weird, but not like totally totally weird, just kind of weird. Anyway, I am glad I didn't get my ass kicked on my birthday by a giant ripped Korean who looked like he could probably take us all on at the same time. After a bit more drinking, and a bit more eating, we ended up back at my place and before I knew it we were all passed out. I awoke the next morning to a Rangers win, and a half empty apartment.
All in all it was a great birthday. It was my first one overseas, and probably not my last. I thoroughly am enjoying myself here so far, and can't wait to try and make a trip to Busan, which I think I might be doing this weekend. No K-pop today since I gave you Muse, but there will be more soon. Be well young and old, and I hope that your birthday is as adventurous as mine was this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)