Things here in Korea have changed significantly since I have last posted. All the old people have left, well, most of them. Thom, Steve, Nick, Wesley, Shaneel, Kevin, Dave, Sean, Cheryl and Adam. All of them have either left the county or the country. We have some good new people though, and I am excited about getting to know them better. Four of the spots were taken by two couples, one coming from Busan that has already been here for a couple years, and another coming in from San Francisco. The one from Busan includes a Texan who can speak Korean, and the other half is a South African. Shaneel, who lived in my building was replaced by the woman of the other couple. Cris is her name, and she seems like fun. She is dating a guy named Tim who I haven't gotten to talk to much, but seems like a stand up fellow. Lauren took over for both Cheryl and Adam, so she has her work cut out for her, but I am sure she will do fine once she gets over the initial stress period and into the swing of things. A new TaLK scholar came into the town right next to Gamgok. Daniel Kim is his name, and he is from Canada. Really nice guy who speaks Korean like a fish swims in water. Already he has come out with us and made talking to our Korean friends a breeze. Jarret is also a pretty nice guy, but it will be hard to fill Steve's shoes. On one of our weekly work night outings Phillipa and myself were walking back home when we spied a white guy who looked pretty lost. "Hey!" I shouted when I saw his hoodie that said "EPIK." We talked to him for a couple of seconds and traded information with him. I wasn't really worried about him because he is in the central town of Muguk/Geumwang, and he already had a phone. I am more worried about Cris because she cannot speak or read any Korean, and was a vegetarian before she came over. She understands that stuff over here is all cooked with meat, but still has a hard time keeping it down. I am hoping to take her and her S.O. out sometime this week and get some Kimbap, maybe some soups, and teach them how to order some things and ask for some things.
School has started back up. It is fun so far, if not a little hectic. I am teaching two more classes this semester than last semester, but am not sure if those classes actually meet. For the most part it is going well. There are a couple of radical changes. Namely, my main co-teacher has changed. I am now working with the one who got married over break, Kim Hyun-Jung. Woo Jae-Beom has moved to the highschool to teach. That is neither a promotion nor is it a demotion, just a way to mix it up and keep things fresh. I actually teach two classes a week with Jae-Beom, and in fact have not changed any of the teachers I am teaching with. They all pretty much know what to expect out of me... Nothin'! I kid. I kid because I love. In actuality I have done more work in the past week than I did in a month of teaching last semester. I am no longer just a parrot, but am making power point lessons to tell the kids about how to say things. It is fun, I guess. Just frustrating when I spend an entire morning printing out paper dice so that I can cut them with an exacto knife just to have the teacher say in one class "Oh, we don't have time for this game that you thought was dumb but I made you prepare for" and in another class say "Oh, we don't have enough dice, you should make more!" Spoiler alert, I'm not going to. I think if anything I will take a look in a shop around here for dice. I am sure they have them. The students are completely different, with the exception of one class of kids. The good part about that is that it means the honeymoon stage will happen all over again, and that I can re-use all of my materials.
Friday was bad for me. Not a good day at all. Classes didn't go that well, and I had to do a lot of work for them. Before I go into this you have to understand that this place has a sense of what is and isn't acceptable that isn't the same as ours. Also, they are very concerned with appearance. I have to admit I cracked though. It was the stress of being in a new situation, some issues that I was dealing with that I don't want to go into right now, and what I'm going to talk about here. I have a good sense of humor. I usually take things pretty well. I am a big guy, and I know that I am overweight, but over here I seem to hear it every day. Friday just sort of made me feel really down because the day before some of the students had mentioned it when they first were introduced to me. Even though the teacher tried to stifle the comment I still heard it. I mentioned it to Phillipa looking for sympathy I guess and all I heard was "well maybe you should change that." Yeah, thanks for the advice. Later on in the evening we went out with some of our Korean friends who managed to say it a couple more times. "Your face, pretty, diet, girls everywhere." Yeah, thanks again. The next day the P.E. teacher comes over and says something to the extent of "베가고빠요" (my spelling still sucks) which translates roughly into "You're hungry!" then pokes at my stomach. Like I said before, It's not so much that it happened, it was more a bunch of things with that being the icing on the proverbial cake. It doesn't really help that I am actually very hungry every day at lunch. Still, ya know, it's not good for your self esteem to hear several times a day that you are fat. Even if you are, it's just not good to hear it so much. I was having a bad day and all I wanted was a couple of hugs. It's hard to be so far away from friends and family on days like that.
Anyway, I sucked it up and got ready for the teachers dinner. They told me that it was going to be at the place we had it at last time, right near the school, so I walked to that place. No one was there of course. So I texted a few teachers I had in my phone and they eventually directed me to this place that serves duck. If you have never had duck, it's really good. 얼리갈미 (Ori Galbi) is what they call it. I have been to this restaurant three or four times with Graham, and every time it is too much food, and really, really delicious. I was quite embarrassed that I did not know the name of it. I showed up and they started pouring me Soju like it was nobodies business. I think within the two and change hours we were there they must have poured me the equivalent of two or three twelve ounce bottles. Eight shots per bottle. Twenty percent alcohol. Now that I think about it that's like doing twelve shots of vodka over the course of two and a half hours :/ Guess that explains why I was so drunk. They are trying to teach me Korean, but I am very bad at it. I am learning on my own too, working out of a workbook and trying to speak it as much as possible. Phillipa is helping me also, teaching me phrases, and about verbs that are past present and future. We were actually practicing in a chicken place the other week and a Korean dude turned around and gave me the thumbs up :) So the Korean teacher here who has limited English is teaching me about "주도" or drinking culture and etiquette. I learned all kinds of cool things "Hyun Neem! Hana soju cheon deseyo." (I think that is how it goes) means "Older brother! One soju glass I will give you." We had fun though, and I got to eat with the two ladies who know barely any English that are, I think, administrators. Well one is an administrator, I think the other is a full teacher. Pretty sure she teaches Korean also. Anyways, she was really sweet to me on Friday, and every time they would make me take a shot she would say "Jeppurey. Kinchalnayo?" (are you ok?) I don't think she realizes that this sort of drinking is childs play to me ;) After the dinner, and then the subsequent special table, we went for o-beks (500cc's, think full beer stein) at the local bar. After a few of those I had to depart to meet up with my friends, because we were having a "meet the new teachers dinner" in Geumwang/Muguk. By the end of the night I was totally drunk. Like stumbling drunk. Like autopilot drunk. I made it home fine, and I don't think I insulted anyone, but I guess we will find out. When I got home I actually ended up drunkenly venting to Phillipa, and know for a fact that I was crying at one point, but she said sweet things to me that helped calm me down, and I was fine the next day. I had a hard time that day, I'm just glad it didn't ruin my night.
Friday was bad for me. Not a good day at all. Classes didn't go that well, and I had to do a lot of work for them. Before I go into this you have to understand that this place has a sense of what is and isn't acceptable that isn't the same as ours. Also, they are very concerned with appearance. I have to admit I cracked though. It was the stress of being in a new situation, some issues that I was dealing with that I don't want to go into right now, and what I'm going to talk about here. I have a good sense of humor. I usually take things pretty well. I am a big guy, and I know that I am overweight, but over here I seem to hear it every day. Friday just sort of made me feel really down because the day before some of the students had mentioned it when they first were introduced to me. Even though the teacher tried to stifle the comment I still heard it. I mentioned it to Phillipa looking for sympathy I guess and all I heard was "well maybe you should change that." Yeah, thanks for the advice. Later on in the evening we went out with some of our Korean friends who managed to say it a couple more times. "Your face, pretty, diet, girls everywhere." Yeah, thanks again. The next day the P.E. teacher comes over and says something to the extent of "베가고빠요" (my spelling still sucks) which translates roughly into "You're hungry!" then pokes at my stomach. Like I said before, It's not so much that it happened, it was more a bunch of things with that being the icing on the proverbial cake. It doesn't really help that I am actually very hungry every day at lunch. Still, ya know, it's not good for your self esteem to hear several times a day that you are fat. Even if you are, it's just not good to hear it so much. I was having a bad day and all I wanted was a couple of hugs. It's hard to be so far away from friends and family on days like that.
Anyway, I sucked it up and got ready for the teachers dinner. They told me that it was going to be at the place we had it at last time, right near the school, so I walked to that place. No one was there of course. So I texted a few teachers I had in my phone and they eventually directed me to this place that serves duck. If you have never had duck, it's really good. 얼리갈미 (Ori Galbi) is what they call it. I have been to this restaurant three or four times with Graham, and every time it is too much food, and really, really delicious. I was quite embarrassed that I did not know the name of it. I showed up and they started pouring me Soju like it was nobodies business. I think within the two and change hours we were there they must have poured me the equivalent of two or three twelve ounce bottles. Eight shots per bottle. Twenty percent alcohol. Now that I think about it that's like doing twelve shots of vodka over the course of two and a half hours :/ Guess that explains why I was so drunk. They are trying to teach me Korean, but I am very bad at it. I am learning on my own too, working out of a workbook and trying to speak it as much as possible. Phillipa is helping me also, teaching me phrases, and about verbs that are past present and future. We were actually practicing in a chicken place the other week and a Korean dude turned around and gave me the thumbs up :) So the Korean teacher here who has limited English is teaching me about "주도" or drinking culture and etiquette. I learned all kinds of cool things "Hyun Neem! Hana soju cheon deseyo." (I think that is how it goes) means "Older brother! One soju glass I will give you." We had fun though, and I got to eat with the two ladies who know barely any English that are, I think, administrators. Well one is an administrator, I think the other is a full teacher. Pretty sure she teaches Korean also. Anyways, she was really sweet to me on Friday, and every time they would make me take a shot she would say "Jeppurey. Kinchalnayo?" (are you ok?) I don't think she realizes that this sort of drinking is childs play to me ;) After the dinner, and then the subsequent special table, we went for o-beks (500cc's, think full beer stein) at the local bar. After a few of those I had to depart to meet up with my friends, because we were having a "meet the new teachers dinner" in Geumwang/Muguk. By the end of the night I was totally drunk. Like stumbling drunk. Like autopilot drunk. I made it home fine, and I don't think I insulted anyone, but I guess we will find out. When I got home I actually ended up drunkenly venting to Phillipa, and know for a fact that I was crying at one point, but she said sweet things to me that helped calm me down, and I was fine the next day. I had a hard time that day, I'm just glad it didn't ruin my night.
The next night I went out for chicken with Phillipa and her sister Rowena, and that is where I got the thumbs up from the Korean guy. That kind of made my night. Just to know that people appreciate us trying to learn their language, and it's not all people saying "Learn Korean or leave!" like so many people do in America. It was a relatively uneventful night, with Phillipa losing her bet to me about whether she could quit smoking or not, and lots of drinking, but not nearly as much as the previous night. The chicken at Saba Saba is sooooooo good. They have a Jack Daniels and a Hot Chili flavor that we always get, and have recently discovered a Curry flavored one that is delicious. The next night was Lauren Huffs birthday. She is new in town and we all wanted to make her feel welcome. She speaks with the most adorable southern drawl because she is from North Carolina, and is sweet as pie. We all went to Jincheon to get a bite at an Italian place, and I have to say, it was good. It took me maybe an hour or so to get there by bus, maybe just under that, but the country side was beautiful. We got some delicious spaghetti carbonara in a little bread bowl and I drank Budweiser with it ;) There was some good pizza there as well. The bus ride home took about forty five minutes, required us to wait at the stop for about an hour, and was completely packed with people. The bus pulled up and unloaded an entire bus full of people, so when I got on I expected to have my choice of seats. Instead there were only about two or three left, so all us foreigners got one, and the nice girl who let us get on in front of her had to stand. It was a good night, and I'm glad Lauren is so social that I have been able to see her on three separate occasions since she got here.
I know it's been awhile since I updated, but honestly I am just not getting into that much trouble anymore. Perhaps I will travel soon, and when I do, I will tell you all about it. The good news is that being away for a month means that Big Bang came out with new hit songs! Here is one for you now. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment