I went to Ilsan with the teachers on Wednesday. It was a sort of welcoming party for me and some other teachers that had recently joined the school. Apparently, in Korea, teachers are only allowed to stay at each school for five years. After five years, they have to move on to another school. They feel five years is long enough to learn from one school and you should move on to another school to learn more.
Dinner with teachers. First off, my KT (Korean Teacher - Co-Teacher - the one who speaks English well and translates for me!), was unable to make the dinner. I was left in the care of another very nice lady who speaks English pretty well but not the best. It was a 20 minute car ride or so from the school to Ilsan, of which I speak most of the time trying to pick out words I knew from the Korean being spoken around me. I got a couple so I'm pretty happy with my language courses right now. Still no where near understanding full sentences but at least we are trying.
We park the car (seems like everyone backs into spaces in Korea, at least in parking garages) and walked to the restaurant. It was a typical restaurant - if you live in Korean! Take your shoes off at the door, sit on the floor on a little mat, and cook your pork over a wood "grill". We sat and attempted to talk to everyone. It was difficult as most teachers were not willing to attempt to speak the English that they knew.
Fast forward a few Soju bottles...everyone opened up! I stayed in one spot the entire time but talked to every teacher. One would get up and another would come sit. We talked about running, volleyball (the guys have a volleyball team), soju, beer, the school, food, etc. It was pretty entertaining.
The Koreans have a custom. If you are handed an empty glass, you take it, then you hold it out for the other person to fill with soju/beer, you drink what's in the glass then hand it back to the original owner and fill it up for them, and they drink it. It's a sign of respect. I did this a few times with the random teachers that came to my table. After a while, the teachers were starting to get slow in drinking their little shot. Ma-shi-yo (hope that's written correctly!) is "drink" apparently. haha I said that a few times to goad them into drinking.
It is customary to go to the principal and do the drink swap with him. It isn't expected of Westerners but it is a sign of respect. Soooooo, guess what I did? Of course I'm going to respect the principal! I went up to him, sat down and (WITH TWO HANDS!) handed him my empty cup, filled it, he drank then he gave it to me, filled it, and I drank. He looked...well surprised, honestly. I guess it really isn't something westerners do often.
I was reprimanded (playfully) over the course of the night once because I took a glass with one hand instead of two. Since I'm the youngest, I have to use two hands to take pretty much anything from anyone else. It's seen as a sign of disrespect if I use only one. Two hands always! That's my rule now.
After dinner, we went to Karaoke! We walked in and everyone kind of just looked at each other to see who would sing first. One teacher said "Taylor! Taylor sing first!" and I shrugged, "Okay!". I surprised them, I guess, because they all replied "What? Really?". Here are the songs I "performed" (because if you've seen me sing Karaoke, you know it's a performance!).
1. "Bye, Bye, Bye" by N*Sync
2. "Ms. Jackson" by Outkast
3. "Lifestyles of the rich and the famous" by Good Charlotte
It was fun and, although we could barely understand each other, I think we all had a good time.
The river has some name that begins with a G and is pretty long. I tried googling it but can't find it - Google you have failed me! We run along the river throughout the week. It's flat, nice run. There are always several people biking, running, and walking on it too. Streetlights go on at night so you can go out at all hours.
Jacob is telling me it's time to go. Gotta eat dinner and prepare for our adventure into Hongdae! Seoul's night spot! Later gators :D
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