south korea post 8: early randomness

We spent the first week preparing for school which started the following week. Included in our prep time were more “level tests.” We had to come up with lesson plans from scratch, which was kind of annoying. This was something I could have been researching while I was waiting for my visa.

During the week, I met some of the director’s friends. One of them lives near the school and we teach his children. We went out for food and karaoke singing with him and his wife that first week. This wasn’t singing in front of the whole crowd like in Bangalore, this was in a private room. It’s one of the things to do here, and thankfully there were songs in English. The best part was watching the director act extremely silly. I was sitting there thinking “This guy is the boss?” as I’ve gotten to know him, I’ve come to learn that he is one of the biggest little kids around.

Besides being spicy, Korean food is seriously lacking in carbs and protein. For a future diabetic and someone who likes to exercise, that isn’t cool. And it’s extremely stringy. I feel a constant need to floss.

Among the strange foods I’ve eaten are cow or pig tendons in a soup. I actually didn’t eat the tendons. I had that once in high school, although I thought it was Vietnamese. Maybe it’s both. I had cow or pig intestine. That wasn’t too good. There were a couple of others, but for some reason I can’t remember them. When I can, I’ll blog them.

I’ve also had a quite a bit of sea food. Early on I had a bunch of crabs and shrimp. I hadn’t had crab before (as far as I know), and there is a way to eating it I guess. It’s messy. The legs are good, but the body wasn’t so much. During one dinner we had this different type of shrimp. They cooked it right in front of us—and the shrimp were alive when they started cooking them! They started screaming, which wasn’t cool. That, plus seeing their faces and the crab faces is enough to make me swear off of eating them, but not enough to become a veggie.

It’s been cold here, but it’s only hovering near freezing. I’ve been in colder weather. And it doesn’t snow much here, kind of to my disappointment. It actually snowed twice apparently, but I didn’t even know. I thought it was rain when I looked outside.

During those first couple of weeks we had dinner at two homes. Both were the same friends of the director I met early on, and I got to meet their families (I had already met one guy’s wife when we went karaoke singing). When we ate at the home of the guy we went singing with, his children were there who were also our students. I remember them from class. I was a bit uncomfortable because part of the customs of social gathering involve drinking. And although I can turn down some of the drinks, I do have to take some so as not to embarrass the director. This wouldn’t be a problem except that I didn’t want to drink in front of students.

Now most of you who know me are probably wondering what my take on the language is. It is a whiny language, to say the least. And everyone sings when saying “thank you” and “goodbye” just like in French. At least that is how it comes across, but it’s just the intonations of the language. I’ve been learning bits and pieces here and there, but not as fast as I’d like to. I haven’t been reading my book as often as I expected, but I’m getting there. The book I have isn’t the best either, but it helps. It’s harder than hindi, and about the same as kannada, but I’m learning it quicker because I’m only focusing on one and English isn’t as prevalent here as it is in india. But I’ll get it to some degree. I have to, since I want to travel around the country (which I haven’t done yet) and I’m gonna have to do so on my own.