Weed end #1 in Dogye

Well, I’m supposed to have internet, but apparently I don’t. I have a lovely, not-working modem, and it’s the weekend so my co-teacher has gone home. She may be there tomorrow, not sure, but I’m not going to poke my nose on school grounds when I don’t have to. Oh well, I’ll have to entertain myself for the weekend without knowing anyone, without knowing how to go shopping, and without any internet. BUT, I do have 3 channels with English! FOX, Discovery, and something else.

In any case, I’m here. Not sure where. I haven’t had enough access to the internet to actually look the town up. Samcheok? I just know I’m an hour out of Donghae somewhere in Gangwon. This is supposed to be a “costal” town, but I do not think we mean the same thing. There is no ocean within who knows… on the map it looks like the ocean is maybe an hour or two away? It’s hard for me to tell because Korea is roughly the size of Texas, so I have to remember Seoul to Busan is like 6 hours or something like that. Haha, only 6 hours, not 6 days like going across the US.

My elementary school is very small. There are 85 students grades 1-6. 

Today was crazy because I met all the students.

Stinkin’ cute, they are stinkin’ cute. 

But I was basically thrown in front of an emergency ‘jao wei’ (probably translated that wrong) or morning meeting to give a little welcome speech and become a circus exhibit… kidding, kidding. Funny, I wasn’t even scared. I basically said, ‘Annyeounghaseyo. Good morning. My name is Erin (Ah-rren). I am from America. I am very excited to be here. Please study hard for me, okay?’

What amazed me with this little boy, who Eun-Hee said had Asperger’s. It doesn’t surprise me that he has it (it was pretty obvious by the way he acted), but that 1. The Koreans diagnosed and understood that he had autism 2. Could say such a complicated English word so well. I think Eun-Hee thought I didn’t understand because I was trying to process those two thoughts and was slow to respond. He asked my name and then made a salute of sorts to it, which he said as loudly as possible during the meeting.

Someone remind me later that he’s cute when I want to rip his head off, okay?

But I went with the vice principal and the school nurse (auggh, names, the names are so hard!) Kim something to Donghae. The nurse’s English was very good, although she spazzed a little when she said, ‘are you boring?’ and meant ‘Are you bored?’

We spent the whole day running in circles. Get pictures, get a phone, get a registration card, get a physical, eat lunch, etc. What did we accomplish? Not much. Can’t get a phone or a bank account until I get a card. Can’t get a card until the paperwork and health check is processed.

But when I was getting my pictures taken, they kept telling me to keep my mouth closed and keep a straight face. I tried to imitate them and they laughed at my face. Apparently you don’t smile with teeth in pictures?

Then I picked out a phone, which was 40, 000 w. Not sure if that’s per month or what? I don’t have it yet of course, but we had a grand time picking between touch, flip, etc. I hate touch screens, so even though it had skype, I took a pass. If you want to say no, you cross your wrists/lower hands with your hands together and straight.

The registration office was unexciting. Except they had a fish tank. I was tempted to run up to it, point and ask ‘E-mart?’

The hospital was awesome fun… go here, go there, go here, pay there, chest x-rays here, blood there, pee there. Total summary? 70, 000 won for AIDs, hepatitis, syphilis, a physical, and chest x-rays. Try to get it that cheap in America, I dare you.

Most amazing blood draw ever. The guy took literally 30 seconds (I was counting in Spanish to distract myself) between the stab and the swab to draw 3 containers of blood. I didn’t even have time to freak out.

Peeing in the cup on the other hand… they had me do it once. Okay, I knew it was coming; I drank water and waited for it. So I peed over the squat pot (hole in the floor) and filled up the cup. Good, then we ran around some more and they’re like second cup. Oh shit, empty. So I chugged a ridiculous amount of water and tried again.

Lesson learned, they need two cups. Drink lots of water. Go to a Korean hospital to get your blood drawn.

Lunch was so good. I was somewhat afraid of what I might be getting, but I said no kimchi, too spicy (and the lady at the shop understood when I fanned my mouth and x-ed out my arms). But the rest was pretty damn good. I had beef (maybe?), lettuce, potatoes, rice, seaweed, fish (flounder?), clam (?) soup with green onions and weird, squish white stuff, bean sprouts (too spicy; red pepper). All of it was saturated with garlic. I also entertained the hell out of my babysitters trying to pick up the nori strips with my chopsticks and fold it into a nice rice package like I was shown. They assured me my chopstick skills were very good for a foreigner (the extent of my skills are I can eat rice and eggs and pick up beef pieces; complicated stuff like pick up this thin, delicate strip of seaweed, put it in your bowl, put a glob of rice in it, and fold it over without ripping it are too hard). Practice will do me good. Glad I skipped on the kimchi; I was told it was very spicy, even for Koreans!

I didn’t realize the clam soup was clams… oops. I figured that they knew where the hospital was if I started to going into shock and die. No problems. Clams are a go. Although I think I was allergic to something because I have a killer headache.

We stopped at another middle school in Donghae to watch our team play this game that’s like tennis. Our girls were really good. And they won, which made Vice Principal very happy. I was mostly watching the boys, who were not so good. This one boy swung and completely missed. He had this look like, where the hell is the ball? And since it was doubles, there were a few ‘I thought you were going to get it’ moments too. I imitated him to the nurse, saying that’s how I play, and she thought that was hilarious.

I convinced Nurse to take me to the grocery store before going home. I bought cereal, milk, eggs, and water. I have random food items in the apartment already, left by Shelly. 

Shelly left a lot of stuff. I found drawers full of learn Korean books and teach English books and toothpaste and other random items. I also, thankfully, found a converter plug! I’ll probably look at the books while I am bored this weekend.

The apartment itself is nice. I have a living room with a heated floor, a couch, a bookshelf, a table and a massive flatscreen. I’m digging the floor. I also have a full kitchen with a fridge and a microwave as well as a huge full bed with a wardrobe and night stand. The bathroom is the only… scary part. Not so scary since I cleaned it this morning, but the shower is hooked up to the sink and consists of a drain in the floor. Needless to say, put up your valuables, here comes the flood. The washer is outside… not sure how that’s going to work in winter.

I did get mildly lost while wandering. But I was jumped by two kids screaming ‘teacher, teacher!’ As the guy at orientation said, you will be LOVED. Excessively. They wanted to know where I lived and I told them it was a secret, shhhh :) I was forewarned about that. The only thing is if they knew where Shelly lived, they know where I am.

Speaking of, everyone is very concerned that I am warm enough. I guess the stereotype that Americans freeze at 50F remains. I layered with my thermal shirt and was almost too warm. I think I need another thermal shirt and some thermal pants.

No sign of other foreigners. But my school is a little out of the way, I think. When I asked where the high school was, I was told it was “far away.” I will probably try to find some other people eventually, so at least I can learn how to travel and use the buses and what not. I need to go to Donghae to visit E-mart for supplies- a blanket for the living room, maybe a small fish tank, a heavy winter jacket, etc.

On a side note, my roommate, the lucky dog, isn’t a teacher at all. She’s going to be outside of Daegu (where I wanted to go) doing marketing for EPIK. I am very jealous. I like kids, but it’d be nice to USE my degree. She’s going with 5 other people and there’s 2 people already there, so she’ll have an easy time figuring things out and socializing. No idea where Edwin went, but hopefully if he’s close we can go hiking or something sometime before it snows. 

So, I’m enjoying the honeymoon phase. May it not end until I leave.

I got one heck of a welcome to my school.

This morning I basically sat behind my desk and pretended to look busy. I learned a lot. I learned I am teaching 6 classes with a co-teacher (2 with Eun Hee, 2 with another mystery teacher, and 6 with Maggie). Okay, cool. Then I learn I’m teaching TWELVE by myself! And I have 3 tomorrow… hmm. And I don’t know where they are with the books… Nice.

But then lunch rolled around and one of my co-workers goes, “Erin, lunchee?” So I mimed ‘where?’ and was escorted down to the cafeteria where I got schooled in my chopstick use by a 12 year old. I also ate some kind of fish complete with bones. Mmm, crunch, crunch.

2pm rolls around and we’re all going on a staff hike. Yay, a hike. Up the mountain, take some pictures, down the mountain. Awesome. Then we drove to another mountain. Up the mountain (with way more groaning and moaning; Eun Hee apparently doesn’t like hiking), take some pictures at the massive wind farm (Gangwon is very “green” and produces a large amount of Korea’s power via wind farms), down the mountain. Sweet. Time for dinner!

Okay, here’s some culture shock. We all get in and sit on our pillows. There’s a grill in the middle and a ton of side dishes everywhere. Basically, we threw beef strips and garlic cloves on the grill, blood dripping down, the whole nine yards. You took a strip of beef, a clove of garlic, onions or sprouts or bean paste and wrapped it up in a lettuce leaf. Yum, if you didn’t consider we were all sharing from the same plates and eating questionably cooked meat. The sesame sauce and bean paste was pretty good. I also had “white kimchi” or “mul kimchi [water kimchi].” It wasn’t half bad without the pepper, although sour. 

Honestly, I don’t get foreigners’ problem with kimchi? So it’s “rotting cabbage.” Anyone know what cheese is? Or BEER? Or pretty much any alcoholic beverage? We eat a lot of food that is fermented or covered in bacteria in the west too. Granted, if the problem is the “cabbage” part… well, I can agree with that part. Not a huge cabbage fan—I shame my Irish ancestors.

Then they all go around toasting. So the Principal comes up with the shot glass and says something nice to me. I hold my glass in both hands and he pours. I turn away and drink. Then I turn back and give him the same glass I drank from and fill it for him. He drinks it. Then he goes to the next person (with the same glass) and repeats. Rinse and repeat for the VP and several other teachers. Germ and spit swap central.

I shot coke! (the men had soju, most of the women had Spite)

I was so happy that when I said no drinks they listened.

So, the guys are getting drunker and drunker. Their English is magically getting better and better. I am asked where I come from. I said, “Kansas!” (Kangesu). This guy shouts back, “COWBOY!” “Yes, cowboys! Kansas!” “Do you ride horsies?” (making motions rocking back and forth and whipping the reins) “Yes!” “Do you catch cows?” “No, very bad! Miss!” (I mimed this and got the whole drunk crowd falling over laughing).

And, apparently, I scored major, major brownie points for “being loud.” It’s a compliment. And the fact that I’m trying to learn Korean and Korean ways and eating everything they gave me (except the liver; I drew the line at the raw liver). And I tried the dried cuttlefish… that was a eww. So the VP really likes me. Kudos to me.

I made more friends at karaoke. I was scared spitless until I realized 3 things.

1.       They were SNONKERED

2.       They didn’t understand English

3.       They wouldn’t know the songs

Oh yeah, free license to suck as badly as I pleased. I choose “Johnny B. Goode” (mistake; too fast), “Home on the Range” (big hit; they knew the song), and “We Are Golden” Mika (right speed, easy lyrics, too long). Next time I’m considering “Pump It” Blackeyed Peas and “Plug It In” Muse and “Hey Jude” Beatles (it was on the nurse’s playlist in her car—their cars have the coolest mp3 player ports and radio controls on the steering wheel). I was looking for “Killer Queen” but didn’t see it. They also had Beyounce, Kessha, Japanese Pop, Linkin Park, Britney Spears, and a ridiculous amount of other songs besides the 50 some pages of Korean songs.

By the end of the night (3 hours of terrible singing and drunken dancing later), I acquired a big sister, several friends, a few moves just shy sexual harassment, and a sore throat. I also got several bone crushing hugs, lots of hand holding, arm looping, claps on the shoulder, arm tugs, and a kiss to the top of the head. 

I think they like me 

And for the Hetalia-lovers, I totally “get” Korea now! Da-ze~!

And don’t expect any of this to happen back in the States. But I ain’t in Kansas anymore and there’s no ruby slippers. When in Korea, be Korean.