One Week Down, 51 To Go

It's Friday over here and I only have three more classes for the week. It's been really good so far, even with a few minor snags.

I woke up Wednesday morning to find that my hot water was not working. Chris and I told the people at the school, because his also was only sending out cool. Fortunately, they got it fixed Thursday evening, so I only took a couple of cold showers.

I finally figured out my stove and washing machine as well, sort of. I think only one burned on the stove works, but I doubt I'll use it that much anyway. The washing machine is all in Korean, so I just played around and I think I produced one successful load of clothing.

Other than that, things have really been a whirlwind.

Teaching has continued to go well. The kids are pretty good with their speaking, for the most part. They are all fascinated by me as a person. The younger kids want to rub my arms because of my arm hair. They especially LOVE my beard.

They all want to touch it and then laugh because they've never felt anything like it before. In one class, the students were playing a game where they were drawing on the board, and the student actually drew a beard. So the kids all yelled, "Teacher's face!"

Also, the students are very creative when it comes to their American nicknames. I have taught a Unicorn, brothers named Lion and Tiger, and a class last night with students who called themselves Baskin, Robbins, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Tigger.

The fun thing to realize is that kids are pretty much the same everywhere. I do feel bad for them because they go to school all day and then have to come to the academy at night. They all look very tired. I can understand when they don't want to work. I try to get through the lessons and then we can chat a little. It is beneficial for them just to have the conversation, so that is okay to do.

The nice thing about this weekend is that we get Monday and Tuesday off because it is the national holiday of Ch'usok, which is seen as the second most important holiday in Korea. It is a thanksgiving festival where they all pay respects to their ancestors.

That also means that the westerners all have big weekend plans. We are going to see Incheon's SK Wyverns baseball team Saturday, followed by a trip to the beach Sunday.

As far as going out goes, however, the week of work doesn't make much of a difference. As I said before, most people simply work from 2 to 9 p.m., then go out until 2 a.m., then go to sleep until noon. Then the cycle starts over. There's very little downtime, but that is simply how they do it here.

On Monday I went out with one of the Korean teachers, Cindy. We went to an American-style bar in my neighborhood. It had big statues of Elvis, the Blues Brothers, cowboys and Indians. I asked if this is how they though of America, and she said that they were all American symbols. It still made me laugh.

The cool part was that they brought out pitcher of beer and it was smoking from the spout. They put dry ice tablets in it to make it do that. It was really cool.

Tuesday, I went out again with Cindy. This time, Chris came along, as well as two of the other Korean teachers, Vicky and Ally. We went to Incheon Harbor University, which is right up the road from our neighborhood.

We went to a Korean-style Hof and ordered a big thing of beer that came out in a giant, metal soccer ball. It was so great. Of course I didn't have my camera with me.

After we got fairly polished-off there, we went to a singing room. It's karaoke, only you're in your own private room. I cut my chops in places like the huge Franklin VFW, and the Jai-alai in Sharon. This was just Chris, Cindy, Vicky and me in a tiny little closet of a space.

Cindy and Vicky were pretty good singers, even though the songs they picked were either Korean, or Avril Lavigne. I guess I didn't understand any of their choices.

I sang some songs too, but none of the ones I wanted. The American list of songs was pretty low. I couldn't find any good Meatloaf or Neil Diamond. I did do a little Elvis at least.

Wednesday was a night with the boys club known as the western teachers. I went to Dan's. Chris and I, along with another American named Mike, went to Dan's neighborhood to watch the North Korea versus South Korea World Cup qualifier. I wore my South Korea jersey that my coworkers so generously got for me. Surprisingly, I was the only one there showing national pride. Go figure, the American is the only one wearing the jersey.

Thursday after school I met up with James Choi, the Korean recruiter who brought me over here. He took me out for a beer and a meal that was a noodle dish with little octopus tentacles in it. It wasn't too bad.

That brings us to today. I'm sure I'm leaving things out, and will add them in whenever I think of them. I will have my camera out this weekend, so look for picture updates.

Like I said, it's all happening so fast. I'm just trying to keep up.