I'm trapped at school!

Like I said, I'm trapped at school! On Friday's I am usually supposed to go to a different middle school. The other school is in a small town 40 minutes outside of Wonju and I have to take a bus to get to it. There I only teach 3 classes. But today my co-teacher Mr. Byeon had to take me to the Immigration Office to apply for my Alien Registration Card. Even though I already have a VISA for Korea, you basically have to go prove you are in the country and have a residence. I also needed to apply for a multiple entry VISA. This means when I leave the country and come back into Korea, my VISA is still valid. I had a single entry VISA which meant if I left and tried to return (get it, single entry) my VISA would have been automatically invalidated. Thus my co-teacher called the other school and told them I would not be coming in until next week. I thought this meant I got to come in late and leave early from work! Nope, not the case. Even though I have zero classes today, I have to be here. ALL DAY.

Mr. Byeon drove me to the Immigration Office in City Hall, which was nice because I got to see more of the city, its really pretty when you get near the hills. Everything is so green! I understand why since its been raining everyday since we got here one week ago. (There was a typhoon the other night!!) My co-teacher commented how when he visited LA in the summer (he's been to a lot of places in the US) he was surprised that even in the summer time the grass was brown (as in Wonju summer is super lush because that is when they get the most rain.) I told him LA is very dry. Applying for the Alien Registration Card didn't take long, I met another EPIK teacher who wasn't at the orientation and ran into Jason and his co-teacher doing the same thing. They were way behind us in line though and his co-teacher didn't have all the documentation that mine had brought, haha.

Then we came back to the school by 10:30 and I just wasted time until lunch at 12:30. I tried to lesson plan for next week, but PowerPoint is in Korean which is hard to figure out and plus I just don't have any ideas... I want to plan with Jason so he can help me.

While I was intereting my co-teacher came in and said that our department was going to go out for lunch together. I wasn't sure if he meant the English teachers or the "Gifted Students" teachers, of whom I am now apart of. My "office" is in there office. Most of the teachers have cubicals in one large office where the VP sits, but these three guys get an office to themselves. As in Japan the teachers change classes here, not the students, so they have desks where they keep everything and lockers. There is good and bad in this. The good is that the teachers can't shut themselves away in their classrooms, they have to interact with each other and the VP, and students are allowed in the room whenever they need to come in. In the US its so taboo for a student to walk in an admin area, its like "what are you doing here? What do you want? Who are you?" -- here the girls just burst in, asking questions, complaining, talking.

Anyhow the "Gifted Students" teacher all went out to lunch, me included. First they wanted to get spicy fish soup, which I said was fine with me. (Ahhh more spicy... ewww fish stew.) But they change their mind to dumplings instead, lucky me! We drove to this small resturant, sat on the floor and ate huge bowls of noodles with dumplings instead. The noodles were really tasty and I was able to finally opt for a non-spicy food option (red pepper sauce/paste/seasoning is everywhere, on everything!). I was excited that the dumplings might be some kind of meat but alas, they were filled with... kimchi! What else?! It was good though. Kimchi is good, better than some I've had at home, its just so spicy! It doesn't smell though, which I think is a common misconception in the US. I stomach it down at every meal to not be rude, even though my nose runs and my eyes water. It is apparently impolite/disgusting to blow your nose in front of anyone here, so I just have to sniff sniff sniff. (It is not impolite though to randomly spit on the street though, everyone does it.)

The meal was nice and pleasant, only my co-teacher spoke English but he asked questions and translated. He asked if I liked drinking soju, I said yes, they went "oooohhhh" -- I thought maybe I should have said no. They said, we will go out to soju then. They also said, "we heard Jason can drink two bottles of soju!!!" -- they were so excited! I said yes, that's how much he said he and his co-teacher drank the other night, plus two pitchers of beer. They were so impressed. I added that he was pretty tipsy at the end of course of they just laughed. They also said next time we will bring Jason too. (And I almost forgot, they said that's when we would try chicken feet... oh my I can't wait. They kind of laughed like "hahaha, or heeheehee" under their breath when they said this. At least they didn't say dog!) They are nice though, and Jason's co-teacher said the same thing to him, next time we will bring Madeline.

(Click here to read more on soju.)

This is actually the second time I've been taken out for lunch. On Tuesday I thought I was having lunch with Mrs. Kim only, off campus, but then suddenly all the English teachers were there. There is Ms. Kim, Mrs. Kim, Mr. Park, Mr. Kwon and Mr. Byeon. I teach with all of them. Usually students call them by their last then first name, so like Byeon Jung, etc. The family name always comes first in Korea, as family and community are always valued more highly over the self. If a Korean child does poorly at school it is not only themselves they are worried about dissapointed (or devestated at dissapointing) by their family because it can bring a lot of shame on a family to have children without good schooling and good jobs.

The lunch with the English teachers was also good. We sat on the floor and ate boiled chicken. And I mean the entire chicken (no head or feet thankfully). I'm still confused on how I'm supposed to eat the chicken when it has bones in it and all I have are copsticks and a spoon (spoons are totally acceptable to use to aid in your eating here, yay!) but knives, don't even look for them. And it is also totally acceptable to slurp your food! (See Dad, its good to slurp!) Again the food is ridiculously cheap (like $60 for six people to eat two whole chickens plus like 10 different side dishes) which is awesome. They also boil the chicken on the table in front of you, in a broth of sprouts, greens and tree bark.

To return to my original heading though, now I'm trapped at school! Its only 3:00 and I can't leave until 4:30. So I'm blogging and trying to memorize the Korean alphabet. My co-teacher loved that. He gave me a mini lesson and then typed up some homework for me. He said I must practice and he is going to quiz me on Monday!! The alphabet isn't too hard to learn, its just hard for me to read quickly. Its vowels and consanats. Their language is called hangul. I think everyone could easily learn how to read it if you just memorize. (See more on hangul here.)

Leave me comments and/or questions!