Wednesday, February 5, 2014

12/13: Craziest Nights in Korea

Christmas Decorations in my apartment

One of many raw fish platters

Fire Shot at Touch Bar

Street Artist in Insadong

Random, singers advertising some food


Seoul: The whole city was overrun by police in training

My Christmas Tree

Some classroom decorations

Snowmen that the students made

Snowmen by the 1st/2nd grade and some stockings

Snowflakes made by the fifth grade afterschool boys
So Thanksgiving is over and in the Brice household that means that the Christmas Season has officially started. I have no idea what Christmas will be like in Korea but am nervous and sad to be missing Christmas back in the states. From what I have heard about Korea is that Koreans don’t really celebrate it and instead it is a “couples” holiday (like most days in Korea). So needless to say I wasn’t too happy about having to be in Korea for Christmas.
                I was planning on doing a whole month of Christmas crafts, projects, songs and movies with the kids during afterschool so I figured I might as well start now. This week during afterschool I had all the first and second graders decorate and color small snow men and stockings. We also finished up learning all the movements that go with the phonics song so I was glad that winter started, giving me something to do with them. I didn’t really incorporate much English into the snowmen but I did for the older kids. All the third and fourth graders got to decorate large snowman and had to make a little nametag (My name is XXX. I am a boy/girl snowman. I like XX). Then they each got to decorate a stocking where they wrote “My favorite toy is XX.” I was proud that I got some English in there. We also made Christmas Cards and cut out Christmas trees to decorate the windows. Plus I found on pinterest a way to make snowflakes from toilet paper rolls. Only a couple of kids brought in rolls but the ones who did really enjoyed making them. With the older kids we made little mice from toilet paper rolls and really complex snowflakes from paper. Again, the English might have been lacking but at least they had to follow directions in English. They were so creative with the little mice we made. I hadn’t tried it before hand and was having problems making them but the students were amazing at it and ended up making little presents that the mice could hold. I also learned about the 5th grade boy crushes and which of the girls they liked-so cute.
                Along with the mice and snowmen, each student got to decorate a snowman. One little boy, Tyler, my fifth grade pupucha was hilarious. He is really artistic and decided to make a WWE Smackdown snowman. This is also the kid who likes to steal the signs that say the days of the week and the weather to make WWE Champion Belts. Anyways, for the past couple of months he loves to walk around imitating commentators of WWE “And smackdown for landon oliver” and he goes on and on and landon oliver. So I asked him today the name of his snowman and of course he goes Landon Oliver, “spelling teacher.” I had no idea who he was talking about so I google it and nothing. I keep trying different spellings before I finally find a picture of the guy he likes and his name is ……”Randy Orton!” “r”s are very hard for Koreans and so it kind of makes sense but it was so funny. Months and months and I finally understand what the heck he has been saying. The kids all made their crafts and I said good bye to them on Friday. Only after saying good bye did I learn that that would be my last after school class until March. There were still two weeks left of school before winter vacation so I expected to keep going and had plans made up. It was bitter sweet. I was really excited that after school was over since I kind of hate it but at the same time I wanted to have a mini party for the kids and have a proper goodbye. With my first and second graders I had spent the whole semester teaching them phonics and I wanted them to do the whole song as I videotaped them! Darn it!!
                Earlier in the day on Friday, Juny said that the nurse invited her and me to a good bye dinner for the groundskeeper of the school. So the school is really small but there are major divisions amongst the staff. There is basically the teachers and then there is the support staff. The office staff sticks with the nurse, bus drivers and groundskeeper and the teachers then all stick together and don’t really get along. Juny fits with both groups but is close with the nurse so she invited us to dinner. I really didn’t want to go but Juny said it would be a good experience and I should come. Well, what a night it turned  into. There were about 7/8 people; the nurse, two bus drivers, two office staff, the groundskeeper and me and Juny which also meant that it was 4 men over the age of 40, one man who was 35 and then two women who were over 45! Awkward and hilarious. However, everyone was so happy that I came and welcoming. We went out for raw fish and they brought out two huge platters of all different types of raw fish and ocean goodies. Everyone just wanted me to try everything and they kept filling up my beer and soju glass! The fish was delicious. I got to eat live octopus again, different types of fish, stingray!! I really hated the stingray. It tasted like you just swallowed the ocean. I have mentioned the drinking culture a little before but let me go into it a little bit more. So your glass is never empty! If it is empty someone will repour it within a couple of minutes, whether it be coke or alcohol. Also when someone pours you a drink, you take the bottle and using two hands (and sitting on your knees/kneeling) pour them a drink back and then cheers together. When you two cheer, many other people join in to cheers.  But it’s more polite to turn your body away when you take the drink. Basically if someone wants to take a shot, they want everyone to take a shot with them! They then will yell Korean shot and you have to take the shot glass and turn it upside down on your head to prove that there is nothing left. Another type of shot-taking is to use the same glass. Usually at an event the oldest person has a shot glass and goes around taking a shot with every person. They pour you a shot, you take it, then wipe the shot glass on a napkin and pour a little for them that they take. And boy this all happens pretty quickly. They take shot after shot. Needless to say I ended up eating a lot and having a lot to drink at dinner.
                We ended dinner by around 7 and went for round two at noraebang. By this time Juny was tired so she left and here I am with 4 ajhussis (old men) and one ajhumma (old woman) at noraebang (karaoke). It ended up being a lot of fun and I even sang a couple of kpop songs. They were so great because they asked me what song I wanted and then went to the man in charge to help find it. It was a lot more fun and less awkward than I expected. EXCEPT that my dirty old bus driver friend who speaks some English kept saying that he wanted me to date the 40 year old accountant from the school. The 40 year old is really nice, but Pa-lease!! After noraebang we all gathered outside and the dirty bus driver friend’s wife showed up and not only drove us back to school but also brought a huge box of strawberries for us to eat. Back at school, the 40 year old (let’s call him Tall Man cause he is like the tallest Korean I’ve seen lately) said he would take me home since he lives really close to me. At first I was nervous because he had so much to drink but then I realized that he called a chauffeur. They have a service where you call a driver who comes and drives your own car to wherever you want. At this point I hadn’t quite figured out how the driver then gets home but I later learned that another car follows behind and drives the driver home. Anyways we get back to Jochiwon at like 11 and Tall Man asks if I wanted some chicken so we went out for chimek (chicken and beer). Awkward cause it was just me and him and his English is terrible. I really had no idea what was going on because of the language barrier but whatever. Before I knew it we were walking to another chimek place where we met up with some of his friends. Again, here I am, 23years old and I am with 4/5 ajhussis drinking together. I wanted to leave but wasn’t really sure how to get out of the situation. Luckily they were old and tired so two of them had actually fallen asleep so we all got up to leave. But then as I was walking home I ran into two of my American friends who were going to the American bar and I figured I was already out so might as well go. We ended up having a blast and I actually was hanging out with people of my own age! The bar was a lot of fun and we met some Korean students from Korea University and I spent a good deal of the night playfully harassing the bar tender to get him to show me his tattoo. People in Korea don’t have tattoos and they are looked down upon so I was stoked to see a Korean with one. Finally by 4am we decided it was time to head home and pass out. One of the craziest and weirdest nights of my time in Korea so far!!!
                After sleeping in some on Saturday I ended up going to Seoul with another American to go Christmas shopping. There are a lot of places in Korea that you can go shopping but Seoul is really where it’s at for souvenirs and American clothing. I didn’t get everything I needed for people but I did get most of my Christmas shopping done. I bought chopsticks for my dad, weird food for my brother (silk worm pupae, dried squid), a donut air freshener for PJ, a toothbrush holder for Lainie, a weird cat sculpture for my friend Megan, a beautiful scarf for my friend Rachel, teas for my mom and a whole bunch of odd things. Korea is weird. PERIOD. Everything here is bizarre so I figured I would buy bizarre things for my family and friends. 
                Sunday was another lazy day. I wanted to finish up my Christmas shopping so I took the bus to Cheongju which is a bigger city in Korea where they have a store called “Artbox” that I really like. Unfortunately I get all the way there and I walk back and forth forever trying to find this store before I realized that it was under construction. DARN IT! The other plus was that their Daiso (a dollar store company) had a lot of great Christmas decorations so I loaded up on decorations and went home to decorate the apartment. I might not have finished Christmas shopping but at least I have a rocking Christmas apartment!

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