Korea Pt. 2

I've just past the halfway point of my stay in Korea and I'm already sad at the thought of leaving. It's been really good here; Korea has treated me well. Its very nice to not have to move every few days. My Canadian buddy has been showing me around town and there is plenty to see. I've been sharing a room with his brother who is a real funny dude. The other teachers here are cool, we get along well and have a good time together. The Korean staff members are all friendly and good fun and of course most of the kids are fantastic.

The initial phase of getting use to teaching classes and getting to know the kids has passed. Now I know the kids pretty well. I had to bust some balls recently though to set the ground rules for my classroom. Being firm with the kids definately did not come naturally; it had to be done though cause it only takes a couple of kids to disrupt the classroom and make things difficult for you. I didn't like it, but it really starts to piss you off when kids don't pay attention. I made a little girl cry the other day which is a horrible feeling. The image of her looking at me as her little eyes welled up with tears is burned into my memory... I didn't do anything too bad, just some stern talking cause she refused to do the class activity. But I think she thought we were good buddies and that I would let her do whatever she wanted to. So when I laid down the law she was a little shocked.

Otherwise everything has been wonderful. The kids like me, I like them. Teaching is easy and fun too. We all have a great time together but I don''t know how much they are actually learning. But I think that at this age range (8-12) it's more important for them to have a good time so that they will want to continue learning. I don't think I am the favourite teacher here, but I am the only teacher with groupies! I can't walk through the halls without bunches of little girls staring and giggling at me. They try to conversate in broken English which is pretty funny: 'You so handsome teacher! '.

I hit up the shopping district for some warm clothes which was quite an experience in itself. The girls that work in the stores are a lot like the school girls. 'You handsome. I love you!' is about all they know of the english language. Out the front of the department stores they all have these stages with massive sound systems, usually blasting jiggy Rn'B. But on busy nights they have other entertainment; I saw breakdancers, a dating game show and a rock band who were rocking out unconvincingly in turtlenecks and with beautifully conditioned hair. Hilarious.

The nightlife has been cool so far. We only have one day off a week, so realistically we can only get drunk once a week and go sightseeing once a week too. On the first week the staff here took all the teachers out for Korean barbeque and drinks. It's a great way to spend the early evening, leisurely cooking food at your table and getting wasted on Soju (Korean rice wine). I got a little too loose for the first outing with work colleagues, now some of the camp assistants call me 'crazy man'.

But the real story started after we got back to the dorms and Reuben just lost it. I don't think he drinks a lot but when he gets drunk he turns into a looney tune; rolling around on the ground rambling and such. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to spray him with the fire extinguisher to calm him down; which was very silly cause instead of the cloud of gas I was expecting a whole lot of pink powder came out and made a big mess. To make things worse I went to switch it for an unused extinguisher downstairs and I set off the alarm that goes off when you go into the girls dorms. Then they came into our room and confiscated our alcohol which completed the breaking of every rule they have here. Our liason had to sort out the resulting mess with the security people so we didn't get kicked out.

One thing I have learned quickly is that Soju = trouble. This weekend we went to an all you can eat & drink place for $22USD, which was great fun. We went with some of Rick's Korean friends, a coworkers and her husband. All was going well until we hit the batting cages near the restaurant where we demolished the bottles of Soju we took from the serve-yourself fridge. From that point on things went wrong. Reuben wasn't allowed into the club cause he was so drunk, which is unheard of here. So I hit up the club with Rick and his friend Nicole... and it was off the hook!!! Granted I was very drunk, but there was an insane amount of cute girls bumping and grinding just like they do in filmclips. They totally worship the whole jiggy vibe... and I like it! It was like a booty paradise, I had great fun until I lost Rick and the girl I was dancing/kissing with. So I had to drag myself home without a jacket (cause it was in someones bag) in the bitter cold Korean winter. Trapesing around freezing cold, missing train transfers cause I was asleep, alone in an unfamiliar place... it was real shitty.

Anyway the night was great fun and completely worth it. Wish I could stay longer but my visa runs out straight after the camp. So I'm looking at hitting up Japan at the end of the month to see my homeboy and wreck havoc. I'm a bit busy but I'll try to post again soon. Enjoy the photos.