Wow, what a whirlwind of a weekend! I spent the majority of my time with the other teachers and had a grand old time. I briefly considered meeting other ETAs this weekend, but decided against it because I wanted a chill, inexpensive weekend and I wanted to spend some time outside of school with Hongsan’s teachers, since they wanted to see me and take me out.
On Saturday, I went to Dajeon with Kyoung He Sam and her two daughters, Ji Young and Ji Eun (I think…). They are 11 and 9 years old and pretty cute. The older one actually has pretty good English—better than Kyoung He Sam, I think! I’m not sure where she has learned it. I tried to ask her, but the only thing I understood was that she learned some of it somewhere outside of school. That, and her English teacher’s name is Jennifer. She is Korean, but I guess she wanted an English name for teaching purposes.
Anyway, they picked me up in the morning, drove me to Dajeon (about an hour’s drive), and we went out to lunch at this absolutely fabulous restaurant. I’m not sure how, but somehow Kyoung He Sam knew of my love of mushrooms and took me to a place that specialized in mushroom dishes. The meal even began with a cup of mushroom tea! There was basically a large skillet in front of us, which was filled with some sort of flavored water. We then cooked a mixture of a little meat, four varieties of mushrooms, and a little bit of seasoning. It was sooooo delicious. I am almost salivating thinking about it. I definitely have to go back there with a mushroom lover. Then, after I had absolutely stuffed myself of mushrooms and the other side dishes, they brought out a rice and seaweed mixture that was fried with the remains from our previous course. This was also quite mashisoyo (Korean for delicious)—I do love fried rice. And then, kimchi noodles. Oh, I love that restaurant! I guess the girls really didn’t though, and I felt bad that the meal completely revolved around me, but there wasn’t really anything I could do about it.
After that, we drove downtown to Lotte, which is a big fancy department store. They are located in major cities across the country. Lotte even has food and other brand items. It’s huge. This one had a movie theater on the tenth floor. After some Baskin Robbins, we went up there to see The Sentinel. It definitely wasn’t a movie I would normally pick, but I think it was the only one we knew of that was in English. Turns out The Lake House was also in theaters and the girls would have preferred that, but alas, we’d already bought our tickets online.
And then we went to Costco. Yes, there are Costcos in Korea, strangely enough. And they look remarkably similar. This one was smaller than I was used to and spread out over two floors, but it still had the same warehouse feel and I even saw the ravioli that I usually buy at home! They didn’t have the stamps I wanted from the American Costco, unfortunately, but I was still impressed. I’ll have to go back and get some candy (for teaching purposes, of course!). We had dinner there, too…Costco pizza! I can tell that I am used to my cheese deprivation now after two months. I haven’t even been craving it since I’ve been in Hongsan, and I could barely finish my slice of pizza. It was soooo cheesy!
I was so exhausted after our day out. I think I am getting a little bit sick, too. I fell asleep on the way home and could barely open my eyes once I was back. Going to bed early on a Saturday night…so uncharacteristic of me!
Today was the day of the big teachers’ volleyball tournament. I wasn’t going to play, but wanted to watch them play and go out to lunch with everyone. They lost, unfortunately, but everyone was in good spirits anyway. I guess they expected to lose. I think they just need to practice more. They’ve only played once since I’ve been there! There was a definite lack of communication and teamwork, in my opinion. Maybe I should give them a pep talk. But anyway, I think they might recruit me to start playing in their games because they have to have one woman play (out of nine players on the court…I know….it’s weird. I was talking to my co-teacher about these odd volleyball rules and evidently they are used only by teachers in Korea and maybe Japan. It’s a “specialized” game.). Kim Eun Soon (the fourth grade teacher they want me to become best friends with) played today, but she’s basically scared of the ball and they scooted her into the corner so she wouldn’t have to hit it.
After the game, we went out to lunch at the same restaurant we ate at the last time in Buyeo. And like last time, they ordered me a special meal. So unnecessary, especially since I wasn’t even hungry, but what can you do? They also had (SURPRISE!) many bottles of soju at lunch. I was wondering if they would drink at lunch, or if it was just an evening thing, and my curiosity was quickly satisfied when that was the first item they went for (before they even got bottles of water!). Oh, I do love my teachers! I’m not sure what exactly went down during lunch, but one thing is clear….the teachers have begun Stage Two in the evil plot to terminate my single status. I can’t be sure because I couldn’t understand what was said, but I am fairly certain there was some matchmaking going on. It was decided that I would go to the fortress ruins (which I’d already seen, but the principal wanted to show me again) with the principal and Kim Keun Hwak, the nerdy but single third grade teacher. I really think he wanted to run away and do the work he had to do at Hongsan, but was bullied into staying by everyone else, especially my co-teacher. Choi Hyun Moon specifically told me before he left that Kim Keun Hwak was there to take me anywhere and do anything for the rest of the day. Thanks, co-teach! I needed an escort…
So we went to the old fortress (it was only a couple of blocks away) and there ensued some awkward translations. Kim Keun Hwak really doesn’t speak English all that well, for all that he took ten years of it. As he repeatedly told me today, English was the class he always slept through. So I don’t know how much of what the principal was trying to tell me was lost in translation, but it’s gone now. I already knew quite a bit he was trying to tell me about the Baekje dynasty, so that was cool. Then he was trying to make sure everything was going well with my students and at home and said that he was there to help if I ever needed it. I really wish I could talk with my principal—I think he is a great guy and we would get along so well if we could speak together! I think he likes me anyway, though.
As we were leaving, there was some sort of Baekje royal ceremony reenactment going on outside the gate and we watched a few dances. It was all right, I guess, but it made me think about tradition and culture a bit. In many countries, it is felt that performing these “traditional” ceremonies is in fact delegitimatized by the fact that the performance is for tourists, for money. I know many people feel that way about Native American ceremonies in America and “native” dances performed in Africa. But this felt different. They weren’t selling their culture, they were celebrating it. And the “tourists” weren’t “the other” (besides me!), but rather other Koreans. And also, the performance wasn’t for money…it was actually outside the gate. I just found it touching that Koreans enjoy celebrating their culture this way and are not so quick to forget or deny it. They embrace it!
The principal went home then and I was left with my little friend. I am sure people thought we were a couple and were giving me weirder looks than usual, but at least I didn’t get the rude stares like last weekend in Seoul! We bought tickets for the bus back to Hongsan but had some time to kill so we went to Lotteria (a fast food restaurant that may or may not have a connection with Lotte—I have my suspicions, but I haven’t asked anyone yet). I was totally not hungry, but he was intent on feeding me. It’s so funny…they all love me for my thinness, but at the same time are seemingly determined to turn me into a hippopotamus. So we had an awkward little snack together, during which he alternated between nervous laughs and trying to speak between pounding on his chest like I was making his heart go pitter patter. I feel bad for the guy…I think he was a bit overwhelmed being left alone with me! Who knows how much he’s even TALKED to girls. I suspect he is quite the computer nerd. We finally made it back to Hongsan and he insisted on escorting me home, even though it was a good 15 minutes each way out of his way. It was rather silly. I dearly hope that nothing comes of this little encounter, but I have a feeling our matchmakers won’t be easily defeated. Well, he is leaving at the end of November….
A random thought I was having today…I keep hearing that I am so beautiful here, which first of all I think its not really true but more importantly am surprised to be hearing this so often from Koreans. Before I came here, I just assumed they would consider me ugly. I mean, I’m tall, I’m not that thin (seriously, some girls here are my height but forty pounds lighter), and I’m just so foreign-looking to them. It has honestly really surprised me to find the opposite is true. Why would they ever consider me good-looking? Goodness knows most white people don’t find Asians attractive (except those occasional guys with Asian fetishes, but they’re often just creepy in general). How has it happened that Caucasian features have become the standard for beauty? I mean, Bianca was telling me last weekend that several of her students have gotten surgery on their eyelids so they will dip back like ours do. Why? Why would you ever do that? Why would that be more beautiful? It makes me so sad to see these standards of beauty upheld across the world, even in countries that pride themselves on their culture, and makes me wonder how this ever could have happened. White supremacy at its finest, I guess…even people of other races and other countries prescribing to it. I’m exaggerating, but still…I have my questions about this matter.