I still don’t know why our cafeteria opening ceremony took two hours (I skipped it and dabbled in currency falsification instead), but I suspect it involved song and dance on the part of the children and soju on the part of the principal and his cronies. At least, there were some bottles left on the table by the time I arrived at lunch. It’s really amazing—that would NEVER be considered okay in American schools. And here drinking (to get drunk, no less—no mild sipping here!) in an elementary school cafeteria at lunchtime is not only okay, it’s expected. We don’t have any pint-sized alchies yet, so I suppose it hasn’t entirely corrupted our impressionable students, but still…aren’t we supposed to model good behavior? Though I guess in Korea, it IS appropriate to get smashed with your cronies…
At any rate, the cafeteria is surprisingly nice. I hadn’t realized how dingy our old one was until I saw how bright and new this one is, with lots of glass and light and nice tables and chairs that are connected to the tables and a nice cup cooler and so on. Where is my school getting the money for all this fancy stuff, if they’re always complaining about funds (like their inability to pay me on time for my winter camp because they lacked $200…)? We have at least three completely useless people working at the school, too…I don’t see how they’re even worth the amount of coffee they drink per day, let alone their salaries on top of that. Sometimes I wonder about their financial priorities.
Alas, in their excitement of preparing a fancy meal for the first time this year, our good old cafeteria ladies neglected me. We didn’t even have rice (the main course was chicken porridge and ham toast), so I had kimchi, ddok, cherry tomatoes, and watermelon. Kyoung Hee Sam was horrified and kept looking at my plate and sighing. She kept trying to make me eat more ddok, but that’s hardly a meal—it’s more cakelike than anything else. Sometimes I hate eating with the teachers…they’re always trying to stuff me and are so upset when circumstances don’t allow them to do so.
This afternoon, I took off for Boryeong (a town near the ocean). It was difficult to get to—I had to switch buses in Guryeong on the way there and Buyeo on the way back, just like in my travels to Oesan (they’re on the same road) and the journey wore me out, but the time I spent there was nice. I am definitely going to have to rethink some of these Tuesday trips, though…it’s hardly worth it if the travel time is two hours each way. I will have to go somewhere that’s more direct. I found a nice mountain walking path in the heights of Boryeong and followed that for a while until I was afraid I’d get lost and strand myself there. I’ve gotta go back and explore it some other time, though…I have a sneaking suspicion it might be rather extensive and I’d like to figure out how far it goes. Why is it that every town but mine has at least one very accessible hiking path?!? How could Choi Hyun Moon EVER say that Hongsan was the perfect place for someone who likes to hike?!?!?