Which introduces my next observation. Ready?
4) Koreans like to drink, but they don't. Seriously, if you can drink Hite, you've seriously got to seek treatment because you're addicted. I just used the word "seriously" twice in the same sentence. dang. But at the same time, Koreans don't drink. After two school lunches, I've realized that Koreans don't drink with their meals. I can down a few 8-oz. glasses of water with my meal, but the fact that cups at restaurants are smaller than sippy-cups indicates some traumatic dehydration. Today I dined with the head of the language department (oh, fish for lunch! yes!) & when I got up to fill my thimble of water, I got some for her, too (definitely going for points here, haha). I brought it back & handed it to her & her face just read "이고머야?" or in common American Jack-Blackian vernacular, "What the hey, bro?" But she was gracious & took a sip at the end of her meal. Kind of reminds me of cats -- they eat & drink at seperate times. But when I think about it my mom never drinks -- we always had to remind her to finish her water.
Today in class I saw a girl that looks so much like Kari (my cousin) when she was younger. It was a bit odd, but cool.
Trends in school:
- like any other school, boys are ornery
- in class girls will give me really shy smiles but in the halls or the office they'll come up to me and say in English "hi" and giggle & scurry away. They'll always come in pairs or 3's and huddle up together when they run away as if it's going to absolve their embarrassment. It's cute & funny.
There's one boy in one of the classes -- I can't remember his name, but he's #37. After the introduction I fielded questions, & one of the kiddos had written, "Do you like #37?" I asked Suknam, my co teacher, who #37 was, & she pointed him out & said he's one of the naughty boys. I read the question out loud & he had a surprised look on his face. Either somebody had written the question without his knowledge or he had written the question but hadn't expected me to read it. Play ball! I said, "Yes, I like #37" & he did the cutest thing: he covered his face with his hands like a little girl and shook his head. Later in the library we made eye contact & I smiled at him & he did it again. Cracked me up.
After a few classes, the students' questions were pretty predictable: do you have a boyfriend? are you married? what is your ideal type? (I avoided the last question for the most part but once I answered, "hot" & the girls started giggling.) what is your blood type? (huh? I still don't understand why they'd care or how they ever came up with that question.) And a lot of favorites: actors, singers, colors, movies, books, food, etc. My favorites were "Do you like ...?" or "Do you think ... is handsome?" & I'd have to answer yes no matter what I really thought.
Tonight I caught the subway for the first time. The problem wasn't riding the subway so much as getting on. I had to search around for a ticket machine & when I found it it wouldn't take 5000W. So I had to get 1000W bills & it wouldn't take those either. So I had to use change. Then, on the train platform, I realized I had lost my umbrella. Great. Monsoon season, & no umbrella. Who's up for runny make-up?
I met Becky & Trey & Markos at Jamshil station. I didn't expect them to still be waiting since I was an hour late, but they were. I must have walked right by them looking for a payphone which, in a land of homogeneity, is really difficult to do: one white man, an Indian-Korean and a Latino-Korean (or maybe Becky's Italian, lol). We got some TGI Fridays (my first burger in Korea!) and had some cake to celebrate Mark's birthday.
That's about it. Tomorrow I may head to Yatap -- I think I remember Jonathan mentioning something there -- hopefully shopping.
Oh, more observations:
5) Hand-holding: my mom had mentioned this, so it wasn't too weird to see two girls (or even women) holding hands, but I'll admit it was a bit of a shock to see two boys holding hands, in a middle school of all places.
6) Bathrooms: I don't even know where to begin. First, I noticed that instead of toilets, there are urinal type deals in the floor. I asked Young-ji how to use that sort of toilet & she did the easy thing -- she took me to the ground floor bathroom where there was a normal, Western, sit-down toilet. But I would like to learn how to use the floor-urinals in case of emergency. There is no toilet paper in the stalls. Apparently people provide their own. Instead of anti-bacterial liquid/foam soap, there is bar soap. Hopefully antibacterial?
The bathroom topic reminded me. Today I officially became a part of the team at Seohyun Middle School. After lunch, I joined my fellow teachers in the bathroom for the daily "Post-dinner toothbrushing ritual." Makes sense, because Korean food is smelly, but I'm having trouble reconciling my germophobia to brushing teeth in a public bathroom that has all manner of "poop germs" infiltrating my toothpaste. (Yeah, I'm the person who icks out at the idea of bringing a drink into the bathroom.) Check that -- a public bathroom which may or may not have antibacterial soap.
[p.s. I'm sitting in the PC bang right now typing away, and it's so funny. Out of all the words the Korean guys are saying, I can pick up "아이스" and "새키야" and "평신" and "beep beep beep" (I think they're playing shooting games and the "beep beep beep" is the sound they make when shooting. haha)]
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