July 26 - Sunday

Teachers, admins., principal, v.p. and assist. v.p. celebrate the end of 1st semester by going on a "Teacher Overnight"; an occasion to celebrate and relax after a stressful week of testing. The rented bus arrives in front of the school, cases of beer, Soju and snacks are loaded before 35 people board the bus. We settle in and the remaining students wave and bid us good-bye. We make it about 3 miles outside the school when the Soju begins to start flowing. The asst. v.p (aka. 3rd Man) has a bottle of Soju in one hand with paper shot cups in the other, going from teacher to teacher, pouring and shooting back shots. As he gets closer to my seat I think this has officially been deemed the Party Bus! It's customary to never refuse a drink from an elder so I graciously accept the shot of Soju and quickly drink with his approval. After many shots (him-not me) he sits next to me and starts asking me questions. Now, Koreans are very curious about two things; your age and if you're married. His first question, "How old are you?" I tell him Im 37 and he looks very surprised and then he proceeds to ask me the inevitable marriage question but he asks me, "Are you a virgin?" Good thing I wasnt drinking anything at that moment or else he would have had a spray of water in his face! At first I must have looked a little confused because he looked confused and I said "Pardon?" and he asked me again. Then, that's when it dawned on me that he must have meant "Are you married?" but chose to use a different variation of the marriage question. So, after my initial shock I responded, "No, I'm not married."
Boy, this was going to be an interesting 24 hours!
After a long and relaxing dinner the dining hall is turned into the notorious Singing Room in which everybody takes turn choosing a song from the bulging binder of titles and sing with a mic in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other. When the v.p. gently pushed me towards the binder I knew I could no longer get away with being a wall flower, so I picked a fun song that everybody knows...Y.M.C.A. (always a crowd pleaser!) and I was actually having fun!
The next morning we piled back into the bus and drove to a cave. This was my first time hiking in a cave and it was pretty amazing. Most of the time we were crouching and walking in very small spaces but luckily I'm one of the shortest teachers so it was pretty easy for me to get in and out of the crawl spaces. The cave was very cool and damp and as we approached the entrance there was a definite degree difference from cool to hot and humid. After exploring the cave we drove on to reach the river and aboard the Pleasure Boat, a river boat that takes tourist up and down for sightseeing. I'm standing and talking to 4 teachers when one of the teachers yells out "Foreigner!!" and points in the direction of a tall blonde man. All four heads and myself turn in the direction of her finger and they ask "Where?!!" and points more forcefully this time until we all spot him. I tell my curious teachers that I'll ask him where he's from and return with a full report. They nod in unison. Come to find out he's from Belgium.
After 24 hours of laughing and learning more about the Korean culture it was a fun trip and I got to know a few of the teachers as friends.

As a Korean/American my experiences here have been quite interesting. I don't speak the language but I blend in with the population. Often when a stranger approaches and asks me questions in Korean, I shake my head and they always assume Im deaf because why else would I not speak Korean. Or they are confused because I "have a Korean face" and yet don't speak the language. When they find out Im from America they appear less confused and always very gracious. When Im on the subway and see a foreigners board I want to speak to them in English but I forget that when they see me, they see a sea of Korean faces. It's all very interesting and I breathe it all in; one experience and adventure at a time!


More Observations:

--Korean tradition is deeply rooted in a hierarchy of elder etiquette. At dinner when the v.p. was pouring shot glasses of Soju to teachers it was always received with two hands and the head was turned away to drink from the elder pouring the drink.
--Children never wear seatbelts and are often playing and standing between the driver and passenger seat. Oy!
--Smoking is frowned upon in the company of an elder
--Students are extremely meticulous and need a sense of order and aesthetics
--Male chivalry is not passe' in Korea! Often men carry women's purses and bags. Once, while I was hiking I saw a woman shuffling up hill in her husband's tennis shoes and he was hiking barefoot while schlepping her purse and heels. (and why wear heels hiking?!)