Highs and lows of foreign life

Yesterday's volleyball tournament was off to an inauspicious start... Mr. Kim told me volleyball was at 3:30, so I went to the gym at about 3:10 thinking maybe I'd stretch and warm up, and when I walked in the Seokyang teachers were already preparing to face off against the Seokseong crew. I was directed to sit on the sidelines of Seokyang, and I was disappointed that apparently I was late and maybe wouldn't get to play. About two-thirds of the way into the game, the principal subbed with me so I got in for maybe ten minutes. We beat Seokseong, but it was a close game. Joo is a pretty awesome spiker, but they didn't really have any setters, so he was their main setter which meant he didn't get a lot of spiking in. Then we all took a snack break which for some reason included both beer and water. Yes, there's nothing more refreshing than a nice Dixie cup of cold beer during a Korean volleyball tournament at an elementary school.


Next the Seokseong middle school and Tonton (spelling?) elementary school faced off. Seokseong middle was an all-male team (with the female teachers spectating), but Mrs. Jee told me middle school teachers are all about badminton whereas elementary school teachers are all about volleyball, so Tonton ended up winning. While we were watching, my Seokyang principal turns to me and says, "Theresa... spike!" Every single "conversation" I've had with my Seokyang principal involves volleyball. I did notice that I am actually the tallest person on the Seokyang team. However, my vice-principal literally never sets me up, so my spiking opportunities are pretty limited.


The finals were Seokyang vs. Tonton for the glory of the tournament. We huddled in the middle of the court and did a little one-two-three-team cheer! moment (the Korean team cheer? "Fighting!" This is not a joke.). I was in front facing off against the Tonton principal, who was probably 6'2" and therefore a veritable giant in Korea. I managed to get in the swing of blocking when he'd spike it over the net, and I actually did block one and left-handed spiked another. We ended up winning, thank goodness, because I didn't want to let down my Seokyang principal.


Post-volleyball I was invited to a teachers' dinner at one of the student's parents' restaurant nearby, so I had to miss the English teachers' soccer. It was a traditional Korean meal, which meant low tables so we sat on the floor. They served us strips of pork that we cooked on the center stove thing, and there were tons of little bowls with side dishes. Koreans use their chopsticks to pick up a piece of meat, put it on a lettuce leaf, add side dishes (i.e. green onion salad, some delicious red paste of beans and something else), wrap it up, and eat it. Drinks were beer, Pepsi, water, and soju (Korea's answer to vodka/Japanese sake). The vice-principal sat next to me and told me through Mrs. Jee that I must learn Korean so we can have conversations. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one... it's going to be a while before I can possibly have any conversation beyond "Hello, nice to meet you, thank you." We also had a little soju cheers. Korean manners include passing drinks, so the principal gave me a shot glass and poured me some soju, so I had to drink it. Then I gave it back to him and poured him a glass. Mrs. Jee tried to explain exactly how this passing ritual went, but I'm still not quite sure... I know it's impolite to fill your own soju glass for yourself, so you have to fill up others', but I don't quite get it yet. Either way the food was sooo good, except for when I bit down on a big piece of bone in my pork, which was not cool. Also when the other teachers insisted I eat a piece of garlic all by itself. I thought, how bad could it be? So I started chewing and it was fine until the garlic juice hit me, then it was super hot and well, extremely garlicky.


The principal drove me home because he lives in Buyeo. It was a very quiet car ride, the silence broken only when he asked me if I liked volleyball (see what I mean??). One issue: Korean names are written opposite of Western ones, so Mr. Kim's Korean name is actually Kim Yongchan, with Yongchan being his first name. Therefore I introduce myself as Theresa Kretz, and I thought they knew my first name was Theresa because that's usually what everyone calls me, but in the car the principal addressed me simply as "Kretch" (this is the closest the Koreans can get to Kretz). I did notice in volleyball they sometimes referred to each other only by last name, so maybe this is just Korean stuff I don't understand.

Now for the eponymous "lows" of foreign life. I swear there's something wrong with the Thursday bus. Each week I've managed to catch the same bus every day but Thursday, and today was no exception. I sat at the bus stop from about 8:15-8:40 (my bus is supposed to come at 8:20 but it usually shows up at 8:30). I was pretty frustrated because I knew I hadn't missed it because I can actually read the symbols now and didn't see any buses going to Ganggyeong. I was also stressed out because some older Korean man was bothering me and there wasn't even any bus I could escape to. He didn't really speak any English but kept trying to talk to me and touch my hand, which I didn't appreciate at all, and every time I stood up he'd tell me to sit down. The worst part was he showed up at 8:20 or so and I didn't want to potentionally miss my bus (which never came anyway), so I couldn't leave the bus stop. Finally I was totally fed up and just told him I was going to be late, so I was going to catch a taxi, which I did.

I might have mentioned this already, but Koreans see personal questions as a good way to get to know people... it's polite, it's how they build relationships, so don't be surprised if people you have just met want to know your name, your age, your marital status, where you're from, how much money you make, etc. I wasn't in a great mood already, though, and the taxi driver was not making it any better by asking me these questions. How old are you, are you married, where are you from, you're very beautiful... I really didn't feel like making small talk (and when I say "small talk" I mean disclosing private information to a total stranger), and then he took me to Seokseong Middle School instead of Seokseong Elementary, so we had to sort that out. So I strolled into the school and quite frankly, I was pretty upset. The bus thing was stressful, then being semi-harassed by some old (and I think drunk) guy, then trying to calm down while in this taxi ride to the wrong place with some total stranger telling me I'm beautiful and asking me if I'm married just wasn't a great start to my morning. I could have handled at least one of those events but all three before 9am was a bit much.

So anyway I go into the teachers' lounge and Joo and Mrs. Lim (head teacher) are in there, and I said to Joo, "I think there's something wrong with the bus on Thursdays because I couldn't find it again" then to my total embarrassment I kind of teared up and said that I'd be right back and scurried into my classroom. Then he followed me and said, "So I think you are a little upset" and I almost started crying and just kind of mumbled that some guy was bothering me at the bus stop and that I was stressed out from missing the bus and all. So we just talked about classes for the day and volleyball yesterday, etc. and he reminded me the fifth and sixth graders were on a field trip so I wouldn't have those classes today, so "Just take a rest, and have some coffee, and I will see you third period."

So I calmed down and later Joo came back to discuss the after-school classes, and we had a little heart-to-heart about Korean culture and stuff, and he said people just want to talk to me because I'm obviously a foreigner and they're curious. I said that I knew that, but was wondering if it was common for strangers to ask me personal questions... I said I expected it from teachers, acquaintances, etc. but taxi drivers seemed to be pushing it. He agreed and said he had never been asked his age by a taxi driver. I hope he doesn't think I was overreacting because now it seems like I lost my composure a little excessively but at the time it was just kind of a lot.

Anyway, due to the field trip I only had three classes today. I had the third graders for their after-school class, and we worked on numbers. Joo told me their writing is pretty bad... they can listen and recognize numbers but can't write them, so I made up a game where I wrote zero-ten on pieces of paper and laid them on a desk. I divided the class into two teams of five and had them come up and face off with the flashcards. I'd say a number ("six!") and whoever slapped the card with "six" written on it got a point. Holy cow but those kids were freaking out! I think the slapping thing was very exciting for them. Joo has them play lots of learning games, but I kind of forgot how much kids FREAKING LOVE games. Even very, very basic games.

Joo always has them choose team names, and these names ALWAYS seem to feature animals and/or the word "golden." For example, the teams today were "Golden tigers," "Golden cats," and "Golden dolphins." I have no idea why there is this fixation on the word "golden" but "sharks" is also a very popular team name.

Next we graduated to writing numbers on the board. One kid from each team got a dry erase marker and the first to write and spell the number correctly won. This presented kind of a challenge, which I think was good. If it was too hard I'd give them hints. The final game progression was when I started just writing numbers, (1, 4, 10 etc) on the board and they had to look at the number and write the English word (one, four, ten, etc).

At lunch Joo and I were discussing music. His favorite Western band is U2. He asked who my favorite pop artist was and I said Lady Gaga. He didn't recognize the name, so I assured him I'd play him some Lady Gaga sometime.

I don't remember if I already said this, but Joo lives in Nonsan, which is like 30 minutes away, and so he invited me to Nonsan on Friday October the 8th to get drinks with him and his family. He definitely said "family" but his sons are like 7 and 3 so I'm thinking maybe just him and his wife. I told him about the soju at the teachers' dinner, and he asked if I liked soju, and I said it was okay but didn't taste good by itself, so I thought it tasted better mixed with something, and Joo nearly fell out of his chair. I thought maybe that was some Korean faux pas to mix soju, but it turns out when I said "mix" Joo thought I meant like mix it with beer or whiskey! Hahaha he was pretty surprised that I would put those two together, but I explained I meant like juice or pop or something, and he calmed down ("Oh, you mean a cocktail.").