"South Korea's got Seoul"

As seen on a t-shirt.

Last night was the SLP staff dinner. We finished training at 7:30 and Soo and Helena, the two new Korean teachers, live about an hour away so they came back to our apartment with us while we waited/got ready to go to dinner. They went up to Jennifer's apartment; I went home and changed and went back up to her apt and we sat around and watched the tail-end of Nanny Diaries on tv (in English with Korean subtitles).

Dinner was at 9 and was at a restaurant where you cook your own meat, pork in this case. Soo told me it was a very well-known dish. Our table was covered with about 8 side dishes-- 3 or 4 different kinds of kimchi (one cabbage, 3 green kinds, all differently prepared), this fruit salad thing, and a lot more. It was a colorful array of food.

We were the first to arrive, but soon the other Korean and American/Canadian teachers straggled in. I was a bit disappointed that it was only afternoon teachers. I've met a few morning teachers and it would have been nice to meet all the teachers and to get a chance to talk to the ones that I had met. It was a relatively small group-- 14 teachers. A few afternoon teachers didn't come because they were going out of town. It's a 3 day weekend because it is Buddha's birthday.

Dinners have, in the past, been a large dinner with drinks, but due to a recent problem, there was no alcohol served with dinner last night. At the last SLP dinner, some teachers decided to go out for drinks after dinner. Apparently, one girl was very intoxicated and swiped a bag of chips on her way home. There are video cameras everywhere, so her indiscretion was caught on tape and the police were involved and she was fired. It seems like a little thing; a bag of chips, but we are in a different country and laws are different here. (I actually knew about this incident before I arrived. I googled the school to find out as much as I possibly could.)

So, there were no drinks at dinner, but some of us went out for a drink after. We walked about ten minutes and came to a bustling part of the area. There were lights and blinking colorful signs and people were out and about; it was great! There were restaurants with open windows so you could see people eating as you walked past. It was very lively and exciting. We went to an "Alcohol Fruit Bar" and sat outside on the balcony and drank Korean beer and soju mixed with Kiwi and Strawberry juice. It was delicious. I liked the beer better than American beer; it almost tastes the same, there's just a slight difference. And the soju/juice mix was amazing. All I could taste was kiwi juice. Which I could see could lead to problems (aka getting very drunk because you can't taste the alchohol).

Soju is the Korean alcohol (or perhaps liquor) of choice. It's made out of sweet potato (if you look at the word "potato" too much it starts to look really really weird) and is about as cheap as water. You can mix it with almost anything. They even mix it with beer. They call it Korean vodka. They, in all these instances, are the other teachers, guide books, etc.

I sat at the end of the table with Don and Natalie, a cool couple from Canada, and Elizabeth and Steven. We chatted about Korea, the school, food, movies, you know, the usual. At the other end of the table were a few of the Korean teachers-- Chloe and a few others, whose names I didn't get, Jennifer, Brian (who's leaving in a week. Either Jennifer or I are going to be his replacement), and Sean.

I'd gotten a chance to talk to Sean (a tall Canadian in a vest, ooo, I can see Char totally digging his style) and Natalie at dinner.

After drinks, which cost KW10,000 each (which is a little over $10), we walked home and cut through a park that had exercise equipment as well as a kids play area (in the shape of a ship!). It was a nice night in all because it was a great chance to talk to other teachers about work and non-work things. So, I feel like I'm settling in a little more.