The View from the Native Room!
In our Office; The Native RoomAlthough 'normal' as any week we've had here, this past week still involved two work sponsored soirees that only settled down once the sun began to come up. Monday with Mr. Lee was simply absurd as he demanded our presence for a Foreign Teacher 'meeting' in Daechidong, a small neighborhood south of the Han River where we originally made our hour long commute from each day. Having met with the elementary school teachers before heading down there, it was clear that everyone was as unenthralled at the prospect of staying out all night as we were. While David unsuccessfully tried to escape Mr. Lee's grasp, Bryn managed to eek out of the thing claiming that he plans early in the morning. Mr. Lee of course refused to hear this and interpreted Bryn's unwillingness to go out to dinner (involving an hour taxi ride starting at around 11:00pm) as a personal attack! Rather than piss off our boss, who had yet to give us a paycheck or evaluation, Nate and I decided to suck it up and take the night for what it was. . . .a free dinner!
We arrived in Daechidong much later than everyone else as we had our hour commute to take! Mr. Lee was 'waiting' for us the whole time and announced that the party may begin once we arrived. This was clearly not the first time he had made such an announcement however as he was already hard pressed to stand straight and was offering up such threats as "I will drown you in soju," or "if you _________ I will fire you." Dinner was of the bbq style where meat is brought out and cooked right before you on a grill sitting over red hot coals. While this has quickly become my favorite meals in Korea, it is always somewhat less than satisfying as their portions of meat are substantially smaller than what an American is used to!
At one point Mr. Lee insisted we take a break from our meal so that he could talk to all the newest foreign teachers, namely David, Harry, Nate, Daniel and Me. Now Daniel, I don't know if I mentioned him earlier, was a really kinda, albeit eccentric, Mexican American that Nate and I met in San Fransisco as we boarded our plane to Seoul. He has spent a number of years now teaching abroad and seems to have an absurd affinity for picking up languages in that with less than a year in each country he has managed to master Japanese, some Korean, most Chinese, English and Spanish. . .who knows what else he knows as well but I'll tell ya, you never need to repeat anything to him more than once before its burned into his head. . . fascinating!
Anyways, Mr. Lee informed us that he was happy to have all of us on board and that there were two teachers who had been noted as exceptional. . .David and. . . .Daniel. In our defense, it seems a bit biased that the two who speak Korean would be recognized! It's gotta offer some sort of solace and a level of comfort in the classroom if you can actually understand what is going on around you. Still hoping to earn an end of the month bonus, as Mr. Lee said we'd be evaluated for one, Nate and I eagerly inquired into what makes D&D such good teachers. Of course Mr. Lee was unable to offer us anything useful, or really anything for that matter. So, as of now, we are still aware (as the teachers make it known to us and others) of our sub-par teaching ability yet totally in the dark as to how to rectify the situation! Sure seems like if they've worked with 'good' teachers, and we are as bad as they make us out to be, that they'd be able to offer us some sort of advice. . .but alas no, I guess that's just the Korean way!
After finishing dinner, on Mr. Lee's word of course, I was ready to keep eating for another hour, we headed next door to, yep, you guessed it, a norebong. We sung away the rest of the evening with 12 other guys, only two of whom we met (or at least were worth meeting). It appears as though Mr. Lee has some sort of issue with hiring women as there is no shortage of female English teachers in Korea but for some reason DYB seems to have none. . .just an interesting side note. We eventually freed ourselves from Mr. Lee's grasp as he shoved Nate, Harry, Joseph and I in a taxi headed back up towards Junggyedong sometime around four in the morning.
On Wednesday we were approached by Anna who was collecting contributions of 10,000won for Julie's (or Princess') upcoming birthday. When asked what she would like for her birthday, Princess told Anna that she didn't need anything for she was a princess and her life was perfect already, ha! Anna informed us that her real birthday was Friday but that we would be going out together on Thursday to celebrate. . . .why!?!? Still trying to catch up on sleep from Monday's outing we obliged, seeing as how we were promised that the party was to remain within the Junggye area. . .phew!
The next day at work Nate and I were met with a nice surprise. As we have yet to receive our Alien Resident Cards (ARC), because we have not gone in for our Health Check, we have subsequently not been able to open up a bank account. Well, as last week marked the completion of our first month at DYB, we were due for a paycheck that is normally deposited directly into a Korean bank account. Not having one however, we were both presented with an envelope literally stuffed to the brim with cash, as reimbursement for our month of awkward, and seemingly pointless labor. As I checked out our payment receipt, I was surprised to find that only the 3.3% income tax was withheld. This is surprising in that I assumed they would withhold medical despite the fact that we weren't receiving coverage, in which case I was well prepared and willing to argue the fact. No need to however! I was somewhat less surprised to notice that neither Nate nor I received a penny more than we are contractually privileged to. . .no bonus for excellent teaching!
Payday!While it felt great to finally be paid, it felt even better to get a wad of cash a couple inches thick. . .why you ask? Well because the largest denomination of won is a 10,000 bill, a small fraction of our monthly salary. It was rather awkward however when Joseph gave us our pay and then informed us that not only do we make more than he does but he has to pay $700 a month to live in the same building where we are provided housing free of cost (although we do cover the management fee of around 100,000 won/month). This was a little bit sobering but I wasn't going to let it ruin the fun of having an envelope too full of cash to even fit in my pocket!
After work we quickly ran home to stash our wads before returning to school to meet up with the birthday party! Thursday night went rather well for the most part as we began the evening (ha, at 11:00pm) with dinner at Diony's; a restaurant that is directly beneath me on the bottom floor of Dootavill A. Although a free meal is never bad, this was about the most uncomfortable one I could have ever eaten. Nate and I were slammed down in a corner with Cleo and Julia, the rabblerousers at school, and somehow Anna managed to get stuck across from us. Anna was clearly uncomfortable the whole evening, removed from the majority of her friends and forced to interact with the overbearing Cleo who almost refused to acknowledge her presence at times, in a very, very nontraditional Korean manner. Nevertheless it was a terribly awkward experience. . .especially for Nate!
Halfway through dinner everyone was told that we needed to quiet down. No one paid much attention until it was requested a second time and someone looked over to see who the complainers were. Turns out the group of women at the adjacent table had students at DYB, in Nate's class nonetheless. So, Hannah, Nate's Korean Teacher, went over to talk to the mothers and eventually Nate was encouraged to go say 'hello' as well. This was simply a terribly awkward experience as he stood, towering over this woman, trying to communicate anything to no avail. Eventually he realized that the excitement was over and returned to his seat.
Suddenly, everybody ushered him to stand up again as he had forgotten to say 'goodbye' to the student's mother. . .oops. Someone assisted him by whispering the correct Korean into his ear however the words that came out of his mouth were apparently hilariously offensive to everyone around. His subsequent attempts to correct himself only brought on more rounds of laughter and embarrassment from both the mother and our Korean Teachers. Turns out Nate wasn't saying 'goodbye' but something more akin to 'byebye,' an expression used when ushering someone away from you! Oh well, it couldn't have been that misconstrued! We'll see if the student is still in class this upcoming week!
At dinner, Razr, the friendly, and only, male Korean teacher, continued to harp on the idea of forming a band to compete in the inter-branch DYB talent show at the end of the year. With his beautiful voice, David on drums and my self on guitar we concluded that we were a shoe in for the win. Especially with Razr's homemade "DYB" song which as I can remember simply goes "Deeee Yiiiiiii Be, da da da da Deeeee Yiiiii Be." Oh well, I'll give it a go! Roy's bringing my Tele over tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to pick up an amp, either used or from the Nagwon Arcade. . .a gigantic music store that is really just a giant empty office building filled to the brim with vendors of any and all musical supplies!
Nagwon Arcade!We eventually made it out of Diony's and lost about half of our crowd on the way to "round two." Joseph led us to a second dinner in the basement of a nearby officetel that reeked of dead fish. I remember walking in to the restaurant and gagging at how bad the smell is but managed to forget about it after we were brought out aromatic bowls of seaweed soup. . . mmmmm! Round two lasted until we lost a few more of the elementary school teachers and then the remaining party, just over a half a dozen strong, headed back towards Dootavill for Nate's long awaited House Warming Party!
Everyone stayed at Nate's way longer than anyone should have and the majority of guests crawled back to bed just as the sun was rising. Well, everyone except for Joseph who decided to take up residence on Nate's floor, using a bookshelf as a pillow. While this might seem odd, we've talked about Joseph's sleeping arrangements with him before and he seems to find that sleeping on the floor is much better for his back than on a bed. . . .perhaps I should give it a try one night as I consistently wake up in pain from my bed!
Friday at work was quite the day as Nate and I both straggled in only minutes before we are expected to who up at 4:00pm. Soon there after Anna came hurriedly rushing in, looking very distraught. She asked if we had seen Harry and we told her no, not since the night before. She let us know that he was late for work (although work doesn't technically start until 4:30pm) and totally out of contact. The bad news came when she told us that one of us would have to substitute teach his class instead of simply sit around in the Native Room for six hour as we had been doing all week. This I don't quite understand as it would seem to make no sense to take an uninteresting, "boring," less than competent English teacher from one branch to fill in for a missing Native teacher when the Korean teacher could simply handle the duties, presumably much more effectively! I guess that falls in to the realm of Korean mysteries!
Finally Harry did show up to school and Anna told us that we were relived of having to substitute. . .fantastic as I'm not sure either one of us were awake enough to take on such responsibility! Anna also told us that she was very proud of us for coming into work on time and really appreciated that we could stay out late and still show up. . . .We later learned that this comment was not in direct regards to Harry but had something to do with Michelle Teacher showing up late and Joseph, who is supposed to open the office, not showing up until well in to the evening! I guess Nate's floor didn't provide him with all the rest that he needed! While we're not recognized as good teachers, it still feels good to know that we're at least looked at as good employees. . .which for now, is all I feel like I am. . .a white, blond haired pawn in the DYB machine!
Friday night was less than exciting as I eagerly awaited crawling up in bed and falling asleep! After work Nate and I decided to treat ourselves to a meal of at-your-table-bbq, a first for us on our own. We managed to order and get everything going by ourselves too without much help from the waiters! Harry eventually showed up after being balled out by Anna for showing up late (although not really late). He asked if he could join and we ushered him to our table as his broken Korean is sure to offer a better sense of what's going on then Nate and my (maybe) double digit vocabulary!
Harry asked if we wanted some beef and we both eagerly agreed, not having anything that resembled real beef since landing in Korea. . .unless you count a Mega Mac! Although absurdly expensive for the amount of meat we were brought, the two small steaks that we split between the three of us were amazing! Fantastically juicy and cooked just to the right temperature over open coals on a grill that has been covered in garlic and oil. . . .mmmmmm! To accompany our steaks Harry also ordered a dozen or so thinly rolled pieces of beef that looked like pancakes of fat with a chocolate chip of meat in the middle. When dropped on the grill however these little sheets of lard quickly shriveled up to a small piece of beef surrounded by just a think crispy layer of fat. . .and boy were they delectable!
We eventually finished up with dinner and decided to blow a couple hours in the Playstation Bong before heading to bed! Harry came with us to relieve some stress via Tekken 5 for a little while before taking off to meet up with his girlfriend; an unknown, highly mystical creature only referred to as "my girl" and never seen, only spoken of! We finally called it a night around 2:00am (very early for a Korean weekend) and decided to head out adventuring the next day with no particular plans other than a stop at the Nagwon Arcade, to check in on the Korean musical warehouse, spoken of very highly across the internet!
Bring on the weekend adventure. . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment