So many things have happened in the 3.5 months that I have last written. I do not notice the stares that Koreans give me when walking down the street, I'm so used to it at this point. Work has gotten less stressful but it is repetitive. My students know me and I know them, I love them and they are all such cute little people. And above all, I have made several wonderful friends!
I took Korean language classes from the first of October until the end of December on Mondays from 10:30am until 12. Hangul aka the Korean alphabet was easy to learn but I didn't try that hard to learn anything more than that. I know, I know. What a horrible expat I am. But I met some pretty cool cats in that class which was nice because it helped me branch out from just hanging out with the teachers that I work with.
As far as adventures go, I haven't had many. I last traveled/explored traveled in October to see the Busan Fireworks Festival. Roads and beaches packed with rude Korean bodies all pressing against me and craning to see over my head. Koreans do not have bubbles, the concept of personal space is not known here. People will bump into you if they are in a hurry, people will wedge themselves into a bus or subway that way they don't have to wait five minutes, etc. I usually do not have a problem with it but that festival night, ack!!!! There were thousands of people in the second largest city in Korea all cramming together onto one beach to watch giant fireworks. I count my blessings that I am a giant and that I could at least see/breath. My friend Julie was not as fortunate and just grabbed a hold of my backpack and was dragged through the throngs of people.
Halloween was indeed a celebration. It was on a Sunday but our school asked the teachers to dress up to teach at 9am and have the students trick or treat at the end of class. I dressed as a Fairy for school and just wore a black shirt with my green, black, and white tutu along with white wings. Other teachers dressed as a gym teacher, Korean school girls, a devil, and a cat.
That evening we went out and I added a shirt covered in Soju labels to the costume. Soju is a very cheap and potent rice liquor that is similar to vodka. I crafted a soju bottle wand and my outfit was complete! My fellow teachers and I went downtown and hung out at all the foreigner establishments and ended up in a club towards the end of the night.
As the soju fairy, I had a lot of soju in my bag that I was distributing to all the good ghouls and goblins of Daegu. Unfortunately I had a bit too much of the potent goodness and turned into the roaming fairy aka I ditched my friends at the club and searched for more adventure. I ended up finding Harry Potter and my boring/non-costumed pal Cliff on the streets and we ended up at Burger King. After a nap in the cab on the way home and telling him the wrong street to drop me off, the Soju Fairy was seen bounding through the streets of Siji at 4am in search of her home.
To Be Continued.....
