Settling In

Hello my peoples (anyung haseyo),
So, what's new? The last two days here have been unbearably hot. I now know why I never moved to the east coast. No offense east siders, but how can you stand the humidity? After walking down the street for five minutes yesterday, I was literally dripping wet. I guess it's a good thing that we were using the sauna regularly at the Islay house before I left; I feel like I got a good chance to get my feet wet (sorry, ridiculously bad pun).

Anyway, aside from weather, we've been acclimating ourselves to Korean culture as much as possible. Even at home we sit on the floor and eat from a low table with chop sticks, which by the way have become my eating utensils of choice. Sianara fork and knife. I know, you're thinking how can you eat without a knife, right? They use scissors here, standard around the house type scissors. Hopefully they're not really just from around the house. Bulgogi is probably my favorite food here. Its Korean BBQ. They serve usually beef or pork to you raw, and you cook it at a grill on your table. Being very white and western looking, it never fails that the server comes over and tries to motherly prepare our food for us. And, it also never fails that Ash politely shoos them away, then tires of turning and tells me to monitor the food. Which I never do, so they always come back. We're getting the hang of it though, to the delight of our favorite restaurants only server. He likes us anyway though because we watch 'LOST,' currently Korea's favorite American TV show. I try to get Ashley to eat bulgogi (without much effort needed) at least twice a week.

We've also discovered that we have a very serious love/hate relationship with Soju. Soju is a Korean vodka style alcohol--made from sweet potatoes--that you drink like sake, shoot it or put it in your beer. I thought it was a lot like sake at first but oh was I wrong. Even though its 40 proof (like madori and other girly drinks), this stuff kicks your ass. We tried it once, our first time, by choice and it wasn't so bad. Every time after that we've only had it by force while out to dinner with our bosses. It's rude to turn down a Korean's toast (both of us, being of Irish descent, whole heartily understand), therefore we never do. At first, you're like "whatever this stuff is weak" (yes, in those words exactly), but after about four cars down the track and a couple of small glasses of Hite (great Korean beer) things start to get really exciting: faces go red, conversation gets louder, silliness ensues, and karaoke suggestions flutter through the air. Koreans take shots of Soju in cars. Each shot is one car of a train and the longer your train is the cooler you are. The couple times that I've ridden the train I don't remember visiting the caboose, so I try not to go all aboard too often. However, tonight we are going to a Korean night club with work, so pray for me. Our bosses love to take us out and I haven't figured out if it is a good or bad thing yet...

So, that's that, but it only takes up a very small piece of the kim chi pie. I spend most of my time working or sitting at work writing to you people. Work is kind of heavy right now because I have to do a lot of lesson planning. That should mellow out next quarter though because I'll have done most of it, if they don't change the books, and I'll be much more broken in, you know, properly whipped and bridled. The kids are good. Half of my student are the equivalent of our fourth and fifth grade students. The other half are seventh thru ninth grade age, and they are just as difficult as at home. At least I'm not a substitute anymore, put in place merely as a dummy for the amusement of publicly educated children. I can actually make threats that hold some weight. They're good though. I really don't have any complaints.

The rest of my time is spent training to be a ninja, as per usual. There is a ninja training park behind my house and the newest element of my training is badminton. It would be a grave understatement to say that badminton is taken seriously here. I plan to hone my quick twitch muscles on the court and maybe someday take on the north Koreans, hopefully restoring the unity of the Korean people. Come on, you have to set the bar high. I also play a game that is a combination of soccer and volleyball. It's really cool. Same rules as volleyball except you use your feet and the ball can bounce once per touch. Basically, its the only way that you could play soccer and volleyball at the same time. They have basketball courts and normal volleyball courts as well. They also have a training circuit along a running path that encircles the park. The path is about a 1/3 of a mile so my typical run is about six laps. I know, but it is really hot here right now. When it gets cooler we'll be running farther. We're also going to join the gym above our work when we get our first paychecks. Then we'll be adding weight training and yoga to the routine.

So, all in all, life here is a lot like home here, just on the other side of the world. I daily miss everyone, but only in that good loving way, not the sad and depressed way. I hope that life is going well for all of you(but only if you read this far, the rest of you can...). Don't be hesitant to write back. I have plenty of time to read ranting; it will actually probably curb my own. So, do everyone else a favor and send me something to read.
Cheers