Last Weekend in June

I can't believe June has flown by. Now that my time in Korea has passed the "honeymoon" stage, looks like the "homesick" stage is next. Hopefully, with all of your support, you won't let me know too much of what is going on in your lives. It seems to make me miss home a little...so, all I really want to know is how you are and what you have been up to.

Now that I have this blog, I have been making it a point to document things that I observe (on my Itouch) so I can update you all in a more entertaining/speedy way, without forgetting.

In recognition of baseball season, I've come to the observation that many more Koreans know about Seattle that I thought. Well, maybe that's not the case, but I have been seeing a handful (probably around 3) men around the city wearing Mariner's caps. It's quite shocking. Saw a man running down the sidewalk a few weeks ago, a guy at the Lotte Giants game, and a guy on the subway...all sporting the hat. I'm not really sure if they are particularly interested in the Mariner's though. I met a guy at a bar who was wearing a Cleveland Indians cap and I asked him if he liked that baseball team. His response was...."I bought this cap because when I drink, my face gets red, like the Indian." Sooooo...I guess they buy things because its resembles them?

Just a random, pointless thing that I saw while in a taxi...you know those stickers that look like gun shot holes...people put them on their cars.. ya, well, apparently they are in Korea as well. Hmm...maybe they were from Rochester and moved to Korea.

On a different note, I experienced 2 new things this weekend.

Friday, we had a dinner meeting with my teachers. I was a little bummed because, one, this was the first meeting without my friend Alice, and second, we found out Thursday afternoon so a lot of the younger teachers could not make it. I had already made plans so I was debating if I wanted to even go. Now that we don't have volleyball it's strange going to eat after school....we're not celebrating anything. And, guess what my co-teachers (well influenced heavily by the Principal) wanted to go....raw fish (sashimi) of course. By now, all of the teachers know that I'm not a huge seafood fan. As the side dishes were coming out, if they seemed more western, Brandon (4-2 teacher) would slide them in front of me. The evening progressed and the soju and beer were being poured..(OH MY GOSH I JUST DELETED EVERYTHING I JUST WROTE, THANK YOU FOR THE UNDO BUTTON)...sorry, I was asked if I wanted to try the RAW FISH. I said, "on ee yo"...no thanks. But then I got to thinking...I should just try it. I eat it cooked. So yes, my friends and family, Jin tried raw fish, three pieces on separate occasions, dipped HEAVILY into a mixture of soy sauce and wasabi and wrapped up in a leaf. My lovely co-workers were more than willing to pour me a few more glasses of "meck ju" to watch me down some "Korean tradional" food. My evening concluded with my Principal asking me to rate all of the men according to....how good of a man they were..haha. Oops, I forgot to put my Principal first..they got a nice laugh out of that. Oh how I appreciate and love those akward moments with my school...

On Saturday, my fellow foreign neighbors and I were invited to our "Den Mother's" baby's first birthday. Little Eu Joon turned one and it's a very very big deal in the Korean culture. First birthdays are huge here. She rented out a room at the W Party, which is a huge wedding banquet hall with tons of rooms and a huge buffet that the whole place eats from. They had everything you could think of eating. We tried to sit at a table where we wouldn't stand out too much. It was me, my friend Diana (Korean Canadian) and Christine (the only white girl)... They offered free booze so we were happy we were seated away from the crowd. YeJin (my Den Mother) and Kevin (my tutoring student) were dressed up in traditional Korean clothing and so was little baby Eu Joon. They looked so nice. We were asked to choose an item that we predicted the baby would choose as his future career. He sits on this little throne with all these items in front of him and he picks an item that they claim will be his future. He chose a computer mouse, but I thought he'd go for the ball. They also had this CRAZY MC. She was dancing and singing and running around screaming. It was definitely an experience I won't forget!




Ahh..June. Can't believe you've come and gone.