Disoriented and Delighted

Orientation is over and I'm happy.  I was very sick of being oriented all the time but luckily after all of it I feel much more oriental. HA!  I was going to try to post something during the last stretch of orientation where we were moved to our province but the five star hotel we were put up in didn't have internet in the room.  I'm serious it was a five star hotel and it was on the beach and each person was given there own room which was twice the size of any hotel room I've ever seen.  They forgot to put a bed in it though but everyone makes mistakes and I was content with the mats on the floor.  The last stretch of orienation was fantastic and though the classes were very mundane, we got to spend every night on the beach hanging out.  Dillon, you would love the roman candles here, they are really cheap and shoot a lot more fire balls than US ones.  I got to meet my Korean Scholar who will be co-teaching with me all year and he is quite the character.  His name is Hee-pok and he loves saying funny things.  He initially asked if it was OK to say "for shizzle my nizzle".  He also busted out the term "abso-fucking-lutely" which blew my mind.  Evidently he's a passionate guy who loves snoop dogg ... typical Korean male.  I learned a lot of fun Korean drinking games on the beach and the first night there, a small group of us TaLK scholars joined a bunch of Korean co-workers who were drinking and playing the guitar on the beach.  I really like acoustic songs played sang to in Korean and they even let me play for them.  We also learned my new favorite phrase ... "Sa-rli-go".  Evidently it means something like "don't stop" or "keep it going" and it's really fun to start yelling because everybody starts yelling it too and it's the closest thing I could find to peer pressure here so I felt right back at home.  Here is a list of the fun drinking games I've learned on the beach (all are played while sitting in a big circle of people) ...

1.  Baskin Robins 31 - you are allowed to say up to 3 consecutive numbers and you go around the circle counting and who ever gets stuck with saying 31 loses.

2.  Eat the watermelon - in this game, you have a fun little chant at the start and then you have to pretend to eat a watermelon and you can do a hand action that either sends it to the left, right, or skips the next person.  It's a great way to promote healthy eating.

3.  Catch the Mouse - in this game, you first chant (in Korean of course), "catch the mouse catch the mouse catch catch catch!" and the person who starts yells out how many mice they are going to catch.  After this you go around the circle and people can either yell "miss" or "catch" and once the correct number of mice are caught you yell "CAUGHT THEM!" and the slowest person to do so loses.  Don't worry, the game "mouse trap" is still the most efficient way of catching mice in my opinion.

After all the fun times on the beach it was finally time to head to my final residence, the city of Wonju.  It's the largest city in our province and I am working in a pretty nice school downtown.  I met my Principal, Vice Principal, and Mentor Teacher yesterday and they were all way too nice to me.  Though my Mentor Teacher is the only one who speaks English (and very well), the others seem very nice.  I thought my Principal was impressed that I bowed and said "Anneyong hashimika" (the most formal hello you can give) but my mentor teacher told me he said that I was a very good looking man.  I thought I was the one with the sense of humor but I'll let his joke slide this one time.  After meeting the kind folks, I was taken to my apartment which was much nicer than any place I have ever lived during my college years.  It's a fully furnished studio but it has a seperate storage room and laundry room/balcony.  I'm in a very nice neighborhood but I think I got stared down and yelled at by a group of drunk old men yesterday.  Fortunately the three of them placed on each others shoulders still wouldn't be able to look into my eyes so I just avoided there angry little gazes.  I don't have a whole lot more to report but I will end with one more list ... movies/TV shows from the US they show in Korea.

1.  Eraser - this action packed thrill ride starring California's beloved governer helps Korea learn great catch phrases such as "you're luggage" (Arnold's response to shooting an alligator in the head)

2.  The TV show "Cheaters" - this was probably the most surprising thing to see on TV and I have no idea how they translate the profanity shouted by the person being cheated on into Korean.  I have a feeling that "get out of my house you dirty tramp" doesn't have a direct translation.  "Please exit my place of residence you unclean person who embarks on many physical encounters" might work.

3.  The Rock - I was really happy to watch this movie and I hope if a kid in my class wants an English name he picks Stanley Goodspeed.

4.  Memento - that's just incredibly mean to do to someone who doesn't speak English.  It might take a few go's by a native english speaker to understand what really happens in that movie and how sweet it is, but you can't tease other countries with it.  

5.  Daylight -  Kane, I know you're smiling as you read that.  Yes, I got to watch Daylight in Korea and Stallone does not miss a beat in this academy award nominated movie.  I'm not kidding, Daylight was honestly up for an oscar for best visual effects and rightly so.