Drunk and Still Sober

We had some more Korean team building yesterday. This time in the guise of saying farewell to Sean, our co-teacher, who is heading back to Canada because his contract is over. Sean is going back to spend more time with his father who is dying of cancer. I always feel as though I should say something to him but I never quite find the words. And really, what is there to say? My cat had cancer but saying anything about that would just be ridiculous. How can I compare my loss with his disaster?

Needless to say we were trying pretty hard to have a good time last night. Sean seems to be pretty resigned about it but the rest of us aren't so well adjusted.

So we talked a little, the Korean teachers made fun of the men's eating habits (namely that they didn't eat enough) and Susan tried to get me to eat pig's liver (not a chance in hell). We talked a little about the whole North Korea and South Korea being on the edge of war thing and how three of North Korea's submarines are missing. Lynn was speaking quickly and gesturing at us which William said was her complaining that it didn't matter to us because we could just hop on a plane and go home. Which is true, I suppose, but we're still here now.

We drank a lot of makali which is a rice alcohol with milk or yogurt mixed in. It has the uncanny ability to turn my face bright red. This time I wasn't sitting next to Rachel and thus wasn't required to keep up with her in the makali drinking department. That was Sean's job this time.

We tried to talk about the new foreign teacher but it was like it was a national secret or something. We couldn't get a name or an age out of Debbie. All we could get was that it was a he and he would be getting here Saturday, starting on Monday (more time than I got). After being pressed we found out that he is from 'your country'.

It was pretty sober evening in general, with war and death on everyone's mind no matter how much makali was consumed.

ON SHOT ONE KILL

More team building took place tonight. I got the impression that they had such a good time at the impromptu dinner the other night that they decided to arrange a potluck with all the teachers.

I made tacos! And they were a big hit; everyone took some home with them. The other English teachers made Caesar salad, pasta and red sauce, brownies. The Korean teachers brought it various Korean dishes - the names of which I know not. We had the same pork wraps there were the last time and this weird salad-type thing that had everything in it. And I mean everything. There were: grapes, shrimp, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, red peppers, corn, apples and some other things I could not identify all in a creamy yogurt-like sauce. Debbie made these things that tasted like potato pancakes but had no actual potatoes in it.

Rachel was drinking again - she seems to be the office lush - but shes a funny drunk so its okay. After about a bottle of the rice wine we were drinking she started treating the little dixie cups we were drinking out of like shot glasses. Lynn, another Korean teacher, was not helping anything by yelling "ONE SHOT ONE KILL!" at Rachel every time she got another cup. This, by the way, is my new favorite saying.

The best part of the evening was when we were all full and just trying new combinations of foods. Jonathan had brought sour cream for the tacos and Rachel put a LOT on her taco. So, in order to... I don't know, spread the taste around? she put, on top of that, some pasta and some red sauce in the taco shell. Then the other Korean teachers, liking the taste of the sour cream, started putting it on the corn bread. The Americans at the table were all shaking their heads, telling them not to try it, and were all completely disgusted when they ate it. Christina, a Korean teacher, then put the sour cream on a brownie. I actually tried it and it wasn't so bad.

Jonathan was thoroughly repulsed by this but was not about to be out sour creamed by a girl (especially after the other teachers had said, in Korean, that he wasn't manly because he wouldn't drink and didn't eat very much).

So he got one of the fried potato pancake-like things in his hand and asked for the sour cream. Because, normally, you have sour cream on potato pancakes. Immediately, all the Korean teachers were shouting at him like they were trying to talk him of a ledge. They were so grossed out by the prospect that many of them refused to watch. The ones who did gave a collective groan as he downed the thing.

Its so weird how taste buds are so different from culture to culture.

Something I really like about Koreans is that they are not self-conscious when they eat. They just shove food in their mouths as gracelessly as they want and no one judges. They really liked tacos.

By the end we were so full I felt like I could have rolled home.

Korean Team Building

So I had my first taste of Korean team building today which actually involves a lot of alcohol. I was one of the last teachers to leave and was invited along with some of my Korean co-workers and Jonathan to eat dinner before I left.

Mr. Kim, the owner of the school had cooked some sort of pork dish with some ramen and set it up in one of the classrooms. It ended up being me, Jonathan, Rachel, Debbie (who is our go-to-girl because she speaks the best English) and Mr. and Mrs. Kim.

We were told to wrap the pork (which was really greasy and fatty) in these leaves which we were told were sesame leaves. Add in some pepper paste, some chillies and garlic cloves and stuff the whole mess in your mouth. This was all accompanied by two rather large bottles of rice wine. It was actually a lot of fun seeing them when we weren't all working though I couldn't really speak to the Kims because they barely speak English (ironic, no?). Debbie was telling us about the food and the way Korean people think about food.

Warm food is supposed to be better for your digestion because it is closer to the temperature of your body and thus helps your body be at peak performance. Therefore there is very few foods that Koreans eat that is cold. I can't really think of any other than kimchi. The rice wine they were serving was supposed to be good for your digestion, like yogurt, and kind of had some sludgy stuff at the bottom.

We were all drinking, but Rachel seemed most affected by it. She kept on starting a sentence in English and then finishing it in Korean like she didn't have the mental fortitude at the moment to think of words in English. At one point she was trying very hard to convey something to us (this was after she made me promise to call her 'older sister') and kept staring with "I..." and then trailing off.
"I.. I am.. I.." and she waved her hands in the air like she could catch the word if she just tried hard enough. finally, she turned to Debbie and said something. Debbie turns back to her with an amused look on her face and enunciates clearly: "Drunk." Rachel turned to us and nodded solemnly.

Whoever thought a ropes course would be better than this has clearly never been to Korea.