But I finally have some free time (or I am making some) to blog to catch myself up. Last you heard form me I was leaving Jochiwon for our Provincial Orientation. Basically we all went the to the main city of the Province we were assigned to, mine was Jeonbuk, and we had a second, shorter orientation. so the main city on Jeonbuk is Jeonju, where I actually am living, but I'll get more into my living situation later. Provincial orientation was not nearly as much fun as Jochiwon orientation. There were not supplementary activities to keep us occupied at night. But it was also shorter (only about a week) and we got to meet many 5th Generation, and even a couple 4th Talk Scholars, so it was nice to talk to people who had been teaching for at least six months already.
Following this I finally moved into my apartment. I live in Jeonju, but my school is in a small town of Kamgok (감곡) so every weekday I have to take a 45 minute bus ride to my school. but it is ok, because since my classes start at 1:30, I still get to sleep in. So I wake up, get ready, walk to the bus station, buy a ticket and catch the 11:35 bus.
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| That is the bed, blankets, trashcan, ironing board, rice cooker, desk and coat rack I was provided. and my suitcases in the middle. |
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| There's my kitchen and fridge. and a window. |
Well that was my flat when i moved in. as you can see It's not awesome, but I like it. I got really lucky and there are four other Talk Scholars (three 6th and one 5th gen) live in my building, so I never get lonely. From the pictures above, not a lot has changed, except that i put my desk together. The biggest problem is that i don't have a place to hang my clothes. Other scholars had some pipe thing in their room to hang their clothes, but my school didn't provide it, so whenever I wore clothes, nice clothes especially, I had to wake up early and iron them. I also don't have a dryer, but I have a clothes rack, and I actually like letting my clothes air-dry :)
So unlike many other teachers, I did not have to go into school the first week, so I had a couple days to chill out and get used to my apartment/city. as it happened, Richard, a friend from HS that is also a TaLK scholar, also had the first week off. He has an uncle who lives in Seoul, and his uncle had procured him a phone, but Richard had not had a chance to pick it up, so he asked me if I wanted to go to Seoul with him. It wasn't like I was doing anything better so of course I said yes.
Richard had told me that we would stay in a hotel (paid for by his uncle) and we would meet some of his family. he also told me that his uncle owned a couple restaurants so we would go to dinner with him. So I guess he is doing well with his restaurants, because the hotel he got for us was super nice.
So that was our hotel. After we met up with him, we went to dinner (well what i thought was dinner). It was a really nice buffet, so Richard and I decided to eat a lot. Well we actually decided to see who could eat more. Though I am thin, I can eat a lot. This is my eating schedule. little to no breakfast. normal sized lunch. I can eat dinner forever if I have to. or so I thought.
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| This was my first or four or five plates. |
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| Dessert. or course i didn't eat it (chocolate) but I thought it was pretty. |
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another dessert. Yummy!
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At dinner, there was me, Richard, his uncle, and a mutual friend of his uncle and his parents. Anyway, leaving, Richard and I were pretty good on food. and we had also tied for number of plates. We thought that was the end of eating. Apparently not. after this we went to a sake bar and ate ramen. Richard and I were both in shock that we were eating more. it didn't help that we were also getting lots of different kinds anju and I had to try them all. Anju is food you get at bars. but yeah I'll talk about that soon. But alas! The face stuffing was not done yet. after this we went, via Richard's uncle's personal driver, to the actual restaurant he owns. He owns a Korean meat place. I don't quite know how to explain it, so I will show you a couple pictures.
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| You start out with raw meat and you put it on the grill that is at each table |
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| and it ends up like this . you cut it up and you can eat it up. |
There was so much food this night. I felt like I would be full for days. but I was hungry again the next day.
On a side note that I know will be applicable to a future blog post, drinking alcohol is a big part of Korean culture. When Koreans go out to dinner, they drink alcohol. when Koreans hang out with friends, they drink alcohol. drinking has much less of a social stigma than the US, and the US doesn't really have one either. Anyway, this night I didn't feel like drinking much, but it is Korean custom to also never leave someone with an empty glass, so i knew as soon as I finished I would be poured more, so I had to take small sips all night long, or just put the glass to my lips when a toast was proposed (which was often). but yeah. This post is already too long so i'll save the rest of what's happened for the next post
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| Richard's uncle (the master peer-pressurer) and my nearly empty glass. |
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