Night Out with the Korean Teachers

Date: 11/10/2010

Last week, during lunch, my "brother" Tae-hee and couple of his friends Seung Sik and Min-hee invited me to dinner for next week.  Yesterday I get to school and Seung Sik comes up to me and says, "Maggie?  After school...dinner?  Ok?"  I immediately agree.  In my city school I am very lucky to have teachers in the same decade as me. In my country school, I am the youngest by at least 15 years.

So, after school I wave goodbye to Ms Kim and pile into Tae-hee's car.  We head off to Mr. Pizza.   I've had Mr Pizza ever week that I've been in Korea.  Its good food, don't get me wrong...but I have had more pizza in the last 3 weeks than I've had in the last 3 years.

Last time I was at Mr Pizza I went with a group of foreigners.  This time I went with all Koreans so the experience was very different.  Last time I was dragging because of jetlag, but this time I was with a bunch of people who only spoke a little English.  It was a great time, and I was surprised how much we were actually able to communicate.

There was Min-hee (28), Jae-hee (30), Jeh-hea (she went Singing with me last Friday--I'm going to call her Wisdom because that's the name I call her in my head) (26), Seung sik (30) and Tae-hee (26). 

To say their names it kind of sounds like this:

• Min-hee  sounds like Mindy but instead of a "d" sound use an "h'
• Jae-hee: Jay-He  (Jay as in man's name and HE as in opposite of She.)
• Jeh-hea:  Jew-hay (as in slang for Jewish person, and hay as in straw) But her name is Wisdom.
• Tae-hee: Tae-hee is actualy spelled with a D (not a T) but it sounds like a T to my ears.  So, if you said "day" with a T sound at the beginning + HE (as opposite of she)
• Seung-Sik:  Sung-sick (The incorrect past tense of sang-sung.  And I am sick--cough cough).  Sometimes he was called Seung shi-key.  But I'll just refer to him as Seung Sik.

We went to Mr Pizza and Wisdom enforced an "English Only" talking policy.  Between you and me, I think they were using me to better their English skills, but I'm not complaining.  I got free pizza out of it.   And we laughed alot so they are my friends.

They ate pizza like Koreans--which sounds stupid, but it is very different than Western eating style.  They ordered a salad bar and before our pizza arrived, they got some "side dishes" of mashed sweet potatoes, some cold pasta mixes, a salad, and some individual sized yogurts.  We all shared this part of the meal.  Koreans don't have the same fears about double-dipping so you grab something you want to try on your fork, eat it, try something else, grab it and go on.  You don't really worry about coodies.  I took a couple bites and realized that I probably wouldn't like most of the side dishes offered from the salad bar.

Our pizza came and it was not like American pizza.  We ordered the "Shrimp Gold" pizza, which is kind of like a vegitarian pizza but with two baby shrimp on top of the cheese.  Oh--vegitarian pizza in Korea has corn on it.  That made smile.  The last time I had corn on my pizza was in Japan in 9th grade so it brought back some good memories.  Anyway, Min-hee served everyone a slice of pizza and the Koreans proceeded to use a fork and knife to consume the pizza.  I followed their example.  I don't think Koreans use their hands to eat food--it's probably a cultural thing.  And it's probably very rude to do so.  I noticed that I was the only one who didn't share a drink.  I got coke--because that's familiar.  And I think three people split a coke and the other two split a sprite.  Koreans don't drink (at least, non-alcoholic drinks) during their meal.  Only afterwards.  I was the only one who finished my 16 oz drink, also.

After the pizza was finished, they went back to the salad bar and got some fruit.  Koreans really like fruit as a dessert.  At school they have apples or pineapples as dessert all the time.  I end up eating the fruit in the course of my meal, but I've noticed that the other teachers eat the fruit at the end.  Anyway...the fruit they brought back was...well...it was funny looking.  Its something from Thailand and it has little filiments and fuzzy hair and it was just weird.  You take off the peel (with the fuzzy hair) and inside is a white grape like thing.  It reminded me of brains--only it was smooth--no wrinkles.   Inside the brain-like grape fruit thing was a nut.  I tried this fruit--I'll try anything really once.  But...I will not be going back for seconds.  It was very sour and tart tasting--but in a bad way.  No sweetness. I almost thought they might taste "bad" or "overripe" that's the flavor that was stuck in my mouth.  Not "ma-she-sigh-yo" (delicious in Korean).

After dinner we went and played pocket-ball.  The start showing me how to play pool and asked if I ever have played pocket-ball.  It didn't take a genius to figure out that Koreans call pool pocketball.  I'm not good at pool--I've played around a little on my cousin's pool table, but nothing serious.  But it was fun.  I was paired with Seung Sik and we took down Min-hee, Tae-hee, and Wisdom.  Won 3/5. It was fun, and I'd love to go play again.

McDonalds, in hotels, on the street--in fact, the family I was homestaying with, the girl my age took me to the park and she light up. She was maybe 15.  It just is a very strong thing in Japan.  So I was preparing myself for that when I came to Korea.  It has not been that way.  Yes, there have been people smoking, and there's a smoking room in our school, but it is at a much less quantity than Japan.  It is probably par with home, where there is a huge push to outlaw smoking in restaurants and such.  I've walked behind a could people on the sidewalks smoking, but really, it hasn't been that bad.  Which is a giant relief. 

After that, Tae-hee took me home.  It was a really good night.  Once I got home, I skyped with my parents and a friend from here.  I am sooooo glad that I live in this day and age. Technology is my friend and it makes everything so much better/easier to live abroad. I'm also glad that I picked a country that is developed and modern so that I can have skype conversations.  It is good.