yesterday...

originally posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006

was an interesting day. i was nervous because of the aforementioned observation of my class (last blog post), but i had prepared relatively thoroughly so it wasn't sposed to matter too much as long as i had time to make copies (alas, i have no copy machine or other means of reproducing paper in my apartment). since i normally show up at 9 and don't have to do anything until 1:50, i thought i would have plenty of time. but no! i immediately was whisked away to palma stadium/auditorium to watch the haeryoungmyun sports dance team compete against other able-bodied hula hoopers. or at least that's what i was told i would be seeing. at any rate, i was still excited about this prospect of witnessing something bizarre in south korea. i get into a car wth some woman from my office who speaks no english, but who likes whitney houston, beyonce (crazy in love, in particular), and people who cover the righteous brothers. we pick up another korean girl named inna. when inna gets in the car and starts talking, i realize, "hey, she speaks fluent english." she grew up in the states and went to ucla. now she's here visiting her grandfather and studying to take her cpa exam. so it was very nice to have someone fluent in korean and english to hang out with. anyway, off to the dance contest. electric boogaloo, korean style.
it was actually some sort of festival (they're big on those here) to promote health among the elderly. and the two main contests were dance and sports dance. so not only was i witness to some arguably scandalous bellydancing by girls who didn't necessarily need to be baring their midriffs, i got to see agimas waltz and quickstep. it was pretty funny. especially when all the teams lined up on the floor--most of them were color-coordinated with track suits or t-shirts. then you see the chicks who were bellydancing wearing these slutty costumes. i just wonder what was going through the collective mind of the other teams participating. i got some video on my phone, but don't know how to transfer that stuff to computer yet. when i figure it out, maybe i'll indulge everyone with some of my home videos. midway through my time at the competition, the teacher of most of the dancers there (some of whom actually were young, virile seeming, good dancers) came and sat next to me. he spoke very good english. he told me about how he had gone to law school and how his father really wanted him to be a lawyer, but all he wanted to do was dance. and i told him "if you feel like you can't live without dancing, only then are you a dancer." and then i said "the only person you need to be is yourself." actually, i didn't say either of those things...
but i didn't actually even get to see my team compete. we had to go eat lunch (some sort of mushed up fish soup that i had to choke down while lying and saying "mashketah") and then i had to go be ogled at by the all male administrative team of my school/office (not everyone i work with is male, but the males seem to be the only ones around when i actually go to the elementary school to teach).
teaching was okay. dude observed the class with 26 kids in it (that's one letter of the alphabet for everyone though). the punisher did his thing and made a kid cry during class. i think his method was that he actually flicked the kid in the head really hard. well, what a good method it was, because that kid actually was sobbing. before i 've just seen them laugh as a reaction, but not this time. at least i didn't make him cry. i did, however, sweat my proverbial balls off and feel incredibly red-faced. once the school peeps knew someone was coming to observe, they all wanted to try it too. but i survived and won't have to endure the red-faced sweating for a while hopefully. i could probably insert something vulgar here (and there too, "insert"...), but i'm going to refrain. i don't know why, i just am.
anyhoo, end of day, my supervisor (who already has been deemed "sort of creepy" by myself and others) decides to ride along with the driver while he takes me home. we get near my apartment, and they say "we want to see your apartment." hello, awkward! but it's one of those situations where i can't say no, because then i'll be seen as rude. so now my creepy-ish boss knows my building and my actual apartment number. both he and the driver seemed confused when they saw my bed. "why do you have two pillows? are you sleeping with another person?" actually, i'm trying to get gang banged every night, and in that situation, 2 pillows are not nearly enough...
then my boss says, "come with me." he tells the driver to drop us off at kim's club (department/grocery store) because he wants to eat dinner. so instead of us all eating dinner together (which i'm fine with. last week the driver got me a bulgogi burger from lotteria because those three words 'bulgogi burger lotteria" are the only things we had in common), dude buys me dinner and says "i'll be back." so i sit there eating this giant vat of clam soup and he's gone for 20 minutes. then he reappears with a bag of groceries, sets them down at my table and takes off in a rush. what the hell? he said "your refrigerator is empty." so yup, whole lotta awkward going on. oh yeah, and then there were the emails--"i think you're a woman sent to me by god" and "one can think of you for hours after seeing you." yikes.
so i guess in summary, i would like to say that yesterday covered a lot of things: korean bellydancing; old people dancing/jump roping to cher, "it's raining men" and "the roof is on fire"; classroom observation; creepy boss and non creepy driver asking to see my apartment; creepy guy buying me gifts that i eat.
hmmm.
today was storytelling day at the miracle library. i just wasn't feeling it. i wasn't too entertaining. even eric carle couldn't help me. seriously, what will i do when i 've read through all his books?