Drift Reality > South Korea > August 2000

Well, I've been here for almost two and a half week and things are starting to fall into place. I think that I've become familiar with the area that is surrounding my school. I know how to get to the cyber cafe (one of about a mllion here), and I know how to get to KFC. Someone recently told me that they put GHB in the fried chicken here because it is somewhat addictive and you will want to keep eating it, over and over. I found this information to be somewhat disturbing, especially because I felt a weird tingling sensation in my stomach for three hours after I ate at KFC last night and I couldn't fall asleep because of it.

I think that I've gone from one extreme (being super friendly to the kids), to another extreme (being a tyrant to the kids), and now I'm beginning to find a comfortable middle ground where I'm friendly, but I am also strict when they screw around too much. Actually, I've found an alternative to making them stand in the corner. I now make them do five push-ups whenever they screw around. Some of them really enjoy it, but in general it is surprisingly effective as a deterrent. There have been some interesting developments at the school.

First, I've found out that Korean kids can't say the word kitchen. Instead, they say "chicken." Mother is in the "chicken." Or, they eat in the "chicken." I've begun to accept this as a correct answer because it is amusing.

This small girl with braids has begun to follow me around and giggle whenever I look at her. I call her my "stalker." She is very persistent and even goes so far as to stand at the window that looks into the teacher's office when I'm sitting there. My colleagues have informed me that this is not abnormal though, and many of them have several "girlfriends." I saw one little eight-year-old girl write "I love you" on one of my buddies' notebooks the other day.

Click here to view a short film on my initial experiences with children at my school.

Since we have been told to teach the kids every day English expressions, I've started teaching them how to say "what's up," "what's up yo," "peace out," and today, I taught them "peace to your Mother" and tried to teach them about Vanilla Ice but it was too hard for them to understand how a white person could rap. Just kidding. I tried one of the students little scooters today and those things are fun. While the students were drawing, I started riding around the room and singing Rod Stewart.

My friend Blake and I went to Itaewon on Tuesday. Itaewon is near central Seoul and it is the location of the US military base. Consequently, it is also home to a lot of cheap clothing stores that sell Abercrombie imitations and hookers. Anyway, I found a great leather store where they have really cool stuff for great prices. They also have several very good tailors where you can buy excellent quality suits for terrific prices. Also, I learned that you can really bargain with these guys because I asked this one old man how much a bag was, he responded with "price is twenty, I give you for fourteen." I responded with "maybe I'll come back later." And he said "No! You buy now, I give you for nine." I walked away quickly because he was starting to annoy me, but he came down more than half the price in a matter of seconds. So hopefully, I'll be able to get some cool gear for cheap.

Anyway, I'm still working on applications and studying for the GRE, so I'm busy. It will be a relief when I'm done with all this stuff so I can start practicing Hapkido. Also, in about a month, I won't have to have morning classes. Anyway, write back and tell me how you are doing.