Drift Reality > South Korea > November 2000

I have just moved into my new place in Chongshinday, and I am happy to say that it is quite nice by Korean, and even by American standards. The room is spacious and it seems as though they lay new linoleum on the floor and the kitchen shelves are new as well. Things have been absolutely up and down in my three months here.

I have just recently gone through a very difficult time, with the passing away of John Daigh, the departure of Robin, and the overload of classes that I have been forced to teach. But the pain has receded as has my schedule and I am in good health. I am currently waiting for the other foreign(we are the foreigners over here) teachers to arrive at my house to drink maekchu(beer) and soju.

Click here to see a video of my new apartment - it's displayed during the second half of the short clip.

I purchased two bottles of champagne and one bottle of jinro wine. Each bottle cost me 2000 won(approximately $2), so I'm afraid that drinking substantial amounts of these liquids is a dubious proposition at best. At any rate, I am happy now and that is good.

Last Thursday, all of the faculty at ECC gathered together at the Hotel Shilla for a celebration. It was pretty interesting. At first, all of the Kindergarden teachers gathered at one end with the middle school teachers on the other. The foreign teachers were all gathered in the middle and I felt as though I was at some strange 5th grade dance.

The Koreans were pretty much keeping to themselves as were the foreign teachers. I found it difficult to try and make conversation with the kindergarden teachers. Then, Jay, Domo's(the owner) right hand man, took about three shots and started singing a horrible song on the kareoke machine. The waiters brough trays of beer and scotch and everything began to liven up.

I sang Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode" in an attempt to get everyone even more riled up and either it worked, or they felt embarrassed for me and decided to make me feel like it was working. Either way, I had a blast.

On another note, I think that I'm beginning to see that other level that my parents always referred to as the "real world." There are some very peculiar politics going on at my school, which I am struggling to come to terms with.

There is this teacher from New Zealand, who has a wonderful sense of humor and who is great with the younger kids. Unfortunately, he will not adhere to the school dress code and insists on wearing t-shirts and blue jeans. He is a great presence though and he always prevents me from getting frustrated with my students.

On the other hand, there is another teacher who is a 45-year-old alcoholic. He chain smokes and he is a lecher. I have already gotten into one confrontation with him when he was very drunk and I felt that I was on the verge of punching him out. He really makes me uncomfortable in the office (mostly because of our confrontation which was honestly his fault because he was intoxicated while at school!).

Although he comes to work drunk, he adheres to the dress code. Also, he is somehow successful and manipulating the supervisors by getting angry with them and complaining. How he does it is beyond me because I think that he is completely void of any charisma or tact. Anyway, last week they fired a teacher. I think you can guess that it was the first one I was talking about. It blows my mind.