More Korea

So im not sure if I mentioned in my last entry that i teach at a christian high school. When Joseph first told me that i was teaching at a christian high school when i arrived i was a little worried.. but its not nearly as bad as i was fearing it could be. I think i mentioned that there is a HUGE drinking culture in Korea, but not as much at my school.. which i guess means that i wont be getting wasted and going to nori bangs (ill get into more about those later) with my co workers like some other english teachers but whatever. There is a short prayer every morning before school starts.. but i dont have to participate so it doesnt really bother me. My coworkers being christian (and some pretty devout christians) has led to some interesting conversations.. I am the first jew that any have them have ever met and it seems like in Korea there arent the same taboos surrounding topics like religion that there are in America. At lunch a few weeks ago this other teacher (who seems to have taken a particular liking to me) sits down and starts to ask me what i think about... jesus! WTF?! I dont want to offend him so i try and explain that in Judiasm jesus is not the messiah but is just a respected teacher.. and so then he goes on to ask me what i think about the coming of the messiah! Not quite discussing fantasy sports (which i would much prefer!!!) .. so i go on and try to explain about doing mitsvahs and stuff.. overall REALLY hard to explain because 1. Not a topic ive honestly given much thought.. 2. I have an pretty good idea of what judiasm says about it but am not totally sure and 3. he doesnt understand half of the stuff that i am saying! I try and explain things and he just gives me this blank stare and Joseph has to translate. And then he tries to reply in this broken english that makes no sense.. and i dont wanna be talking about this stuff over lunch anyway! The conversation ended with the other teacher mumbling something about some scientist recently proving (or not proving.. i couldnt understand!) that god created the universe and hes like 'what do you think about that?' and i was just like 'uuhhh.. tough question.. i dunno.' And thus endith my lunchtime theology discussion.
But Joseph and some other teachers have asked me some other questions about Judiasm that have kinda caught me off guard.. cause most of the time they come out of no where and would otherwise be kinda offensive haaha. Like the other day i was driving with joseph and out of the blue he asks me if its true that even though the jews are small in number.. they control the government! And control hollywood! Im like.. uhhh not quite. And then hes like but isnt Steven Spielberg and Larry King jewish? haaha So i tell him yes.. but that doesnt mean jews control hollywood!  Its funny cause he asks these questions so nonchalantly, and he really is just honestly curios but they're just questions that im not quite expecting!! Also, I was showing him a picture of Dori the other day and he asks me if she is jewish.. and i say yes.. and he looks at me confused and says something like 'but she has blond hair' haaaaa So i go on and explain that not ALL jews have dark features.. and that some stereotypes about jews, while maybe having SOME truth to them.. are never a rule and are often exaggerated (like all stereotypes). I think its kinda cool being the first jew that all of these Koreans have met.. i like dispelling the stereotypes that they have and teaching about my culture.
Annnyyywwaayyy last weekend me and some friends went to a nori bang (or however its spelled) which is a karaoke room. Koreans LOVE THAT SHIT! Im beginning to understand why.. we had all drank a bunch before we went in.. and we of course brought like 5 bottles of soju with us and drank and sang our hearts out until like 4AM. With everyones lowered inhibitions it was a pretty fun and hysterical time. Here's a pic of me and Kimball rocking out!
So what else.. I got my hair cut the other day! That shit was AWESOME! I was kinda skeptical of getting it cut in this place where i was sure no one would understand me.. but i brought in a picture of me with the haircut i was hoping for.. and kinda mimed a buzzing motion while pointing at the hair buzzer thing and she got the idea. Its funny how practiced i am getting at trying to explain myself without talking :). Anyway, the hair cut was amazing! No one has ever paid so much attention to detail on a buzz before and it was just great. So she buzzed it and trimmed ANY stray hairs.. and made sure it was even like 10 times.. and shampood it.. massaged it... and blow dried it.. it felt like it was a $30 haircut from some fancy salon and turned out great! And.. the best part.. it was less than 8 dollars! Im gonna get my hair cut like every 2 weeks.. i LOVE when they shampoo and massage my head and ill keep my shit fresh! I love how cheap this place is! All the students loved my haircut by the way.. all day i kept getting 'ooooo teacha nate! Hair cut! so good!' haaha teaching here is SUCH a confidence boost :) Another funny thing that happened in school the other day was a group of girl students came up to me and were giggling and when i said hello they put their hands over their face (koreans get shy easily haaha) and then one of them reached out her hand and gave me a handful of some korean chips.. and then they ran away giggling haahah. I feel like there is something that i just have to laugh at that happens every single day.
The other day me and Kimball checked out the fortress in Suwon. Again, not sure if i mentioned this but Suwon used to be a walled city.. it has since expanded a lot but the wall is still here. And there is some cool stuff inside the fortress too. So me and kimball went to check it out last saturday.. which also happened to be yom kippur so i was fasting.. which didnt make the hike up the walls and all the walking around easy! But it was fine.. the fortress was pretty cool.. it all felt SO asian (which i guess it to be expected). Some parts felt like i was in crouching tiger hidden dragon haaha Here are some pics:  

So yah.. that was pretty cool. Even though i got to be pretty starving by the end it was sweet. After exploring the walls/fortress me and kimball got some Korean fried chicken!! Such a traditional break fast! Surprisingly.. they LOVE that here.. We went to this restaurant that Kimballs co teacher took him too and it was hysterical.. one of like 5 other very similar fried chicken places all in a row.. one thing i am learning about Korea is they LOVE to have the same stuff in the same place.. fried chicken, cell phones, clothes.. so yah it was a cool afternoon of exploring.

Other things i am realizing about being here is that things that you THINK would be very simply.. rarely are.. like seeing a movie. So me and kimball first tried to catch a movie after the fortress and fried chicken. We went to the theater and THOUGHT we bought tickets for the 10ish show that we told them.. well we get to the theater and it turns out that she gave us the wrong ticket.. then we go and try and talk to her and get it corrected and it turns out the movie we thought we wanted to see wasnt even in english! So then we just decided to try and return the tickets.. BAD IDEA! We tried to explain we wanted or money back.. and she SEEMED to understand and we walked away feeling like the charge on the cc would be canceled.. only to see the next day that it wasnt.. shocker. So the next day we thought wed try our luck at another movie.. we thought we were so smart and figured out (with the help of a few friendly koreans) how to purchase the ticket at an automated machine.. we were going to see Despicable Me ( :)@Dori@Melanie ) and we sit down in the theater and are getting excited for it cause that movie is so funny and of course it starts and THEY ARE SPEAKING KOREAN! UUGGGHHH maybe we just werent meant to see a movie! So we get up.. find some korean guy that is working there that speaks a bit of english and he helps us exchange the ticket for the only english movie showing, resident evil, which we were interested in seeing anyway. So then we got dinner and killed a little more time till the movie and FINALLY succeeded in seeing and enjoying the movie in korea! 

Its so funny going out in public here too cause it seems like everywhere i go, me or someone i am with gets recognized by one of their students.. or gets attention just for being american. When me and kimball were walking around the fortress, some completely random old korean guy came up to us and started mumbling something in really broken english and wanted to shake our hands.. he actually really wanted to have a conversation, which is difficult because he couldnt understand us/we couldnt understand him, so after shaking hands we continued walking.. but this guy was SO excited to see/touch us! And Kimball ran into some students the other day who giggled and were like 'hello! nice to meet you' Which is funny cause these korean kids ALWAYS say 'nice to meet you'.. i dont think they understand that nice to meet you DOES NOT = hello. And we were in the elevator the other day with a student of mine and she says hello.. and i try and make small talk a little and she gets so shy and covers her face with her hands and giggled.. which was pretty funny cause we still had another minute left in the elevator together. Another one of the many random little funny things that happen here every day.

Then i only had school on monday and now am on break for the week! Im going to the Korean island of Jeju tomorrow and im really excited! Its like the Korean Hawaii! And then next week i only have two days of school before this orientation thing.. and then i get back and its already october 4th! WOW! AND the NBA preseason starts then!! CANT WAIT! Also, my fantasy football teams went 1-1 this week.. watup CP/pollock!! Vikings get your shit together!! AND GO TWINS!!!! Im meeting up with a bunch of people from wisco tonight for dinner/drinks/maybe go out in Suwon tonight which will be fun.. And yah.. i guess thats it for now. THANKS FOR READING!