Cheesy Sushi

And I'm back! It's Thursday night (Dec 17th) and I've made it through yet another week in Korea. The days/weeks seem to be going by faster now as I become more and more comfortable with my life out here. Yesterday though was kind of a pain. We didn't have to teach (which was nice) but instead we were confined to a small desk with a computer and typed up about 50,000 tests!!! (Not actually... but it felt that way)!! Around 6pm we took an hour off for dinner and my co workers decided to take me for sushi since I had not been yet! Now, I'm not sure if WE (North Americans) are the ones that have it wrong, but don't know any better because our sushi is what we're used to... or if the Koreans have it wrong. You would think that because the Koreans are only a short boat ride over to Japan, that they would have been able to brush up on their sushi making skills. Well I'm not really sure that is the case. Since the menu did not have ANY English on it (which is a clear sign that the waiters/waitresses are not going to converse with you in English either) you pretty much have to choose your favourite picture (or most appealing to you). I really don't know how picky eaters would survive under these circumstances because half the time I literally have NO IDEA what I am putting in my mouth. haha. Anyways, I chose a couple of rolls and hoped for the best. The first roll I ordered was shrimp tempura (I think) but my second roll looked kind of... off. I just COULD NOT figure out what kind of fish (or so i thought) was wrapped around the outside of my roll. It was a light orange color and very thin and flimsy. It actually didn't look like fish at all. Being as daring as I am with food, I decided to go for it and hesitantly put the roll in my mouth. It tasted... alright... but you know when you are expecting to eat something and it is something completely different? Like if you think you are about to gulp a glass of water and it's really vodka? (okay, that's an extreme) buttt the so called "fish" was not fish at all.... they were slices of Kraft singles wrapped around my sushi rolls!!!! That was probably the last thing I was expecting in my sushi. Strange.
Anyways, I noticed something I did today subconsciously which means I have really adapted quickly to Korean culture. As I walked out of the elevator, my Principal was walking in and instead of waving or saying hello, I simply bowed. Of course, he bowed back and that was probably the most trivial part of his day, however it made me realize that I am slowly but surely becoming accustomed to the Asian everyday life. Just thought I would share that with all you.
So today I got a new student... which means a new English name! Almost all of you i speak to from home ask me about my students names so i though I would let you know the next time I need to name a student. It was a girl this time and after thinking for a little while, I thought Matilda would be satisfactory. Reminds me of my childhood (great movie)!
It's funny because as much as I teach, I am also learning a lot about things I probably learned in elementary school but disregarded as I got older, and I am also learning a lot about myself. Before coming here, I really couldn't picture myself being a mean teacher... but I really don't have the patience to deal with annoying shit disturbers (excuse my language). Today one of my students called another girl fat and I immediately kicked him out of the class. When he came back in, he continued to disrupt the class so I made him give me 20 stickers (trust me, that's actually a legitimate punishment) and then made him do 25 push ups in front of the whole class. Look whose laughing now! muahaha.
I have probably mentioned this before but the kids at my school value stickers soo much! The school even made a sticker market once a month where the kids are able to purchase things with their stickers, which is why they try to collect as many as possible (hey, it works)! Anyways, my co worker Ryan was explaining the concept of interest to his class one day (he majored in finance, go figure) and so the next time he had that class, he gave one of his students 2 stickers because he got an answer right. As soon as Ryan handed him the 2 stickers, the kid gave them directly to his friend. Students do not share stickers so Ryan thought that was odd and asked the student why he did this. The student told Ryan that he owes him INTEREST on his stickers. Basically, one student lent the other 10 stickers and then the student had to give him 10 back, as well as 2 more because it had been over a week. haha! These kids are pretty damn smart.
Oh, and how could I forget... it snowed today!! That's right, when I left school around 9pm to walk home, there was some snow on the ground! I mean not even enough to make a snowball out of... but it still felt like it was the holiday season. It was kind of funny though because like i said before, Korean drivers here are NUTS! But today, with it being our first snowfall, drivers were actually OVERLY cautious and drove about 4 mph! I was in shock... there wasn't any ice or even enough snow to make an impact on ones driving, but I guess they are not used to snowy winters because it was actually laughable to see the cars, buses and cabs driving so damn slow! They even stoped at red lights AND i noticed most drivers were wearing their seat belts... typically they are just an accessory.
Well that's all for now. I'm sure I will have more stories after this weekend. Miss you all!

Write more soon.

Signing off,

Gillian