I was right... and I was wrong.

Let's start with the easy one. I was right Christmas was easier to get through than Thanksgiving. I guess cause all of us expats were working overtime to find some Christmas cheer and my school made sure I never slowed down long enough to really miss home. Last week was super busy with school stuff and then multiple expat things for Christmas. Monday I had a meeting with one of the schools I'm working a winter camp with. It should be interesting. They seemed really friendly and ready to try anything so we'll see how that goes. Tuesday I was invited out to dinner with my school so I made sure to go. We had traditional Korean food, I got lucky and was seated at the end of the table with lots of the younger English teachers so we joked around a bit and they got to practice their English in a less stressful way. Wednesday I taught all day then threw a small party for my after school classes. Chocolate cake and soda.
Christmas Eve evening I went to the EPIK party thrown by the DMOE for all of us Native teachers in Daegu. It was a nice dinner and I know the folks I was with certainly had at it with the red wine that was provided at a very reasonable cost. After that we went to the Forest Cafe a group of us had picked names and done a secret santa. Some how my name got overlooked yet I'd gotten a name to give a gift too. ::shrug:: The person I gave a gift to was someone I would have gotten a Christmas present for anyway.
Christmas Day I spent online talking to my family and friends back in the states. Later I headed downtown to the Holy Grill where we had Christmas dinner. After dinner since we were the last seating we had Christmas trivia. My team came in second thanks to getting confused on which Bond movie had the Bond Girl named Dr. Christmas Jones in it.
Eventually we all headed out into the cold night to get some sleep. Those of us who work for the DMOE had to go back to work in the morning while some of the Uni professors are off for quite a while right now.
Friday was a regular work day except there was a shortened schedule and as soon as the kids were out of the building we all piled in a bus and headed off on retreat to Pohang. On the way we stopped at a temple and took a hike up a mountain.
Then we headed the rest of the way to pohang the principal meet up with us at dinner. She had left instructions with the teacher in charge to order me mandu and something Korean without fish to eat since she's found out I don't eat fish. The rest of the faculty dug into lots of raw fish and I got japche and mandu. I've realized that the principal really wants to make sure I'm happy. I guess I remind her of one of her daughters so she mothers me a lot. I have a feeling that my short 5 minute English lessons at lunch are helping out with the relationships in the school. At dinner, my willingness to be formal and follow the drinking traditions and culture, very quickly won me points with some of the male teachers. Afterwards it was off to the norebang. Everybody had to get up and sing. There was lots of dancing and clapping along that went with it. Eventually we made it to the training center where I'd done my orientation. We got assigned our rooms and had about 10 minutes to relax and I started to think I was done for the evening and the other teacher were also changing into more comfortable pants so I pulled on my flannel pj bottoms. The next thing I knew we were all back down the hall to one of the rooms for late night snacks of dried fish, rice cookies, peanuts, chestnuts, gul, and a rice wine. There was lots of joking around as we all ate and drank more. I was commended on my ability to hold my drink. There were lots of smiling happy faces all around as I took very well to some good natured joking. I also got put on the spot as to which of the make teachers was the most handsome. Thank god I got a few hints from my co teachers as to the right form for answering that question (always say the oldest man present.) I then had to rank the others and I managed to do that with only a little misstep but it was all good when I said that one of the advantages two of the male teachers had was that I interacted with them more so personality and interpersonal knowledge came into play. Eventually we all headed off to our rooms again. I ended up for a while longer talking to the Miss Kims. One of them had found Gone with the Wind on tv and so we talked about how it was set partially in my hometown.
The next morning came way to early. Breakfast was in the cafeteria. I don't think anyone knows that feeling of being on the spot till you have about 80 Koreans stare at you as you try to eat your breakfast with chopsticks, and you're the only foreigner in the place. As we walked out Miss Kim was wondering why everyone was staring at them. I said it wasn't y'all it was me. She has gotten so used to me that she didn't notice I was the only foreigner in the place. That felt really good that I've gotten so accepted.
After a few speeches we piled in the bus and headed north. My co teacher and I had set it up so I got to sit with the 6-3 Miss Kim on the way back to Daegu. So she got to practice her English on the bus with me. She was fine with the joke after I said I was doing it so she would look good to the principal. I'd heard her teased about not speaking enough English and that she should practice with me more. She realized I wasn't being mean I just wanted to help her out. So we chatted up the coast. There were some good laughs the first time she told me we were going to eat gae for lunch. I had kind of looked at her confused... gae? Then she realized she'd told me the Korean word and really we were going to eat crab for lunch. I then got a mini Korean lesson on types of crab. We took a few stops on the way up the coast one at the light house at yeoungdock.
Then at the wind power plant a little further up.
As you can see it was cold and windy up there. Then about 1/2 hour further up we stopped for lunch. I somehow got seated in the room without the English speaking teachers but as always I was well taken care of by all the Korean moms in the room. The principal was impressed when I managed to crack a few joints on the crabs and pull out all the meat from the legs in one piece. It was a good lunch and I was informed I didn't eat enough when I ate 3 1/2 crabs... I was supposed to eat 4 or 5.
After lunch we headed back to Daegu. Where I promptly crashed and slept for 12+ hours.