This first entry will be brief, but nevertheless engaging. Maybe not.

Pardon impending grammatical errors, I just had my induction dinner with my boss--and for those who are not aware, drinking soju (which is a Korean rice vodka that tops out at about 30 percent alcohol) is a cultural mandate. I was invited by my supervisor to dinner tonight. Long story short, I'm still not eating any non-seafood meat and when I was asked what I wanted to eat tonight, pork or beef, I respectfully told them that I'd prefer seafood. This was a bit of a faux pas, but we ended up going to this traditional seafood restaurant and it was delicious.

We sat on the floor, legs crossed and I was asked a lot of questions about this Korean pitcher for the Padres. Apparently, Major League Baseball is huge in Korea. One thing that I've noticed that everything in Korea is communal. Koreans have public bathhouses (No, this isn't in the red light district and there's no funny business that goes on there. It's really just a bunch of naked dudes in hot tubs and saunas. I convinced myself that it was an obligatory cultural experience and I went. Honestly, I wasn't a big fan. The water was relaxing; I especially liked the ginseng bath, but I couldn't get over the awkwardness of mass male nudity. I don't know if I'll go back.); also, Koreans almost entirely eat communal or "family style" food. And there are all of the unspoken rules about eating that establish the hierarchy of the table. For example, when an elder pours a subordinate (me) a shot of soju, the younger bows and holds the glass with two hands. Then, in turn, the younger pours the elder a glass of soju. The elder outstretches his glass with one hand and the younger pours with two hands. When you want the other person to stop pouring, you utter "com-sam-nee-dah", which means "thank you."



I was pretty jet-lagged when I got here, but now that it’s Monday and I’ve seen my apartment, I feel significantly better. Oh! Another thing that I found culturally different here—Korean men are very affectionate. I don’t really mind because I, myself, am a fairly tactile person and if I can establish any connection of solidarity with people that don’t speak my language, I’m all for it.

Also, the music and fashion is fairly retro. Boy bands are huge here and also, girl groups. Specifically, the band, Big Bang. Haha.

To an outsider, they seem like a Korean brand of N’Sync/Backstreet ridiculous, but the kids here are obsessed with them. Young, old, boy, girl—the students want to dress like them (although, my kids don’t show this mislead fashion zealousness because they wear uniforms to school), talk like them, walk like them, and feel romance like them. But oddly, no matter how ridiculous this seems to me now, I can’t help but think how much of a media consumptive tool I used to be at that age. My mom said to me that kids are kids and it doesn’t matter what their nationality, they behave the same way. I didn’t believe her before coming here, but now I think she might be right.

I went out with the vice principal, English and fine art teachers last night and it was a blast. I can’t remember the last time my employer fed me and bought me drinks. I didn’t understand completely what they were saying—in fact, nothing at all, really—but everyone seemed to be really happy to meet me and to work with me. It’s funny, I’ve only been here two days and I’m starting to think in Konglish. (Konglish is Korean English. Basically, just put "ee" on the end of words that end with consonants and "u" between syllables that have consonants back to back. For example, the word "subject" would be "sub-u-jet-ee." It's really indiscernable when you first hear it, but after a while you get the hang of it.)