Staff Party and Kevin

Last Friday (8/22) the school hosted a dinner for the staff at a restaurant across the street. There was lots of grilling, garlic, Cass Beer ( the equivalent of Coors) and Soju. Soju is the national drink of Korea. When I went for my health check at the regional clinic earlier that morning the questionnaire simply asked "How many bottles of alcohol (Soju size bottle) do you consume weekly?"

To describe the taste of this beverage take the cheapest brand of vodka you can think of and combine it with Kerosene, voila Soju! Many people drink it along with dinner, lunch, brunch or breakfast along with another drink, often referred to as a chaser. After leaving the restaurant I was greeted by Kevin Burns who had arrived earlier in the week to take a teaching position at Pusan. I was very excited to see him as we have commiserated through the visa and application process together over the past several months. He came with the Poly staff to a Nurebong (group Karaoke) around the corner and the evening resolved itself around 1:30a. The rest of the weekend was proceeded with nauseousness and fever.

Hitting the ground

I have been in Korea for about two weeks and have decided to do what everyone does while living abroad and keep a blog. I am not sure how often it will be updated but you will probably learn more about my experience through this than through a quick e-mail.
To sum up the past two weeks I have traveled to the Northeast Section of South Korea where we swam in the channel between Korea and Japan. It was a last minute trip that I took after having been in Korea for less than 48 hours.
The first hotel we stayed in was comparable to a crackhouse in OTR. Four girls were kicked out of our room that we stayed in the first night, they were moved to another smaller room. Someone mentioned that they may have been prostitutes, but this is still up to question. The second night we packed our bags and headed for a nicer hotel where again we proceded to fit 10 people onto sleeping mats on the floor of a MUCH nicer hotel room. Bugs and prostitutes were not included with the deal we got on the room. Regardless it was alot of fun and compensated for the nauseating weekend I had over 8/23-24 which included stomach nauseation, fever and sinus infection. I didn't leave my bed. If I leave Korea with anything it will be with a built up immune system. Thanks to the outstanding hygeine practices of Korean children and general society.