The Korean word for, "Is it delicious?"
That was one word I heard a lot from Thursday afternoon to Friday evening.
It was my school's anniversary, or as the Korean's translate it, the school's birthday.
Another sweet thing about working in the Korean public schools is that on top of the federal holidays, of which there are 13 a year, each school has a set of five floating holidays. One of those floating holidays is the school's anniversary.
So on the anniversary of your school opening its door, you get a day off. Pretty sweet, huh?
What was also cool, was my school organized a trip for the teachers to Suanbo, which means "hot springs" in Korean.
About 2 and a half hours to the south of Seoul, we went hiking through a historical forest that dates back to the 14th Century, sang karaoke and danced at a night club, saw a historic temple and the ruins of one of Korea's palace.
Throughout the entire trip though, my Korean colleagues were impressed with the most mundane things I did. "You use chopsticks very well."
"You are a very strong drinker."
"You walk so fast."
It was cute the way they were amazed that a white man can do all these things. I felt like doing the same to them, but why cut off the reflective glory in which I could bask.
My colleagues are very cool though, because for 24 hours any time someone poured a bottle, bought a snack or sat down for a meal, they would wave me over to give me some of whatever they had and then ask me, "Majusaeyo?"
Some of the food sucked, but they looked so cute and invested in what I would eat, I didn't have the heart to tell them I thought it tasted like a bland mush.
Now I'm a pretty decent guy and I'm downright tolerant to some degree, but for a solid 24 hours I was accosted by Koreans with food, all of them asking me, "Is it delicious?" It got old toward the end of the trip.
Plus it was 24 hours in the wilderness, doing hikes and being amongst nature. Which is nice for about 24 hours, but then I tire of the cheap showiness of nature.
By Friday evening I needed my beautiful concrete jungle, with people who don't give a damn whether I think something is delicious.
4 comments:
I amaze people, too. Do you ever ask people if they can use a knife and fork? Apparently it's harder than we thought.
I've hit a point where I've stopped pretending to be nice to certain people, because let's face it: Chinese food neither healthy nor the best tasting in the world. I ate pig intestines yesterday, and I must say, there are better parts of the swine. And given that millions of pigs are dying down south, I might have to go kosher for a bit.
Korean food never really knocked my socks off either, except for BBQ and dak galbi (however the hell you spell that). The rest is in no way delicious.
You're back! Finally got around to checking and noticed your fingers are working again. What exactly have you been doing with those fingers? You may already know this but part of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed in Palmdale. We thought that might be why they named it "At World's End". And if that was the case we couldn't figure out why they didn't film it in Lancaster. BTW, I love animals.....they're delicious.
"but then I tire of the cheap showiness of nature."
AWESOME!!
All I know, is that you are delicious baby doll!
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