April 4 Saturday
I'm going to Japan on Wednesday. I leave on Wednesday morning and I'll be back on Thursday night. I'll only be there one night. I won't get to see much. I'll take lots of pictures. They have to find someone to take my place while I'm absent. They asked me if I knew of anyone who could teach for me. I told them I didn't know anyone. Everyone that I know teaches at night. And I don't know that many people either. I have to meet with MK on Monday. He's going to tell me everything I need to know about the trip.
Last night I went out to eat with one of the Korean teachers. One of the other Korean teachers that I met on Thursday came with us. We went to a restaurant called "Cowboy".haha.We had chicken. It was like rotisseree chicken. I liked it. The restaurant was like a tent that was fully enclosed. There was no floor. The ground was the floor. It reminded me of a setup like you would have at a festival or something. There was a roll of toilet paper on each table. That was your napkins. I liked the place. Its something totally different from what I'm used to. One of the men that worked there was happy to see me. He was saying all kinds of things in Korean. Then the Korean teacher said he thought that he knew me. He thought I had been there before.haha. Nope it was my first time. He showed us his cowboy hats. He had one that was made of pig leather. He showed us that it was too small for him. There was a picture of him wearing the hat in a picture, but now the hat is too small. I guess his head grew bigger. The Korean teachers wanted me to take the leftovers home since I live alone and don't have anyone to cook for me. They both live with their family. We each paid $8,000 won for the meal. (about $6 usd)
The Korean teacher from my school drove us to the restuarant. On the way home we stopped for gas. It was 1327 for the lowest price gas. They pay by the liter. So 1327 is about $1. There are 4 liters in a gallon. So there gas is nearly $4 a gallon. expensive. She asked me about gas prices in the USA. I told her that gas was in the $2 range when I left the USA, but I told her how it was almost up to $4 not too long ago.She dropped me off in front of my officetel.
Then I went to my room and decided I wanted a coke. wow. I kinda wish I hadn't! I got on the elevator and there was another person on the elevator that got off at the same floor as me. It was a Korean guy. He knows very little English. It was around midnight. He said hello to me and I said hello back. He wanted to come into my officetel but I wouldnt let him. He wanted to talk to me so we went into this office thats right next door. I met the man who works there. He teaches kids how to play soccer. His office is in the room next to mine. I guess this guy knows that man because he knew the code to the office. So we went there and he had google translation on the computer-I didn't even know google had a translation page. I always just use yahoo babelfish when I'm trying to figure something out. We sat down and tried to communicate using the translation on google. It was very difficult. He couldn't understand me when I would answer. Then he would ask me to type my answer and let the computer translate. That went on for a while. He was upset that I wouldn't invite him to my house for drinks and eating. I tried to explain that I don't invite strangers into my house, especially men. (He said "im an angel. I'm not bad") You never know what a man will try to do to you. I'm just safe and I dont let them into my apartment. I don't think men and women should be alone in a bedroom. Its my own personal moral code. So we just went to the office.(he still kept asking to come to my home but I still said no). He was getting upset that he was having a hard time communicating with me. There was a lot of confusion on both ends. His English wasn't good so he didn't use proper grammer. Verbs were usually left out. Then I kept writing "I dont understand". At one time he was talking about a french kiss. I told him that I didnt want to kiss. he wanted to know why. I said because I don't kiss people that I just met. After much more confusion I found out what he was talking about. He said he watched a movie and when they said goodbye they kissed on the cheek. He kept calling that a "french kiss". I'm glad we cleared that up-I thought he was asking me to give him a french kiss. I told him that we didn't do that in America. Then he said, "but I saw it on a movie." Then I tried to explain that some countries do that but not Americans.
He asked me if I would be his friend. I told him I would be his friend. This should be interesting.
I am always sick. It's too cold and its making me sick. Everytime I think its getting better it gets worse. I have a runny nose and a nonproductive cough. I really hate taking medicine but I should probably get some because I can't get this cough to go away. If I still have it in a week or two then I might just break down and go to the hospital.
I went to bed at 5:37am! And woke up around 3pm.
I had to meet one of the directors for lunch at 6pm. Mk called me at 5:30 and said "i'm waiting on you". He said "where are you". "I'm at my house". Then he says "don't be late". ok whatever. I got there at 5:50 after leaving my house at 5:35.
I went out to eat with Mk,a woman director,another man who works at the school. The director's husband met up with us later. We got off at Anguk station. We walked around Insa Dong for a little while then we decided to eat fried chicken at a place called "Two Two Fried Chicken". It was pretty good. The director doesn't speak very good English so Mk kept asking me to talk slow. Its hard to really think about talking slow because I'm not used to it.And Mk keeps telling me "ask her a question. don't be shy". The director had a piece of paper with questions she wanted to ask me. The grammar was bad on most of the questions so I corrected it. She had a pen for me to write with. Then she would ask me the question. She wants me to help her with her English. They were asking me if I could recommend a good textbook for someone who wants to learn English. I told them I only know about the books I use in class. I'm not familiar with any other English textbooks. They asked me a lot of questions like do you like Bush, Do you like Obama, Do you like Lincoln, Do you like Clinton, and all sorts of other people. I think the woman wants me to go with her to a club sometime in Hongdae. She's never been to a club in Korea. She was also telling me how she just bought a car 3 days ago and she is poor at driving. They all want to come to my home sometime. And MK wants us to go to a singing room sometime. All he ever talks about is "I want to hear your voice." Yes I am a trained singer, but I don't like singing for other people. Karaoke is fine. I love Karaoke.
I think they want to meet again next week.
While we were at supper I got some text messages. This person messages me all the time. I think its the girl that I met a few weeks ago, but I'm not 100% sure. I didn't give her my number. I showed the number to MK and he had that same number in his phone, but he keeps asking me "who is it?" "is it a man or a woman?" I keep asking him "is it that girl I met a few weeks ago?" and he acts like he doesn't know. He even said that the person who texted me called him while we were at dinner, but he doesn't even know who it is.oh my. I'll ask her when I see her again.
No comments:
Post a Comment