The Buddhist Washroom

We were at a temple and I asked where the bathroom was. My co-teacher then replied, I don't know if you should use it, it is dangerous for foreigners. She eventually showed me the bathroom and this is what it was. I guess they were afraid I would fall down the whole. It would have been about a one story drop, into a compost of poop.

Out houses like these are only found at buddhist temples.

Nov 17, Teachers Trip

This past weekend was one of the craziest Korean experiences I have had. I
went on an overnight trip with my teachers and it was nuts. I cannot believe
some of the things Korean people do. This weekend makes it on my "top 10
list of things I thought I would never do".

It all began last Friday around 1:30pm. Myself and 30 of my Korean
co-teachers got on a bus that we had rented for the weekend. We began
driving and things were pretty normal. People were reading, listening to
music, normal behavior for a trip with your co-works. At about 2:30pm they
started passing around beer and soju (korean alcohol). So not wanting to be
rude, I began drinking with them.

A few minutes after everyone had started drinking, the head teacher pulled
out a microphone and turned on the T.V. I was told we were going to Karaoke
on the bus.

They really wanted me to sing and I really did not want to, but I knew I had
to. After having a few drinks, I finally got up the nerve to sing to them.
So I began singing and they thought it was hilarious , they could not stop
laughing. It was so embarrassing, but they loved it so that was good. Then
for the next hour they all took turns singing Korean songs and dancing. It
was hilarious , now I could not stop laughing.

After driving for about 2hrs we stopped at a road side stop, this is when
things got even more interesting. They brought a bunch of food and alcohol
off the bus and started to drink and eat more. At first I thought nothing of
it, but then the Head Teacher offered me some dog meat. I told him NO, but
he kept on insisting . It is also very rude to say no to the head teacher.
Well now I had caused a scene. The principal, vice principle and all the top
ranking teachers were watching me refuse the dog meat. This went on for
about 10minutes and finally I broke. I told them I would eat the dog meat.


The head teacher then took a piece of dog meat covered it in hot sauce and
wrapped it in a piece of lettuce. He told me to open my mouth and he shoved
it in. Once it entered my mouth all I could see was flashes of my parents
dog, I thought I was going to be sick. I could not even bring myself to chew
it. Since they were all drunk I was able to spit it out without them
noticing. It was terrible, I felt so sick to my stomach.

After they had all finished their dog meat we got back onto the bus. We then
drove to a cool folk village and went for dinner. After dinner we went to a
Karaoke room and sang and drank until about 12am. We then proceeded to a
nightclub where things became even more interesting.

At the nightclub there were two male and female performers singing and
dancing, nothing to crazy. But the next thing I know they are stripping
together. It was disgusting.

Finally after I saw that, I had enough and I went back to the hotel around
1am. But my Korean co-teachers stayed there until 4am. Even though we had
get up at 6am to go hiking. I could not believe how hardcore they were.

On saturday we went on a hike to a really cool Buddhist temple. Once we
finished the hike we went home.

Well I hope you like my story, don't judge me for eating dog meat.

Halloween

We went to a halloween party this weekend and it was crazy, I went as smurfet and Rich went as the pope.

Anyway, at about 3am we went to a nori bong, which is a singing room. You pay money and rent a room where you can karaoke in. So we did that to about 4:30am and then they finally kicked us out.
So then we went to the mini stop and bought more beer and drank there until about 5:30am. We then decided that instead of going to bed we would just go back to our hotel room, get our stuff and get the bus home. So Krafty, Me and our friend Neal went to the bus station and caught the bus. Neal and Krafty started to drink soju (korean alcohol) straight, I had one sip, but i was done.

The next thing you know Neal is puking out the window and the bus driver pulls over and comes back and is yelling at us in Korean. We are so loaded all we can do is laugh and the bus driver is pissed. It is now about 6:30am. ANyway, he was going to kick us off in the middle of no where, but he did not. We then went to sleep until about 9:00am, I then wake up to Neal telling me he just pissed out the window.

We finally got home about 10am, as we were getting off the bus, the bus driver started swearing at us in Korean. I thought he was going to call the police or something. I felt really bad, but in the end I guess it was funny. Well that is enough with drunk halloween stories.

Random email oct 18

So I guess I will try to describe how life in Korea is. It is hard getting by without knowing the language, but we manage some how.

We live in a three bedroom apartment which is awesome, but it is in the ghetto, we are randomly woken up at 3am to stray dogs barking like crazy. But we like where we live and it is a safe community.

The food here was at first terrible, but we are getting use to it. For example, yesterday I had seaweed and rice for lunch and thought it was good. Another one of Koreans favorite food is Kimchi, which is like sour crout and hot sauce and I hate it. The only problem is they are so offend when a foreigner does not like kimchi so I pretend I like it.

Oct 19, 2006

We are finally starting to settle in and Korea is feeling like home. Things
are starting to become less foreign and scary. We are becoming familiar with
the language and charades, so getting lost in random places is becoming less.

All of the waygook's (which mean foreigner) got together at our local pub
and had a potluck thanksgiving last Saturday. It was awesome and the food
was soo good. We offered some of our food to the staff and when they tried
it they gagged and spit it out. It was nice to see the tables turned for
once.

We are having a big Halloween party soon and I am going to try to live up to
doing a creative costume, but it is hard to find that kind of stuff here. I
know stores exists that sell crafty stuff but it is finding it which is
the problem.

Nothing too exciting has happened in awhile, we managed to make it to Japan
for a week. It was amazing, Hiroshima was the highlight I almost cried at
the museum. Well it is late and I have some lesson planning to do.

Miss you all lots

Love Shannon

Sept 18, 2006

Sorry to send so many emails, but everyday something weird happens that you
would never expect at home and I must share.

Some of my friends went on a trip to costco, thankfully we did not go. As
our friends were getting on the train one of them slipped on something. Can
you guess what is was...
Poo, my friend slipped on a pile of human poop on the train. Thankfully he
did not fall, but the girl behind him slipped in the same pile.

So it was bad enough they slipped in poop, they we wearing flip flops. When
they were telling us the story I almost fell on the floor laughing. I think
it is just my personality because I don't think anyone was laughing as hard.
The people telling the story were still pretty pissed about the whole thing,
so I don't think they appreciated my laughing, but I just could not hold it
in.

Well that is my story for the day, I cannot wait until tomorrow when I am
sure there will be something else unexpected will happen

talk to you soon
Shannon

What happend on Sept 8, 2006

Hello All
I thought I would email you all another strange oddity of Korea. I was
exhausted on Sunday and slept until 1:30pm. Which is normally no big deal;
however, it was. Shortly after I woke up my doorbell rang. We have a camera
outside our door so we can see who it is on our phone. It is a little
strange.

Anyway, I looked to see who it was and it was some Korean lady. I was still in
pajamas aka-underwear, because it is sooo bloody hot. I decided not to
answer the door. About 30mins later it sounded like there was an airplane
flying through my building. It was the loudest noise in the world. I looked
out my door and there was smoke everywhere.

So now I was thinking there was a fire in the building. I yelled at Krafty that
there was a fire, so we ran out of the building. When were outside, we saw
a man fumigating our apartment. So it was not a fire, just poison to kill
bugs and give us cancer.

So I was standing outside in my pajamas, which
was a huge problem. The Koreans are very respectable people and never dress
down. So it was a little awkward. What made it worse was that we could not
go back in the building for a few hours.

We live at the base of what they call a mountain and decided to go hiking up it
in our pajamas. In the end it turned out o.k, but man what a pain.

This weekend we are going on a sailing trip which should be loads of fun, i
cannot wait. We are going with about 50 other english teachers. There is also going to be a nori bong on the boat
which is a karaoke room. I am thinking this trip will turn into a gong show.

Well it is 5:00pm and it is time to go home
Talk to you later
Shannon

Finally a Blog

I have been in Korea since Aug 20, 2006. It is now Nov 22, 2006 and I am finally deciding to start my blog. Since I cannot remember all the crazy things that have happened to me in the past 3 months I am going to cut and paste old emails of mine. However, from now I will try to do an entry once a week.