Business ownership can change quite frequently. The lady in gwaneum market selling fish sticks closed down over christmas. I thought she went away for the holidays but a new owner came in january with a new storefront. Then she decided to change the price of fish sticks from two for .70 cents to two for a dollar. Now she has decided to change the line completely, stopped carrying fish sticks, and switched to waffles and spicy rice noodles. The lady around the corner selling fried cinnamon buns has also closed down. Theres also a new hair salon on my 8 min walk to school amongst the existing 6 already there!

The other day I was in the room next to the teachers room laminating some stuff during lunch. Then slowly lots of male teachers came into the room and started sitting around a table like some sort of mafia meeting. They looked at what I was doing while I carried on. Then all the male teachers came and a meeting begun, while I continued to laminate. After a short discussion all in korean they all dispersed. Then one of the english teachers told me it a was a 'male teachers friendship meeting' since there werent enough male teachers in the school. I'm left wondering why I wasnt told/asked even when I was in the room at the time???

This tends to be normal as I'm always the last to be told anything, which is a running joke with my head co-teacher. I was told on a thursday nite there is a staff teachers dinner friday nite (which everyone had known about for days). I asked what the dinner was for, and told it was to welcome the new teachers. I was wondering, didnt we already have a welcome dinner end of Febuary? It was to make them feel welcome again... Em, ok. Basically there is a full or partial staff dinner every other month and no particular reason. Again, i'm the last to know, which is turning out to be somewhat comedic, but expected of being a foreigner living in korea! :)

For dinner we went to a beef bbq restaurant. You sit on the floor in groups around a table. In the centre of the table is a flame pit where you bbq the beef. There were many side dishes around the centre pit. Later they brought an octopus which was left to simmer in hot sauce. I tried it but it was way to spicy for me. They also had mushroom wine.

After dinner the new first time teachers (recent graduates) had to do a performance. There was one female and three male teachers. They did a karaoke song, she was the singer and the three guys where the backing dancers. It was actually very good, they copied the pop video dance moves, synchronizing the three guys and dancing around the girl, they had practiced a lot. Then they made her do a solo karaoke song.

After that it got quite lively. Individual teachers started jumping up in turns and doing a karaoke number. To my surprise, the principal who never says anything, did a song. He had a very operatic voice. I asked my co-teacher if she wanted to go but she said no. Then they were taking turns and chanting a new persons name after each song to get them to go up. They started chanting my co-teachers so she went and actually sang quite good.

I wouldnt have minded going but all the songs were in korean. The way things were going this felt like one of those evenings when we wouldnt leave till 1am. My co-teacher said they did have english pop songs so I asked for the book, There was a very large english selection but about 90% of bands I dont listen to or songs I dont know that well. I tried to look for one that I could do that I knew and wasnt too girly. I found uptown girl by billy joel.

So this was my first time doing karaoke. I think they were surprised I went up, coz as mentioned, they always forget about me even when I'm sitting right in front of them! Its a lot harder to sing into a mike when you try to sing loader as you lose your tune. The guy teachers started doing the whoh-whoh-whohs and waving their arms. I didnt do too bad and I think I made it into the 'male teachers friendship club'! Even the vice principal was impressed!

By about 9pm they decided to relocate to a karoake bar. I needed to head out for my andong trip next day and wanted to stock up at the friday nite market. They actually have a lot of karaoke on tv and its a good way to learn hangul korean reading the lyrics. They even have solo karaoke booths in gwaneum market where I live. Sorry I didnt have my camera with me so no pics for this one.

A student wrote in his texbook:
smart man + smart woman = romance
smart man + dumb woman = pregnancy
dumb man + smart woman = affair
dumb man + dumb woman = marriage

Also found Pakistani Mithai (sweets) near Bukbu Bus Terminal. They had jalebi, gulab jaman, laddo, gajar halwa, no barfi though :-(