Full Circle

I'm back to what I would call the beginning: that surprise dinner I had one year ago Friday welcoming me and two other new teachers to the school's staff. It was awesome and novel, much like I was to them and their country to me. Now coming back full circle (see what I did there) it seems like a lot has changed, but looking back at the draft I wrote out Saturday morning it's mostly the fact that I feel much more comfortable in this environment, but I still don't know half the teacher's by name, just their homeroom.

One thing that hasn't changed is my co-teachers' willingness to not have fun at staff outings. One lives very far away and its far too much of a hassle for her to go further away from her home which is understandable. One has five-year old and a husband who was recently in an accident of some kind so she has other priorities but still makes an appearance for the dinners. The last one is a vegan so at this buffet she has two plates of salad and heads out with the other co-teacher.

Back to the dinner itself. Obviously, like the year before, there are new teachers coming into the school and all the main-stay teachers are talking to them and also saying goodbyes to three retiring teachers. Since there's a changing of the tides in the specialist room there are two tables, ten seats each, for the specialist teachers. I hitched a ride with the science teacher to the beautiful buffet spot in the richy-rich part of town and sat down with the new and familiar faces of the office. When my two CTs arrived they sat down at the other table and waved me over. It was just the three of us the whole dinner. It was really quiet because I don't like talking about work on a Friday night and apart from our job we don't have much to talk about.

Somehow it got worse. They sat next to each other and put their purses on either side creating a buffer. So I sat one spot over. Once the hellos and goodbyes were all said and done everyone went up to the buffet or to mingle. Since lunch wasn't very good I headed for the buffet. When I got back my co-teachers put both their purses on my chair! This was the biggest WTF moment of my life. I swear, I almost flipped the table. So I sat another spot over. Thankfully the food was delicious and I discovered there's a second side to the buffet. No more two plates of raw fish for this guy! They also had cream of mushroom soup that tasted just like Campbell's which put me back into a care-free state of mind.

Once dinner wrapped up the staff headed out to the closest Noraebong, the typical right of passage for new Korean teachers, and copious amounts of So-Mak. Then we went out for some more food and water. I had a really good time with everyone and I'm excited about the year to come with all the young new faces (there will be people my age in the office!). However, this was the evening where I had a lot of fun but in order to have a better time I should learn to speak Korean. Not just for staff parties but to enjoy more of Korea and, in typical single guy fashion, cast a bigger net.