The Bullets of Wednesday, November 13th 2013: Culture Day

Yesterday was an awfully long day here are the bullets:

• Woke up late booked it out of my apartment.
• Got on the subway. Two stops later a horde of wild children come onto the subway, it was a log jam. A very loud remedial log jam.
• I made it to school only to remember that I had to be in early for a broadcasting program. Thankfully my co-host saved my ass with a back-up plan that didn't involve me.
• Thrown immediately into my first class feeling like shit about how my day has started.
• The second class was the worst class I have this month and they weren't any different, maybe even worse. I was mentally drained and strained after that.
• To calm down I just caught up on marking my afternoon classes notebooks after my classes were done.
• I sent out my first Korean message to let the students in my afternoon class know it was cancelled because the entire staff is going hiking.
• Lunch was good but could have been better if went earlier.
• After that I lesson planned for today and Friday's afternoon classes.
• Out the door and off to our hiking destination.
• I got a ride with my space cadet teacher, which is always a nervous ride when the driver changes the volume of the radio frequently with her foot on the pedal, as well as the heat settings.
• We drove eastwards to a beautiful hilly area (specific I know).
• I walked up to this set of temples with some other teachers, and admired the artwork and scenery.
• I went to the bathroom and went up to another path to a break in the trees.
• When I got back to temples everyone was gone...
• Luckily, another group of teachers came up less than a minute after and showed me how to get back down. Everyone was shocked by my footwear too.
• Once I was down my co-teacher told me to check out some of the main temples on the other side of the parking lot. 
• We piled four people into a backseat of a luxury sedan made by Samsung (!?) and drove off to dinner in a restaurant off of the highway.
• We ate copious amounts of duck meat, various types of kimchi, salads, spicy fish soup and pickled root vegetables.
• The principal was fashionably late and toasted "Let's do better." and then said, "You do better too." Everyone laughed except me. Learning Korean is starting... soon.
• Then came the drinks.
• I was sitting next to the Grade 5 teachers and got to chat with some of them they were all soft-spokenexcept for the one who was pouring drinks like a cocktail waitress and drinking hers twice as fast.  
• Shuttled home in a teacher's backseat and walked home along the beach.
• Got home, watched two great episodes of The Shield while doing laundry.
• Read Nothing to Envy and passed the hell out.    

Here are pictures of the scenery and temples as well as a candid shot of half of the school's staff.

The staff: Drinks McGee is in the knit cap in front.

Dude on a door.

Hiking in slip-ons!

Everybody's favorite Golden Boy this side of the Pacific.