Day 15: The Amazing Race, revisited...

Today was graduation day for our kindergartens, and I'm feeling so proud of them! Each of them, in their cap and gown, received their little diploma, bouquet of flowers, and some said a little thank you speech in Korean to their families and teachers - how sweet! Awww shucks, my kids are all growing up... *sniff sniff*
:-) It's amazing how attached I'm becoming to some of these kids already. Kindergartens are still very much at an 'innocent stage' in their lives, when all they know is play time and games, and all seem to give out love so unconditionally. As frustrating as they can be to teach sometimes, they're still adorable. I must admit that I really do love walking into class every morning and having several of them run up and give me a big hug.

And hey the big surprise today was that there was no singing involved! I don't know if either plans changed or maybe I just never understood them in the first place, but there was no rendition of "My Love" from the elementaries! I was relieved at not having to try and sing that song in front of everybody, and plus I really have heard it enough times for a lifetime or two already..

And once again, it was 'photo shoot' time again after the formalities, as all the parents wanted to have me in a photo of their kid. I'm getting used to this 'popularity avec the cameras' thing and must admit that I kinda enjoy it... I was a big hit with all the Moms today, but that should come as no surprise. I've always been "in with the Moms" of all my friends my whole life. I remember having a conversation with Karen and Ellen in the Red River Road Seattle Coffee House about this about two years ago, and today I was having flashbacks back to that chat. The Moms can be quite flirty with me which is kinda fun yet also a little uncomfortable for me. One of my favourite pupils is this kid named Steven, and his Mom thought I was the greatest thing since kimchee. She kept touching me and saying stuff like "Ooohhh, Scott is hot!" in her thick Korean accent. I wanted to play it up, but with little Steven there watching the whole thing, so I thought it was best to behave myself. (Note to self: must inform Fountains of Wayne that it's actually Steven's Mom that's got it going on, and not Stacie's!)

After graduation Steven took all of us teachers out for dinner to a nearby Japanese restaurant. I was a little nervous when he mentioned the restaurant choice, as Japanese is a type of food that I can only handle on certain days - I really gotta be in the mood for it most times. But hey it's a free meal and it's bonding time with all us teachers, so I wasn't gonna turn it down. IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN WHAT I WAS GETTING MYSELF INTO!!! Wow!!! I was expecting a little sushi, a little California rolls, a little chicken teriyaki, a little miso soup and rice....NOPE!!!!!

We were proceeded to be served course after course after course of some really exotic Japanese food that I have never seen before in my life, most of which were some unknown sea creature. Plates full of fish (and I mean the *whole* fish) and squid and crab heads and and clams and squishy eel-things (some not much bigger than your finger, some as long as your arm!) and octopus and shrimp-like things and a million other creatures that I had never seen before. And they were all either barely cooked or RAW!!! It was like being served for lunch the entire Vancouver Aquarium! Now as you know, seafood and I don't really get along all that much, especially when it's STILL ALIVE!!! (I'll get to that part in a moment...)

I really wanted to be brave and try a bit of everything, but just looking at these things made my stomach do loop-de-loops. I can handle cooked fish and maybe a bit of shrimp, but that's about all I've ever been able to eat in the seafood department. I'm just not very adventurous when it comes to food, and I feel really guilty about it. My plan was to come to Korea and experience "all that was Korean" but I just can't get over this food thing. As you know I've been phasing meat out of my diet for quite some time now, and I think just looking at all this seafood fastforwarded me in the direction of vegetarian a couple more notches. Steven noticed that I wasn't really eating all that much (the only vegetables on the table was corn and some seaweed thing, which I was eagerly hoarding for myself) and attempted to tempt me with a giant clam about as big as his hand - "It's yummy Scott! Look...it's still alive!" He poked the clam with his chopstick...and it moved... I instantly became light-headed and lost any and all of my appetite! Again, I feel guilty for being so fussy this way, but it just seems like it's something that I can't get past - my queasy stomach won't allow it!

I spent the rest of the meal watching in awe as my coworkers wolfed down the delectable sea treats while I picked at my corn. More and more plates of exotic food kept coming - the eggs of some bird that I had never heard of, a little plate of roasted silkworm larvae, jellyfish tentacles, flourescent yellow and pink fish eggs.... All of this was topped off when the table was brought a plate full of a fairly large octopus, all chopped up, but still alive AND SQUIRMING AROUND THE PLATE!!!! (yes, just like you saw on The Amazing Race!) It's main body was still pulsating and writhing while severed tentacles wiggled left and right - it was an effort just to keep the creature on the plate. I watched Steven as he picked up each tentacle and slurped it down, watching the thing still wiggle while in his mouth. And then he ate the body, and I swear I heard the octopus cry out one last time in its desperate fight for life as it went down his throat.... At this point, seriously, I just about lost it. I was feeling light-headed, the room was beginning to spin, and it took all I had to keep myself from gagging. I know I must sound like such as wuss, but you had to see it to believe it!

After lunch we went out for ice cream for dessert (yes! something my wimpy stomach can handle!) and then home for a rest. I had plans for a night out on the town with a friend in Itaewon, and had to clean myself up/recover from the lunch time spectacle before heading out. I took the subway into Seoul and met up with another new friend of mine - Charles. (yes, a different Charles from the Kolon-Mart/night out at Bucheon one you're familiar with.) Charles is actually my first friend who's not an English Teacher. He's an American from Colorado and is in the airforce down in a city about an hour south of Seoul called Osan. He's well familiar with the Itaewon night club scene so he was gonna be my guide for the evening. My first night out in Seoul proved to be a blast, but very exhausting!!!

The problem with Seoul is it has a great transit system, but it stops running very early! The last trains leave downtown around 11:30pm, right when the bars are starting to get going... So you have either one of two options - you can go out to the bar, but have your night cut extremely short by leaving at 11pm or so, or you can party Seoul-style. And this means partying ALL NIGHT - until the morning trains begin running the next day at 5:30am! Guess which choice I opted for??? Seoul-style, of course! I tried to keep up with the Koreans, but I just don't have the energy!!! We went to 2 lounges for pre-drinks, and then 2 night clubs - all of which were fun but much smaller than what I had imagined. For being a city of such massive size, the bars here are not very big (but they make up for it in quantity!) One could go to a different bar/club every night in this city and never go to the same place twice!

Cover at Seoul clubs are pretty reasonable too - the first one we went to costed 10,000 won (about $12 CDN) and the second one 15,000 (about $18 CDN) but cover charge included coat check and 2 free drinks! I ended up running into Michael at one of the bars (the guy I hung out with around the city last weekend) and got to meet a lot of Charles' friends as well. Plenty of drinks, plenty of dancing, and lots of new friends - A GREAT NIGHT!!! But then 3am came and I started to crash.... There was no way I was gonna last another 2.5 hours to catch that morning train home... Fortunately Charles had planned ahead better than I had, and had reserved himself a room at a nearby hotel so that he could crash whenever he felt like it. He was getting really tired too so we left the bars and he let me crash in his room - oh how wonderful sleep felt!!!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention one important thing. It was a great night out on the town in Seoul, except for just one thing - we had our jackets stolen!!! The line-up for coat check at the last club we went to was just way too long, so we decided to hold onto our coats for the night. This was fine for a while, but then eventually we got tired of holding onto them. We stuffed them under a seat near where we were dancing, stupidly assuming that they'd be safe and sound. BOY THAT WAS A DUMB MOVE!!!! When we went to retrieve our coats later, they were nowhere to be found!!! I was pretty pissed off at myself for allowing something so avoidable to happen... It's not so much the coat that I'm upset about (I have others, and this one was getting really old and ripped and I've been browsing for a new one anyways,) but still, it was *my* coat and now someone else out there is wearing it... If I happen to be walking down the street one day and see the bastard who stole it wearing it, man is he in for an awful surprise!!!