Happy Pepero Day Everyone!!!

Bonus-Pepero day
Yes, Friday was Pepero day and a major perk for us teachers. A Pepero is a chocolate-covered cookie stick that was created by Lotte (one of the handful of Korean conglomerates). Lotte introduced the holiday as an answer to the American consumerist holiday of St. Valentine's day. According to my students Pepero day is on November 11th because the date 11/11 looks like four Pepero sticks held side by side.

I hadn't received any wind of the holiday prior to my first class this past Friday. I walk in and was inundated with children thrusting abnormally large wrapped Pepero in my face. The average Pepero seemed to be about a foot long where as the original ones are much thinner and only about six inches long. The biggest one I saw all day was a "meter Pepero", a whole 100 cm of chocolate covered cookie stick. (Note: I apologize for the fluctuation between the American and the Metric system but it's a product of my raising and I can't help it.)

Anyway after having a "Pepero party" in my first class, which was really an excuse to not have to teach, it seemed only logical that this Pepero day would spawn a fun inter-teacher competition. Who could collect the most Pepero from their students. Right away I saw the true nature of my colleagues come forth. Rob immediately started bursting into classrooms on our ten minute break asking the students "who likes teacher Robert?" A flood of girls came into the teacher's office with armfulls of Pepero to give to their teachers but they were only obligated to give one to teachers who actually taught them. One of my students slipped in between Jennifer and I to give me a Pepero and Jennifer said "what I don't get one?" The girl was so shocked and confused that she hesitantly handed one to Jennifer to. I walked into one of my afternoon classes where NONE of my six students had a Pepero for me despite that they all had some in their bags. I sat down at the front of class and said "no Pepero, no teach".

So by days end we did the tally and Rob and I were definitely at the low end of the race. Although in my defense my numbers were slightly skewed because of the large number of Pepero that I consumed throughout the day without first adding them to my tally. Jennifer scored pretty highly but the Korean teacher Jay won by a landslide. She had Pepero of every different shape and size, not to mention the coveted peanut covered variety.

Drawback-staff dinners
One would think that a staff dinner would never fall under the "drawback" category, especially when it's an all expenses paid by your boss kind of staff dinner, but this one does. We were informed about a week and a half ago that CJ, (the owner of our particular Wonderland franchise and unabashed sleeze ball), would be taking us out to dinner at none other than the Hwajeong Outback Steakhouse. It seems as though whenever the foreign teachers are involved the Koreans automatically assume that we are incapable of accepting or adapting to anything unfamiliar to us especially when it comes to food. Upon arrival in Korea the new foreign teacher is greeted with a meal at Pizza Hut and now Outback! I don't eat at either establishment in the States where there might be some shred of hope that they would do it right let alone here where they will try to "Koreanize" everything.

Anyway it should be no surprise that I really don't like a single one of the Korean teachers I work with. I hate we are held to a higher standard than them. I hate that they can get away with so much more. I hate that they rudely only speak Korean with the other teachers even in front of a foreign teacher. I have repeatedly heard them mention my name in my presence without giving any concern to filling me about what exactly they are saying. I hate that they always ask me to do things for them and I hate that they criticize my teaching. I also hate their personnalities, the way they dress and how they speak. I just totally and completely despise them for every reason no matter how unjustified or out of line it may seem. So needless to say I was not looking forward to socializing with them outside of school. I mean seriously, we're not friends and we don't even pretend to be so while at work what makes anyone think that it will be any different outside of work?! We weren't exactly given a choice in the matter so I planned to go to the dinner, order the most espensive food and drink on the menu, be amicable and then leave after an appropriate amount of niceties were exchanged.

I arrived ten minutes late to the dinner and sat next to Rob. Everyone gave me a big resounding and transparent "hello!" and thrust a menu in my hands. I promptly turned to the steak page and ordered a massive piece of beef that I had very little appetite for and a long island ice tea. When asked if I wanted to make that a premium L.I. I replied "why of course".

CJ asked me almost right away how I felt about Korea now that I had been here for three. I gave him a smirk and said that I thought it was ok...so-so. I thought in my head that I would like it a lot more if I didn't have to work at your crappy, sorry excuse for a school every day and if I didn't have to put up with the bullshit that you and Colleen dish out on a regular basis, but I thought it would make for a very awkward remainder of the evening.

So the foreign teachers and I sat eating in silence as the Korean teachers spoke over, around and through us in Korean to one another without any attempt to translate, or include us in the conversation. Finally the plates were cleared and we thanked CJ and got up to leave when Kim, my co-teacher, made a big scene about us going out for drinks together. I politely tried to bow out by mentioning that I had other plans. "Oh you have appointment? But is just first time. Come with us. Ohhh you should come. Will be fun! We go for some drink. Just for short time you should coming with us." Is she serious? I hate you and you're like 55 years old!!!! What in our history together makes you think that that would even be remotely agreeable to me?! She wouldn't let up! The truth is that I would totally have gone with them to some old folks bar and ordered some ungodly expensive drink but they were so unorganized they didn't even know where they were going. I was already standing and had my coat on as this whole exchange was taking place and I was ready to go. They sent Joann out as a scout to "check out" a bar before they decided they wanted to go there and that's what they were waiting for. Well none of them actually live in this god forsaken slum town where my company apartment happens to be so they're not nearly as familiar with its total lameness as I am. Hwajeong sucks and there aren't ANY bars worth going to and that is why I pay the money to go downtown every weekend. Anyway we left them there with the promise that we'd call to find out where they were and we'd meet up for one drink before heading out for the night. We didn't call and I don't care. Probably better off that I didn't go because I would have ended up getting drunk and doing or saying something I would regret come Monday.