Shrimp, Pigs, Ducks, and Dr. Fish

The main event of the day was the solar eclipse which wasn't a total eclipse as it was in other parts of Asia, but rather a partial one. Still, it had all the students scrambling to the window at break time with their faces pressed against film strips. I have to admit it was pretty cool, surreal almost, to peer into the dark film strip and see nothing but what seemed to be a crescent sun. Another reason I'm glad I'm here this summer.

I was mistakenly thought to be Korean for the nth time again today, this time by the manager of my goshitel. It almost seems to be turning into a running gag... I should come up with a good punchline. Apparently, one of my fellow goshitelers had asked the manager about me and my nationality, explaining that "he looks so Korean, but he speaks... English!"

***

The Saturday before I went to Guam was Pauline's birthday, so we all met up in Gangnam to eat at a nice little Italian place Janice had found. Just as all of us arrived at the table where Janice was waiting, Lil Kim, in her eagerness, accidentally blew out Pauline's candles for her.

take 2

At various points, conversation was conducted entirely in Korean, so I used the opportunity to imagine my own translations of the conversations.

After lunch, we were drawn like mosquitos to a mosquito killing light to what is becoming a regular hangout, Dr. Fish. Only Jihoon was up for the sadomasochism this time around, and boy did he get his money's worth.

inspecting the waters

If Brian was a 4 on the "Reaction to Dr. Fish Scale" and I was a 5, then Jihoon was a 10. For almost the entire 15 minutes he was laughing, writhing, convulsing, and explaining how Dr. Fish should be used by the U.S. government as a torture method.

5 minutes later

Note the little boy happily getting his feet eaten and his mom who seems rather apathetic about the whole thing

Immediately afterwards, Jihoon noticed that his feet were, in fact, cleaner and giddily announced that he wanted to come back the next week.

I had to restrain myself from filling up on the free bread at Dr. Fish, since that evening was a company dinner (events which seem to be fairly common in Korea). All of the teachers met at the main academy, conveniently located right across the street from Dr. Fish, before we all loaded into the buses for an all you can eat duck restaurant in Seocho.

All I know about Seocho is this sign which is plastered on bus stops all over southern Seoul. While Googling this image, I also found that Seocho and Irvine, CA are "friendship cities." Cute.

The dinner was covered by the owner of the academy who is most likely bathing in money- he's invited the teachers to his housewarming party in a few weeks, where we will eat steaks in the yard of his new house close by to the academy/Dr. Fish. The fact that he lives in that area means he's loaded, and the fact that he has a house not an apartment, and one with a yard at that, means he's super-loaded.

The all you can eat duck restaurant was good but not great. After eating duck which had a taste reminiscent of hot dogs (especially when the duck was dipped in mustard), we teachers ate samgyeopsal, a pork similar to bacon. The servers saved the best dishes for last- Korean pancakes, pork ribs, and noodles in a kimchi soup. Even if the food didn't live up to the hype, the dinner was still a great time of hanging out with teachers. The teachers at my branch in Bundang have really seemed to reach a good level of rapport with each other in the last week or two, although that rapport may be short lived thanks to the unfortunate events of this week, which will have to come in a later post.

The director, the owner, the owner's daughter, and his wife

samgyeopsal