Training Bound

Today was a pretty no big deal kind of day.  One funny story from school:

Fall has officially arrived in Gwangju!  Temperatures are in the mid 60s most of the day, making for what I would consider beautiful weather, but what seems to most Koreans to be really cold considering their intense muggy summers.  This week, I have noticed a definite change in the clothing everyone has chosen to wear.  Not only are the clothes heavier (even some of the girls have elected to wear their winter uniforms of long sleeve shirts, ties and sweater vests) but they are also adapting to more muted, winter colors as well.  I am just relieved not to be sweating profusely.  Today, I wore a plaid shirt and jeans to school.  As I was walking up the hill, the principal called out my name and told me I was not properly dressed for the weather.  "Your shirt too... light.  You get cold."  I said, "No, no!  I'm a sweater!  I'll just drink some tea!"  She shook her head and hurried into the building.  That darn woman is always looking out for me!  Bless her heart.

Because tonight was the last night that I would be in town before Emily leaves for Seoul, we had her farewell dinner tonight.  Six of us went out for a meal as follows (I can't remember the name, so no link as of now...)  pork (already cooked, so different from a previously described meal), kimchi, some sort of green bean looking item, raw garlic and bean paste all wrapped in a lettuce leaf.  We also had a seafood pancake and RAW oysters dipped in pepper paste.  Everything was tasty... though I don't think I'll be eating raw oysters again for awhile...  A weird thing happened with the lettuce concoction though...  First, I ate the whole deal as a unit.  I could taste each individual item in the lettuce bundle, but it also came together for a cohesive flavor, which was almost sweet.  I also always eat one piece of meat by itself to get a feel for how the meat is different from what I remember meat tasting like in the U.S.  I wasn't such a fan of this pork by itself (I think because there wasn't much of a seasoning on it and it was just plain pork).  Then, after I went back to eating the whole concoction again, all I could taste was the pork, and not any of the other quite pronounced flavors.  So weird.

After dinner, we walked down by the river close to where we live.  There was a festival-like celebration going on because it has been 10 years since Gwangju became an official city.  There was a big stage with a band playing, many tents and lots and lots of street food vendors.  We scooped the loop to see what was going on and were headed back to our apartments when an older man stopped us on the street to talk.  This is unusual, especially for a Korean man to stop a group of six obviously western people.  We soon realized he was drunk, both by his liquid courage and the curious smell of alcohol he was emitting from every exposed pore.  He put his arm around me and another guy in the group and talked to us about the festival.  Then, he shook everyone's hand.  When he got to me, instead of shaking my hand, he grabbed my butt!  We all awkwardly laughed it off and it wasn't a big deal.  We started to walk away and say goodbye when he tried to kiss my cheek.  I wasn't about to let some rando drunk guy kiss me so I backed away a little and off we went walking down the street in the opposite direction.  No harm.  No foul.  My first drunk Korean man experience.  YES.

Tomorrow I am off to teacher training for two nights and three days.  All sorts of foreign teachers who work at middle and high schools in the area will be there, so hopefully this will be another chance to meet lots of new people!  Hooray!  Many stories to come, I'm sure!