The school functions are a good opportunity to spend some time with the other teachers and try all sorts of different foods (Brenton tried octopus that was so recently killed that it still had muscle spasms earlier this year at a teacher dinner). They are also a good opportunity to spend a few hours sitting around while everyone else is speaking in Korean. Luckily at my school there are 2 native English teachers so I have someone to talk to.
The vice-principles going away function was held in a Korean wedding reception venue. It looked classy and nice from afar, but up close was another story. Korea does tacky pretty well and this place was probably 20% nice and 80% tacky. The nice looking chairs were actually plastic, the glasses were mismatched beer glasses and there were plastic napkin holders on the tables. First up was an hour of speeches in Korean (it may have been shorted, but when you can't understand any of it it feels like a life time). During the vice-principles extremely long speech my co-teacher kept me updated on the topics. It started out pretty normal: the schools he had worked at during his career, then moved to religion (fair enough because he is apparently really religious) at about the 15 minute mark it some how moved to organ donation (including his eyes!). Finally once he wrapped up we could stuff ourselves with the buffet.
The vice-principles going away function was held in a Korean wedding reception venue. It looked classy and nice from afar, but up close was another story. Korea does tacky pretty well and this place was probably 20% nice and 80% tacky. The nice looking chairs were actually plastic, the glasses were mismatched beer glasses and there were plastic napkin holders on the tables. First up was an hour of speeches in Korean (it may have been shorted, but when you can't understand any of it it feels like a life time). During the vice-principles extremely long speech my co-teacher kept me updated on the topics. It started out pretty normal: the schools he had worked at during his career, then moved to religion (fair enough because he is apparently really religious) at about the 15 minute mark it some how moved to organ donation (including his eyes!). Finally once he wrapped up we could stuff ourselves with the buffet.
At my first teachers dinner we went out to a Nori-bang (Karaoke) after dinner and I was forced to sing a song in front of the principle, VP and all the teachers. Very embarrassing! Monday night there was of course Karaoke. This time no nori-bang, we just sang in the function room. Every year level had to get up and belt out a song. I thought I had escaped the worse of it, but the principle made Ashley and I get up with him and the VP. Luckily I didn't have to sing, but I still had to dance. All of this was caught on video camera too! After the Karaoke we all stood in a circle and sang together and then did a strange hand shake train thing. Interesting night ... :-)
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