Sleepover Camp

Early last week we were invited to go to a sleepover/group excursion on Friday night. It was going to be at a building that Mrs. Oh (the director/owner of Jayeon) owns and uses for English camps. Throughout the week it was extremely difficult to come by details regarding this trip. I was told it's either on the west coast or the east coast of Korea, and that we might go to the beach (despite the cold?). It was going to take between 2 and 4 hours to get there. I asked around about who was going to be going? Was it just Bojeong (where I teach) teachers? Are the Korean teachers coming? What are we going to do once we get there? I received various conflicting answers backed by various degrees of confidence.

So on Friday morning I packed an overnight bag and Friday after school we headed for the bus that was going to be taking us there. I quickly realized that this was going to be a larger scale affair than I had imagined. All of the Korean staff was coming. And people from all three of the schools (Bojeong, Jukjeon, and Suji) were coming. So that was pretty exciting.

It ended up taking about 2 hours and when we got there I was informed that we were on the West coast of Korea somewhere in the general vicinity of Boryeong (where the huge mud festival takes place). It was a really cool place - we were actually out in the country and free from light pollution so we could see a lot of stars. And the air just had a nice crispness to it. The building was really big and nice too. Mrs. Oh has a house right next to the building. She uses it as a sort of summer/lake house thing apparently. It was this monstrous boxy modern looking thing. I'm not sure how I felt about it, but it looked like it cost a lot of money. The point is - these Jayeon schools are making Mrs. Oh a nice amount of money.

So there are a bunch of "bedrooms" for us to choose from. I use the quotes because there isn't any furniture. I mean, they are really nice - each suite has two bedrooms and a living area with a dining room table and four chairs and a kitchen. But there are no couches, no beds. Oh well. My plan at this point was to get drunk enough that I didn't mind sleeping on the floor. Little did I know what the rest of the night had in store...

We were all gathered in a big gymnasium type room with a stage in front. Once we were all in there I started to really appreciate how many people were there. There were maybe around 15 foreign teachers (not all of them came), and then there were about 4 times as many Korean teachers. So we start getting spoken to by one of the Korean teachers, and she starts doing some introductions. It's really weird listening to people speak to a group of people in a different language. I was sitting by a bi-lingual foreign teacher and he was telling me bits of what they were saying. Basically the point of this night was for everyone to have a lot of fun and to get to know all of the other teachers. Since the new year was just starting there are a lot of new teachers so they want everyone to be friends.

The atmosphere in the gym quickly started getting ridiculous. People were coming up to the front and introducing themselves and all of the Korean girls would start doing claps and chants and cheering them on. It seemed like a competition was developing to see which of the three schools could be loudest. So, most of the Korean teachers are probably somewhere in their 20's, but you get a bunch of them on an overnight trip and they all kind of started acting 15. They were all wearing the orange and yellow pajama uniforms (you might have seen some of the kids wearing them in earlier pictures). Oh yeah, and the only guys on this entire trip are me, three other foreign teachers and Mr. Shin (Mrs. Oh's husband). So it's starting to sound like cheerleading camp or something to that effect in this room.

So that was kind of crazy. But then the craziness got cranked up like eleventy billion notches. They had a karaoke machine and the gym was quickly transformed into our own little noraebang. Apparently different groups of girls had all choreographed their own little dances to various songs. And they just let loose. I kept looking over at Mrs. Oh and Mr. Shin and at the principals to see how they were taking this, but they were all just smiling and having a blast. While one group of girls would be performing, all the others would be on their knees huddled around the stage waving their arms and basically losing their shit like they're watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show or something...

Meanwhile the other foreign teachers and I are just sitting around slack-jawed in amazement. Words cannot adequately describe the scene - it was kind of surreal. It was around 11pm by this point and we all quickly agreed that it was much too late for us to have not started drinking yet. I really have to give it up to the Koreans though. They definitely know how to have fun and party. It was really fun to see all of those Korean teachers up there having fun. All day at school they walk around in their all black business outfits and they're always busy and hard at work. It was cool to see them let loose. Same with Mr. Shin - he drives us to school every morning and I don't think I had ever seen him smile in my life. But now he was laughing and clapping and he even sang a song.

In fact, we quickly realized that EVERYONE was singing. Except for us. One of the teachers told us that it would be really rude if we didn't sing. So all of the foreign teachers got up on stage and kind of danced and clapped while one of the girls sang Dancing Queen. It was kind of fun - it was hard to consider it embarrassing because the Koreans were so supportive and happy to see us up there.

After that we ran off and broke in to our booze supply. By the time we came back dinner was beginning to be served. They had a bunch of little foot high tables set up and big plates of noodles, kimchi, pork, lettuce, sauces, etc. set up and it all looked delicious. And now the Koreans started drinking in earnest. We had a bunch of these little 6oz paper cups and they are all pouring them for each other and pounding them. It's very entertaining to see our 40 something year old ajumma principal pound some beer and then upend the cup over her head to prove it's empty. I finished off my poju that I brought and then moved on the the mekju(?) - beer and soju.

So it's getting pretty wild in there and the noraebang is getting more lively by the minute. I am constantly amazed by the Koreans ability to immediately synchronize their dance moves. I joined the other foreign teachers for "Africa" by Toto (a favorite of the South Africans of course) and "Bohemian Rhapsody". After awhile the noraebang kind of let up and we all went upstairs to play drinking games. Then some of the Korean teachers came in and challenged us to some Jenga. Let me tell you I haven't played Jenga in a long while (I'm not sure I had even discovered alcohol at that point), and drunk Jenga is rough, but I managed to hold my own. Those Korean girls are Jenga wizards though.

After awhile Mrs. Oh told all of the Korean girls to go to bed, and then some of them snuck back over to drink some more with us - so now it is totally feeling like some kind of high school field trip. And some of the Korean girls are really drunk which is just hilarious to me. I'm pretty sure I promised a few of them I would give them English lessons in exchange for Korean lessons, so we'll see if that actually happens.

The night wore on and pretty soon it was just me and one other teacher talking really really drunkly about life and philosophy and what-not. You know the type of stuff you talk about when the sun is coming up and you've been drinking heavily. I went to bed a little before 7. Apparently some people tried to wake me up at 8 to go on a bus tour of the area and I didn't even move. I woke up around 11 and was a bit foggy about where exactly I was. Turns out most of the teachers didn't go on the bus tour and the ones who did really wished they hadn't. I was glad to find out I wasn't the only one nursing a massive hangover. Soju is seriously evil the next morning. So we all scarfed Tylenols like Skittles and then sat down for lunch, which was actually really good and nourishing. Normally I can't take Korean food when I have a slightly unstable stomach, but they had this rice dumpling soup that hit the spot.

So I slept the whole bus ride home and we were back by around 2:30 Saturday afternoon. It was a really great time. I think it's really nice of Mrs. Oh to organize stuff like that because not only did I get to know a lot of the Korean teachers a lot better, it was a good time to bond with the other foreign teachers too. It was just a nice little moral boosting thing for the troops.

In other news... my washing machine is now fixed, so that is really nice. I've watched all the episodes of Californication now, and I really enjoyed it. It's basically like what would happen to the characters of a Bret Easton Ellis book 15 years later after they've started a family and stuff. It's also got the same kind of tenderness amidst a backdrop of morally depraved revelry that his books had. Even though the characters are drug abusing sex fiends, they're good people - and what choice do they have? They live in LA! That kind of seems to be the message. Recently my two favorite bands have been Glasvegas and Foals. I've been getting over my historical aversion to British bands, and these are two great examples of UK bands that I really like. Glasvegas kind of has this simple, but big sound. They're an indie stadium rock band like The Killers, or someone like that. Their song "Geraldine" is stuck in my head constantly. Foals are bit hard to explain. They're really groove and beat oriented. Their guitars sound like Minus the Bear - they're very light and very fast. They've also kind of got a dance punk sound. Anyway I can listen to it on repeat for hours and never get bored.

Tomorrow we start with the new kindy schedule. I'm excited to see what my kids are gonna be like. I'm really happy with my afternoon schedule, so hopefully the mornings are just as good.

Also, I can't forget to say happy birthday to Brett and Josh... as I write this it is Saturday night back in Chicago so I'm sure there is a celebration taking place right this moment and I really wish I could be taking part.

Later dudes!