Thanksgiving

I had planned for my Thanksgiving to be just like any other day. There are no Koreans or Canadians who celebrate the day, and I don't know any Americans who had anything planned. I was going to work, then get some kimbap (this is sushi, but Koreans become furious if it is ever referred to in that vile Japanese language), then go to the batting cages. But my plans did change.

I begin my Thursdays teaching my youngest class. They don't know much English. One girl in the class noticed that my nose is a lot bigger than the noses of most Koreans. Through most of the class she was saying, "Teachel's nose," then putting her finger on her nose and extending her finger to show that my nose is about as long as her arm. Towards the end of class, she again put her finger on her nose and extended her arm, but this time she got up and ran around class with her finger in the air. She was showing me that my nose took up most of the classroom. She sat down and began laughing at me. I put my finger on my nose and said, "My nose," and I protracted my finger out to tap her forehead. She thought it was hilarious that my nose not only could take up most of the room in class, but it could also hit people. So she again put her finger on her nose, extended her finger towards my face, balled up her little hand, and punched my in the mouth. Since Koreans seem to only hit friends in that manner, I am considering the punch a sign of affection.

In my last class the students and I were making faces at teach other. I was trying to make a face like a fish and this is what I looked like:This kids laughed pretty hard because none of them could make the fish lips. But they were most impressed with my forehead wrinkles. Every student asked if they could touch them, and each one reacted with a shriek of terror as they did. After seeing my fish, they all wanted to see their teacher as a pig. Since the derogatory word for foreigner is "pig" I declined to do this. The kids insisted but I refused. But these kids were determined. Within a few minutes the strongest boy in class was behind me, putting me into a Full-Nelson. He had it locked in to where the only way for me to get my arms loose would be to hurt the boy. I didn't want to hurt him so I was trapped. The other students had their way of making my nose look like a pig's snout. After they had their fun with this, they decided to draw a picture of what I looked liked. They drew a circle with huge ears, huge eyes, four forehead wrinkles, fish lips, a pig snout with copious amounts of hair coming out of it, a very muscular upper body and two very fat legs.

Luckily, Nicole stuck around until I got off work so we could go out for dinner. On Wednesday night we went to an oyster restaurant and were disgusted because our dinner was loaded with raw oysters. Nicole didn't want the owners to think we hated the place so she insisted that we go back on Thursday and order something without raw oysters. This time the food was delicious. It was oyster bibimbop. Bibimbop is rice mix with sauce, vegetables, and an egg (oyster bibimbop has oyster instead of egg). There was a party of five at the table next to us. They were quite drunk. One man took a liking us kept filling our glasses with his alcohol. In the States being a polite and a responsible drinker can go hand in hand. In Korea the two conflict. It is rude to not quickly drink alcohol given to you, and it is rude for the giver to allow the glass to remain empty. It turned out that one of the men at the table was the owner and he was pleased that we were eating at his place for the second time in as many nights. And Nicole and I ate as fast as we could so we could get out of that place with our wits in tact.

I also got a package from Dad. Here I am in my new jacket and gloves. I look like I'm ready to hit the slopes, aye?(I've been around too many Canadians). The jacket is reversible so I also have a black jacket. It is so warm. The Korean girls at work had never see gloves so big. They had a good time trying them on.