"Law" Fish

Today was my first day at my second school Samseo Middle School. My co-teacher for this school lives very close to me so she gives me a ride every morning and night. Unfortunately that means I have to be ready by 7:00 am rather than 7:20 am. My co-teacher is really nice, but a little...friendly? I think that could be one way to describe her. Immediately upon meeting her she linked arms and patted/petted my arm the whole way to the car. She really reminded me of old hippie women who was all touchy feely as well. As most of you know, I love giving hugs. I do not love people petting me or putting their arm on my leg and caressing it while they talk. This women does it all! Her English is very good, though I am getting the impression that no matter how good of English a Korean has, they will never understand some of my questions or what I'm talking about. Upon finding out that this school actually has a GRASS soccer field and grass around the school I asked if during my breaks I would be allowed to wander around outside. She just looked at me and kept talking about my class thinking that's what I was talking about. After a while I gave up and just said, yes, class is going good! During my last class of the day she fell asleep at the back of the room and woke up at the very end and promptly said: "great class today! the kids really loved it!"...and she knew how?!?
I really like this school though. There's a total of 34 students so split between three classes that's very small. It's really quiet and out in the county more than Samgye is so it's much nicer that way. I like it better than Samgye I think. Oh! This is interesting... they have this dance thing they do in between 2nd and 3rd period. I'm not kidding. They all go out side, line up in five or six lines and do this choreographed dance for ten minutes. They made me do it with them. It's easy to catch on to and I love the fact they do it. It's the only school I know that does it. The boys don't seem to keen on it, but the girls love it.
I never thought that I could be called "pure" and "fresh" so many times in one day. I'm fresh because I'm not a 53 year old hippie. I'm pure because I don't have a boyfriend. My co-teacher keeps asking me if I think the gym teacher is handsome. I just laugh it off to avoid an awkward conversation. Like I've said before, Koreans are full of compliments and this school is no different. They are also blunt. I got told a million times today how I'm the "beautiful Canadian with gold hair", but I also got told that I could be more pretty if I wore makeup. I almost died laughing because that sure ain't going to happen anytime soon. Way too much effort.
I was informed at lunch time that there was a teachers dinner tonight. Though they asked if I had plans, I got the impression that even if I said I did they'd still take me to the dinner! I was told it would be "law fish". Took me a few seconds to understand they meant RAW fish. Since in Korean "L" and "R" are the same sound, they quite often mix the two up in English. So if you hear them talking about eating "lice" they are really meaning RICE! Anyway, the whole afternoon I'm freaking out and wondering how I'm going to manage raw fish. I love fish. Cooked fish. Not raw fish. Thankfully I remembered that every Korean meal comes with a million side dishes so I figured I could get away with it. Oh did I have a meal coming to me!
When we were seated, first comes these eggs that looked like a bird just laid them. Not chicken eggs, some other small spotted eggs. Thankfully stuff I started to recognize came out. Recognize meaning I have no idea what it is, but I ate it before and it was good. They gave me these boiled peanuts and let me tell you, peanuts should not be boiled! They taste just enough like peanuts to know what they are, but soggy. Blah. I got more Korean pizza (which as I mentioned before, isn't actually pizza) and apparently it was obvious I liked it because they got the waiter to bring a whole one just for me without my knowledge so I felt compelled to eat it even though I didn't want anymore. Food after food came out. I ate lobster, oysters, clams and who knows what else. Then comes the raw fish. I thought by this point they wouldn't notice if I didn't eat it, but of course they have to make sure I do. Thankfully they gave me lettuce to put wrap it in. I was also told to put this salty salsa like stuff on it. I planned on dunking the whole thing in it to drown out the taste by my co-teacher would have none of that saying I was taking too much and "only a little" was needed because it was way too salty for me. Well, that kinda was the plan, but like the good girl I am, I only took a little (which was literally a dab on the end of a chopstick). When she wasn't looking a grabbed a spoonful of hot sauce and added it to the fish and quickly folded the lettuce and stuffed it in my mouth. I can't say I know what raw fish actually tastes like, but it's very chewy. By the time the lettuce was all mushy I still hadn't chewed totally through the fish so I just swallowed it whole, not planning on finding out what it really tasted like. I had to do this twice before they stopped asking me to take more. Then more fish came. I've never had more fish stare up at me begging to be eaten than I did at this meal. Then when I thought the meal was over (I was surprisingly stuffed), they bring out more food and more food. It just kept coming. I thought I'd get out of having octopus...nope. It came. Bbq octopus on a stick. I ate a bite, but that was about it. Making it bbq octopus doesn't make it taste any better. Finally they served the last course which during orientation was a meal in itself. I don't know how Koreans eat this much and stay skinny! I couldn't fit the rice and fishy mixture that came because I was so full. The principle pretended to have a broken heart because I wouldn't eat it, but unless he wanted me to puke, I wasn't going to eat anymore no matter how much they wanted me too! All in all it turned out to be a good dinner I think. Though I won't be begging for them very often I can say that for sure. I wish I could take a picture of the places we go for teachers dinners, but I'm not sure how they'd feel if I took out my camera and started snapping pictures. Maybe once I get to know them better, but until then, it's just my stories!