Let’s see . . . the days are already running together. So here are highlights from the last few days.

FIRST – I have a mailing address (it’s for the school, which is the best place to send mail):

Lori McLeese

Suseong Kate School

1288-29, Jisan-dong

Suseong-gu, Daegu

SOUTH KOREA

Lots and lots of placement testing for the students. I was excited to see that the school will have a great number of younger students (I had been told upper elementary to high school). It’s so exciting to be back in a classroom! The ability of the students ranges from “the blank stare” to quite decent conversationalist. We’re having a staff meeting this afternoon (Saturday) to find out what each of us will be teaching. I’m hoping for the younger students, either the reading or speaking modules.

The first morning in my apartment (Thursday) I went to use my hand held shower. I turned the sink faucet on and let the water run. But it wouldn’t get warm. Oh, I forgot. The temperature controls are such that the heat and the hot water can’t be on at the same time. So I scurry back to the main room and turn off the heat, turn on the hot water. Scurry back to the bathroom. Turn the water on, and sure enough, it warms up. So I’m ready to use the shower. I push the only knob I see, thinking it is the shower control. It’s not. It’s the stopper for the sink. Hmmm. Look around. See no other controls, knobs, buttons, etc. And I’m getting very cold. And feeling very stupid. I turn the water on and off, but that doesn’t affect the flow of water to the shower head. I pick up the shower head, turn it over, see nothing there. Getting colder. And feeling stupider. Turn the water back on. Just start poking. And pulling. Finally pull what looks like a permanent part of the sink fixture, think I’ve broken the sink, when all of the sudden, whoooooooooshhhhhhhhh. Okay. Not exactly whoooooooooshhhhhhhhh. More like driiibbbbbbbbb-bble. Nonetheless, the shower is working. Victory.

Tried my first street food yesterday. Not sure what the name of it was. But it was tasty. On a break two other teachers and I were walking through the neighborhood. All along the sidewalks there were people squatting, selling their wares. Mostly foodstuffs. Stands of hot noodlelike dishes, rice cakes, fish cakes, pancakes type things. So Chanta (another teacher) and I shared a bowl of what seemed like gnocchi with tobasco sauce. With a little fish thrown in. We then bought a bag of bread-like, pancake-y, sort of sweet, but not too sweet, things. Some were shaped like little peanuts (and had peanuts in them), others were shaped like walnuts with a sweet fish paste inside (go figure). The streets were lined with women and men selling live fish (looked like tadpoles), dried fish, dried squid (huge mothers), bok choy, sprouts, and vegetables I’ve never seen before.

Last night (Friday) we were taken out as a staff for our “Welcome to Kate School” dinner. To a traditional Korean restaurant. Sitting on the floor (which was heated – I love that!) at a table with burners in the center of the table. And many, many bowls of, well, I’m not sure what, but it was good. Lots of bowls. Everything is in a separate little bowl. I pity the dishwasher. I was sitting near the owner of the school, Mr. Kim (of course), and he suddenly exclaimed, “Lori-ga!” I’m not sure what the “ga” means, but everytime someone says it to me instructions are coming. Not quite, but almost, the equivalent of “Hey, lady!” Maybe it’s just a way to get someone’s attention. Mr. Kim, through the aid of an interpreter (he doesn’t speak any English, he says it gives him a headache), told me I was holding my chopsticks incorrectly. I was trying to move both of them. He showed me how to hold them the proper way, anchoring one against your thumb and moving the other like a pencil. Throughout dinner if I slipped and reverted back to the “improper” way of holding chopsticks, I would hear, “Lori-ga!”

International diet trick #1: If you don’t know how to use the utensils, you won’t eat as much. Because it takes twice as long to get food to your mouth because you’re always dropping it.

Halfway through the dinner I was trying to pick up bulgogi (marinated beef) that is served with slippery, clear noodles. The noodles seem like they are miles long. They just keep coming and coming and coming out of your bowl. I couldn’t figure out how to get them on the chopsticks and into my mouth without looking like I was a 4 year old slurping spaghetti. One of the other teachers explained to me to bite the noodles and let the remainder drop back into the bowl. Okay. So I had picked up some noodles, was putting them in my mouth, and heard Mr. Kim exclaim, “Lori-ga!” It startled me such that I gasped, causing me to slurp the noodles, which proceeded to flip up and slap me on the forehead. We had not been given napkins, so I was trying to keep my composure, gracefully wipe the bulgogi juice off my forehead, and turn my attention to the senior Mr. Kim. I decided that I probably had had enough to eat (though I was still hungry . . .)