My school had a dinner this evening for two new teachers who have come to the school. There is a third that wasn't there or at least was not mentioned, because she will be taking over for Joe, one of the English teachers who is going to KNUE (Korea National University of Education - I think is the name. She is only scheduled to be here for the 6 months that he is gone, but it might have been nice to make mention of her. Oh well, perhaps they did and I just missed it.
The dinner was held at the same place we went to last fall. Ondal seating, (on the floor), a fair amount of Soju, and a great many Banchan (Korean side dishes). I had a new dish, or at least maybe if I have had it before, I didn't know what it was. It was Stingray. Felt kinda bad for the little guy, but it was pretty good. It was doused in a thick red sauce I was told was very spicy (it wasn't) and had two different veggies in the dish with it. It was a cucumber and something else. Either way, pretty good stuff. I focused on the Galbi and the Jjop jjae noodles and then hunted and pecked at the rest of it. It seems pretty rare when see something on a Korean table that I do not like.
It is often hard to fathom how so many restaurants can exist in one town, but I guess we are in a town of 160,000 people or so. I think that includes the surrounding area, but even so. There are simply so many restaurants, I think I could eat at a different one every day for two years and still not visit every one. There has to be 50 within a quarter mile of the bus station alone when you add in all the little tent restaurants that are line up along the back road. Many of them serve the same things which is why it seems odd that they can all co-exist, but I guess everyone has their favorites and people do seem to really love to go out to eat here. It's comparatively inexpensive versus the United States, especially for what you get. I am pretty much in food heaven.
Struggled with talking with the gym teacher and rowing coach tonight. He became very animated when he found out that I used to love to golf and had gotten down to as low as a 9 handicap. I am certain I would swing the club like one of Jerry's kids at this point, but I am excited to try again. I am in much better shape than I was two years ago so I think it would be a little easier to move the ball around the course. Now I need to have my golf shoes shipped over from the states. I would have my clubs sent as well, but I think that would be horribly expensive. Maybe I can bring them with me when I come back in August. We'll see.
I will go into more depth on the diversity and lack there of about all the restaurants later. Hope to add some photos of some of my favorites and definitely try out the steak place I found the other day. The sign said, "Steakuh, Winuh, Saladuh, Soupuh. 11,000 won". Wondering what that is like. Seems like I spoke with someone recently that said they had been there not long ago. Need to remember who it was...Sam maybe?

A few days ago in my teacher's room, where the majority of the teachers have their desks, they pulled a 'ya ya workshop'. It's a term my father always used when it came to a bunch of people running around looking busy, but pretty much getting nothing done. The powers that be had decided that with a new semester should come everyone switching desks. So, at 2 p.m., the ya ya workshop commenced with a lot of movement, but not a lot of results. I explained to my co-teacher Jude what was going on concerning a ya ya workshop, its definition and such, and she had a good chuckle. The next day, she asked me what the term was, because she had tried to explain it to her husband or a friend that evening and had forgotten the term.
Now today, as I am trying to learn Hangul and keep pestering her by asking about terms in my book, she showed me a new English book and it had three frame comics. On the outside were opposites, and the middle, I assume, was to be the mean. (As I later found out they were talking about "the Golden Mean" - whatever that is.) So the first frame was a fat guy like me with no caption, the middle was a healthy looking person working out, with the caption, "Fit", and then a gaunt looking person on the far right with the caption, "Under-weight". She asked if the first box should be labelled "Fat", and I said it could be, but what they were probably looking for was "Over-weight".
The next three frames: A person with bags under their eyes obviously working late with the caption "workaholic". The far right was a guy kicking back in his office chair with the caption "Lazy" and in the middle appeared a girl looking at a computer screen, typing with one hand, writing with the other and the phone stuck between her shoulder and her head with no label. Jude asked me what it should be. She asked, "Diligent?" I said, "Ohh, good word. But maybe ya ya workshop is better"

I have forgotten how to do everything on this. I suppose I should re-learn the lot of it...and actually do some writing...though I've done some....it's just been on Word and saved on my pute...hmmmmm