Gianni's First Day of School

So my first full day of school was yesterday. I woke up at 7:30 to be at school by 8:20. Walking to school really only takes a few minutes. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to get the hot water to work in the shower so I guess its cold showers until I get that sorted out. I ate a kimbap triangle for breakfast along with some weird juice that kind of smelled like yogurt.Kimbap is like korean sushi only with different stuff in it. Its a very common snack. At school I sat at my desk while feeding information to my coteacher as she filled out forms and made various phone calls for me. They are apparently still figuring out my schedule and my coteacher told me that I probably still won't start actual teaching until Monday. I basically spent most of the day working on my introduction powerpoint, finding photos of Boston, my family, and friends. I decided to hand out the gifts that I had purchased for everyone, the principle, vice-principle, head teacher, coteachers.  I gave the principle his gifts as I was arriving and because he doesn't speak English it took me awhile to explain to him that what I had in my hand was a gift. All the teachers seemed to appreciate the gifts and I got thanks yous from everyone throughout the day for all the chocolate. So my desk is in the teachers' office on the second floor of the building and it seems like Korea has different rules about students going into the teachers areas. I know that in high school we weren't allowed to just walk into a teacher's office or the break room or whatever, but in Korea students RUN in and out A LOT between classes. They come in and hang on teachers, ask them for candy, ask questions about class or homework and are actually pretty loud. The kids seem to be interested in me but also afraid of actually speaking english to me. I've gotten a lot of stares and giggles as well as a few students yelling hello at me. One student walked by and told me she loved me and that I needed to remember her name. The other foreigner working at abbi's school told me that this has happened to him in public and that it is very embarrassing. I also had a student walk by and then do a double take when she realized I was a foreigner. She called me handsome (lol!). I've heard that you shouldn't let these comments go to your head though. At lunch time one of the other English teachers who I will be working with took me to the cafeteria and showed me the ropes. The lunch consisted of bibimbap, kimchi, soup, fish cakes, and some smoked fish. The lunch was very good, although the English teacher told me that Wednesdays are special lunch days so I guess I won't expect food that good every day. I feel bad that I can't remember my host's name but it was long and Korean and hard to remember. He asked me lots of questions about where I'm from and what I like. He asked me if I played soccer and seemed a little disappointed hat I didn't play. Lunch was a little rushed in that he finished way before me and I was rushing to finish. I've heard that Koreans eat quickly and don't like to sit for very long after the meal is over. After school my coteacher and I went to the bank to set up an account, unfortunately it was closed. We rushed back to my apartment to meet the internet guy who ended up not making it there until 5:30. Unfortunately  he was unable to get the internet to work and will have to come back again another day. I thought he might be trying to set up cable when he first came in because he turned the TV on, but it looked like he actually just wanted to watch a fishing show while he worked. After the failed attempt at getting internet in my apartment, I took the bus to Abbi's place. I thought we might get dinner but it turned out that someone had ordered pizza at her school so she wasn't hungry. We compromised and went to Home Plus. I sat in the food court and ate, while she looked for stuff she needed. Food courts in Korea are very different from what I'm accustomed to in the States. Basically there are all these stations that look like separate restaurants along a wall. You go up to the cash register, which is against the opposite wall, and order after looking at big display case full of plastic food. Apparently the food in food courts is pretty much the same as what you would get at a restaurant. I opted for a seafood Jjiggae and vegetable bibimbap. For two big things of food along with rice and side dishes I only spent 5,000 won. Less than five dollars. The food was really good and very comparable to Korean food I've had at restaurants here. The Jjiggae had whole shrimp in it, which is apparently a thing in Korea. People just eat them with the shells and heads on. I don't really have a problem with this because I usually eat the tails on my shrimp anyway. I'll post a picture of the meal with this post after I get my internet working. After I finished eating I met up with Abbi and we hopped on the train to downtown Daegu. Abbi's friend Niall, who she works, runs a trivia night at the bar foreigners frequent and he told us to come. We got off the train where the two subway lines meet and headed to the underground shopping area that is in the station. We met some of Niall's friends at the fountain in the middle and headed over to the bar. Downtown is very busy with lots of shops with big neon signs. I'm definitely interested in exploring it more. It turns out that not a lot of people showed up for trivia, but we still had a really good time. Abbi ordered some poutine, which I had a lot of, and we got down to the quiz. Apparently I have finally found a way to put my pop culture knowledge to good use. We got third place in the first round and came very close to winning the beer challenge in between. The team that won gave us some of the beer they won because we got so close and it was just me giving most of the answers. While I was able to hold my own in the first two rounds, the last round ended up being slang from around the world and we just couldn't cut it. Overall it was a very fun time though. I think we will go back next week. After the bar we headed home, unfortunately it didn't seem like the bus I needed to take was running. Bus stops in Korea have news ticker signs that tell you how long until each number bus will arrive, but there was no number next to my bus. I sat around for a while and then just ended up walking home, which is like two-ish miles. I got home at 12 and finished unpacking and then headed to sleep.