Tonight was our first "teacher meeting" of the year... also known as a staff dinner, where every staff member from the Principal down to the cleaning lady, sit and share a meal together! We usually go to a sashimi restaurant, but tonight I lucked out, because we ate Hanul, Korean beef! It's crazy delicious and really expensive!!! But, it's okay, because the school picks up the tab! Can't beat that! All of this meat was shared between 4 people! It's no wonder I've gained weight since living here!
I sat with Hyun Jung (left), Loola (my new co-teacher (right) and Okk!
... and then Hana and NaRae sat at the table next to us!
These are 5 of my favorite co-workers of all time in Korea! :)
After everyone finished eating, each of the new teachers got up and introduced themselves! Between each introduction, the special ed teacher (who plays the roll of an MC at our teaching dinners) gave a quiz with really random questions. All of the teachers were too shy to answer the questions, for fear that if they got the answer wrong everyone would think they were stupid...
I, on the other hand, didn't care! I asked Okk to translate the first question, and she said "What is the animal who gives the least amount of waste in the world?" hhhuuuuhhhhh? She said, "It doesn't make sense in Korean either! It's just a silly question." After no one answered, the special ed teacher said he would give us a hint and said "Choon-goo" which means China! I immediately yelled "PANDA!" and I was right! hahaha! I got the answer right to a Korean question in a room filled with overly educated Koreans! Talk about a confidence boost. My prize was a toothbrush! Hana and NaRae answered the questions right after mine and got toothrbushes too! :)
By 7:20pm, we were all stuffed and said goodbye to our table of leftovers!
Loola wanted to take a picture with me, but she made me stand way up in front so our faces looked the same size! How funny is that?!
Then, after dinner, we walked, in the rain, over to Caffe Bene on Songdo Beach with the group of 6th grade teachers. Last year. the 6th grade group was 7 women teachers (you've seen lots of pictures of them)... This year it's 5 women and 2 guys, which is totally changing up the mix, but it's been fun to get to know the 3 newbies! :)
I got home around 9:30pm and plopped down on the bed. I'm feeling blessed, once again, to have had such a fun night with my co-workers!