Withdrawal

So, hello there. It's my fourth day of school, my sixth day in Osan, and my seventh day without smokes (yay me!).

Seems like it will be a very low-key day today. I believe we have student council elections early on, followed by the kindergarten welcoming. I think a large portion of the rest of my day will be spent observing classes. Sitting in on 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade is on the schedule.

Yesterday I sat in on 1st and 2nd grade classes. These were not English classes, just normal everyday classes. In the first grade, I have no idea what was being taught. I learned that the 1st graders are cute and very busy. English lessons don't start until the 2nd grade, so we're weren't really able to communicate. They did enjoy babbling at me a bit in Korean. We also took them on a tour of the school and to see the English room. They were quite happy.

Second graders have a little more English. Most of the time they like to say "hi" or "hello". They did this often while I was in their class. They were learning to count to 100. The teacher had me count it out in English so they could hear that as well. It was rather amusing.

Lunches. I was scared to death of lunch. I didn't know what the food would be like or if I would like it at all. Monday I didn't get to eat lunch because I had to have a medical exam. Tuesday I dreaded it all morning. Finally, lunch came and it was excellent. We had a soup made with kimchi and tuna. Kimchi is typically cabbage that is fermented a bit and made spicy. Other vegetables can also be made into kimchi I guess. All I know is it is good. There was also rice and a small salad. The salad had a little tofu and some sprouts, but otherwise fit my perspective of normal. There was a noodle dish that also had chicken (on the bone). The principal encourage me just to pick it up and eat it, but I felt that would be a bit rude so I persisted in trying to pick the meat off with my chopsticks (quite unsuccessfully). There were also boiled carrots. I do not like carrots. I did not eat them.

On Wednesday, I was worried about lunch again. What if Tuesday was a fluke? What if I didn't like the food? What if it made me have to poo?! Well, lunch came and was even better than Tuesday. There was a spicy bean sprout soup and a large portion of rice (with corn, shrimp, ham, and other goodies in it). The salad had a mustard based dressing. There were onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and kiwi. Yes, kiwi. There was a side of a dish that I haven't learned the name of. It's like kimchi but prepared a bit differently. It was basically tender, really spicy radishes. I hate radishes. They are gross when served raw in salads. These were delicious. There was a little bottle (travel size shampoo sized) of what I thought was milk. Il-kyu told me it was actually yogurt. It was really liquidy and super sweet. Nummy! I look quite forward to lunch today.

Tonight they're having a welcoming party for me. After school Il-kyu is taking me to a Japanese sushi place where we'll meet all the other teachers. One of the teachers who lives in Osan will escort me home around 8 or 9. I've been led to believe there will be a large amount of drinking involved (FTW!).

Hmm.... what else? Oh, it's like my 8th day without my 360. Ack! I have so many games to play! I still have games from before I left in my queue and now I have Afro Samurii, Matt Hazard, Star Ocean, and Resident Evil 5. My power supply got blowed up before I had the voltage converter. Now I have to wait for a new one to come all the way from America. *sigh* I guess at least by the time it gets here, Il-kyu will have also had our new tv delivered (the one the school is buying us). I'm really worried that I'm going to be disappointed when it's not as amazing as the desk and couch. I will keep my hopes high though! :D

Is this a long enough post? What haven't I talked about yet? Are there more differences I need to address? Perhaps if commenters ask detailed questions, I will be forced to respond via posting another blog.... Get on it!

Aaron