Apparently at public schools around Jinju, the teachers play volleyball together every Wednesday. My co-teacher, Mrs. Choi, told me that volleyball is chosen because both men and women can play it equally. I was invited to play, but there was no way I was about to embarrass myself in fron of all these teachers by attempting a hands-on sport. If I didn't mention before, teachers at public schools have to rotate every 5 years, so we recently got a new batch of teachers, most of which participated. I was allowed to watch and be one of the referees. It was quite funny. The women weren't very good, and only a few men were (the P.E. teacher, big surprise). It wasn't a particularly competitive game, the teachers just do it for fun. They also all get in a good laugh when someone tries to kick the ball, or someone falls in a funny manner. So all in all it was quite enjoyable. 

This semester though I have extra credit class every Wednesday, so I couldn't participate if I wanted. That's a little sad because I'm sure I would have eventually grown balls big enough to play.

As I mentioned, we got about 8 new teachers (including one office worker, Insu, and an intern, Hye Jin). Yesterday we had our official welcoming party. We went to a Korean seafood restaurant that serves raw fish. It's not quite like sushi, most of the fish that was serves was pale white, and some still had the skin on it. There were tons of side dishes also, like fried soft, shelled crab, salads with unknown seafood creatures, I think some mini snail. I was sat at a table with some older women who can't speak any English, which kinda of sucked at the beginning. There was one male teacher who speaks a little, so mostly I was quite. 

Some of the new teachers were asked to stand up and give a toast, so you can imagine there was a lot of drinking going on. Eventually people started moving around, visiting other people. The P.E. teacher came over and kept talking to me even though he knew I couldn't understand him. He also made me drink a lot of beer. I tried to say a few things in Korea, and I guess I got some of it right because they all laughed when I tried to make a joke. The new science teacher also came over. He sounds like he has laryngitis and his voice is very raspy. He found out that I was married, after which I received the most commonly asked question in Korea, "when will you have babies?" Koreans are really blunt about asking this. I told him I was too young, to which he got upset and started yelling at me. Not a bad yelling, but more that he was drunk and couldn't understand my choice not to have babies. He also talked about American baseball teams. I told him I lived near Seattle, and he started talking about the Mariners. Then he said he like the Yankees and I told him to go away.

Eventually Insu and Hyejin came over. Insu is the new office worker, and he's pretty cute but speaks no English. Hyejin is the new intern who is very nice and speaks some English. They both told me later that they had a lot to drink. I think in Korean society, when your elders offer you a drink you are required to drink it. Then the principal came over, and his English is pretty bad but he insists on talking to me in English. He was saying something about the bad quality of Korean water, and the beer in Germany, and street festivals in Brazil. I really had no idea. By the end of the two hours I was a little tipsy, but definitely not as bad off as some of the others, especially the principle. 

All in all it was a great Wednesday, I got to laugh at the teachers who sucked at basketball, and got to know some of them (vaguely) better.