meet and greet.

My Thursday training mission went much smoother as I was familiar with the terrain and my stress levels were considerably lower. I made it to and from Changwon without incident and realized how much more I enjoy the Tuesday/Thursday schedule over Monday, Wednesday, Friday: it isn't such a flurry of action at every turn.

In the evenings, I had been eating Kim Bop - the Korean version of sushi - as it was the only thing I knew how to order and could be sure of the vegetarian nature of it. Brandon, the HR guy, had brought Brent and myself out to lunch at the kim bop place downstairs from work on my first day so I learned how to say, "vegetable sushi, no ham" (they tend to like to sneak ham into all sorts of things, a slight nuisance for me). So, my diet for the first few days consisted of kim bop for dinner and some kind of pastry for breakfast/lunch.

Busan has an alarming number of bakeries - something I was not anticipating. There is one omnipresent chain called "Paris Baguette" that labels everything in English and Korean and makes some mighty tasty, gluttonous delights. There are also other smaller chains and independent bakeries all over the place. My first few weeks I definitely took advantage of that and would go to Paris Baguette every morning for my breakfast pastry. Because Korea was never colonized by a European power, the prevalence of bakeries seems counter-cultural and out of place, but I am not complaining!

We had decided, my fellow teachers and I, that we would go out on Friday evening to get to know one another and to officially meet outside of the workplace. After work Lynn led us downtown to an area that is known for its bar scene, as there are two large universities in the vicinity. We went out to supper for this fabulous fried rice with all sorts of seafood that is cooked on a private burner at your table - you are responsible for the observation of the food and temperature control. Delicious! We then made our way to a bar called "Thursday Party" - an infamous foreigner hang out - Brent and I were overwhelmed by the number of white people. We decided to move on. We landed at a bar called OL 55, another foreign run place but with much better music and a more relaxed scene. We played pool, drank Korean beer (which is surprisingly tasty), and had a chance to glimpse the social personalities of one another. It was a wonderful treat and hugely gratifying to realize that I enjoyed my co-workers.

Feeling the week's exploits begin to pile onto my psyche, I decided to call it a night around 3am and shared a taxi home with Brent (he and I were living in the same neighborhood).

I survived my first week.