The Koreans Finally Broke Me

I will edit this later. I am in a rush and do not have time to proofread.

Well the Koreans finally broke me. They got to me; they crushed my spirits. I guess it was a combination of things met with the right circumtsances than it was a willful attack on my chi. As of late I have not been sleeping well. Those who know me know that I have spells of insomnia. This week I was in the midst of such a spell. The day was Tuesday, the worst day of the week for me now. On this day I teach what would be like American fifth graders. This is the day I see Steve or "the middle-finger man", I have another class with two snooty girls that pretty much have given me all the convincing I need to get a vasectomy, and finally my last class is the one with four girls that act like Hannah Montana fans that have had too many Red Bulls.

Tuesday morning I was up at 5, 5:30, 6 and so on; you get the picture. I eventually conceded to awaken at 8 in the morning. I cooked breakfast and sat to enjoy a nice omlette when a knock came on the door. As soon as I opened it a woman barged in with a little meter-thingy-do and started walking around my apartment without saying a word. In America, I would probably have some choice words for this person. She walked in like she owned the place and went in every room. Come to find she was checking for gas leaks. She definitely went about it in an unconventional way that was at the very least bothersome. I settled down after an hour or so and decided to go for a run. I ran really far and was in the zone, feeling good.

When I eventually got to school I was dog-tired from my run and not in the mood to deal with the screaming, hacking-in-my face school children. It started right off the bat. All the kids were out of control all day. All of my notoriously bad classes were notoriously bad. Steve told me he hated me. The two girls wouldn't even talk to me, even when I asked them questions directly to their face. Needless to say that when I got to the last class full of girls I was utterly at my wits end and exhausted. I sit in my classroom and I know all hell is about to break loose because I hear them sprint down the hall screaming. They break into the room like there is a fire in the hall and chuck their belongings towards their assigned seats like shotput. Then they go Kindergarten Cop all over me; they dance all around and scream the lyrics to their favorite pop songs and top it all off with a sufficient guerilla style attack on my blackboard, writing and drawing all over it until it is a yellow board. I literally stand there watching them silently in disbelief, wondering to myself--"Christ Almighty, These are the kids are nuts." I can't even react to such an unbelievable display of adolescent insanity. I actually want to videotape it and put it on my blog.

I finally got out of work after what seemed like ten years of hard labor. I was going to go to the gym that night and work off some steam. I got to the gym and found that just the mere sight of Koreans was starting to anger me. After being subjected to the screams of Korean children all day the conversational tone that I heard at the gym was even now unbearable. I began to see the faces of my students in the visage of every passing Korean. I gathered my things and ran home to my happy place to cool down. Don't get me wrong; I am not looking down on Koreans. It is just that the contrast of culture had finally caught up to me.

I can now say that I have truly experienced culture shock.

KICKS ASS: I am going to Seoul this weekend for what should be a great weekend. My Grandfather turned 90 and is doing well. I met two guys that live right next to me that are good guys and love to run and workout.

SUCKS ASS: THE GAS LADY!!!!!