Bergie’s Work:
Things at Bergie’s work have been going well. Some of the administrative aspects drive her a bit nuts, but she loves the teaching and loves the students. One night, a bunch of her students invited Bergie and some of her colleagues out for a night on the town. Bergie teaches at a women’s university, so I of course tagged along. It was a blast. About 20 Korean women, Bergie, some of her colleagues, and our new friends Mary and Matthew grabbed some Korean barbecue (Samgyapsal) and had some drinks. 
We all wore funny hats. (I was a pirate.) And after dinner, we moseyed on over to the Noraybong (Karaoke Room), and sang the night away. Karaoke here works much differently than in the States. Instead of just singing to an entire bar, your group rents a private room, and you only sing to each other. Good times, Good times.
Other than that, Bergie’s job has been smooth sailing, which is good. And she is getting some great experience in her field. She’s busy grading right now, and she essentially only has one week left to teach, and then she’ll be on vacation until February.Tom’s Work:
My job has been going pretty well, too. I work for a university where I design and deliver fully online classes within their English program. This semester I created a course in presentation Skills and a course in idiom use. It is actually a pretty cool setup. A portion of the course each week always involves some sort of video lecture delivered by yours truly. I stand in front of a green screen while being filmed teaching the course I designed. It’s pretty funny because the final product always has some sort of interesting background behind me. So far, I’ve taught from Time Square, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, and from right in front of Big Ben. It’s been sweet.
The actual job itself is pretty straightforward, and I am enjoying the work. Working in Korea, however, also comes with a lot of required extra-curricular activities that just seem like bad policy. Most of the extra-curricular activities include lots of last minute meetings that you must attend and at which you must get drunk. It’s supposed to build camaraderie. And they don’t just want camaraderie between colleagues. They also want it between teachers and students.
Every university has this tradition known as MT. MT stands for Membership Training. But the fact is that Membership Training is actually not training at all. It is simply a big party where teachers and students come together to eat, drink, and sleep on the floor together - Korean Style. (Sounds like a bad idea, right?)
My MT was especially memorable because one of my colleagues, this Canadian guy, got very, very drunk and decided to start a fight with one of the students. Because I’m an old fuddy duddy, I was already asleep, but I woke up because I heard yelling, and when I stepped out to see what was happening, I found a bunch of students trying to pull my colleague and another student off of each other. I guess no punches actually got thrown, but it was pretty nuts. Turns out my colleague started it. He had decided that something the student had done was disrespectful to someone of his stature (a professor), so he told him to fuck off. The student didn’t take too kindly to that, so he told him to shove it up his ass. And that was all it took for them to want to kill each other.The next day, after my colleague had sobered up, he asked me, “So, was I as much of a dick last night as everyone says I was?” To which I replied, “Yes. Yes you were.”
The funny thing is that there weren’t really any ramifications for what he did. Everyone just chalked it up to too much booze. Which made me ask again, “Is getting drunk with your students really a good policy?” My Korean colleagues just said that the benefits outweigh the negatives, so it looks like I’ll be back at MT next semester. I can’t wait, because I’m pretty sure that Canadian guy did not learn any lessons, so who knows what the next MT will be like?
Bergie Turns 30
She was dreading it, but her 30th birthday arrived on October 5. We had a good time. We went to dinner at this fancy little French place. It was nice to have a meal that did not include Kimchi. After dinner, we went to our favorite local bar (called the Library) where a party of Bergie’s colleagues and friends were waiting. It was supposed to be a surprise party, but because surprising Bergie is next to impossible, she knew it was coming. It was fun anyway. And for a 30 year old, she’s still effing hot.
Hudak Visits
We had our first visitor. Shannon Hudak, my long lost cousin, dropped in on us for a week. It was great to have her. Shannon and Bergie took in the DMZ. We all checked out a cool palace. We sat in a pool where little fish eat the dead skin off your body (freaky). We visited the sea of Japan, and we ate some real crappy sushi. Actually, we ate a lot of different Korean food, and it turns out that Hudak is not really a fan of Korean. I’ll admit – there is a reason why Korean is not among the world’s most popular cuisines. We also walked – a lot! We took Hudak up and down and all over this crazy town. By the end of every day, we all collapsed from exhaustion.Unfortunately for Hudak, we’ve since stumbled upon all these cool spots in Seoul. And every time that happens we say, “Why didn’t we take Shannon HERE?” Sorry Hudak! It was great to have you anyways. And everyone else is welcome to visit, too.
X-mas in The Shit (AKA Vietnam)
We’ve locked in our holiday plans, and we couldn’t be more excited. Bergie and I are meeting our friends Juggy, Becca, Clint, and Jackie in Hanoi, Vietnam on December 21. From there, we are going on a Junk cruise (Junk is a type of boat) in the Halong Bay, then we are spending a few days touring around Hoi An, and another couple of days in Hue. After that, we’re hopping on a plane to Ko Samui to spend New Years on the beach in the Gulf of Thailand. We’re going to eat great food. We’re going to see amazing sites. And we’re going to get brand new suits tailor made for next to nothing. It is going to be AWESOME!!!
That’s basically the latest with us. We miss everyone like crazy, and we’ll try to do a better job of updating things more regularly. I have some congrats to send out:
- Meggy and Jeremy – Congrats on Theo! He’s adorable!
- Kev and V – Congrats on Linnaea! She’s wicked cute.
- Alexi and Steph – Happy 21st! When we get home, I'll let you take me out for a beer.
Hugs to all,
The Godfreys
P.S. - Check out our photos by clicking the pics links on the right. We've got a ton of new ones.
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