Staff Dinner

Sigh. I think everyone feels the same way about staff dinners: there's fake conversation about nothing much and then, inevitably, talk about work. I mean, it's nice to see your colleagues outside of work, but for the most part, I always really just want to go home and never mind all this casual banter. We used to have a lot of staff dinners, especially for birthdays, at the bank, and I always felt like a fish out of water. Almost like I was invited to a party where I knew no one (though I knew everyone?). It's almost like when the armour of the physical work structure was gone, there was nothing left to say to each other. Isn't that terrible? It doesn't really matter about that though. Suffice it to say I wasn't really psyched about dinner last night. I was feeling tired and really just wanted to run. BUT we were leaving school early (holla!) AND the last dinner out with the other first grade teachers was rather pleasant, actually. I felt like I got to know them better and they became more comfortable around me. Plus, we had duck, which is the best Korean thing ever (other than pumpkin soup).

After that long-winded lead-up, my report of dinner is rather short. We drove to a restaurant on the outskirts of Anyang and right beside a beautiful park that showed fall in all its splendor, nestled right beside a mountain. This place was gorgeous.

Can't you just imagine this place in Yorkville?

Dinner was vegetarian Korean food and we sat on the floor (which, much to my elation, was heated!). No one talks about school here, which is pretty much exactly the opposite as it is at home when teachers get together. They really don't talk about their kids here...I sort of missed it. I love talking about them: hearing what's going on in their little lives, hearing their stories. Strange cultural difference, isn't it? All in all, it was pretty good. I'd love to take the other teachers to Uncle Don's though and have them all eat burritos. I wonder how that would go over. ;)

Here's all of us with a shot of the park in the background. My Man (who allegedly hates getting his picture taken, hence none just of him) is the fella in the black suit at the front of the picture, in the centre.

After dinner was over, we retired to the park, I took some pictures, we had some coffee, and we laughed quite a bit.

My Man and his wife named their baby (pardon the spelling) Eun Chon. It means "Praise God". Another teacher said his kid's name is very similar, but his name means "Silver Bridge". Naturally, everyone thought that was hilarious...poor guy: he just named a kid something that sounded good, and we all mocked him for it. Did anyone mock Frank Zappa for his choice in (bizarro) names? Well, yeah, we mocked him too. I digress...

Here are the rest of the men I work with, save one. The women went back to school to teach supplementary classes, but the men stayed for a bit longer. I think they bond this way.

He's actually modelling in this pic.

Isn't he the cutest? He sits on my left, My Man on my right.

The gent on the left is the "Silver Bridge" baby daddy, and on the left, the manager of the first grade teachers. I thought he hated me for about two months. Now I know better ;)

And nooooow, Baywatch the MOVIE (what?!) is on TV. So I'm sitting pretty in the old apartment and just LOVING it. I figured that Mitch and CJ got married at the end, but they don't. Wow...what a complete (and wonderful) waste of time.