Management Training

we wound up going to "management training" weekend in the mountains this past weekend. What it had to do with managment I'm not really sure. I guess they were trying to build teamwork and spirit and all those things that employers usually like. Basically it just boiled down to a lot of drinking and staying up all night on Friday.

Typical of general Korean planning initiatives, the theory was to go hiking on Saturday morning, AFTER the evening festivities. As you may imagine, enthusiasm was somewhat tepid by ten o'clock on Saturday. Friday also happens to be all of the foreign teachers' hardest day, with teaching straight through from 2.30 to 8.00, which I can't emphasize enough, is enough to incinerate the hardiest minds. Then straight out for and an hour and half trip in the van, up the windy twisty roads, and then for mountains of galbi, kimchi, and constantly offered soju, from the director, which is rude to turn down.

They also had watermelon, mountains of watermelon, so it seemed a bit like a canadian BBQ. Koreans tend not to under-do the food though, so we were rather over stuffed, since it usually falls on the male foreigners to finish off the piles.

At that point we were conscripted into some sort of Korean gambling game, whose rules remain a complete mystery to me still. SOmething about throwing sticks in the air, and the way the exes turn...

We were staying in a sort of mountain chalet, and there was literally no way to sleep for anyone, since the gambling game continued in a raucous way, and the supposed sleeping room had the lights and TV on. Neither do Koreans seem to believe in lowering their voices for potential sleepers. I think it all has to do with the increased communality of their society, which has much more togetherness than Canadian. In the end the foreigners all just went to sleep around 6, when the less hardy koreans were fading off to bed.

A few hours later I, woke up and joined in with the noodle and kimchi breakfast, although they had helpfully brought some eggs for us as well. The director still wanted to hike, but large numbers of people weren't really into it, so we stayed around splashed in a river. When he and the couple of people who did go, finally came back, we bundled off to the city for another meal. After a couple of people were sick (I'm looking at you Jason), we cut out one planned stop at the giant refrigerator, and cut straight for the meal. After that it was getting on for 5:00 in the afternoon, and we were all dead tired, and ready for bed. All very educational though. Even the Irish girl was tired!

Korean People

Korean people have definetely got some differences worth mentioning. I may have mentioned that older Koreans, say 40-50+ are a tough bunch. They fight a lot. And drink a lot. The women and the men fight, like cats and dogs. They look weathered.

Its also interesting to see the much less cushy bringing up of children. Mothers don't think anything of smacking their kids in the street, sometimes quite hard.

Men sit crosslegged on the sidewalk.

Today the new gimbap place got their dancing girls... these ones much more scantily clad than usual, causing some embarassment for the potato seller... Well I guess its a bit of excitement for him. Still a very strange custom, as they don't seem to be instructed to look excited or anything, so it just looks sort of sad, with these two girls standing around out front trying to pull in business on a quiet street by doing a quasi-exotic dance.

Mountain Men

Koreans love their mountains. That's a fairly well established fact. They single handedly keep the crampon companies in business. Fortunately this means that there is an extensive network of men taking care of the mountains and those that climb them.

At the peak of our local hill there's a little hut which is manned (on week days) by one of these. What his actual job is I'm not sure, but I guess just to pick up the pieces if someone dies of exhaustion. Today he hailed me down to offer me some coffee. So, I couldn't really turn him down, he seemed so happy to do it, and it seemed very nice. Unfortunately, I didn't quite realise that he was going to brew it all up, at some length, and my time to return to school was getting closer and closer. Another group of hikers approached and they joined in, so we had little coffee fest up on top of the hill. The coffee was bit bizarre, but I felt pretty happy to have it, and he was a really jovial guy, so my very near to lateness and out of breathedness for class was fine.

These guys almost always give you something if you go up the hill, either candy, coffee, or just words of encouragement, and the usual "nice to meet you." So in combination with the generous ajumas you barely need to eat lunch if you go hiking.