Meetings

I have been to a lot of meetings since I have been to Korea. Some have been about my housing situation, some have been about my lesson plans and others have been way more fun. Koreans tend to interpret the word meeting very loosely. Last week I was told there would be teachers meeting Wednesday at 3 o'clock. I asked my co-teacher what the meeting a\was about and she told me it was a sports meeting. I thought this meant we would discuss the schools athletic program, but she told me I could dress in gym clothes if I wanted to. It turned out to be a "volleyball meeting". Apparently every Wednesday the teachers get together while they are on the clock to play volleyball. Every April there is a tournament between schools and our school is supposed to be one of the better schools in the city. My principal was very eager to know if I played volleyball when I arrived at the school, now I know why. When I walked into the gym I could not believe how serious these teachers took the sport. I woman in her late forties was doing warm up laps around the gym and jumping rope. Everyone was in track suits and bumping and setting balls to one another. I was intimidated, but I figured what I lacked in volleyball skills I could make up for in my size. That's right my size, I am the second tallest player on the court. If we were playing basketball they would definitely have me at center (I love this country). I definitely lack the experience that these teachers do but I was able to hold my own. I will now have a sports meeting every Wednesday.

Here is a picture of the gym.

After my sports meeting I had a men's meeting. The men's meeting was held after school at a restaurant 10 minutes from school. 11 other men and I sat down at a typical Korean style restaurant and ordered some food. We had Duck Bulgolgi and a wide variety of side dishes. Shortly after we sat down the bottles started popping and the makeju and soju started flowing. I am not sure that men bond so much differently on the other side of the "large pond", but men here do it with a zeal I have never seen before. There was the traditional ceremonial ways in which the alcohol was served by one man to another, but all in all it just loosened everyone up to get to know there co-workers better. I love the family style nature to the meals. There were 3 table grills for the 12 of us and at any given time you would have 3 to 6 men stirring the food or digging into the duck with their chopsticks. After about 3 hours of eating, drinking , and camaraderie we moved the meeting from the restaurant to a HOF. HOF's are bars were you have to order Anju (drink snacks) in addition to your drinks. After another hour and a half at the HOF I decided it would be best to leave everyone at the HOF and make my way to the subway (I have no idea what time everything actually ended). The next morning was great, there was a definite bond that had been built between myself and the other men. We smiled at each other a little wider and were a little freer in the way we try to communicate. Both meetings were effective in their aims. The Korean people are very communal and they structure their lives in ways that foster deep relationships with the people they work with. I have worked with good friends before, but I have never seen a workplace that is so intentional and inclusive in the way that it trys to bring people together.