Amigos del Republico de Korea

My homeboy Dee left on Thursday morning. I would say that Dee has been my best friend over here and it sucks that he bounced back to Bushtopia. His departure helped me realize that I have been here a long fucking time. The relationships I have formed with the people around me in this country are only possible with time, emotional bonding and booze.

I share a bond with the other foreign teachers at my school just by the sheer virtue that we are all foreign together. We all have cards in our wallets labeling us "aliens" and we often feel like that is a correct label as we navigate through the streets of Seoul - sometimes this country feels like a whole different planet. Working together during the week, we share experiences inside the walls of the school as well as outside. We share many of the same frustrations, delights, laughs, taste in movies and music, and culture-shocks. We are often referred to at school as the "foreign teachers." It sounds silly to me now, but when I first arrived I thought that when people spoke of the foreign teachers they were talking about the Korean teachers. In my mind they were the foreigners and I was normal - boy was I wrong. It has become so ingrained in my head that I am foreign that I had some trouble one night at an ATM. You had to choose between "domestic" or "foreign" ATM cards on the main menu. I kept hitting "foreign" even though I was using the bank card from my "domestic" Korean bank account. I have some trouble viewing myself in any way as an unforeigner.

We all had an awkward incident last night as we left work on a Friday evening. Just by happenstance, about five of us foreigners walked out of the school at the same time as a crew of about ten Korean teachers and our afternoon boss. We all walked down the street together having discussions and mingling with co-workers - foreigners and Koreans walking and talking as one. It was quite delightful walking down a street I walk daily alone with a big group of friends and co-workers. Then, as we neared the subway station, all of the Koreans abruptly said goodbye, waved and walked in a restaurant together. They had no problem walking down the street with us (or maybe they did and they just hid their disguist of us dirty, smelly foreigners, reeking of freedom) but there was no way we would be invited in to dine with them or even made aware of their dinner plans. Awkward. Really made me feel like we were the outcasts - the unpopular kids in middle school, the jewish family at KCCC, the black guys trying out for the hockey team, the white guys trying out for the basketball team, the only sober guys at a crackhouse, a couple straight guys at a lesbian bar, the fat guys at an anorexia convention, the al-Qaeda members at an NRA rally in Kentucky - you get the picture.

Times like this are when I rely on my foreign group of friends. I didn't even want to go to dinner with the Koreans - we had plans to take the new teacher to barbecue in our neighborhood - but I just feel like these socially awkward situations happen often, are pretty fucked up and it's good to have people to whine to. And the fact that I have them to go out to dinner with when the Koreans ditch us is kinda nice too.

Outside of my group of friends at school, I have been here long enough to meet some other people around town. I've met up with some of Brick's old buddies, ran into an old Camp friend I've hung out with a few times and even made some friends of my own. After ten months in this land I'm starting to feel somewhat established as a resident of Seoul. It has happened more than once that I will be out at a bar and run into people I have met on other nights - I find it weird that I run into familiar faces in Seoul, Korea.

Tonight, I'm meeting up with a friend of a friend of a Kansas friend. We're going out to celebrate Canada Day Eve and see a couple bands that I dig over here. It'll be nice to meet some new people that speak my language and make my non-Korean, Korean circle of friends a little wider.

Much Love from Seoul