Health Day

Wednesday was health day at Mujin Middle School. I know what your thinking; it must have been a day of educating the students about their health and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Maybe we guided them in choosing a healthy diet or encouraged them to get enough sleep and exercise. Wrong. Health day is an afternoon of sports, good food, and alcoholic beverages. Each month the teachers pay a certain amount of money which goes into the Health Day fund. Once enough is collected, they take it out to an expensive restaurant and go wild. It is officially my new favorite unofficial holiday.

The morning begins as usual; show up early, teach the students English and go to lunch. After lunch however, the students are sent home and its time for the teachers to forget about the pile of work on their desks and have a bit of fun. The afternoon started off with a game of "Foot baseball", which believe it or not, is pretty similar to kickball. I was chosen to kick first so I stepped up to the plate. All eyes were on me and the room was tense. A lot was riding on this game. I ran up, took a mighty swing with my leg and watched the ball soar....right into the arms of the opposing teams outfielder. The game progressed better after this and my team ended up winning 9-5. It was a great time however, because most of my teammates were little old ladies which made for a very amusing time as they hustled around the bases and tried to catch balls.

The next sport on the agenda was table tennis. I quickly discovered that I was outmatched as I glanced around the room, noting the official sweatsuits the opposition wore and the serious look upon their faces. In the end, I managed to hold my own for large chunks of the match but they were too good, too consistent. Eventually I took a seat and sat on the sidelines amazed at their skill.

With the sports portion of Health Day concluded, we departed for Bong San Dong, a wealthy area to the south of town, with one purpose in mind...beef bbq! In Korea, pork usually eaten as it is more readily available here and cheaper. Thus, it was a treat for us to go to a beef restaurant. I walked in and grabbed a seat on the floor. A small army of waitresses promptly began placing a myriad of side dishes and drinks around the tables as everyone dug into the grub. The main course was tender slices of beef which are placed over an open grill in the middle of the table. Served with this is lettuce, onions, garlic, spicy bean paste, kimchi, and cabbage salad. In addition there were a few side dishes that I had never seen or tasted before: Coagulated cows blood soup (the hangover cure soup), raw cows liver, raw cows skin, and raw cow stomach lining. After a few rounds of beers and soju were "forced"upon me by the other teachers, I had worked up enough courage to try them all! Imagine this...the enormous, 6'2", 250 lbs Rugby coach sitting next to me and using my chopsticks to feed me raw cow skin prompting cheers from the other tables.

After stuffing ourselves on good food and drink, it was time to leave. Luckily I managed to leave before I would regret it at school the next day, so all in all it was a success! Healthy day was a great time to relax with the fellow teachers, converse with some new people, try some new food, and forge a few bonds with my co-workers.