MT Training: The Myth, The Truth
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2005
1
21
49
Trip End
Aug 29, 2006
Daecheon Beach,
Korea Rep.
Monday, November 14, 2005
However, the Korea University students called me up at my weakest moment and requested that I present myself at their "MT" event - explained as a relaxing day of camping. I thought this was some Kon-glish thing. Kon-glish is the fusion of Korean words with English to create a hybrid word that aids in comprehension, etc. Theoretically it is supposed to make sense to English sepeakers, I have not found that to be the case as I have realized it still only makes sense to Korean - making it Korean not English.
Well anyways I thought it sounded harmless. I was wrong. I had promised myself to take a holiday and relax, but alas my mouth was faster than my brain. The Uni Students explained that this was a Memebership Training (MT, so it turned out to be an acronym not Kon-glish) event. I knew this to be a bad omen immediately. I have spent only a little time with them, however this time always includes the consumption of alcohol in copious amounts.
So we arrived and the soju flowed. At arrival they designated one of the two rented rooms a "survivor room", in honour of the beloved show. At this time I was extremely concerned, I thought "I promised myself low key damnit!". Up in flame that was. They do sing alot when drunk, it is an essential part of Korean culture. Two of their members graduate this February, so it was an all out assualt of the liver. I paced myself. This was my best choice of the last day and a half as we had an allnight event. By allnight I mean until 7AM the next morning. Complete with a accelerant propelled beachfront bonfire and delectable meal of fresh seafood at 5AM. At a restaurant.
I following morning I was declared SURVIVOR, as I was the only one without a massive hangover. It probably helped that I was the only foreigner with them. They stopped at a pharmacy on the way home and half the best got off to get meds.
It was great though, despite the additional stress to the body. I got to see an essential part of University and Korean culture. So I have no regrets.
So I made it through the week as usual on a full schedule. There were some interesting developments as always, but more work related than anything else - such as an additional 1,200,00 Won I am suppose to spend. They don't want me to buy anything I want/need to buy though, so I am not sure what they want me to do with it. Mercifully Friday arrived and I was ready to crash. So I did. Rather anticlimatic.
Saturday I went to Daejeon and spent the day shopping with one of the teachers I trained with. I stayed longer than I intended. Got on the wrong train on the way back too! First time its happened yet. It normally wouldn't be a problem but for the fact that it was a KTX fast train. I overshot my destination by about 175 KM in the half hour I was on the train. It took me 2 hours extra to get back. I should have been home at about 9:20PM but didn't arrive till 1:00AM. Ugh. My train was suppose to be boarding but it was a different one! They lied...
On Sunday I went back to Daejeon after getting 1 hour of sleep because the neighbours got a new dog and they were away for the weekend. It was the first time I have ever really wanted to kill an animal. I caught a movie with some different teachers leaving for Canada in 9 days after a year here. Went to the Costco again to get a few items. Then got on the right and went back home. Had a beer and cheerios for dinner (white trash-esque, no?) and got some blessed sleep.
Well that wrap up yet another week of adventures from here in Korea. Until next time, this is Jeremy from the little K.
