Korean Bus Drivers and Korean Chicken

School is still going well.  I usually like to get to school at least an hour before my classes to give myself plenty of time to prepare for my first class, but Friday I did a little boo boo.  My co-teacher and I decided to catch the 10:40am bus to school but somehow we were both late for the bus even though I was at the stop 3 minutes before 10:40.  We hopped on the 70 bus at 11:30 and only had 20 minutes to get to school.  Oh all the days for the bus driver to be on his Sunday drive and not in his drag racing mood it had to be the day we were going to be cutting it close.  Yes, usually the bus drivers here whip around the turns 20 miles over the speed limit.  The buses seem to be the fastest vehicles on the road.  We made it to school at exactly 11:50 and taught the class.  Wheew.  That was close.  The last thing I want to do is be late for school in the second week of teaching.

On another bus driver note, I later got a ride on the school's bus after Friday's class because the kids were off to see a musical.  Let me first describe the school bus.  It is yellow, like all school buses, but small like a van.  We had the whole 5th grade, teacher, me and the bus driver.  Let me calculate..... that is 11 kids + 3 adults in a normal sized van.  Talk about cramped.  The fun part was the bus drivers driving.  We were suppose to be at the cultural center at 1:30pm and left at 1:23pm with 8 km to travel.  The roads here wind like a snake but the bus driver literally had his foot to the floor the whole way.  The kids in the back were yelling "whuhhhhh" each time we screeched across a turn and I was holding for dear life on the handle above the window.  We traveled the 8km in less than 7 minutes which usually takes the large buses 12 minutes on a crazy fast day.  The only times we slowed down was when we got to a speed check point.  There is usually cameras on the road and they will snap your photo if you are going too fast and the common thing I've seen Koreans do is drive 30-40km/hr faster than the speed limit and when they see a sign saying that a speed check point is approaching, they slow down, pass the check point and speed right up after it.  The only thing that keeps people going slow here is speed bumps, which are pretty common to find.


This week's highlights in food was the chicken we got on Thursday night.  Juyoung, my neighbor, had acquired 10 magnets from this one chicken place called 굽네치킨 and decided to have that on our go stop night.  Usually for 14,000 won you get this...

but fortunately it was free for us.  That is a full chicken but is half the size of a chicken you would find in the states. Don't let the size fool you the chicken was amazing.  Slowly roasted and less fatty as the american cousin this chicken was delicious.  To top off the whole experience it was delivered free in 10 minutes or so.  I'm banking on Korea having a health problem like the states in a few years because junk food is way way way too easy to get.

Next, I'll post my new phone and my travel plans for Chuseok in 2 weeks.