Travelling Circus - Take 2

Thursday...

After a 2 hour journey in a coach, to a school somewhere 2 hours away came...

...an exact replica of the shenanigans from a couple of days ago. The students were a mix of ages and abilities, but the routine is inflexible...so many had no idea what was going on at all. This time there was a very big stage with a curtain, which delighted those acting in 'Smellarella'. I was still observing from between my fingers, as it was still far too complex for me to grasp after only one viewing. Someone made an amusing joke, saying that I should take over the role of Smellarella. I chuckled on the outside, but on the inside I was jumping off the top of a very tall building. I am not going to put on a dress, pretend I smell bad, go to an imaginary party, and marry a girl dressed up as a boy infront of a load of bewildered kids and dumbstruck teachers. It's not going to happen. I would rather eat my own feet.

As the kids' level of English at this school was a little low, many were restless and spoke a lot of Korean. After the day was over one of the foreign teachers said to me 'I wonder what was wrong with those kids?! Must have a discipline problem at this school.' Actually, there was nothing wrong with the kids my dear friend. Rearrange these words to make 2 well known phrases: workmen; bad; tools; blame; their; tit; you; are. I can see I have a lot of work to do here...and it's going to get messy.

After the journey back to Gongju, Ellena (actually her real name is Erica. I changed it to Ellena in case she somehow got to read this. But I haven't changed anyone else's name and it's pretty damn obvious who I'm talking about. Ah sod it. They won't find this.) - Erica suggested going to Daejon for dinner. I agreed as I thought it would be a good chance to get to know people better. So Erica drove in her small car that couldn't go to Daejon to pick me up when I arrived in Korea, and myself, Smellarella, and the girl/guy Korean/American all went along too.

When we arrived I discovered the main reason why we came here...to go to an American restaurant (TGI's). Great. Ellena said she has only eaten Korean food once since she got here several months ago (and also has no Korean friends). I said maybe we shouldn't go there, as I would like to eat something and there might not be anything for vegetarians. They agreed, and decided on the Outback Steakhouse instead...which was a fantastic alternative. There was nothing at all without meat or fish, but luckily they agreed not to put shrimp into the pasta dish they had....which was kind of them. Twas actually very nice, especially as it was accompanied by a very large glass of beer. The beer was good as it softened the pain of sitting through the ordering process...which took forever as two of the people were on a no-sugar diet, and had the waitress running back and forth to ask the chef if there was any sugar in various dishes. Their aim is to last a month with no sugar (it kills off some sort of bacteria I am told). I give them a few more days before they give up on the idea.

I ordered a large chocolate fudge brownie for dessert. I didn't really want it.