Rakhi: It's been another crazy day in my life in Korea! Today was my first proper day at school. It began with a live broadcast of me introducing myself (translated by my co-worker) which was beamed into every room in the school! The celebrity treatment didn't stop there, everyone wanted to speak to me, touch me and ask lots of (personal) questions. After the broadcast I watched how my co-teacher conducted three grade 6 classes and one grade 4 class, but not before I had introduced myself to each class and let the students give me a grilling. I had kids aged 12 asking me about my first love, my favourite food, my age and commenting on my 'big eyes' (not the norm here!).

After the lessons me and my co-teacher went down to lunch which was about as peaceful as listening to a pneumatic drill; the kids here are sweet but too hyperactive, nothing like their Japanese counterparts i'm sure! I was dreading lunchtime as Korean food can be pretty hit and miss. I've had some lovely stuff like galbi and kimbop (Korean sushi) but seen counteless rank things that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole; like whole pigs faces in the market. Anyway, it was surprisingly vey tasty. I had some really nice sticky rice with beans in it and a spicy veg soup.

After lunchtime I had to attend a staff meeting where I again had to introduce myself (the speech is getting pretty polished now, I reckon I can do it in my sleep). After the meeting it was home time and as me and my teacher were heading to the English room another teacher stopped us and asked my co-teacher something in Korea. When this other teacher had gone my co-teacher turned to me and asked if I would like to go and eat a pigs face! She explained that the vice principal had just bought a new car and apparently, it's customary in Korean for people to bless new cars with a pigs face in order to keep it and everyone in it, safe and accident free. Now, it's really impolite to refuse offers in Korea especially if the invite extends from someone with high status (like my vice principal) but there was no way I was eating a pigs face! I asked if it would be rude if I didn't have any but my co-teacher said it would be OK as long as we at least stopped by the ceremony. When we got downstairs it turned out that the face had already been carved up (but features were still visible). The car had all it's doors and bonnet open and a mat had been laid out in front of it. The men were taking it in turns to put some money into a whole dead dried fish, throwing alcohol onto the car and bowing in front of it. Once this had been done chopsticks were passed around which I politely refused and paper cups of this rice booze stuff. I thought it would be rude not to have anything so had a little swig of the booze. I think they were pleased that I partook in the festivities. Weird custom or what!