Fast Times at Koryo High: On the Consumption of a Great Deal of Octopus

The past couple days have seemingly whizzed past me. Each day is filled with a various touristy activity with a different member of Rotary. Its nice to get to know these members though, I feel truly connected to the club now. Its from my understanding that I am the first exchange student they have hosted in twenty years. I don't know the validity of this as my host father mentioned it and he has become infamous for getting his facts jumbled up in translation.

Tuesday came around and I was given a tour of Koryo High School with Hiroshi and another member of Rotary. The school is exquisite in design and seems pretty simple to navigate at this point, especially as I will be sitting in the same classroom for the better part of everyday. I was surprised to learn that the students do all of the cleaning in the classroom and they have twenty minutes set aside everyday for it. In addition, the schedule is equally as strange. On Monday's and Thursday's I have school from 8:30 to 3:30, with club activity to follow after that, however, on Tuesday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's, I have a fabled 'seventh hour' which lasts until 5:15 or so. Its safe to say school will consume my life, seeing as I have an hour commute one way. I also have to give a speech on the first day of school introducing myself. The issue being, it's in Japanese. To the entire school. And staff. That's roughly 1,300 natural born human beings. It's a bit daunting at this point. I was then invited to play soccer with my 'host brother', he's 35 with a wife and two kids, I use the term loosely. I was initially very scared seeing as he played in college and appeared to be pretty good. With some people you can just tell. It was a lot of fun despite the fact that I was far and away the worst player. It's never good when people can't tell that you played in high school. I even met a guy who had tried out for the Minnesota Thunder a couple years back, small world.

The next couple days were filled with various activities such as the hitting up the Hiroshima Art Museum, braving a Japanese Haunted House with a former race car driver and my first Rotary meeting.

Yesterday, I piled into a van with a Japanese family I had not met ever before, save for the father once or twice and headed to someplace. Hiroshi had told me, but I had no idea what he meant. This was one of the more horrifying experiences I have had. But it turned out to be a lot of fun. We drove to Shimane , the least populated area in Japan, and went to an aquarium. The drive was beautiful, as green mountains jetted up from both sides of the road. The aquarium was nice and the ocean it was by was absolutely beautiful. We stopped off at a fish market on the drive back and took in the sights and smells of a Japanese fish market.

As for the cuisine, its excellent. However, they have been feeding a great deal of Octopus. I have had octopus in various incarnations for the past three days, whether it be raw or fried. Its not really my thing but its slowly growing on me.

All for now