jrkorea's Diaryland Diary
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fri nite
I ran out of money completely but my credit card arrived in the mail, so that was good timing. Also Jon still owed me some money for the bike etc which I got today so now I feel rich again.
Was starving at work because of the fact we teach for 6 straight hours in the evening so have to order food into work to eat on the 10 min breaks between classes, today the delivery guy simply forgot!
Finished work at 10pm and headed straight into Seoul to see Jon who was already several drinks ahead of me. Nevermind, I soon caught up. We went out for a late meal of bibinbap and a beer at a local bar and then took a few beers home. It's always so nice to see each other again after a week apart. Bibinbap (not sure about spelling) is a bowl of rice with some wierd things and an egg on top, I really didn't like it at all but it was very cheap.
3:02 p.m. - Friday, Aug. 29, 2003
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hello
i met a random kiwi in the streets last night and went for a few fun beers.
i think there are all kinds of positions held by westerners about meeting other westeners on the street.
for example, some people take the position that why should you say hello to a stranger on the street just because they happen to be a foreigner? whereas others go out of their way to greet fellow foreigners, people who may be in the same situation as them an share some kind of affinity. One lady pounced on me yesterday as I was buying kimbap for lunch. "Westener, westener," she cried out gleefully, "white person!" she waved at me with both hands and big smiles, seeking acknowledgement, and then wandered merrily along her way.
i was the one who said a big friendly hello first last nite. actually, i confess this is because i mistook the random kiwi for a new teacher at our school (it was pretty dark and I was whizzing by on my bike). i work at a school with several native Canadian speakers but this poor guy had just arrived in the country and was the only native English speaker at his school and so he was quite keen to sit and have some good (flowing) conversation. he forgave me for mistaking his identity and not actually being the super friendly person he thought i must be when i first greeted him.
it was a good and fun and random night and so now i think i would have to say there is nothing wrong with saying hi to random strangers on the street. people who think it stupid to say hi to a westener because of the fact they are a westener maybe should make a point of saying random hellos to occasional Koreans too. if eveyone starts taking the time to say hello to our fellow man (especially the good looking ones) then the world will become a better place.
RANDOM EDIT: how many times have I used that word?
12:53 p.m. - Thursday, Aug. 28, 2003
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wet
ugh basically my already busted umbrella decided to die on me as just as i stepped out of the house into an avalanche of water. the entire metal frame collapsed and i has to run to the store to buy a new one. this was drenching torrential noah's ark type rain, ok.
finally i got to the store and four pretty Korean sales girls who spoke no English started fussing over me. i was bedraggled to say the least. my hair and clothes clung miserable to my shivering frame. Since language was a minor barrier, I actually ended up with an expensive (pierre cardin) designer brolly but who cares, it's the biggest and acest umbrella i've ever owned.
finally i made it to work and the aircon was on so all the water soaking my body turned to ice and i had to shiver my way through the rest of the day.
then the building decided to flood. or more specifically my classroom. there was water everywhere. the kids were loving it. there was a frantic rush to lift bags and feet from the floor amid many cheers and requests for me to provide another lake for our next class.
12:45 p.m. - Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2003
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almost camping
This beautiful park is where Jon and I planned to go camping next month...
Unfortunately, we've been planning to go during Chosuk which is a major festival/national holiday (5 day long weekend, yippee) next month and the more we look into it, it just won't be feasible. anyone and everyone in Korea is traveling at that time. Flights are booked out and the roads will be one long traffic jam. Maybe we can try the 3 day thing, leave a day late and come back a day early but the campsites there are probably booked out as space is limited.
Outside of the cities, Korea is an amazingly beautiful place. The scenery is just breathtaking and I can't wait to get out and see it for myself. Now that I have a bike, I might start investigating some of the parks and mountains around Pundang.
Unfortunately the parks around here although beautiful are very designed and planned (because this is a new city, it's less than 10 years old even though it already has a population of half a million) and all the "mountains" around here are really just hills. Even the mountains near Melbourne are much bigger.
Still, it's great having the bike. I've made good use of it already today and am going for a ride along the river tonight.
7:46 p.m. - Monday, Aug. 25, 2003
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rain
low key as the rain is still pouring down in buckets. we had hoped it might stop so we could cycle to Ori but no such luck.
nice pasta lunch followed by hanging out in cafes/bars in downtown Bundang. we're going to try a DVD bang later. They are places where you go to watch DVDs in your own private viewing room with couches, giant screen etc. Apparantly this is where Korean couples go to fool around, tee hee.
inspite of all the rain, it's still majorly humid. and the rain keeps coming. i have no wet weather shoes. and my umbrella is busted. ugh.
3:09 p.m. - Sunday, Aug. 24, 2003
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bikes
Had a great day. It started off poorly, I woke up hungover and depressed and then Jon rang and said he was hungover and depressed too and wasn't coming down here to Bundang. Then he changed his mind and decided to come after all. It was cool because I really missed him this week. Yanni (my very nice Greek-Canadian neighbour) took us to a great Japanese place for a late lunch and then showed us a cheap bike store and we both bought brand new bikes. That put me in a good mood even though we haven't ridden them yet due to torrential rain. There are great places to bike around here, rivers, small mountains, parks etc. You cycle on the sidewalk not the street (thankfully as traffic is maniacle here). In the evening, we just sat outside of a local bar and had a few beers.
3:01 p.m. - Saturday, Aug. 23, 2003
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Nori Bang
Work organised a pub quiz at a local pub. It was good fun. Afterwards (quite drunk) we headed to a Nori Bang. These are very popular Korean karaoke places where your group is given a private room with tv screens and microphones. I didn't sing but it was definitely a lot of fun.
2:57 p.m. - Friday, Aug. 22, 2003
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psycho cat
Life is starting to get a bit more sorted now. I got my alien reg card this week and opened a bank account. Work is giving me an advance of 500,000 to get me through to payday. Ha ha, I bet a lot of people reading this have never received an advance of half a million before.
Yesterday, I got home and the cat had dispersed the entire contents of her litter tray all over my kitchen floor, uGh. I had to go and buy yet another (bigger) litter box (very expensive and not easily available due to the attitude toward keeping cats in this country). I then had to shift all the furniture and rearrange my room to fit the tray in there, as far from my bed as possible. Then the cat went into major freak-out mode running like crazy into the walls, attacking the new litter box and trying to chew off her new collar. She was mental and kept SCREAMING like a little kid. This really unnerved me since she is normally quite docile. I mean this cat acts like she is stoned and feeling the love 99% of the time.
Then I wrote reports for all of my students, it was exhausting. Once I was done, I corrected about 20 or more essays. (I have 14 more essays and 14 tests to do tonight)
After all this I couldn't sleep. It was sooooo sticky and humid and the cat and I were majorly edgy. Eventually at 1 or 2am I put the aircon on (duh at me for not doing it earlier) and popped a diaza and tried again to sleep.
The cat was still running into walls and screaming.
Getting up was hard but trying to get through my afternoon class without falling asleep was a real accomplishment. Double grammar today, the kids loved me. Yawn. I like my afternoon class a lot so at least I always leave work in quite a good mood.
5:24 p.m. - Thursday, Aug. 21, 2003
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