To Fest or Not to Fest

July 12-18, 2010

This week started real early. Usually Sunday nights and into Monday mornings are sleeping hours, but this week given the World Cup was rounding out, we just had to watch how it ended. Though still technically Sunday night, Blake, Nate, and I got together in Sincheon around 1130 for some late dinner and then to watch the Netherlands vs. Spain soccer game for the World Cup Championship. The game for us didn't start until it was officially 330am Monday, so we had some time to kill while we waited at Gold Bar. We played darts and pol until the game started, then settled in on the couches what turned out to be a long and pretty well played game, with Spain taking it in the second over time 1:o. After the game I caught the subway home and crashed around 730.
Back to work again, I was covering Mike's classes for another couple days, and really enjoyed myself again. He was supposed to return to school on Wednesday, but due to some flight problems, did not return until Thursday, at which time he took back his classes. That left me with not much to do Thursday until later in the evening when I had the chance to step in on a middle school class, and see what it was all about.
Outside of work not a lot happened during the week. I did head down to Emily's place Wednesday night, after talking to my dad and brother's family on the phone, to hear about her recent trip to Cambodia and to get my drying rack that I had left there. We went through her pictures and she told me lots of funny stories about her trip, which I compared to the things Jameson and I did while there. Other than that nothing until Friday night, when I went out for a few drinks with some of my new coworkers to talk about the middle school program a bit more. We hit up a mawkoli (Korean rice beer) place, and had a few round, before heading to a noraebang and partying unexpectedly until 4am. I hadn't intended on it, but I felt the need to get some time in with my coworkers when it's available, because they are much busier than I am.
As for the weekend, I was a little disappointed in how it developed. As you know, I was fired several weeks ago and was living on Blake's couch, which meant I had no real daily Korean contacts and therefore couldn't deal with what I am about to talk about. This past week was the opening weekend of Mudfest in Boryeong, and all of our friends had signed up weeks ago for group tour packages. Unfortunately, Blake and his never committing self did not like the idea of going with a tour group, because he wanted to be on his own schedule, and for me I was unsure if I would still be in the country by Mudfest so I never signed up either. Anyways, once I found out that I wold be staying, I tried to get Blake on the move about asking some of his Korean coworkers to help us find a place to stay for the weekend. This of course he did not do, and once I did start working, he reversed and told me I should ask some of my teachers, who I barely knew. This meant that we had no place come the start of this week and when we did start making calls, everything was full. We decided to leave it up in the air and make a decision Saturday morning, because the weather report was also not looking good. That and all of our friends said that we could spread ourselves among their rooms if it came down to it. So when Saturday morning rolled around, and it turned out that the weather report was right and it was a torrential downpour all over Korea, and the trains were all booked; we opted to call off the trip and go back to bed. In the end we heard that it rained most of Saturday, but cleared up for the night and Sunday, so maybe we should have gone. Oh well.
Saturday, instead of being at Mudfest, I met up with Brady, Matei, and Frank for some wine buffet action and then Blake came by with SaeJin, and we all hit up Itaewon. It had been a while since I had been, but it was pretty much the same old place, accept this time there was a new Taco Bell we were all there to get a piece of. We had a couple drinks at a couple different bars, then hit up Taco Bell for some late night food action, and it was glorious.
Well fed and full of beers, we called it a night around 330 and I came home in a taxi to get some rest. On Sunday, I got up and bummed around my place until the afternoon when I walked over to Sillim to find a grocery store. Then I came back home and killed some time doing computer things, before meeting with Blake for some dinner and to get the last of my things out of his fridge. Then it was home to call an end to another week.

Summer is starting to shape up nicely. I hope it is for everyone else too.