Finally I Get My Bike - Too Bad It's Not In Seoul

Aug 9-15, 2010


Monday this week I got the best news in a while. Emily text me to let me know that my keys had arrived at her place finally, though I was a little upset because they were post dated July 31, instead of around the 15th when he got them. I had given Arthur her address because I was between places at the time of the key mailing mix up and happened to have hers on hand. Excited I swung by her place after work to pick them up and start to formulate ideas of how much I was going to ride it. Unfortunately, thinking about it was as far as I got until the end of the week. With it pouring rain on Tuesday, there was no way I was about to go to Cheonho and stand in the rain waiting for it to get boosted or towed to a shop. I did however go to Alex B's to get my helmet and paperwork, which Arthur left with him. Returning to work, one of my coworkers went to the bike shop next to the school to see what kind of help they might be able to lend to the situation. It turned out that they were willing to retrieve my bike and get it going for around $100, depending on if I needed a new battery or not. Which since Korea doesn't seem to know what battery charging is, I knew I was in for a new one.
Leaving my keys with them, I hoped to see my bike by Wednesday, and after work I headed over to hang out with Lauren for a bit and tell her about my bike. Now here's where every sense of logic gets thrown out the window. As it turned out, the guys from the bike shop went to get my bike and it wasn't there, because the building manager had it towed since it hadn't moved in so long. Thank you very much Arthur and family for sucking so bad at life. I can understand the towing, but when they told me it had been towed to Wonju, a city an hour and fifteen minutes southeast of Seoul I wanted to kill someone. Then on top of that they wanted $180 dollars to bring it back to town and $50 for the original fine. I really had no choice but to pay, since I had no other way to get it back to Seoul, and was in no position to go pick it up myself given that I have to be at work. So giving them copies of all my paperwork and signing a release form giving them the authority to get it, I was assured to have my bike by the end of the week.
After work Wednesday I went to Sincheon to meet up with the group for one last go 'round at Gold Bar III with Doug and Rachel before they left Thursday afternoon. It was a good party that went much later than any of us had anticipated. When it was all over, Blake and I grabbed some McDonald's and went back to crash at his place. I didn't wake up until 1pm Thursday which put me in a bit of a rush to get home cleaned up and to work, but I was able to do it, and enjoyed another long day of sitting around doing nothing. After work i just went home to get some rest from the late nights I had been having, and watched Max Payne, a movie about a vigilante cop.
Feeling well rested on Friday, I got up and puttered about the apartment until it was time for work, and to my surprise, while I was walking to work I saw my bike at the bike shop next to the school. I quickly signed in and went to take a look. The guys at the bike shop saw me and came out to let me know that they had got it running, of course with a new battery; had changed the oil; and fixed some lights. I payed them the rest of the money that I owed them, but they told me they were going to wash it for me and that it would be ready Saturday morning when they opened at nine. This was perfect since we had to be at school Saturday for an Open House Activity Day, which is our way of drumming up business. I returned to school and happily went about teaching the classes I had. After work, again I went home to get some rest since we had to be at the school for 9am the next morning. Being home on a Friday night for the first time in forever, I decided to watch the original Indiana Jones movie, then get some sleep, which was interrupted oddly enough by messages from Lauren who was out of town with friends and bored out of her mind.
Though not happy about it, I got up just after 8 on Saturday and made my way to the school to help set up for the open house, though there wasn't much to do since the office staff had stayed late the night before putting up all the decorations. Including the several dozen balloons I blew up by mouth Friday night. Sure I could have used the pump they had but it just took too long. Anyways, around 10 the first group of kids came in and were separated into the classrooms to play games. After they were done playing the games, in which they earned reward points, they came out to the food market and gift shop to spend their points. My job was to work the gift shop and make sure nobody lifted any prizes, and to let the kids know how many prize points they needed to get certain items. It was utter chaos as the kids rolled in with hands full of food they had gotten. And with no understanding of organizing what they could carry, kids were dropping food all over the floor, themselves, and each other. I even watched one little boy take a half eaten piece of pizza, fold it up, and put it in his pocket when he needed more hand space to check out prizes. As cute as it was, I could only imagine how his mother was going to react when she found it later. When the first group finished at 1130, then second group filed in and it started all over again, though since they were the older group it was a little easier to keep them organized.
Once it was all over at 2pm, we cleaned up the garbage and extra food, then went to have lunch at a shabu-shabu place near the office. From there it was back to the bike shop, where I picked up my bike and took it for the first ride in so long. I only took it as far as home, since I didn't want to push my luck, and I had to rest up for Kate's birthday party. I napped for a couple hours before getting up and getting ready to hit the COEX Intercontinental Hotel weekend wine buffet. The hotel offers the wine and finger food buffet every weekend from 6-9pm for only $25, and it's a great place to hang out with friends in a classier atmosphere before going out on the town for the night. I arrived with Blake around 630, and we quickly found the birthday group, and got in on the conversations. After we were finished at the wine buffet, we went to the only logical place to go.....Gold Bar in Sincheon. In fact, my coworkers Mike and Jean even came out, and saw how awesome/dangerous Gold Bar is. Kate unfortunately felt the night coming to an end sooner than she hoped, and her and Dave had to step out early. The rest of us stayed and partied until the late hours, when once again Blake and I found ourselves at McDonald's eating cheeseburgers at 3am, though this time I split a cab with him and kept on going to my place.
Waking up Sunday to a cheeseburger and alcohol induced stomach ache, I made some phone calls to make sure everyone was still alive, then laid around relaxing until 3pm when I had to get up and make something of my day. I talked to Lauren and asked her if she would like to go out and do something. We agreed on seeing the movie Inception, and were scheduled to meet at the Express Bus terminal at 630. Once we got there it was a bit of a task to find the movie theatre, but eventually we did and booked tickets for the 9pm movie. In the mean time, we headed down to chill at the river and then grabbed some Pizza Hut for dinner. The movie was awesome, and definitely lived up to the hype I had heard about it. It was a good way to end the weekend. : )