Happy Thanksgiving Canada

Oct 4-10, 2010



Well the weather, though not that bad last week, was quite nice this week. It was a bit chilly last week, but warmed up to a comfortable jeans and t-shirt atmosphere.

My week started out and was plagued with stage two of my cold. It seems to have swayed away from swamp fever, to a nagging morning/night cough. Hoping it would clear up, I went about my business as usual. I got up Monday and went to the gym (where stepping on the scale I learned the I had sweat out 3kg in the past week), then it was off to work for the usual classes. After work, I went home to get out a regular Monday email that I have started, then settled in with the cat to watch some football. Tuesday was pretty much the same, except I rode my bike to work after killing my legs at the gym and not wanting to walk. While at work I took some time that I had between classes to work on making a hot air balloon out of a paper material that I had hoped would hold up like tissue paper. It was in hopes that I would be able to make them with one of my older classes that was studying hot air balloons this week. Unfortunately it didn't work, as the paper was too porous and the hot air would not stay inside. After work, again I went home and threw on a football game to try and rest off my cold.
Wednesday I skipped the gym and just slept until mid morning. Instead of the gym I cleaned up my apartment and washed my dishes that had gotten out of control. Off to work again, the day went by quickly as I used my spare time to try wrapping paper for a hot air balloon. It went together much easier than the other paper I tried, but in the end was too heavy to take flight when the hot air was applied. At that point, I figured it was a dead idea since I couldn't find actual tissue paper in any of the stores near me. After work, I met with Blake in Sillim for a few drinks at Jack Daniel's Bar, and to just shoot the breeze. We got on the last subway home, and I was crawling into bed by 130 again.
Feeling a little more rested, I got up Thursday and hit the gym before work. Trying to get into shape takes much more motivation these days it seems compared to several years ago. After the gym it was off to work, and the boredom that is my schedule. After work it was home again for another football game and some rest. Sooner or later my cold has got to get better. Up Friday, my day took the same form as the one before it until I got to work and was floored by the information that they weren't going to pay us until Monday. I say floored because our pay day is on the 10th, and at almost any given company in the world, if your pay day falls on a weekend, then you get paid on the Friday before said weekend. This was exactly the case this week, with the 10th falling on Sunday, so I immediately marched into the directors office and demanded an explanation, letting her know full well that this is not good general business practice. She at first laughed it off, as if the concerns of the teachers wee but trivial matters, and explained to me that the owner's rule is that if pay day falls on a Saturday then we get paid on the Friday, but if it falls on Sunday then we get paid on the Monday. I was not having any of that and let her know that both Mike and I expected to have our money, because it is just general business practice and that we had both sent our remaining money home; not to mention the fact that it was one of my main questions when I was signing my contract. She wasn't sure what to do until I told her we needed money for the weekend and asked about getting some in advance. This seemed doable, and within minutes a pay advance was sent to both Mike and I. Problem solved, I went about the rest of my day and after work headed to Sincheon to meet some friends at Gold Bar. Mike went with me and we met up with Mike Stopp and his girlfriend, Alex and Louise, Brady, Frank, and Blake. Mike and I were there a bit early and ended up power drinking a few Jack & Cokes before the rest of the group showed up and we set the night on fire. Mike disappeared around 130am, and by 2am I was in no shape to go looking for him. So hanging out with a blurry Blake, I played some darts and talked to anyone who would listen until about 330 when it was time to get some doncass. Mine however didn't stay down long, and by just after 4am I was dieing in the streets. Luckily with it out of my system Blake and I got in a cab and headed home, dropping him off first in Kyodae.
Waking up feeling not too bad, puking which I rarely do always help the next morning, I refueled with some water and hung out at my place until about mid afternoon. After getting in contact with Blake to make sure he was still alive, we made plans to meet in Sillim for dak-galbi and to walk around since it was such a nice day. After lunch, Blake took off to meet up with some people at Yeouido for the High Seoul Festival fireworks show, which started at 730pm. I went home quickly to get my camera and meet Chrissy, another coworker, then headed to the park at 615. We wanted to get there early since there were going to be lots of people, but we underestimated the number of people that were going and found ourselves squished in like sardines on the subway after our transfer from the green to purple line. Missing our stop at Yeouido station due to the number of people on the train that were taking it to Yeoui-naru, the next/closer station, we just rode it out and planned to walk back to Yeouido to meet up with the others. It was a crazy walk, like fish trying to swim up stream, against all the people heading the the park but we made it, found Blake and SeaJin, and JungHun and went back to the park just in time for the show. My buddy Rocchi from university, also being in Korea, told me he would be late but that he wanted to meet up for the fireworks as well. Knowing how to give him directions now that I had been there and back again, I quickly told him how to get to the station and then on to the park from there. It was good that I could give him directions so that I could stay at the park, until he was almost at the front gate, and watch the show before having to make my way to the road to find him. That and my phone died shortly after contact so I was unreachable if anything went wrong. After the fireworks we avoided the crowds of people heading to the subway and just stood around off to the side for about 20 minutes. During this time a handful of small children came up and decided that I was the most interesting thing they had seen all night. All of them under the age of 10, spoke great English and wanted to practice it on the tall foreigner. Here is a segment of the conversation:
little boy : "Hi"
me : "Hi. How are you?"
little boy: "You are really tall!"
me : "Yes, I'm pretty tall. Did you guys watch the fireworks tonight?"
the group : "Yes."
little boy : "Where do you live? I mean your real home, not in Korea."
me : "I'm from Canada."
little boy : "Oh, do you know Montreal?"
me : "Yes I do, but I'm from Toronto. How do you know about Montreal?"
little boy : "It's famous."
The conversation continued about how the four kids are two sets of siblings that are cousins, and about how great a weekend they were having, having seen the president earlier in the day, then fireworks, and how they get to have a sleep over. All the while Blake, SaeJin, and Rocchi just stood back and watched, then later compared me to Jesus as we laughed about what happened. It was amazingly adorable to have such polite kids come and start up a conversation with a stranger, and show no reserve in their English ability. After saying good night to the kids we walked with the thinning crowd to the far end of the park before slipping out and taking up a spot beside the river to have a couple beers and finish waiting out the crowds. After a couple hours things seemed settled, so we left the park for some late dinner in Yeongdeungpo with Junk, and then a couple drinks at a random bar. the night wrapped up by 3am, and we all got in cabs to head to our respective homes.
Sunday was a lazy day to start. Waking up around lunch I did nothing but sit around for a few hours thinking about all the stuff I should do, being it was Sunday. In the end I called Blake to see if he wanted to get out and enjoy the cool sunny day. We decided to hit up Seokchon lake near Jamsil and by 430 we met on the train and finished the ride to Jamsil. We grabbed a cold drink and sat around in the park for a bit before getting up and walking the path around the small lake. Before we left the park we had another seat and let it get dark. By 645 we were both getting hungry and headed to Sincheon, where we were supposed to meet June, my Avalon replacement, for dinner. She said she would be late so we started grilling up sam-gyup-sal without her. Eventually she showed up and Blake and I joked with her about how it was our Thanksgiving dinner, but that the fired bacon strips weren't even close to real turkey. After having our fill we slid over to Gold Bar, we had to since it seems to have an iron grasp on us, for a couple drinks and some more conversation. Getting on the last subway of the night, I was home by midnight for my weekly call home, and to wish my mom and nan a happy birthday.

Another week, another story. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend, and Happy Birthday to my mom and nan.