This week started out as any other week. I got up late on Monday and made some food for the day before heading off to work. Work was the same as usual, except in my free time I took the chance to start making some review sheets for my classes, as level tests begin next week. After work it was off to the gym, where I met up with the trainers, who again were thrilled to talk to me and discuss life. I find it quite endearing at times how enthusiastic some Koreans are to help and make foreigners feel comfortable. After the gym it was off to home to get off my weekly email, and watch one of Sunday's NFL games. I ended up being up until later than I had hoped but was well worth it to catch the Browns game.
After staying up until almost 4am, I slept Tuesday until 1130 before getting up and putting together my lunch and taking off for work. After work it was straight home to relax and watch another football game. Then it was the day everybody waits for. Payday. I was waiting for this day since the pay fiasco of last month and being don to my last 4000W. I got up and got to the gym before work, and then passed the day away at work wondering if my pay would be on the level this month. As it turned out, it was, and after work I hit up a bank machine to pull out money in an attempt to allocate my finances early and avoid any broke circumstances that might arise near the end of the month. I took out enough to set aside four envelopes of weekly grocery allowance, as well as half of what I owed to my director for the pay advance last month, and enough to get me through the rest of the week and weekend. Once I got home I sorted out the cash stack, then put on a football game and called it a day.Thursday was another typical day in the life Mark Teacher. I got up and went to the gym before heading to work to deal out the punishment these kids never seem to get from other teachers. After lasts weeks failure to finish their homework, those kids who forgot to do it this week found themselves writing lines instead of participating in class. It seems as though I am the only teacher that deals out punishment around here, which is no wonder why the kids think they can get away with anything they want. There are only so many times you can threaten to call their moms, or actually call their moms, before they realize it's an idle threat. In between my classes I kept busy filling out "report cards" for the end of the semester. I use quotations because I was told by a few teachers that what I write or the score I give doesn't really matter, and that they will probably change what I put anyways. Well why bother I thought, but I was in no mood to rock the boat, and let it be.
Friday was about the same. Gym in the morning, off to work where I handed out some more sentences and filled out bogus report cards, and made plans for some evening fun. I heard from my coworker Mike that there was a bar in Gangnam offering a special on, all you can drink, for 10 000W. I asked Blake if him and Nate wanted to go and check it out, then after work headed out to meet them in Gangnam. Unfortunately we got some poor directions from Mike about going out exit 5 and taking the first two lefts, and ended up in some alley on a parallel street to the one with the actual bar. After a couple calls and some clarification we got to the bar 30 minutes later than we could have. Once in we got seated and ordered some beers, and Blake with his awesome Korean found out that they closed at 1am. This doesn't sound important but it played a roll as the night went on. We were a couple beers in when our bill was brought around, yet we were not asked if we wanted any more beers. A few minutes later when we tried to order another round, we were denied because it was after 1230. Immediately Blake got pretty angry because he takes pride in his Korean ability, and had asked what time we had to order until, and what time the bar closed. A Korean sitting next to us who spoke English validated that what Blake had said was correct, and we felt that since it was only 1235 we should be allowed to have another beer. The server still denied, making us all pretty pissed off. Blake got up and went to find the original person he talked to. Then explaining the situation to a disinterested person, we realized that it was a battle lost unless we were willing to cause a scene. Since we weren't we just left angry, grabbed a convenience store beer and walked back to Kyodae so I could catch a cab home. All in all it was the same price for two beers as it was for all you could drink so we broke even anyways. I was home by 2am, but watched the first half of another game before calling it a night.
I never made it, due to my schedule, to the G20 Summit at COEX, but I heard it was pretty packed with protesters and the likes. I walked up and down the stream a few times, taking pictures and enjoying the lanterns as the sun went down and the lights came on. Not wanting to go all the way home just to go back out, I headed to Olympic Park to grab a hot chocolate while I waited to meet Alex and Louise, and Mike Stopp and his fiancée for a shabu-shabu dinner at Bangi station at 7pm. It had been a long time since I had had shabu-shabu and really enjoyed my diner. After dinner Alex, Louise, and I went over to Sincheon because I had told Nate that I would meet him there around 1030 for drinks at Gold Bar. We started not at a bar, but at an arcade where we played the super popular bunching bag game. I can see now why Koreans like it so much. It's a really cheap form of entertainment that everyone can play. We started with the pull down bag, which is much easier on the hands before moving to the pop-up bag game, which is a little more like punching a static medicine ball. After having our fun, we moved along to the newly opened Ho Bar for a couple of drinks before making our way to Gold Bar, where we continued to party until some time after 5am. A good contingent of friends even showed up, including Frank, Brady, Matei, and Alex B. I don't remember much after 4am until I was eating McDonald's breakfast and getting in a cab. Home some time after 6am I went to bed where I would stay for some time.Sunday was a day of rest all around. I didn't get up until after 2pm, and even after that I just laid around watching football, and then eventually went and got some groceries before the stores closed.
Well another week of great weather gone, and hopefully another few to come. Good news from home that Nan was released from the hospital to Uncle Rod and Aunt Kim's place until further treatment.
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