Dec 6-12, 2010
Well winter is rearing its ugly head now, and the temperature showed it this week by dipping to low single digits and even some negative degrees. I personally didn't mind it since I like the cold, but could really use my winter stuff that is on its way from home still.
Monday was a good start to the week. I got up feeling well rested and got ready for work, making lunch and getting a game plan together for getting my Christmas cards done. I assumed I could get them done during my breaks at work. Keep in mind how I have said assumed. At work I was able to get a start on my cards while it was still fresh on my mind, and finished 1/3 of them. After work it was off to the gym. A trip I was really looking forward to having missed the last two days of last week, and having a new workout routine to get started on. The new system worked out great and I felt that I had one of the better workouts I have had in a while. After the gym I came home and threw on a football game while I took another crack at making chicken soup.
Luckily, since I started it earlier than the last time, I was able to sleep with less interruptions of getting up to stir it through the night. Waking up around 11am to a house full of the smooth aroma of the soup I made, I felt good and eager to get to work so that I could eat my soup for lunch. Once I was at work I got back to work on my Christmas cards and was able to finish up several more before my classes started, and that was about it for the day because during my breaks I was kept busy with school related work. After work I came home and put on the Monday night football game while I put my weekly email together. One that was all finished I wrote up a few more cards before calling it a night.
Wednesday morning it was up and back to the gym for a second go at my new workout schedule. Again it was a pretty good workout once I got into it, and I was able to get through my sets much faster than I thought I would. After the gym I quickly went home to get my lunch and the first of the Christmas packages I was going to send, and then it was of to the post office for one of the funnier Korean experiences I have had in a while. Keeping in mind that I live in Bongcheon, which is a small neighbourhood with a very old feel to it, it does not have many of the same comforts you see in other areas of the city. Our post office for one, is quite small and I think that is the causing factor for the following incident. As I walked into the Bongcheon post office I was met with scared eyes. The mail clerk asked me where I wanted to send my package, and when I replied Spain I was immediately told NO. Confused, I asked why and was told that they just do not mail things to Spain. Assuming it was because it was such a small post office, I asked if the larger post the next neighbourhood over would mail my things to Spain, and again was told NO. Confused even more I left and went to work. Then to top it off, it had been snowing earlier while I was at the gym and had started again. It wasn't the nice kind of snow however, what it was was wet heavy snow that left me me almost as if it had rained. Once at work I put the Korean staff on it and they quickly called the larger post office to get to the bottom of it. After about a 30 seconds on the phone they came to the conclusion that the post office in my neighbourhood was out of their mind and that I would have to go to the larger one to send anything to any country smaller than Canada.
After work my Wednesday just kept getting stupider. Mostly only I was getting stupider. Since John has just moved into the area, but will only be at his apartment for this week, we decided to have a few beers there before he had to move. So Chrissy, Jean, John, and I all grabbed a couple pitchers of beer, some chicken, and a pizza then went to John's. We watched some T.V. while drinking and chatting, and then after about 4 pitchers and a couple bottles of soju, Jean and Chrissy left, but John and I decided to grab a few more pitchers since one of his friends was on her way over to hang out for a bit also. Before long there was 9 empty pitchers laying around and we were well drunk, and I decided to get on home. During the walk home, idiotically I thought it would be a good idea to check and see if my bike's battery was still alive enough to start it up. I assumed it would be near dead given the cold weather and the lack of use lately, but hoped for the best. The best didn't happen. my battery was too dead to start the bike, and I knew of only one way to start it. It is to get the compression up using the kick start or by riding it down a hill, so that the motor will turn over and the bike will start itself. Having tried the kick start several times to no avail, I decided to ride it down the long hill I happen to live on. It is not something I am proud of doing since I think drinking and driving is a terrible habit to get in to, but my better judgment was out to lunch. So I hopped on and rode it out, but again it was a no fire deal. I got all the way to the bottom of the hill and it still wouldn't start, so since there was no way I was going to push it back up the hill, I left it there and walked home, but only after I tried to push start it for 20 minutes like a maniac. Home by 430 in the morning, I sent a few Skype messages to Lauren, who happened to be on, before passing out cold cocooned in my blankets.
Thursday morning I woke up feeling like I had drank a tonne of beer the night before and pushed a bike around like an ass. I inevitably skipped the gym and get my life together before work. I left a bit early so that I could make it to the post office in Sillim and get my mail issues sorted out. Then on the way back past my street, I tried one more time to get my bike started with the kick start, but again it was a futile effort. Leaving it where it was I went to work to hate on John for encouraging my alcoholism the night before. Again after work I thought I would give it one more shot, which failed again, so I simply moved the bike out of the way and planned to push it to the bike shop beside work the next day. After that I went home to watch a football game and finish sleeping of my night before.
Feeling better Friday morning, I was off to the gym again to start my day. After the gym I went home to grabbed my lunch and then made the walk to the bottom of my hill to push my bike to work. Then to my surprise, in a last ditch effort, with the weather warmer I was able to kick start the bike and ride it to work. Once I made it to work I let it run for a while outside to give it time to charge the battery. Thinking that I had gotten lucky, I didn't take it to the bike shop, but instead went in to start my day. Throughout the week John had been working on the Korean teachers to go out Friday for some drinks. I wasn't sure how it would turn out since most of them tend to shy away from outside of work activities, but after days of pestering John was able to get them all to come out to Sillim for drinks. This was good news, as just this week many of the teachers made their final decisions about leaving the school after this semester, because they are tired of dealing with the school's crap. I rode my bike home after work before meeting everyone at Sillim station and then going to the bar from there. John took us to some place he knew, and we had a great time joking around and playing drinking games. By 230 we were finished up and the Korean teachers went home, but Jean, Chrissy, John, and I all slid over to Ho Bar for one last beer and some darts before cabbing it home. Once again intoxicated, and still worried about the fate of my bike I kick started it one more time and let the it run for another 20 minutes to try and add some more juice to the battery. I thought nothing of it until after, when I realized it was 4 in the morning and that I might have woken my neighbours. Oh well.
After such a late night, I slept in until around 12 Saturday, and then got up and filled my day with internet videos and zombie killing until around 5 when it was time to get a move on. Frank had organized a get together at his place for what we were calling Christmas Tacos. He bought up all the fixings and all we had to do was show up, refresh his funds, and dig in. It was super nice of him to do something like this, since it isn't often we are able to find a place large enough to have get togethers that isn't a bar. Myself, Thomas and Jeanne, Brady, Marshal, James, and Matei and Jen all joined in the fun, which started around 7pm. Eventually we drank all the beers and as people started to filter out, James and I decided to go to Gangnam and meet another friend for a few more beers. By the time we reached Gangnam though, my friend had gotten a last minute call from another friend and ended up ditching us for a late night hook up. And who can fault him for that? Not I, that's who. James and I shared a couple pitchers at Woodstock before calling it a night around 3am and taking taxis home, which I had to catch at Kyodae since Gangnam is such a bad place to catch a taxi late at night.
Home and in bed by 4am the night before, I got up at noon with big plans for the day. I thought I might go to the coffee shop and finish my Christmas cards that I had slacked off on the latter half of the week, but quickly realized I had forgotten them at work. After that I resolved to get some groceries before wasting the rest of the day watching movies and football games. Eventually it became night time and I called home to see how things were going, and was filled in on my Nan's new Chemo-therapy schedule, which will be start on the 14th. I hope everything goes well.
Another week complete, and other set of goals half reached. Hope everyone is getting geared up for Christmas.
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