May 23-29, 2011
After having played my legs off the day before, I slept extra hard and late on Monday. I woke up with barely enough time to make some food for work, and had to trust that my apartment wouldn't burn down while I had a shower with the stove on, then got off to work with but a few minutes to spare. After I signed in, I had to run back to the movie theatre and pick up a few more tickets for my kids, because I had run out by Friday and still had a couple classes to give to. Luckily, the students wrote their DT Tests, the tests that determine if they get to go to the next level, the previous week, so in most of my classes we just played vocabulary games to help them study for their Korean vocabulary tests they still had to do. Then, in other classes we just watched movies and relaxed for a change of. After work, I took myself straight home to watch some TV and get some more food made up since I had been so late in the morning, and have a conversation with Lauren on Skype about getting together since she had recently come back to Korea. Before I knew it, it was 2am and time to go to bed.
Tuesday morning, the second day after hockey, for the first time in a long time, hurt worse than on Monday. I seemed to be more stiff and sore than usual. So, after a quick bite to eat I headed off to the gym to get in a run and some weights, and hopefully work out the lactic acid and tightness. After the gym, I went to work and got to work on the students' second draft essays, which were just as horrible as usual. Work whizzed by, because I was playing games or watching movies again, and when it was all over I went to meet Lauren to watch a movie. We agreed on Pirates of the Caribbean, though I had already seen it on the Friday, but I kept that to myself and thoroughly enjoyed it for a second time. Since the movie didn't end until after 1am, instead of going back to her friend Azeem's house, where she is staying, and waking him up, she came back to crash at my house. It was nice to see again, and catch up on how she had been the last little while.
Having Lauren over for the night, and not wanting to be rude and take off on her in the morning, I skipped my usual visit to the hospital and caught up some more with her. Eventually it was time for me to get to work, so we headed down to the subway station for her to head to Azeem's, and me to work. Wednesday marked the official last week of the semester, and just about every class was have snack parties and watching movies. This gave me some extra time to finish up some online essays, and do some point form notes for my blog that I have gotten behind on yet again. After work it was off to the gym again to try and stay on top of my training, but the weight gain euphoria I had felt the week before faded as my weight has begun to drop again due to the heat and my lack of appetite/sweating like crazy all the time. When I was finished at the gym I headed home to have some food and watch a movie before calling it a night.
Thursday morning, I got up and went to the gym in the morning to see my friend who works there, SeongWon, and of course to get in a good run to start the day. After the gym it was off to work for another walk in the park day of movies and snack parties, though there were a few more essays that trickled in over night that had to be marked. Then, though I had known since Wednesday, at the end of the day Jean pulled John into his class for a chat about some "stuff" the Korean teachers had brought up about him in their weekly meeting. It was no surprise to me when Jean told me he had to talk to John, and even the things he had to talk to him about were things that had come up in the past. The Korean teachers we upset about how John acts and talks around them, and they even went as far to say it felt like they were being sexually harassed at times. I can see where they are coming from, because he isn't the quietest or most candid about what he thinks, and has even made me question what the hell he was doing from time to time. Other complaints included him frequently leaving his classroom for non-class related reason, or interrupting the Korean teachers classes for non-class related reason. I know how they feel on this aspect, because he does it more often than I care for to me, even though he has been told not to. He simply has a problem focusing, and doesn't see being reprimanded as a problem in his mind. There were a few other things, but they were mostly due to a lack of understanding between cultural jokes and references. Needless to say, the end of the day was an awkward one when John realized I had known he was going to get talked to and didn't tell him, and was upset. I explained to him that it was because, Jean had to talk to him when he had time, and if I had of told John, then he would have bugged Jean to no end. From there it went as I thought it would, and John started making rounds to ask/interrogate all the teachers about what had been said and who said it. I warned him not to, and that it wouldn't help his case, but it's just how he works. After work, I went back to the gym, and stayed as far away from the tension at work as possible. I even had the pleasure of meeting Lauren after the gym, and hanging out watching a movie at my place while I told her about the fiasco at work.
Even with Lauren at my apartment Friday morning, I got up to get to mine and John's prearranged man date to watch Kung Fu Panda 2. Though I thought I had made it clear she could come, Lauren didn't want to intrude on our date, and I dropped her off at the subway station on my way to the Egg Yellow building to meet John for the 1030 showing in 3D. The movie was fantastic, just like the first one. It was hilarious and action packed, yet had moments that were very touching. All together it gets two thumbs up from me. After the movie, John and I took a few minutes to try yet again at winning a stuffed Hulk hand out of a claw game that we had so desperately tried to win earlier in the week. Only this time, our wasted dollars were not in vain, and after several attempts, we pulled it into the chute and were the happiest kinds in the theatre. Feeling impressed with ourselves we continued down to the street to have a couple beers with Eric before he left the next week, and people watch. Eventually it was time to go to work, and when my bike wouldn't start, John and I had to double to work on his scooter, making a quick stop at his house so he could change his clothes. Again work went by quickly, with more movies and snack parties, until the end of the day when I got a series of texts from Brady about the new watch John had acquired the week before. It turned out that the Friday before when he had gone to Gold Bar to meet the group without me, he had gotten super drunk and stolen a $800 watch that was sitting on the bar. In his drunken stupor he didn't remember taking it, but it turned out to be ChaeChul the bartender/bouncer's watch, that he had taken off while breaking up a dispute between a couple of people. The bar had narrowed it down to somebody from our group since they were the last ones in there, and even further to John because he spends most of his time by the bar. I relayed the fact that they knew it was him to John and told him that he had to give it back. He put up a bit of resistance at first, saying if they didn't know it was him for sure why should he, though he actually felt about having done that to someone who is a good friend of mine at a bar I really like. I let Brady know that John would bring the watch back as soon as he could, though with working two jobs it would be hard to get there for a few days. ChaeChul was cool with that, and happy that he had located it and would be getting it back. Stressed out yet again by the actions of John, I went to the gym to sweat it out. My workout was short however, because dealing with the watch took up so much of my time after work, and I had promised to meet Lauren again, so didn't want to stay too long at the gym. When I finished working out, I had a text from John about grabbing a beer at our spot while I waited for Lauren to show up, so went to meet him and calm things over. Luckily, everything was cool and we just chatted about tings at work and the watch without any conflicts of opinion, and when Lauren showed up we went our separate ways. I took the walk home and some time at home to rant about it to Lauren, then we threw on a movie and chilled out to calm my nerves.
After a stressful couple of days, and a late night, I stayed in bed late Saturday missing my visit to Wesley again, but it would have only been a short visit, as I had plans in the late afternoon. When Lauren and I finally got, I made us some eggs and ham, then got ready to go to Scott Brady's wedding. It was a very last minute choice for me to attend, since I had told him I would go but had gotten no directions to the time or place. Luckily Rob Gibson hooked me up, and told me it was at the War Museum at 5pm. That gave me just enough time to have a shower and get dressed before running out the door hoping to catch a taxi and not get into too much traffic. It wasn't meant to be though, and I ended up stuck in traffic on my way to Samgakgi, and was 10 minutes late for the wedding. It was an outdoor, very traditional wedding, that only lasted about an hour. After the ceremony there were some pictures, and then a buffet dinner where all the hockey players sat together and made sure Scott's money for the all you can drink option wasn't wasted. After the buffet, we all headed over to Scrooges in Itaewon, where they had the second floor booked out for a more reception like get together. There was food and free beer from 830 until 1230, and when they closed up at 2 Rob Gibson drove me over to Gangnam on his bike so I could meet up with Alex and Louise, Frank, Brady and SoHyun, and a couple others whose names escape me. I hung out with them and had a couple more drinks at Voodoo, then called it a night as we all headed out to get cabs around 430. As I usually do when trying to get a cab from that area, picked up some water and walked down to Kyodae where it is easier to get a taxi. It gives me time to sober up and get some fresh air before I get home and sleep. I was home and sleeping by 530, which was way better than I thought the night was going to go.
Sunday morning I woke up feeling much better than I had anticipated around 11, but took the chance to lay around in bed until 1, when I got up to get ready for my hockey adventure for the week. Our games started at 4 against The Teabaggers, and though we had our guys back from Hong Kong, we were still missing a couple good forwards to vacation and tests, and now our goalie was gone for a wedding so Gibson would have to take net for us. Things didn't look good for us from the beginning, as we came out flat and lost the first game 4-1, but as we regrouped, the second game looked to be ours until a few collapsing moments occurred and we lost again in the final moments 5-4. Disappointed again with a double loss day, I sat around drinking a few beers and talking with other players until the end of the night, then cleaned up and headed back to Seouldae to pick up my bike. Things just kept going down hill from their. When I got to the station, I had to maneuver my bike out around a bunch of pedal bikes in order to kick start it and ride it to Bongcheon. In doing so, I managed to scrape the top of my foot on the kick stand and ended up bleeding all over my sandal. Regardless of the blood, I rode it back to the grocery store, then went in to get my weekly supply and walked home, leaving my bike on the street. After putting away my groceries and having a shower I went down to meet Lauren at the subway station so we could hangout. When I tried to get my bike to start so we could ride it home in stead of walking up the hill, it wouldn't start, so I had to leave it there for the night. Once home for good, I called home to catch everyone up on the details of my life, and vice versa, then it was time for a movie and a good sleep ; )
No comments:
Post a Comment