It's Children's Day, Better Act Like It

May 2-8, 2011

After such an upsetting show against John's team, I slept in Monday before getting up to make some food and get my week under way. I made up a big batch of tuna pasta salad and some stir fry, then showered and headed into school. Even though Monday is my long day, I start with a great bunch of kids, and the rest of the day falls into place with some not bad classes as well. After work, I went home and prepped some food for the next day before throwing on the T.V. and calling it a night.
Tuesday morning, feeling spry and ready to go, I got up and had some breakfast, then went to the gym before work. It felt good to get a good run in after a day of rest, and when I was finished, it was off to work for the afternoon. Then again when work was finished, I went back to the gym to get some time in on the bike and with the weights. After the gym I went home for some food, and then it was off to bed.
Keeping in stride with my regular appearances at the hospital, I got up Wednesday morning and headed over to see Wesley and his mom. Wesley's improvements were minimal, but things like his physiotherapy were taking less and less of a toll on him, and he was beginning to show signs of improved strength. It was a good visit, and when I left I headed straight to work, arriving a little earlier than usual. Work went by quickly, and seeing as Thursday was Children's Day, a national holiday, John and I headed over to Gold Bar after work to celebrate his friend Lindsey's birthday. Alex and Louise also came with a couple of Louise's friends, and we had a great time, shooting the toy bubble gun John had bought, and dancing. At one point in the night, some drunk and slutty girl made Louise angry, and there were some angry words said, most of which I missed out on, so when I tried to help I was completely lost in the situation. Things calmed down as fast as they had started, and before we knew it, it was 5am and time to go home. John, who was much drunker than I was, and I got in a cab for Bongcheon, and when we got back to our neighbourhood, we got off closer to his house so he could get home easier. Myself, I went over to the subway station where we left our bikes, and rode mine the 5 blocks home so that I wouldn't have to go back for it in the morning. Not the smartest choice, but whatever. By 6 I was crawling into bed, and looking forward to a good long sleep.
The long sleep I was looking for, fell a few hours short when John called me at 11 to ask how he had gotten home, and if I wanted to go get a beer. I told him I needed to sleep for another hour before I even considered leaving the house, but after I got off the phone with him, I only laid in bed drinking water and watching T.V. Eventually he called me back after some more sleep himself, and put the rush on me to met him at the station with my bike so we could ride over to meet a bunch of hockey guys, and Alex and Louise at the baseball game, and make the most of our day off. I quickly hopped through the shower and threw on some clothes, then went to meet him. We rode over to the baseball stadium, through traffic and over sidewalks at times, but made it in time to get some tickets from a scalper, then enjoy a few Family Mart beers while we waited for the rest of the gang to assemble. The game was the LG Twins vs. Dusan Bears, and was a great game to watch, once we got in there after the third inning. We enjoyed a few more beers during the game, then a few more after while we waited for the crowds to die down. Eventually, once the traffic cleared, people started taking off on the subway, and John and I decided to ride our bikes over to Gangnam for a burger near his old school. It was delicious  and really filled the gap all the beer had created. When we were finished eating, we got back on our bikes and finished the ride home. The fresh air felt great, and helped sober us up a little. We got home just after midnight, and it wasn't long before I crawled into bed, exhausted.
After two days of substantial drinking, I woke up feeling crappy on Friday. I thought it might go away as I got ready for work, but then at work it settled in for the day. It didn't help that I didn't teach until 6, so I had to sit at work thinking about it for 4 straight hours. Nonetheless, when work was finished I was feeling a little better, and went home to make some apple crisp for Melanie and WonJong's house warming party in Suwon. Having burnt out my large stove burner earlier in the week, I had to do it all from the little burner, meaning I had to do it all in 1/3 the normal portion sizes and combine it all after. This method made for quite the long evening, and I didn't finish cleaning up until 230 in the morning. After that I was pretty awake, so I watched some T.V. until around 330, then drifted off to sleep.
Saturday morning, I tried to get up nice and early so I could get to the hospital at a good time in order to help Monitta out with anything she needed before I would have to leave for Suwon. I stayed with her, and talked about how he had been doing until around 230, then headed home to pick up the apple crisp, and head for the bus to Suwon from Sadang Station. Unfortunately, I had forgotten it was the day before parents day, which meant a great number of Koreans would be trying to get back to where their parent live to have a visit. When I got to the bus stop outside of Sadang Station, the line for the Suwon bus was almost a block long. The buses were running with extra numbers due to the overwhelming amount of passengers, and in the end I only had to wait for 3 buses before it was my turn to board. I had a short nap on the 45 minute ride to Suwon, then called Melanie when I was close so WonJong could come meet me at the bus stop. Once we found each other, we waited for another 15 minutes until Brett and MiSeon showed up, then went over to their house, where Louise and Alex, Brady and SoHyun, and Mel were all hanging out getting dinner ready. While Alex and WonJong ran the barbecue, the rest of us sat around taking and getting things ready inside. To eat, we had hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken shish kebabs, with potato salad and regular salad as sides. After the main meal, we all sat back and watched Mel and WonJong's wedding video, which had a cameo by Louise and Alex, then turned our attention to the apple crisp and ice cream cake myself and Brady and SoHyun had brought. As a combination they were fantastic, thought there was a slight mishap when Brady stabbed his hand trying to cut the very solid ice cream cake. It was nearly a fatal injury, but he pulled through and we moved onto dessert time, which coincided with board game time, having vetoed the idea of noraebang. We played Trivial Pursuit as 3 teams of 3, and boy did we ever feel like a bunch of schmucks. We all consider ourselves to be of average intelligence, but the questions in the edition we were playing were out of control. We were having the hardest time getting correct answers, but in the end, the team that I was on with Brady and SoHyun collected all the pie pieces and won the game. However, by that point it was already well into the night, and neither the subway nor buses would be running for a couple more hours. We decided that was the perfect time to dig into Alex and Louise's ceviche, which was a delicious finale to the evening. After that we stayed up and drank a few more beers until the buses started running again at 530. Once they were up and running, we walked over to the station, and I got on the bus back to Sadang by 6am. The ride went much faster this time, as time seems to fly by when you are passed out, and when we arrived at Sadang I transfered to the subway to make it home by 7 and crawl into my bed.

A mere three hours after crawling into bed, it was time to get back up and get ready to go play hockey at 12. We were playing Leahey's team, The Black Shaft Revelations, who have been our top rivals all season. We played two hard fought battles and came out with a 3-4 loss and 4-3 win, which was the really the best we could hope for against such a strong team. It would have been nice to squeeze out both wins, but you have to take what you can get. Sejin, Blake's old friend, showed up after my game, and we watched John's games at 2 and drank a couple beers, and laughed at John as he played. While we were watching John's game, Trevor Clements, and player from The Black Shafts approached me about having another fundraiser for Wesley. It just so happens that he plays in a couple different bands that were looking to have a gig, and thought it would be a great opportunity to make some money for Wesley and his family. Trevor had already set up a venue and bands, all I had to do was get the man power and some door prizes. It was a great opportunity, so I jumped on it and said we would love to be a part of it. After that we stuck around watching a couple more games until 7, when it got a little chilly and we got hungry. John had left to go to the first session for his tattoo  so Sejin and I went to Gangnam to get a bite at a Mexican place near Big Rock, and then went to an outdoor bar to have a couple beers. Eventually, when John finished his tattoo session, he came and met us for a beer, and then Sejin took her bus home,and we took the subway home. I missed my trip to the grocery store, but luckily I hadn't used up all my food stores from the week before, so I would be alright for the short week ahead. Then after my weekly phone call home, I had a shower and called it a week.