May 16-22, 2011
Having collected money after Emily had left on Saturday, I got up Monday morning earlier than usual so that I could do my normal cooking and such and still have enough time to stop at the bank before work to put the money into Monitta's Korean account. On top of putting the rest of the money in, I transferred some money of my own home, and got a new bank card. After that I went to work to sign in, but left immediately to go pick up the movie tickets that I give to my best students at the end of each semester. It is an expensive prize, $220 for 30 tickets, but since I do not give them anything during the 3 months I teach them, I figure a big prize at the end helps keep them motivated. I made it back to work just in time to start at 240, and throughout the day gave out the coveted movie tickets to my best student(s) in each class. Luckily, since the kids had already written their final test, to see whether or not they move to the next level, the week before, I was able to play some vocabulary games with them, making my day go by much faster than usual. When work was over, I went home and chilled out with Goah and some TV until it was bed time.
Rejuvenated Tuesday morning, I got up and went to the gym before work, and had a good run and weights session to get the blood flowing. It was a good thing I did as well, because at work it was that time of the online cycle when John and I had to mark first draft essays again. As per usual, they were overall poorly done, but the silver lining was that it was the end of semester, so many students had given up on doing them. It's not the best attitude to have towards it, but after trying for months to get the information across to them, only to have them write in every way you told them not to, you begin to care less and less. After work, I went back to the gym to ride the bike, and sweat out the frustration of the students essays, then it was home for some eggs and a shake, before throwing on the TV and going to bed.
Having collected money after Emily had left on Saturday, I got up Monday morning earlier than usual so that I could do my normal cooking and such and still have enough time to stop at the bank before work to put the money into Monitta's Korean account. On top of putting the rest of the money in, I transferred some money of my own home, and got a new bank card. After that I went to work to sign in, but left immediately to go pick up the movie tickets that I give to my best students at the end of each semester. It is an expensive prize, $220 for 30 tickets, but since I do not give them anything during the 3 months I teach them, I figure a big prize at the end helps keep them motivated. I made it back to work just in time to start at 240, and throughout the day gave out the coveted movie tickets to my best student(s) in each class. Luckily, since the kids had already written their final test, to see whether or not they move to the next level, the week before, I was able to play some vocabulary games with them, making my day go by much faster than usual. When work was over, I went home and chilled out with Goah and some TV until it was bed time.
Rejuvenated Tuesday morning, I got up and went to the gym before work, and had a good run and weights session to get the blood flowing. It was a good thing I did as well, because at work it was that time of the online cycle when John and I had to mark first draft essays again. As per usual, they were overall poorly done, but the silver lining was that it was the end of semester, so many students had given up on doing them. It's not the best attitude to have towards it, but after trying for months to get the information across to them, only to have them write in every way you told them not to, you begin to care less and less. After work, I went back to the gym to ride the bike, and sweat out the frustration of the students essays, then it was home for some eggs and a shake, before throwing on the TV and going to bed.
Wednesday morning, I got up a little later than I had wanted, and headed off to the hospital. When I got there, Wes' caregiver told me I had missed Casey and Monitta by only a few minutes, so I didn't get to have as in depth update as usual. Mrs. Oh his caregiver did tell me that he had been doing good, and that the doctors had started giving him steroid injections into his legs to keep the muscles strong. I stayed for a short visit, then had to leave so I could get to work on time, and get back to marking the students awful essays. After a flurry of essays, the day was done and it was time to go to the gym. After another good bike ride and some weights, I went home for some food, TV and sleep.
Thursday morning I got up and prepared some more food for work, then packed it up and headed off to the gym, trying to get back on track after missing so many workouts the week before. Feeling good after the gym, I went to work to hand out some more movie tickets and watch some movies or play games with my classes, then marked essays during my breaks. By the end of the day, John and I had done all but a few first draft essays, as well as a few second draft early entries. Once again it was off to the gym after work, but this time it was to make up for the fact that John and I had another man date planned for the next morning.
John called me early Friday morning to make sure I was still down for our movie date, which I was, so we planned to meet at the Podo Mall Lotte Cinema for the 940 showing of Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides 3D, the fourth movie in the series. I rode my bike there hoping the impending rain would hold off, and made it just in time to get our tickets and catch the opening of the movie. The movie was very well done, and we both liked it more than the previous two, which were too wrapped up in love stories and not about as much pirating. This one did have a love story, but it was down played so that the real adventure could stand out. After the movie, we went outside to see that it had begun raining, and that the skies promised more to come. John had to go pick up some more medicine, and I wanted to get home and make some food and take a shower before work, so we went our separate ways, and both got wet riding in the rain. At home, I made up some food and had a shower, then walked to work instead of riding. Luckily, the rain stopped during the day, and by the time work finished I was able to walk to the gym without getting wet. I had a pretty good workout to finish off the day, then went home and ate before watching a movie and going to bed.
Even after getting a good nights sleep, I woke up Saturday feeling down and kind of mopy. It didn't help that it was a gloomy and rainy day. Feeling as I did, I skipped going to the hospital to stay in bed and watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and instead just called Casey to see how Wes was doing. Later in the afternoon, the rain cleared up and I decided I would go to the Haebongcheon (HBC) Music Fest to see Trevor's band play. I didn't plan on being there for very long, and ran into some other hockey guys while I was there, who were at varying degrees of party mode. Eventually I ran into Thomas and Jeanne, who were there to watch some bands before going to meet our other group of friends in Itaewon for dinner. I hadn't planned on staying after 9pm, but when I heard about dinner, I couldn't refuse seeing everyone. So, instead of going home at 9, I went over to Itaewon to meet with everyone for dinner at an Indian restaurant behind the Hamilton Hotel. Dinner was good, and John even came around from the wedding party he had been at, and with him he brought his "new" watch that he had somehow ended up with after going to Gold Bar the night before with Alex and Louise. When dinner was over, I made for the subway, as I was trying to have an early night before playing hockey Sunday with a depleted team, but John convinced me to go with him for one more beer at the wedding party he was at on the condition he would split a cab with me at 1am. I'm not sure why I went for it, knowing full well in the back of my mind that I would end up going home alone, but went for it anyways. Sure enough, after a couple beers, John had disappeared and left me talking with a couple guys he knew from snowboarding. Knowing it would come to it, I balked at myself as I took a taxi home by myself at 130. As silly as I was to have stayed, I had a good time, and had stayed relatively sober, so going to bed I didn't feel too bad.
Since I got home at a decent time, and had drank a fair amount of water, Sunday morning I felt great, and got up just after 11 to get ready to go play hockey. I knew it was going to be a long day because half of our team were not going to be at the game. Our best forward and two defencemen were in a tournament in Hong Kong, another good forward was busy writing a mock exam, and another good forward would only be playing the first game because he had to pick up his family from the airport for his coming wedding. This left us with our normal goalie, a couple good forwards, a handful of mid-range forwards, and a defence made up of one good player, myself who isn't that bad, and a guy who has no idea. I got there at 1 for our 2 O'clock game against the Red Army, who were equipped with almost their whole team, including the best player in the league. We tried our best to stay positive, but knew that it was gong to be a long day, and I was glad that I had done some extra sprints on the bike throughout the week, because I was going to need to play long shifts. Little did I know that by long shifts, I would end up playing almost the entire time, because the other defencemen were in great need of breaks than I was. Our first game, we came out strong, and played as well as we could, but the Red Army got the upper hand, and even though I was playing their top player as well as I could, the number of other players on their team that can finish started to take its toll on us. The eventual result was a mercy of 7-0 in 30 minutes of play. Exhausted, our team took a short break to talk some strategy before the next game started, and like all our matches, we came out stronger in the second game. We played a more conservative game, trying not to always race to the puck, and to dump it when we were collapsing. It worked out at first, and we took a 2-0 lead, but once again fatigue set in and we watched our lead fade away. We were able to hang on and play the entire 45 minutes in the second game, it still ended in an 8-3 defeat, and I had played all but 5 minutes of both leaving my entire body sore and depleted. We were very disappointed in how the day went, but I took solace in being told that I had played well against the top player. Our hole team was a little upset, but we still stuck around for a few beers to heal the wounds of the day. One beer led to another, and some long conversations later, it was the end of the 6 O'clock game and time to clean up, then go home. I could barely move by the time I made it back to Bongcheon, but made it to get groceries before going home for a long hot shower, and a phone call home.
Since I got home at a decent time, and had drank a fair amount of water, Sunday morning I felt great, and got up just after 11 to get ready to go play hockey. I knew it was going to be a long day because half of our team were not going to be at the game. Our best forward and two defencemen were in a tournament in Hong Kong, another good forward was busy writing a mock exam, and another good forward would only be playing the first game because he had to pick up his family from the airport for his coming wedding. This left us with our normal goalie, a couple good forwards, a handful of mid-range forwards, and a defence made up of one good player, myself who isn't that bad, and a guy who has no idea. I got there at 1 for our 2 O'clock game against the Red Army, who were equipped with almost their whole team, including the best player in the league. We tried our best to stay positive, but knew that it was gong to be a long day, and I was glad that I had done some extra sprints on the bike throughout the week, because I was going to need to play long shifts. Little did I know that by long shifts, I would end up playing almost the entire time, because the other defencemen were in great need of breaks than I was. Our first game, we came out strong, and played as well as we could, but the Red Army got the upper hand, and even though I was playing their top player as well as I could, the number of other players on their team that can finish started to take its toll on us. The eventual result was a mercy of 7-0 in 30 minutes of play. Exhausted, our team took a short break to talk some strategy before the next game started, and like all our matches, we came out stronger in the second game. We played a more conservative game, trying not to always race to the puck, and to dump it when we were collapsing. It worked out at first, and we took a 2-0 lead, but once again fatigue set in and we watched our lead fade away. We were able to hang on and play the entire 45 minutes in the second game, it still ended in an 8-3 defeat, and I had played all but 5 minutes of both leaving my entire body sore and depleted. We were very disappointed in how the day went, but I took solace in being told that I had played well against the top player. Our hole team was a little upset, but we still stuck around for a few beers to heal the wounds of the day. One beer led to another, and some long conversations later, it was the end of the 6 O'clock game and time to clean up, then go home. I could barely move by the time I made it back to Bongcheon, but made it to get groceries before going home for a long hot shower, and a phone call home.
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