Let's Call This the Comeback

I’ve been a Neglectful Nancy recently in the emailing and blogging department. Sorry folks, well mostly sorry about the emailing, blogging is fun mostly for me. Although I do appreciate knowing that I have readers out there. I was on a break between classes when I started this entry and now, hours later, I’m waiting for my rice to finish cooking.

I am pleased to report that in some respects, I am becoming a functioning human being here. For example, I finally bought fruit from a street vendor, a bag of oranges to be exact. Also, I asked for garbage bags all by myself without pointing and managed, with a bit of luck, to get both the regular and the food garbage bags. Also, I paid a bill all by myself, no Sally standing over my shoulder telling me what buttons press. Whenever we go to the bank to pay bills the security guard usually butts in and tries to help, but today even he kept his distance. Also, I hung out with the peeps sans Sally not once, but twice this weekend.

However, I’m still an Awkward Anna most of time and still hugely aware of how conspicuous I am, a non-Korean English-only white girl. The other day I finally decided that it was time to buy a coffee press and headed to the store-of-all-things where I buy my house hold items, like stationary supplies, toilet bowl cleaner, garlic presses, toasters, Tupperware, stickers, and Mocha Gold. I knew what I wanted and I walked directly over to the coffee presses. They have good selection, including Bodiums. I hummed and hawed and finally just decided to go with the cheapest one. I grabbed it as one of the ladies who works there came over and decided to help me. She found the box, made sure it was all-good. I paid and left with my item. I got home and realized that it was not in fact a coffee press; it was for tea. It doesn’t actually press at all, it just strains. I decided not to use it and considered bringing it back. However, that just seemed to awkward. So I still have it and just need to get some lose tea to use in it. The package is entierly in either Chinese or Japanese so at least it's super athentic for tea. But I still wanted a coffee press. Instead of going back to the store to buy one, a five minuet walk away. I decided to get one at the Lotte Department store in Nowan, a half hour walk. I just didn’t want the same lady to see my buying a different but similar item, she would know that I made a mistake. Shopping at Lotte is the most awkward thing ever. I always feel as though I have wondered behind a counter, everybody is helpful and pushy, and the items are always way over-priced. I did buy a coffee press, one that is not nearly as good as a Bodium but definitely cost more because I was too embarrassed. That is not nearly the most awkward I have been, that is the most expensively awkard I have been.

Last Wednesday, Jaemin was wearing a tracksuit that perfectly matched his puma shoes.

On Monday he was wearing brown leather high-tops that had Velcro over the high part, his super Mario jeans, slim fitting, a yellow and pink striped button up shirt with a collar under a blue sweater. It was longish button up sweater, made of delicate looking wool, vintage looking. The breast pockets looked like they were buttoned on. It was very hipster once again. I say his mom on Monday, her style was not quite as advanced as I had expected, but she was carrying around a Louis Vuitton, I expect it was fake though. Sunny, one of my co-teacher told me she bought a real Vuitton this weekend. At first I couldn’t understand what she was saying, something about a French brand and then she spelled it for me and I realized that she meant Vuitton. I mean, all her make up and make up accessories are Chanel, but still, those are small things. Real Vuitton kind of blows my mind. I would love to go shopping with her or Tasha when they are buying their expensive things. I would never even be tempted to spend that kind of money, but it would be interesting to shop with someone who does it on a regular basis. Tasha bought her husband a fake Prada jacket for Christmas and still paid like $300.00. FOR A FAKE! The original was like $3000.00 and the fake is apparently perfect. Still, that’s ridiculous.

On Friday I insisted that Sally eat mandu guk with me at the place close to my apartment. At first she didn’t want to because she, like me, is always so tired after work, but on Friday, I feel as though we need to acknowledge that we are young and wild and free even though we have to work on Saturday morning. It was delicious and because we couldn’t specify and because the last time I was there, we had the reddish mandu, they gave us a variety bowl of mandu, some regular some red. It was delicious. Although, we also wanted some soju to go with the mandu but after they served the mandu, we were basically ignored for the rest of the out visit. After the mandu I went for a really long walk. First I headed to Suyu with the intention of reading at a coffee shop, but it was really nice out and when I got to the bridge that separates Dobong-gu from Suyu, I didn’t feel like stopping, so I turned around and then walked to Nowan. That’s a lot of walking and I was pretty much exhausted by the time I got back home.

Shortly before my first class on Saturday morning, my phone rings, which is strange because basically only Sally calls me and Sally was supposed to be at school. It was Sally on the phone and she sounded a little weird. She told me to tell the director that she was going to be few minuets late, just a few she insisted. She wasn’t feeling well. I informed our director. He was a little put out, but didn’t shoot the messenger.

After my first class, while walking back to the teachers room, I heard some students trying to tell Tasha something about Sally and a hospital. I asked Tasha when she got back to the teachers room but she told me she thought they had been just been told that because it was a good excuse for her absence. I thought that was weird and said that she was sick, she has been for a while. Then Kim came in and said that he brought Sally to the hospital. Shit. I was really worried. But he didn’t seem to concerned. I figured that I had posiend her by insiting that she eat mandu with me.

Some of the teachers invited me out for lunch with them, which I readily accepted. We went to one of the restaurants under the school. I texted Sally and told her to tell me what was going on as soon as she could. Eventually she called me and told me that she was out of the hospital and walking home. Apparently she had had a gastric cramp or something. It was very painful and scary, but she is fine now. They gave her some fluids and some medication and made her lie down for awhile and she was fine. She was still in a little pain but walking felt good and so did the fresh air (Saturday was a beautiful day). After my lunch which the teachers (which was super tasty and not to spicy although they all thought I would find it too spicy, the only thing I didn’t like was the “ham” in the dish, it was very wiener like, I’m not a fan), Sally and I went for a short walk, on which I bought my oranges from the street vendor.

After our walk, I walked over to Suyu for coffee and quality reading time. I am aware that reading in coffee shops is lame, but my apartment is tiny and sometimes I just need to get out. You would too. And sometimes the coffee shops have comfy chairs, which I miss. When I get back home, the first thing I want to buy is a comfy reading chair that only I am allowed to use. Sorry Bryan, get your own chair. I miss couches too. I like going to Noraebongs just to sit on the couches. The coffee shop started to get really full and when I was finished my coffee, I felt bad and had to leave so I wasn’t even there for very long. Although, I must say, in Korea, people hang out at coffee shops for way longer than at home, they study more, read more, even watch TV on their phones, because, like me, they all live in tiny apartments, but probably still with their families and need some place to get away from it all. And for the price of coffee you sit for hours. I’m just saying is all.

I got home and took a short nap, I was woken by a text from Sarah asking me if I wanted to meet her to go out with the gang that night for Feo’s birthday. Of course I did. I met her at her subway stop in Taerang, which required a transfer in Changdong, which was super confusing. There were trains on either side of the platform that appeared to be headed in the same direction and I had no idea which one to get on. There was one waiting when I get to the platform and people were on it, but there were also people waiting on the platform. I stood confused and anxious for while. When the train pulled up the platform I decided to get on and hoped that it was correct. It was correct and I met Sarah exactly on time, although she thought I would come from a different direction so there was a bit of confusion at the subway station.

Also at the subway station, there was a poster for men's suits, in which the model’s head was clearly photoshopped onto a body that was not even close to being his. It was all so out of proportion. It was kind of freaky and kind of funny all at the same time. I stared at it for a long time, I just couldn’t take my eyes of it. He was like an alien or something, close to human but just not quite right. The model also had a really bad haircut and I wondered why you would go though the effort and expense to put up a poster ad in the subway only to use a photoshopped picture of a model with an ugly haircut. Is this really the best way to sell your product? Really?

Sarah and I took the subway all the way to ITEAWON (!!) because I love Itaewon and I love spending scads of time there with the skecty douchebags and crime. However, it is on the same line as Tanrang so no transfers, which is nice. We were meeting everybody at a pub called the Wolf’s Tap or something to that effect. We walked into the place and it was like I had been transported back to the King’s Head or the Toad in the Hole. There was not single Korean person in sight. I’m not exaggerating either. There were only white faces. So weird. We grabbed a table upstairs and each got a beer. There we sat, Sarah and I, sipping Stella, flipping through the menu of burgers and fish & chips, nachos and fries. It was very surreal. Eventually everybody showed up and we got a bigger table, and not a moment to soon because soon a group of GI’s showed up to celebrate a birthday. They were very loud and they were getting very drunk. The music was really loud too, but at least it was pretty good music, there was some Justice and some Hot Chip and just as we were leaving I got to hear Paper Planes by MIA. Sally decided to come and join us even though she had been in the hospital earlier in the day. We meet her and headed to a different bar, Scrooges I think. It was a little better, a few Koreans, but being Itaewon, it was still mostly while folk.

We left in time to all take the subway’s home. However, Sally, Sarah, I headed up to Nowan to meet Amber who had not been able to make it to Itaewon because of a school function. We met at a kimbob place and chowed down on a bunch of kimbob and kimchi. After we headed to a Noraebong, just us four girls and rented a room for an hour or two and sang the night away. It was lots of fun. Once again, I sang less and mostly I watched the sappy Korean music videos, which I love.

As we were leaving the noraebang, we heard a girl screaming and then saw her lying in the middle of the street across from us. Of course we were naturally worried, assuming that a car or something had hit her. But upon further observation, we realized that was actually having a huge drunken fit. I have never seen a grown woman behaving in such a disgusting manner. I don’t care what her boyfriend did, have some fucking dignity. She was literally rolling around on the street screaming and crying. He was standing beside her, clearly pissed and super embarrassed but still trying to coax her off the very busy street. Every time he touched her she would scream louder and pull away, which actually made it more dangerous. He was also holding on to her purse and coat, which made it awkward for him to grab hold of her. He finally ditched the stuff and tried to literally carry her off the road, but she made her self a dead weight and when he lost his grip she went back onto the road. As soon as we realized she was not hurt and just being huge brat, I wanted to leave. Yes, I am interested in the spectacle, but I hate watching people make fools of themselves and of others. I wanted to get out of there, but the other girls couldn’t tear themselves away. I was little surprised at them, they all seem like the type of people who would take no pleasure in watching just a sorry display, but if I hadn’t insisted, they might have stayed their for a lot longer. I don’t know what happened to the stupid girl, but I assume that eventually her boyfriend got her home and I hope that he dumped her.

Early in the week I had agreed to play in a small volleyball tournament that was apparently for charity. I think we were raising money for immigrant workers in Korea. I had to meet Amber, Sarah, Dave, and Lisa on the subway sometime after 12:15. That was when they were getting on the subway in Nowan and then they would pass through Ssangmun shortly after that. As I was super paranoid about missing their train, I arrived at the Ssangmun station shortly after 12:00. I sat in the subway station for almost half an hour and my fingers got very cold while I read and watched the trains go by. I felt very foolish every time a train pulled up and I didn’t get on it. Finally the arrived and I joined them on the train.

We were headed to Suwon, a city outside of Seoul, you never leave city actually, but it is considered a separate city. It is south of Seoul and a very long ride, over two hours by subway. On the way we picked up Mike, Chris, and Amber’s friend Seung Hoon. We finally arrived at the Suwon station, from which getting to the place where the tournament was being held, was supposed to easy. We got into a cab and the cab driver had never heard of the place we were going. Amber had to call the organizer of the event who had to give the cab driver directions. There were only four of us in the cab and we arrived way before the rest of the group did, they eventually took a bus to get to the school. The tournament was held at an international school, which was apparently brand new. It was huge and new looking. There were at least three large buildings which appeared to be part of the school. Including the sports complex where there were two gyms on the second floor above a huge pool. The soccer field was artificial turf. I don’t much about these kinds of the things, but I assume that although turf must suck to play on, it has got to be costly. Anyway, the facilities were super nice.

The tournament was run by guy who looked like he had never played volleyball in his life and he clearly didn’t know many of the rules, which a little problematic at first. Just as I feared, there were some hard core people there. Mostly however, the teams were much like ours, people who maybe played in high school and even then just for intermurieals. One team however, looked like they actually played together on a regular basis and they didn’t look like they were having any fun. There was no smiling or laughing on the court, they just did their bump set spike and carried on. They were way to serious for the caliber of play. They were from Life Church! My team actually won two of the four games we played one of the games we lost by one point (which actually isn’t supposed to happen, but as the socially awkward rule guy pointed out, first to 20 points or fifteen minuets, thanks friend).

We took the bus back to the suwon station, which took a very long time and I had to stand the whole way, the bus driver wasn’t very delicate and there was a lot of jerking around. I had to hold on with two hands to keep my balance. I had a few awkward moments with some Korean guy who standing next to me, getting a little to close. From the station, we walked to a sushi place that Amber knew about. It was all you can eat for $12,000 won and it was really good sushi, lots of variety in the rolls and lots of sashimi. There were also lots of other things for the sushi hater, but I mostly stuck to the sushi.

Back the at the subway station, someone decided that it would be faster if we took a bus to Jamsil and then take the subway from there. Someone was under the impression that it was only a half hour bus ride to Jamsil (it wasn’t me, which I realize is implied by “someone”, but it wasn’t, really, I just follow the group, I really don’t know whose idea it was). This was not the case. The bus ride was a lot longer than half an hour and then Jamsil is still really far away from where most of us live. I didn’t get home until midnight and I had to teach the next morning and shower at some point between getting home and getting to work (which I definitely didn’t do).

Monday morning when I woke up, I realized that I couldn’t move. I felt like I was an old old woman, an old old woman who had been struck by a small to mid-sized car. Every movement in any direction took a huge effort and in fact I am still ridiculously sore. It is so stupid. I’m hoping that by tomorrow I will feel much better. I couldn’t even finish my yoga this morning and every time I have to climb stairs or walk up hill, I just want to sit down and give up. Actually sitting hurts too, I just want to fall over and die.

This marathon blog should make up for the any neglect you may have felt, look at me being vain, assuming you still care about this thing.

Dee

January 20, 2009