Cheeseball Saturday

Dear inventor of cheeseballs,
In my book, you are right up there with Edison!

It's Wednesday and I'm finally sitting down to do some blogging from last week...as I sit here, my 4 pm students are munching on their homemade ice pops that we made yesterday...I forgot how delicious those things are..and how easy..take a cup put some sort of drink in it, place a 1/2 of a wooden chopstick in the drink, put in the freezer overnight and bada bing bada boom, a popsicle!

So anyway, I'm not here to talk about this week, I'm here to tell you of the events from last week. I was ready for a fresh start after my previous week of computer mayhem, however, this past week proved to be a continuation of mayhem. I think my previous week of stress, made this week seem like child's play and I was able to handle these situations better.

Monday I decided to ride my bike to work. I just LOVE riding my bike to work, cuts the time in half and I don't feel as sweaty when I get to work...it's also nice to take a bike ride home at the end of the day..a good stress reliever. However, regarding my bike, Monday night was quite unusual.

I parked my bike in the back of the building with the other bikes, locked her up at her back tire, and headed upstairs to start a full day of teaching. After my last class finished at 9pm, I was more than ready to ride back to the apt. I walked outside, unlocked my bike, and attempted to pull it out from the rack...problem...my bike's front tire was locked to the rack. WHAT? yes, someone put their lock on MY bike. I was extremely perplexed. As I sat staring at my bike I realized that the bike next to mine had no lock. Then it came to me..someone got off their bike, put it in the rack, walked around to the front, and then proceeded to put their lock on my front tire thinking it was theirs..however, their bike was much nicer. So, I unlocked my bike and decided to just do the ole switcharoo...j.k. I went upstairs to tell Jemal of my situation. Together we debated what to do, and we decided to take a picture of the bikes and then try to explain to the people in the building about the situation. However, there are many businesses, and after this idea failed miserably at our first stop in the gym due to the language barrier and lack of proaction of most people here, Jemal took me home in his car and we hoped the person would realize his/her mistake and free my bike. Next morning, I came in and I realized Rousseau had been freed! Bet that person felt pretty silly when they were unlocking their lock...or not, I could see them not even realizing it.

So, Tuesday came and it was a HOT one. The rainy season has ended but it's been very very hot and humid here on the peninsula. My apt's A/C was acting funny on monday night, and the location of my apt is pretty terrible..corner room + no windows directly in the apt+one window on the porch area where the washing machine is = a jimjilbang (Korean word for "sauna"). Tuesday night I came home to an apt that was near 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I immediately turn on the A/C and fan and just stand in front of the fan. As I was trying to cool off, I happened to glance over at Lily's cage.

Lily was laying flat on her stomach with all four limbs spread out. Her eyes were squinted and her reaction to my "LILY!" and shaking the cage was very delayed. I realized all her water had evaporated...she was one thirsty rodent. I aimed the fan at her, filled her water, and tried to squirt water into her mouth...I wasn't sure if she was going to make it through the night, but that resilient little thing pulled through like a true champ. I came to the realization that there was a major problem with the A/C.

Not only was the air conditioner not spouting out cool air, it would shut off at random times and I'd have to wait for 20 minutes until I could turn it back on. On Wednesday, I was supposed to come home an hour early to meet the A/C guy...from past experiences, I understood that by "meeting" him that would serve zero purpose since we don't speak the same language. So, I had my neighbor come over (he's also a student at the school in one of the adult classes) and help translate. So, I raced home on Wednesday night to quickly clean up my apt...my "unmentionables" were all over the place (give me a break, I don't have a dryer). I quickly cleaned up and thankfully, my neighbor got to my apt first. So, I explained to him the problem and he understood and we were ready to talk to the a/c guy. We waited..and waited..and waited..and waited. He never came. An hour later, my school calls and says, yeah, he already came earlier in the day. My thought: "Oh shoot, he saw just about every piece of my "unmentionables." And of course he didn't fix anything...But, he did order a part and finally on Sunday night he came to install it. So, these past several nights have been full of much needed all night sleep! And although Wednesday night was a failure since I spent 2 hours waiting for this a/c guy, it was nice to get to know my neighbor more :)

As for my classes, it was a pretty usual week. I'm sure there were funny moments, but I can't really think of them. At one point in my morning class I had three students in three different countries. Mrs. Ko left for a month long backpacking trip to South America with her husband (she would), Mrs. Nam went to China for a little vaca with her family, and one of my newer students headed to Australia for the next 8 months to study English. This past week was the beginning of summer vacation for all the public schools and this next week many of the companies in the area give their employees a week long vacation, so alot of people are taking vacations and what not...I too will be taking a vacation starting TOMORROW! I'm headed South..you'll hear all about it next week's blog.

Although we didn't leave Gunsan, the weekend held a classic Korean experience. Elizabeth and I decided that Saturday would be our one day of summer. On top of that, we got this enormous tub of cheeseballs from Costco and designated Saturday to be "Cheeseball Saturday." So, our plan was to eat cheeseballs, go swimming, eat cheeseballs, ride bikes, eat cheeseballs, have dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant, and eat as many cheeseballs as possible. And we did just that. The swimming experience had "classic Korea" written all over it.

We knew of two places to go swimming in Gunsan. Apparently there aren't many places to swim outside, which makes sense since many of their lotions have "white flour" as an ingredient to give themselves a more pale appearance. So, we got directions to one of the places and rode our bikes there. It was a solid 20 minute ride. So, after circling the place and finding the entrance we were showed around the lockerroom area by one of the workers. She was very nice. So, this is what you do if you ever want to go swimming at Wolmyeong Sports Complex. First you must pay the 1,280 won. Then you receive a key. Then you remove your shoes and go into the first part of the locker room. Here you open your first locker that is your shoe locker. Stick your shoes in there and take the lockerroom shoes they provide. Slip those babys on and move onto the next stage of the lockerroom. Use your key to open your clothes locker. Change into your swimming suit. Then go into the shower room. Rinse. You're ready to go swimming.

So, we did everything like good foreigners and then walked on into the pool area. Now, of course we knew we'd be stared at, but we quickly realized we would REALLY be stared at. The first thing Elizabeth says to me, "I don't want to jump into this swimmeet." We were told it was "free swim" but what we saw was one big pool that had 6 lanes and then a pretty jumpin kiddie pool in the corner...naturally, we felt drawn to the chaos that was in the kiddie pool...so we walked over towards the kiddie pool and observed the big pool for awhile. The men were either in speedos or those tight swimming spandex suits (you know, the one the professional swimmers use) and the women were all in black one pieces (also very similar to what professional swimmers wear). They were swimming in a very organized fashion and all had goggles and swimcaps. Here Elizabeth and I stood, next to the Kiddie pool in our blue polka dot tankinis, goggle and swimcapless ready for some good ole American pool fun..I mean where was the splashing, the dunking, the chicken fights?

I KNOW we looked out of place, and finally the lifeguard approached us. Her English was wonderful and she says, "do you have swim caps?" We said no, she looked a little shocked, but she graciously let us borrow one silver swim cap and one golden swim cap. I was reliving those Dixon Dolphin swim team days when I pulled that cap over my head. We noticed the first lane was the relaxed lane and then from there the lanes got more intense. We chose lane #2, seemed to be intense, but not too intense, so we spent the next hour or so swimming laps during this "free swim." There was nothing "free" about that swim.

I have noticed something here. Whenever someone wants to go swimming, go for a bike ride, go hiking, or pretty much anything recreational, they don't just slap on their old camp tshirt and mesh shorts..they dress in all the brand names, buy all the accessories, and do their best to mimic the professionals. It's quite interesting and it seems their idea of "fun" is pretty intense...but understandable since at a young age in school, they never really have fun during school or even after school. The schools do have designated "sports days." So, I'm thankful for my past recesses, getting off at 3pm everyday, playing sports after school, swimming outside on hot summer days wearing whatever you find in your top drawer, and throwing random kids around in the pool. I love America :)

Well, I hope you are having a good week! It's already Wednesday, woot woot! Until next time...