Thoughts like that are usually enough to pull me out of bed.
Just like stepping out into daylight is enough to make a guy miss his bed.
But then again Korea isn't like the majority of the States. You don't hear phrases like, "...well, this place is closing in 20 minutes at six [am] anyhow, and I bloody well want to go [karaoke]..."
It started out about 22 hours ago, a morning just like any other morning.
I woke up late, or at least later than usual. The night before I'd briefly re-discovered Minecraft and stayed up past my bedtime, which isn't terrible because I'm a bit of a morning person now. Yea, disgusting, I know. I get ready and get to work in time to prep for my day, which was guaranteed to be a circus with all the testing we still had to do. But, I was spared all that for the first few hours thanks to my kindy kids.
I want to work at a kindergarten all day long. No snotty, indifferent or contemptible brats, just short attention spans and the need to play. Perks include classrooms as large as seven, and knowing you're making a difference, especially when you see someone start to understand the mechanics behind reading.
And a LOT more fun.
Oh, and thanks to my good friend Alexander, I was whistling at lunch. I had before me a giant plate of food, filled with amazingly wonderful Korean fare like rice, spicy vegetables, and esp the marinated pork and squid combo. I couldn't help but smile. Awesome lunches, every day, all for free. Its not such a bad place for a mojado!
The rest of the day was craziness! I'm giving speaking tests from my seat in the office, and the schedule is packed!! Its so crazy, I go from one student at a time to groups of three or four just to keep up! And it really sucks sometimes. This one girl, Betty, got all zeros on one question because she didn't even understand what I was talking about. She seems to be one of the smart ones, precocious, and fun to have as a student, but isn't quite hacking it in the speaking department. It was like this for a few other of my students, which is really disappointing, especially for the studious looking ones.
But, after nine and a half hours or so, I had a pile of scores to transpose to the proper sheets, and a pile of essays to grade. By the way, how do I grade the development, support, or mechanic's of a first grader's five line writing exam? I laughed at that one.
Then hit the bar.
My first stop was on the way home. I paid 9.5k won, or roughly three meals on the cheap (1k won is about 80 cents, and is the Korean dollar bill, but my standard denomination is how many it takes to eat with) and when they brought it, it happened to be an Anderson Farms. You know, the bear in the field. I was a little disappointed, but hey, its Korea, and out here nobody brews IPA. Then I made the discovery of the month: this same place sells shots of 151 for only 4k!! Whaaaaaaaaa???? Haha, this is the kinda place where I might start my nights out and stay within budget!
So I move on, and the nice people there are kind enough to give me some flash cards to show cab drivers so that I can get to and from my apartment. I head home and get ready, then head out to the local bar. There I meet one of the people I replaced, Natalie, and we get to chatting about how everyone is headed downtown to this huge part at the other waygook bar. So I hop in a cab with here and her boyfriend Steve.
WHAT A PARTY!!!
The whole place is PACKED with randoms! People even came from the burbs and out of town to be there! It was awesome! I schmoozed with the locals, as well as a few (starkly obvious) army dudes from Daegu, played pool, danced on a bench, tipped over the bench and landed ass first on the table, laughed it off, and continued to make merry. We drank pitchers of Soju and 'drank' (purple, then lemon as the night went on), all in all good times.
So as things started winding down Natalie had already left, I was losing steam, but Steve was hell bent on going to a Noraebang, or karaoke room. He was failing epically at rallying singers, and I felt bad for the guy, so I decided it might at least be an experience, maybe even fun, to come along. We get to one, and for some reason the dudes at the counter laugh at the sight of two waygook dudes singing together (yes, stop laughing, I know what it could look like).
We're in there, and its fun, but for some reason I'm just not able to hang anymore. At. All. I just lay down on the bench mid song. I'm trying to humor Steve, but even he can see I'm done. I walk out, head up the stairs...
...and see...
...no way...
...is that...
...daylight...??
And not just the dregs of the false dawn daylight. This is the kinda daylight where the early bird's nowhere to be found, and even the late bird looks at you and scoffs. I check my phone: 7:30!!! Whoa. I hop the next cab home, and get myself homeward bound. I spy my work and ask to get out there, betting that its safer to walk four blocks than run over what little cab fare I still have, esp since I left my atm card in my apt on purpose.
So I get home.
And I can't find my keys.
Let me tell you something. Marble is cold. Especially when its cold outside. And most people find it strange when someone is just crashed out in the hall. I'm sure people find it stranger when its a foreigner in a country where foreigners are as common as albinos. But there I was, crashed out in our (mercifully) glass enclosed hallway, at the far end where the sun was trapped like a greenhouse, and thus the warmest spot in the place. I texted someone from work, who texted the owner of the school, who came by just in the nick of time. I had finally had enough, and was determined to attempt the forty minute walk to the norebang (because I only had thirty cents to my name), grab my keys, and walk back home so I could sleep in my bed. This was, of course, if I didn't get lost in the process, having only been downtown in a cab. He calls me as I'm just starting out, and five minutes later
My apt is open!
Then I wake up...
And...
Its...getting dark??
No comments:
Post a Comment