retrospectacles

So much has happened since my Busan trip. Let’s see…one night, Okailey, Jarrod, Sonia, and I stayed out until the wee-wee hours of the morning. We had “breakfast” at around 5 or 6 am. No, we didn’t have pancakes or waffles. We had some grilled chicken and beer at a restaurant downtown. Okailey had snagged her (and all of us!) a sugar daddy for the night/morning. I didn’t particularly have a good first, second, or third impression of this guy. He was talking about how he kills people. No no, he doesn’t kill them. He tells his “lawyer” that he doesn’t like someone and the “lawyer” somehow gets these people killed. Don’t get him wrong, he doesn’t like killing people, he said. It also turns out that this guy had a girlfriend!!! And he was kissing up on all the girls in the club, including me! Well, he didn’t KISS ME, KISS ME, he kissed the side of my head. Gross. Omigosh, this guy was a complete moron, but I couldn’t say anything to his face because, well, he paid for everyone’s meal. Anyways, I got home around 7 or 8 that morning after a very long bus ride home. I didn’t feel like taking the subway even though it would be faster because I would’ve had to walk 15 minutes to get back to my place. It was way too cold to be doing that. It was also way too early and I was way too sleepy. I would’ve collapsed and slept on the side of the road. After this night, I said that I would never do this again. Then, the following weekend, I did the same thing, but I got home after noon, about 1230pm. Granted, I did sleep for several hours at Sonia’s place. Oh yeah, and this was after sitting on some guy’s roof just chatting and seeing the sun rise from 430 to 530am. We were all getting sleepy, so we went to Sonia’s and I was gonna stay awake and wait for the bus, but a little before 6, my eyes grew heavy and I had to sleep. I hate going out late because it ruins the next day for me. I just sleep the entire day and/or am groggy and lazy.

Last weekend, Okailey and Jarrod went to Seoul, so Sonia and I went to Family Land because I am her mom and she is my daughter. Family Land is an amusement park and I thought it would be silly to go, but it was my idea to go anyway just to check it out. It was rather expensive for such a tiny park. It was 24,000 won for full access to everything in the park. You can ride the rides as many times as you want and take the train to and from the entrance. It sounded pretty good, so we got that one. There were also tickets that were limited, like you can only ride 5 rides. Anyways, we go into the park and I realized that the rides were SOOO kiddish. They were not fast, not scary, not tall, not anything. Basically, it would be fun for anyone under 8 years old. However, there were a few VERY scary ones. There was one ride called Chaos, and boy was it anything but pure! At first, it wasn’t scary, but once you get rocked back and forth and you’re facing the ground from a seemingly high altitude, it is ridiculous scary and adrenaline rushing. It made me sick too.

Then the next ride was called Dragon Chaser. It was a roller coaster and it lasts about 10 seconds. It’s sooo fast, barely any ride. The wait for the roller coaster to start is even longer. Speaking of waits, there are virtually NO lines at this park. Maybe because it’s so kiddish, no one goes. You just walk right through and you’re at the ride, get in, and go. There was also a water ride, a log ride, like the one at Knott’s Berry Farm back home. I love that ride. We went on it a couple times. We only went on 3 rides for a total of 6 times. We had to get our money’s worth! We had to ride more than 5 times! haha We went on Chaos once, Dragon Chaser 3 times, and the log ride 2 times.
The rides were kiddish, but Sonia wasn’t feeling too good after the first time we rode the Dragon Chaser. She even paid the restroom a visit for a little bit of toilet hugging. After we finished the last ride, it started sprinkling a little bit. Then it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then it started to MONSOON! Omigosh, the rains here are freaken crazy. Sonia and I got stuck at a GS25 in front of the park. We wanted to get snacks so we went there. As we were shopping around, we looked outside and were in complete and utter shock at how the rains had gotten worse. We got an umbrella and left to the bus stop. By then, the rains had subsided and during my hour long bus ride home, it had stopped completely…only to start again later that night.


Totally out of order, but it was also a couple of our April EPIK teachers’ birthdays recently – Austin & Joe’s. For Austin’s, we went to a couple bars and ended the night at a noraebang. We hadn’t gone to a noraebang in a while, so it was long overdue. For Joe’s birthday, we met up at Tequilaz, had some food, had some drinks, then it was off to Pump. There, I met some other EPIK teachers from September. I even met someone from UCLA! It was great! It was rare for me to meet anyone from California, let alone Southern California, let alone the same school! He even graduated the same year and we have mutual friends! It really is a small world after all. After Pump, some of us headed to Bubble Bar. It was pretty empty because it was a Tuesday night and everyone was at Pump. It was nice to have some space in there though. It also wasn’t as stuffy and hot as it usually is. I hate that about Bubble Bar. Oh yeah, this was the night I got home after noon.

In other news, I bought a bike and got new glasses. My bike is nice, but I like my bike at home more. When I left the store, I was riding it and I realized that it was way too small for me. I was thinking, “Oh crap, I wonder if I can return it right now.” I stopped, sat on the side of the sidewalk, and started to adjust the handlebars and seat. It worked! It fits me! However, I think that it’s hard to control. The bike is all over the place, not very stable. I don’t like that because I can’t ride without any hands or else I’d fall on my face. The roads here are also very bad and bumpy, so it’s tough to ride. And the drivers here are crazy! I almost got killed when I rode the bike home. For real. The brakes on this bike are different than the one I have at home, so I wasn’t quite used to it at that time, but it was still the driver’s fault because they didn’t look.

As for my new glasses, I went back to my old thick black frames. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I had to take the eye exam in Korean. Thank goodness I learned my numbers! However, there was one part on the test where there was a red box and a green box. I thought she was asking me which box looked clearer so that’s how I answered. I still don’t know what the question was though. My glasses aren’t as clear as I’d like them to be, but I can still see. It’s just not as sharp when I look far away. Maybe I have astigmatism. The eye exams here are FREE, but I can see why. They’re not as extensive as the ones back home. They last about 2 minutes whereas the ones at home are like 5 minutes. “One or two? One or two? One or two? One or two?”

So, summer vacation is coming up soon…in less than 2 months. In my contract, it says I should get a total of 18 days official vacation for both summer and winter vacations. Usually it is broken up where you get 8 days for summer and 10 for winter. I decided to go with the usual breakdown and take 8 days for summer. My co-teacher asked me how many days I wanted. I told her and then later on in the day, the HOTET asked me as well. I told her and we were looking at a calendar and she proceeded to count 8 days, INCLUDING WEEKENDS. Oh no she didn’t! I decided NOT to bite my tongue and said, “I don’t think weekends count.” and she said, “In Korea, we can count the weekends as part of our vacation.” That pissed me off and I didn’t say anything and I didn’t look at her or anything. I really hate her. A LOT. She gets on my last nerves. Today, my co-teacher asked me when I wanted to take vacation. I told her the date and she counted the weekends as well. I told her that the weekends don’t count, but she put it in the system as including weekends and counting 8 days. If you’re going to count the effing weekend, then count it as 6 days, not 8. Omigosh, it pisses me off that they’re trying to rip me off of my vacation time. Seriously? If I’m not on vacation, I have to come to school and just SIT HERE and do what? NOTHING! Why are you wasting my time? It makes no sense. I hate the HOTET, and she wants to have dinner on Monday. Ugh. I can’t say no. I hate their system. SO much.