- I guess ill start of with a bang. Last Friday night was a pretty big night. The weather has been hot recently - an im talking hot; 28-30 degrees everyday for the past week or so - so a few of us decided to kick off Friday night by drinking down on the River, instead of at a bar. It was a good time; everyone bought something to eat and drink, it was a beautiful night and the atmosphere was sick - we were sitting across from the castle which is lit up at night as well as town and the bridge which are colourful. There are no problems drinking in public anywhere, anytime so we have freedom to do whatever we So everything was fine and dandy at this point.
From here, things become a blur. We head into town for the night at about 12:30 or so. Somewhere on the massive bridge across the river, APPARANTLY I had to relieve myself. I say apparantly because even though there is a photo of it I still dont believe it. Photoshop can do wonderful things these days. We drank and took photos of ourselves in compromising positions all night long. We leave at about 5:30, and everyone plans to go to the beach for the day. As im walking home I decide I will just catch the bus there right now because if I go home to sleep, I wont be up until 4 in the arvo. I was probably a little ambitious at this point but I figured I know how to get there (1 hr bus ride and taxi) and when I get there ill just sleep on the beach and wait for everyone to show up. Genius! I packed my bags and went to the bus stop. I got the ticket and asked every bus that showed up "Samchonpo?". Eventually the bus to the beach showed up, so I jumped on, sat in my seat and passed out. This was 6 AM at Jinju. I wake up to a tap on my shoulders. I was pretty spaced out as I stumbled out the bus. The penetrating sunlight was torturing my eyes but I could sort of distinguish what was around me. Slowly i begin to make sense of what going on as I head for the station terminal. I begin to realize that I recognise this place. Ive definately been here before. No, it cant be......... Its Jinju F****** Bus Station!!!!!! I look at the clock and its 9AM. I had just spent 3 hrs sleeping on the bus while it went to the beach and came back. ARGH!!!! Luckily i was too much of a zombie to really gather any emotions other then confusion, otherwise I might have been slightly pissed off. To make matters worse when i get in the terminal I spot some friends of mine that were heading to Jirisan for the weekend. They see me a mile away and wave so I approach them. I must have looked like a corpse. They ask me what im doing and I literally could barely say a thing for the first 2 minutes. It was a couple of English words mixed with groans and silence. I eventually manage to have a conversation with them about what happened. They kept asking me "Boy, you look shit Jake", and "How much did you drink last night?" and other similar questions. In my defence, if you ask me anything, or look at me within 5 minutes of waking up, im usually in the same state. After a while they said they had to go catch their bus, but I think they were just trying to get away from me. I leave the place devastated im not a the beach and admit defeat - I wasnt going to go through that again. I walked home and passed out. No beach for me. I dont think I can truly describe in words how confused and retarded I felt during that whole episode.
- I went to work at a school that I hadnt been to in a month. I only go to this school 1 time a week and for 3 weeks straight, for various reasons, I didnt have to teach on those days. So I rock up to the school and was instantly disapointed. The 2 HOT ENGLISH SPEAKING KOREANS that used to work at the high school and middle school were gone. So devastating. They were only on 2 or 3 month contracts and they were up while I was away. Too bad. I was also disappointed to find a layer of yellow dust had settled over my chair, desk and computer. My desk is near the window and the teachers like to open the window fully as the temps are getting hotter. I hadnt been at the desk for so long that dust had built up to ridiculous levels. I took about 10 minutes to clean the entire thing up. I sat in my chair without realising and my paints were bright yellow. Strange. I was also saddened to see that my computer hadnt been upgraded from windows 1997. Yes Windows 97. Are you kidding me???
- I got a bit of a shock when the students at one of my schools started wearing uniforms. They had been exempt until now but they now had to wear the summer uniform. I was looking around the class and then stopped at one student, Im Ha Jeong. Ha Jeong was wearing a skirt. I thought, this cant be right, Ha Jeong is a guy, maybe there is a reason he is wearing a skirt. I decided that no, its not because he cant afford shorts, and its unlikely he has to wear his sisters skirt. I was completely bamboozeled. Ha Jeong is the loudest kid in class, always trying to push the limits with the teacher, getting in trouble, playing soccer with the boys, and to top it off, he looks like a boy. I would have put my house on it that it was a guy. I was almost going to ask him, "why are you wearing a skirt", but thought I better not. When I got the chance I asked my Teacher is he is boy or girl and it turns out of course that Ha Jeong was a girl. It also turns out the my Teacher made the same mistake as me when she first arrived. So im not that crazy. But one point that this whole thing raises is its impossible to tell between girls and guys names. I had no idea if Ha Jeong was a typical name of any gender, and its similar for every name. For example; So Won is a boy, So Hui is a girl, Yeong Jin is a boy, Ye Jin is a girl. Its so hard to look at a name and know if its a girl or a boy. The only thing ive learnt is that if the name has "Dong" in it its usually a boy.
- Had a game of Poker recently and unlike last time, actually won a hand. I even knocked out a few people and won enough hand to come 3rd. Unfortunately only 1st and 2nd collected. But the most important thing about this game was we held our World Cup Draw. 16 Men in the draw, so 2 teams each - 1 crap team, 1 good team - and 1st, 2nd and 3rd get a piece of the pot. I have to say, I couldnt really have picked a better team ----- Brazil Baby!!!!! So im gonna be a little dissapointed if I dont get something out of it. I have Uruagauy as my second team as well which isnt to bad but really, they aint gonna do squat. Cant wait for it all to start!!!! Speaking of which, Saturday night there are 2 games; S.Korea and I forget who and USA v England. USA and England are the 2 most represented nations here in Jinju so its fair to say there will be some serious national pride being thrown around. I bet the "God Bless America" references and "Born in the USA" requests will be uncountable. Not to mention the local team playing beforehand as a nice little warm up. Should be a cracking night!
- Must quickly share with you this tale of child punishment. A certain teacher (who may or may not have been a part of the lashing I talked about last week) had 2 students directly in front of each other, only centremetres apart. There heads were bowed slightly and he had one hand behind each students head. He then proceeded to push the two head together, literally causing the students to headbutt each other. Most creative thing ive seen yet. It was like watch a pair of Big Horn Sheep battle for mating rights. They got a few whacks in before the teach got them both in a headlock and ran their head in the wall. I was almost in stitches and the kids werent too far off either. A few parting slaps across the back of the head and it was over. Wow, just wow. I have to say though he wasnt trying to kill the kids or give them a concussion, but it definatly was an intriguing way to punish.
Thats it for another week. I need to show you a picture of something so here is me doing what I do WORST. You can tell by the look on my face this isnt a natural activity for me and im in some sort of discomfort.
Truth be told, I was in the middle of the best damn rendition of "Tubthumping" (I get knocked down, but i get up again.........) anyones ever heard and the look and posture are just a genius at work.
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