Taking the day off from work at the last minute lends a relaxed feeling that is rarely otherwise felt. It began with waking at three o'clock in the morning. Trying all the tricks in the book to get back to sleep was a worthless endeavour. Wide eyed, I sent a text to the other side of the world to express my early morning woe. Exclamatory surprise was sent back to me. At four o'clock I found myself slipping into the pyjama bottoms that were rumpled on the floor.

Once up, my eyes were now focussed on the water heating in the kettle. I pay extra attention not to let it boil. I relaxed by sitting down with a cup of tea while on Skype talking to Chun-shu. I was writing a shopping list of winter clothes for her to get me before my holiday in January. All this time, I wasn't thinking about why I was up before the sun had risen.

A small break came while she went home from work. I went and stood in the shower for longer than I realised. My clothes were bathed in the morning sunlight when I came out of the bathroom to get dressed. It would have been nice to see the sun rise but my tired mind hadn't thought about the opportunity until it was too late.

By the time eleven o'clock came, I felt my day should involve more than sitting in my living room. Not that talking on Skype all morning was an unwanted option. We could have spent many more hours explaining the world to each other. But after going through the effort to lie on the telephone as to why I wasn't at work, sitting at home all day would have been pointless. We agreed, ended the call, and I started to let blood recirculate in my legs.

My outfit was nothing special. Most of my clothes were still drying on the balcony so my choices were limited. Stepping outside blinded me with a crystal clear view of the northern Daegu mountains which are visible from my apartment on the 15th floor in the far south-eastern border of the city. Usually there is a fine haze obscuring anyone's vision. My plans while outside were uncertain. I wasn't really thinking of what I could be doing either. I knew I would end up somewhere.

By three o'clock in the afternoon, I had eaten a reasonable Korean lunch and was now in the second café of the day. The first was a quaint little tea shop that only has three tables and is run by somebody who you can't help but adore. The second location was a coffee shop. At both of these places I was sitting and reading. One thing that I will miss about Korea is the refill service. At many places, when you buy a coffee, you're actually getting two coffees. It's the same with the tea shop. It's these simple luxuries that will stay in my mind.

It's now nine o'clock and the time that has slipped by since coming home feels missing. I honestly can't recollect what has happened. Was my day worth while? I believe so. It has left me with a blissful mood that was missing earlier in the week.

small smatterings
» Reading fiction again
» Happy it's almost winter
» Buying everything I want but sending it elsewhere
» Going to a festival this weekend
» Going on a two week holiday in January
» Simplifying weekends to tea, brunch, coffee, dinner

larger smatterings
» Worried about my blood pressure at work
» Living in a strange but healthy relationship
» Taking half my stuff on holiday and leaving it there
» Planning around opportunity
» Enjoying my idle time

I got my hands on one of the new(ish) 50.000 won notes. I use it as a bookmark to show my wealth as a foreigner. No. Not really.

Last week, I was finishing work at lunch time and wasn't teaching any classes. I just spent each day on Skype having audio conversations for four hours. Following that was a long national weekend where nothing really closed. I started a wonderful routine where I'd grab my book and my iPod, head to a coffee shop downtown, sit for many hours and generally overstay my welcome. It was a good routine while it lasted. But it's time to go back to real work now.

Drudgery.
I hate teaching teenagers.

I could write an 800 word paper on phone-strap-dangly-things. But I don't particularly want to. I just want you to know I could.

Planning to go to bed early is all well and good, unless you were drinking many glasses of caffeinated liquids whilst engaged in discussions about social anthropological topics earlier in the day.

Aloe drinks used to make me gag. Now I guzzle one litre bottles as if they contain a cure for those forgot-to-do-my-laundry blues.

From looking around, I can very much tell that I haven't cleaned since she left two Fridays ago. During the journey from home to her point of departure, I knowingly decided to forget about the impending domestic hands and knees style clean up that this little apartment would unquestionably deserve upon my return. I should probably clean away the forest of long and piercingly dark hair that she left behind which clearly aren't any of my luxuriously conditioned strands.

The heat in this country's summer feels more intense than I imagined it would. My thinker thought that it's probably because of the fairly extreme low temperatures experienced during the winter months. Unfortunately my thinker doesn't think to remind me to buy more summer clothes.

While we're still on the subject of heat, allow me to mention my hatred for living in a basin surrounded by mountains. Many days are blanketed by clouds that trap the heat in. I do believe that the clouds in this country are ... aware.

Work stress has brought me to an almost serene state of I-don't-care-ed-ness. And you know what? It feels good. But it's the sort of good feeling an evil person with a goatee experiences. I'd prefer to have the happiness derived from being the humble hero with a beard.

To be continued (with less hyphenations).

Last night I found myself drinking cocktails in a dark but quaintly cosy establishment. The name of the bar loosely translates to 'Flower House'. The little bit of light inside comes from the bar itself which is much like a studio light table - except with flowers encased in an extra layer of glass above the light source. I sat at the bar with a friend. We spoke of our troubles, our fun and women (the latter being the primary cause of the previous two). I had only slept for an hour and a half the night before. I was deathly tired after three cocktails and I shouldn't have been drinking on a school night in the first place. But sometimes a drink is needed.

During the consumption of drinks and between conversation with my friend, I listened to the bar staff talk to us and each other. I'm faster at working out conversation in another language these days. Apparently some woman threw her son out of a 24 story window during an argument. That was a surprising story.

I drank a drink called Catharsis. It failed to make me Cathartic.

Sports day was a lot of fun.
I sat around in the sun whilst being fed all day by parents and students.





Sports day.
Separating the strong from the weak.
Good times.

You go to a café with somebody.
They ask you what you want to drink.
They suggest you get a coffee.
You agree.
The drinks come.
You get your coffee and they are served a beer.

Poll #1395556 rude?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18

Is it rude to order a beer without informing the other person?

The concert I went to on Tuesday night was fantastic. It also seems to be one of the most under-photographed events in this country ever. I didn't see anybody with a camera on the second floor. After trolling through blogs for the past few days, I've barely managed to find 1 (good) picture and it isn't even of the performance.


Stolen from: http://tong.nate.com/aprilangel/48924917
요조 (Yozoh) and 짙은 (Zitten) were both great. Each of them had an hour on stage and then they performed together for two songs at the end of the show.

Since I was in Seoul, I crashed at Anna's gaff and slept in on Wednesday morning. It was good to spend time together again, even as brief as it was. I left after lunch + coffee and made my way back to Daegu. Those 24 hours cost a lot. 34,000 won (for the train each way) + 44,000 won for the concert ticket = 112,000 won. But it was good fun, and therefore, completely worth it.

The entire week has been breeze.
Going out for wine tonight.
I think it should be the perfect end to the 'working' week.

Also: I'm old and dumb and young and wise.

I went to Busan for a day trip on Saturday. Suddenly being able to see a beach made me realise that I actually miss that coastal atmosphere I took for granted my entire life. Going for a walk along the beach made me remember, just a little, what Perth feels like. I also went for a wander through the art gallery there. It was large and mostly empty which made our giggles much louder when we were doing stupid things. Mila, my guide, got us lost at first but ended up showing me a really nice day.

Last week sucked for a multitude of reasons.
This week should be much better.

I'm taking some time off from work on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday to travel to Seoul. Partly to see Sehee and Anna. The other part is to see Yozoh because I missed her gig here in Daegu. It will be fun to get out of the city mid-week.

She's still pretty high on my list of wants.

Life
» Gorgeous mornings. Thanks, Spring.
» Found somebody to give me real speaking practice.
» My neighbour's baby cries. A lot. At night.
» Doing the Zombie Shuffle each day.
» Watching time fly by.
» Watching skirts get higher. Thanks again, Spring.

School
» Hatred for teenagers is part of my job.
» Sending them out of class works.
» Or picking them up and actually throwing them out.
» Hitting them on the head with a book works too.
» I'd be probably be fired if I did that In Australia.
» I centre myself by watching Perry Mason when I don't have class.

Food
» Many burgers.
» Much pizza.
» Tonnes of tacos.

Oh dear me.
The past two weeks have been a blur.
Not because of excitement.
Not because of boredom.
It's because I've been in another world.
I blame the regular sleeping pattern and the job.

Of all that I want to write, my mushy brain hinders coherent textual creation.

Work provides both smiles and grimaces.
The new students are surprisingly smart and eager.

My spare time is often spent with the people I like.
Lots of eating is involved.
If you're out with me, we will most likely be eating.

Recently I've been trying to figure someone out.
There's a lot of room for lost meanings with two broken languages.
Not to mention the torture of the Korean dating system.
Pursuing a co-worker feels dangerous.
But it also feels good.
Like driving a car really fast.

It's really sad to come to work and have nothing to do. A whole week without classes. I was told to practice my cursive writing. So I'll do that... 8 hours a day for the rest of the week. Can you believe I get paid for this?

Great Gargamel, I was tired this morning. Let it be known that I had become quite accustom to waking up at 10:00 and getting out of bed around 11:00. My main co-teacher (MJ) doesn't want to be here either. She looks like she could sleep for a week. We chatted away an hour of the morning. It's good to have at least one colleague that I can talk crap with. She is getting pretty personal with what she tells me these days. It's a little weird. I guess she feels she can say anything to me because the other teachers won't understand me if I ever repeat it.

» I found myself watching CQ and loving it.

» I like walking outside to dump my garbage in the street when it's below 0º and I'm just wearing my PJ's.

» The random snow two weeks ago was great. Just short bursts. Once when I was walking around at night and then again when I was walking around the next day.

» Korean women drive me loopy with their childish ways. Also with their skirts and mountain climbing legs.

» Speaking of falling into traps. I'm wondering if I can fill my shoe cupboard by August.

I'll try making a tubby update later in the week about all the things that make me go hmm.

Update [15:20]: I woke up after an afternoon nap in my classroom to find two high school girls staring at me through the door. One of them blew me a kiss and then they both skipped away.
That was nice of them. It certainly made my day feel better.
I just wish the young teachers would do that instead of the teenage girls. :)

I'm not sure if I've ever taken a picture of a Korean who isn't posing. If a camera presents itself, the peace sign will be thrown out there faster than light. Sometimes they do the backwards one not realising it's offensive to pretty much anybody who lives in a commonwealth country. Girls are always trying to hide half of their face too. I'm not sure if it's meant to be cute or something. It gets really annoying, very quickly.

That's Min-Ji in the picture. Her English vocabulary count seems to consist of around 20 useable words for conversation. That's the same number as her lunar age (don't judge me!). You've got to give her points for even having the courage to speak to me at such a low level. I let her speak Korean to ease the situation but she has a tendency to speak really fast and break my brain.

Earlier in the week, I did some research and worked out that I'm paying too much for my phone. So I went and found somebody who will give a contract to a foreigner and got a brand new phone with a lower monthly fee.


(Note the other typical Korean pose in the Domino's Pizza flyer)
The phone came out on Tuesday. It's a million times easier to use and much smarter than the old Samsung one. Of course, it has a ridiculous and unnecessary feature. You can blow on it to take pictures instead of pushing a button which can often make you accidentally shake the phone (blurry photo). You can also browse through picture galleries and texts by blowing on it. It's aptly named the 'Whooo'.

Also, I've:
» bought Guitar Hero.
» briefly been house sitting.
» been eating terribly.
» begun favouring the soy green tea latte.

This post was brought to you by the letter B and the number 20.

For the past five and a half months, I have slept on a single bed. It's astounding how often I fall out of it. Sometimes I wake up 'mid slide' and desperately grip the sheets but they never save me from the peril. The rest of the time I just fall to the ground. I'm sure it's a very majestic thing to witness. Something worthy of the discovery channel, perhaps.

I'm writing this to help make my eyes heavy. A hazelnut coffee at 20:30 was a poor decision. This is mostly because I don't drink coffee very often in this country and my tolerance is no longer as strong as it once was. My former self is muttering snide remarks to my current self.

Luckily I don't have work until Tuesday. Everybody else seems to be working Monday except for me. I do get a strong feeling that my phone will ring just after 08:30 with Min-jeong asking where I am. Miscommunication is an integral device of any healthy workplace in Korea.

I was out with Beth and Leslie for dinner. It was interesting to watch how conversation flows with people I don't usually go out with.

My neighbour has been exercising her winter flab away.
Usually at one o'clock in the morning.
On the stairs leading to our apartments.
Up and down she goes.
Each footstep echoing into the apartment.
She counts to ten.
Then she slams her door as she goes back inside.
Always slamming that door.
Inconsiderate bitch.

I think my Korean pronunciation is getting better. My brain also seems to have hollowed out a small hole for new vocabulary to be stored. It's quite handy.
[I'm going to talk about my language progression in metaphors now]
The prison soap bar used to slip out of my hands all the time and leave me buggered. These days I can grip that bar of soap and use it properly. If it does slip, I will try to catch it as quickly as I can. I still get buggered once in a while though.

I like the multi picture option on my phone.
It did a good job of making us look like hip young people.
Potato & bacon pizza is absolutely superb from this restaurant.
I think the pizza base was a pancake.
There needs to be a place like this closer to where I live in Siji.



On mobile posting:
I'm working out a system.
It took me about three minutes to post this after we finished our meal.
I could probably cut that time in half if Korea would get into gear and let me have an iPhone.

Notebook thoughts this week

» I can turn my alarm off in my sleep. It's not a helpful skill.
» Too many late nights.
» Eating too many blueberry muffins. [not really a bad thing]
» Simple Korean text messages only, please! ㅠㅠ
» Going slightly mental living alone.
» NEED more clothes.
» I want to do an all nighter and drive home in the early hours.
» My mind feels like an evaporating puddle of inspiration.

I'm supposed to be in one of those countries famous for outstanding gadgetry. It's true, there are some fun gadgets out there, but I can't find anything more fun than my iPod. It's a little bit sad.

It took about 4 hours for me to successfully get an image from my phone to my iPod, while out and about in the city. All I wanted to do was make a mobile post to say that I'm in Toni's hourly comics today.

I was playing with a Mintpad today. It's tempting me. I think I started sweating when I forced myself to give it back to the sales clerk. Like all other devices, it doesn't do everything I need it to do.

Tomorrow is new year's day (lunar). It's much more important here than that other one back at the start of the normal calendar year. I've been told it's one of those rare days that the country actually shuts down. Except Starbucks... the sign on the door said they will be open.
...speaking of which...
Starbucks
Last week, I went to Starbucks for the first time ever. It's about time I tried it. Some people were always so stunned when I told them that I hadn't even been in the store before. Surprisingly, I quite liked the ... easiness of it.

A few days later, I went back twice to sit down and study some Korean. I was surprised by how many girls would come up to me and ask me for English help. To be honest, I was just happy to talk to somebody on an otherwise boring day. But I don't really like being used for English when I'm not at work. That being said, these women were all attractive so I didn't exactly shoo them away. Only one of them has kept in contact since then about non English related things but I'm not about to start kidding myself.

Good Stuff
» Long Skype chats with a lot of fun bitching.
» The few people not at work and with nothing else to do.
» Over a month before I have to start teaching classes again.
» Getting paid to do nothing for such a long time.
» Getting to know the city more thoroughly.

Not So Good Stuff
» Any temperature below -5 degrees Celsius.
» Forgetting to close windows before going out.
» General laziness and self-generated perpetual boredom.
» Korean waste disposal.
» Not keeping notes about what to write here.

I bought a notebook today to rectify the last point.

One Final Thing
Since I'm not working for the moment (and most other people are), I just wander around a lot. In the following off-centre photo, you can see what I carry around most days:

(in absolutely no order)
» Korean language book :: because I'm on a mission.
» Bookmark hands :: because I fail at remembering pages.
» New word notebook :: for noting new dirty words.
» Notebook :: for random notes.
» Pencil & spare leads :: makes me look cool.
» Hand phone :: hoping somebody will call :(
» Beanie :: to headbutt winter with.
» iPod :: no I will not speak to you in English on the train.
» House Key :: for .. you know.. opening a door.
» Wallet/Money/Cards :: making me a part of the economy.
» Cube mints :: because kimchi is smelly.

I'm spent.
Time to make dinner.
Kimchi!

My real winter holiday only just began last Wednesday afternoon and I am already insurmountably bored out of my skull. That being said, I am in no way indicating that I would like to return to work anytime soon. It will certainly be even more gruelling when Toni, Dan and the rest go back home during February.

I have visited a good amount of restaurants in Daegu since I've been here. I think it has become a slightly expensive hobby. If only I would take initiative to document these locations thoughtfully with ... words.

Earlier in the week I was in a restaurant called Mies Container. I looked up at the wall while eating my barbecued chicken and wondered how I hadn't noticed this sooner:


Tragedy struck when Anna (my favourite person to casually visit new restaurants and cafés with) told me she must move to Seoul in March because of a better job offer. As I am completely selfish, I will simply say dammit all. Now I need to meet someone else who is comfortable enough to sit in one place, drink beverages for a few hours and listen to entire albums whilst conversing about the random nonsense that happens in daily life. I'm sort of specific, most people can't sit still long enough and don't really soak in the atmosphere of their surroundings.


Stealing my iPod Touch to show me something and "broaden my horizons".
(note the decimated muffin on the plate: it wasn't very good)

I am so flipping tired of grocery shopping.
At least I can get some Katsudon from E-Mart for lunch while I'm out.

Camps are over. I can finally sit down and enjoy the PS3 that I bought last weekend.

Walking outside this morning gave me a little shock. I went back inside to grab my beanie when I saw the couple of inches of snow that was falling. It made me an hour late for my last day of winter classes because the traffic was so bad.

This afternoon, Anna and I went out for food. I specifically wanted to eat at the Italian restaurant I ate at last weekend with Toni and Dan. I then wanted to find and enjoy Café Kori.

aBout
(now my favourite Italian restaurant in Daegu)

aBout (Italian restaurant). The manager agreed to pose for me. She is awesome.
We ate the 'pasta and a half' meal for two people. Green Salad, Fresh Parmesan & Tomato Spaghetti and tea. It was superb. I can tell that I'll be going to this restaurant a lot.

Café Kori

The lighting is pretty cool with the green feature wall.




The coffee was terrible but that is standard for Korea. Fucking Americano style coffee. There is absolutely no love of coffee creation in one of those cups. I might actually show a korean how to make me a good black coffee sometime in the future. The place itself was spectacular though. We must have been there for two hours or more. The atmosphere. The music. The interior design. The other customers. The staff. The service. The menus. The seating. The bathrooms. It was all perfect.

Then I went and bought two pairs of classic Converse AllStars in blue and black.

A good day.