Still in Korea

The past few days have been somewhat uneventful, but nonetheless I suppose I do have some tidbits I can share. First, let me tell you about a funny little thing that has happened to me three times now.

As I've explained/complained about already, the shower head in my bathroom is located directly above my sink. What I don't think I've mentioned is that the water pipe is connected between the sink faucet and the shower head. There's a little nozzle that I have to turn to switch the water flow between the sink faucet and the shower head, similar to American shower/bath combos when you want to switch the water from the bath faucet to the shower. It's very important that when I'm done taking a shower, I turn this nozzle back so that the next time I'm in the bathroom using the sink, the water comes out of the faucet and not the shower head. I'm sure at this point, you can probably tell where this is going. Well, wouldn't you know on three separate occasions I have forgotten to turn this nozzle back, and as I stand there ready to wash my hands or my face, the water comes raining down on top of me and my clothes. It's always cold water too, because as you know that first burst of water from any faucet is always cold before it gets warm. The sad thing is after it happened the second time, I was like "Man, I can't believe I forgot again. I'm going to have to write about this in my blog." It doesn't get any funnier the third time, let me tell you. Anyone want to start a pool on when it's going to happen again?

To follow up on my last blog about my co-teacher hurting her back, she actually ended up in the hospital for a few days. When she called me late Wednesday night to tell me the news, obviously I was concerned for her and felt bad that she injured herself, but immediately I was in a panic over what was expected of me at school on Thursday. To that point I hadn't really taught yet, only observing her and helping the children with some of their class work. She started explaining to me how to get to school, because she usually picks me up. When she finished telling me, I asked her if I needed to run her classes and she said, "No, you will have free time." Free time? For eight hours? Okay. So on to school I went Thursday morning, where I arrived, went to the teacher's lounge, plopped in front of a computer and sat there for eight hours. It was so boring. Luckily I was able to chat with a few people back home during some of that time, but seriously, you know that commercial with the guy who reaches the end of the Internet? After eight hours you get pretty darn close. It was so extremely boring. The sad thing is that I notice the times I get kind of homesick are the times when I've got nothing to do. You know at home when you get bored, you can just pop in a movie, call a friend to go hang out, speak to other people in English, etc. I had none of those "luxuries." Here's the best part though, she wasn't going to be in on Friday either, which meant another eight hours of nothing. Awesome.

As I'm sure you can tell at this point, I couldn't wait for Friday night. Brent and I decided it was time to have our first movie theater experience in Korea, and it was perfect because Watchmen came out that day. I did some researching of theaters and found that Busan has a "theater district." This is like the movie hub for the city and most likely the country, as this area is where the Pusan International Film Festival is held every year. Brent found out from his new crush, Lucy, that we needed to purchase tickets in advance, so she helped us get that done. We of course took the subway to our destination and when we emerged from the tunnel, it was obvious this area was "bumpin'." There were a lot more foreigners walking around and it seemed to be a younger crowd in general. There were all kinds of street vendors and just a bunch of stuff going on. It was very cool. We went to the theater to exchange our Internet confirmation for our tickets and had time to get some food before the movie started.

As luck or fate would have it, there just happened to be an Outback Steakhouse right near the theater. When the question of, "Do we do Outback again, even though we just did it a week ago?" came up, the answer was an easy, "YES!" Like I told Brent, I'm not here trying to prove anything to anyone. I enjoy eating food that I don't have to ask questions about. When we were seated at our table, we both noticed something kind of strange about the area we were sat in. Every table around us had foreigners who spoke English, while the rest of the restaurant was clearly Korean. At first it seemed strange. Not segregation in the 50s strange, but just kind of odd. We quickly realized though that they probably sat us all together because the waiter we had may have been the only English speaker that worked there. Either that or they hate white people.

After dinner we went back to theater and up to the fourth floor of the building, which is where our particular theater was. We sat in a lounge area for a little bit, then followed the crowd when the ushers came out and obviously said we were ready to be seated. We had assigned seating in the theater, and the seats Brent picked out for us were not as cool as they looked on paper. We were right in the middle, but pretty far away from the screen. At that point I didn't care though, because I was about to see the new Star Trek trailer. Right? No. Now, I'm not sure if this is going to be a thing at every theater we go to, but they only played one trailer, and it was for some dumb romantic comedy with Uma Thurman. Seriously! That's the trailer they choose to show an audience there to see Watchmen. I was obviously upset at this, but took solace in that I could go home and see the trailer on my working Internet connection.

The next day, Brent and I headed over to the local E-Mart. This is akin to a Walmart. While there, we both decided to take advantage of the nice-looking salon inside the complex and get our first haircuts in Korea. Of course no one in there spoke English, so there was some anxiety about how this was going to go. I already told myself though, if I have haircut problems here, I'm just going to shave it, so I was ready for that if necessary. As we sat there waiting, Brent mentioned the best thing to do might be to find a men's haircut in one of the magazines and just show it to them. So that's what I did. The lady actually ended up doing a pretty nice job. For under $10, you get hair washed, cut, washed again after the cut and styled. Plus, you don't have to tip here. It ended up being a pretty good deal, so we both got the cards of the ladies who did our hair so we can just go back to them next time.

That night Brent was feeling kind of sick, so we both retreated to our separate quarters. I decided it might be time to try my first Pizza Hut delivery. I went on the Korean Pizza Hut website hoping I could find some information in English, but there was none. Then as I was on my computer, I heard the familiar local Pizza Hut commercial song and turned around quickly to see if I could catch a number, but I just missed it. I kept it on that channel and waited to see if the commercial would come on again. About 15 minutes later it did, so I called the number and of course was greeted with a bunch of Korean when someone answered. I said, "Does anyone there speak English?" The response was totally in Korean and then the phone hung up. So, I called the number back and again said, "Does anyone there speak English?" What I got in return was more Korean that I didn't understand, but this time I caught a bit of "No English. Sorry." I said, "No English?" The response was, "No English. Sorry." Okay, no problem. Now I knew I wasn't going to be able to order from Pizza Hut. Or was I? About 10-15 minutes later my phone started ringing. I noticed the number showing was the Pizza Hut number I had just called. When I answered it was an English-speaking Pizza Hut employee asking me for my order! Awesome! I gave her my address, ordered a pepperoni, stuffed-crust pizza and was told it would be about 30 minutes. I must say they were quite prompt. Exactly 30 minutes later my intercom started ringing and it was the delivery man downstairs. That night I enjoyed myself some might fine pizza, but the best was knowing that I can order it when I feel like it.

On Sunday, I went full-on grocery shopping for the first time, but when I say full-on that means as much as I can carry back to my apartment. Not having a car makes grocery shopping difficult. Also, the fact that you have to pay for plastic bags to put your groceries in after you've purchased them kind of sucks too. Though, I'm pretty sure I heard that there's some congressman trying to implement the same sort of legislation back home. Anyway, here what you have to do is get all your groceries and take them over to this area where there's a bunch of used cardboard boxes. You put as many boxes together as you need and put your groceries in there. Well, this isn't the most ideal situation for me, because I have to walk with this back to my apartment, which is about a 5-10 minute walk. As I was shopping, I actually found a nice remedy for this problem. I bought a small dolly-type device with a bag on it that I can put all my groceries in and just wheel back to my place. So there I was, this goofy-looking white guy wheeling his groceries through the subway (which I have to cross to get home) and up the hill to my apartment. It's much better than the alternative though.

Today it was back to school and my co-teacher was back from her injury, though she told me today that her back still hurts a lot. She picked me up again in front of the McDonald's and as I was getting in her car, another car pulled alongside her and starting talking to her. I just figured this was some person she knew, but then he pulled in front of us and put on his hazards and she got out of the car and told me to wait. It became clear pretty quickly that there must have been some sort of accident. It seemed like he was saying she hit the side of his car from what I was picking up through their hand gestures. It wasn't long until the police actually showed up. Now, this whole time, I'm just sitting in the car and I notice that between the guy's car, my co-teacher's car and the police car behind us, we were blocking the McDonald's drive through and parking area. I started thinking about some poor person who left home without breakfast thinking, "I'll just stop by McDonald's and get a McGriddle on the way to work, no problem." Not so much. So anyway, my co-teacher finally got back in the car and confirmed that he was accusing her of hitting him. She of course saw the whole situation differently. I honestly have no idea how they could ever settle anything like that in Korea. They all drive like maniacs here. They were probably both at fault.

So, today was my first day of actual teaching. Not before another couple of Q&A sessions though. I was asked mostly the same questions as the first couple days, with a few new ones. The most interesting one was a student who asked me my blood type. What kind of a question is that? The sad thing is I don't even know. He got me thinking that I should probably find that out. The funny thing was that when my co-teacher was translating, I thought she was saying, "What's your blue tie?" I had to ask her a few times to repeat the question until she finally pointed to her wrist vein and I got it. She now knows that blood is pronounced blud. Another funny question I was asked is if I owned a pet bear. Ha! I responded with, "No, but I have a friend who looks like one." That got a pretty good laugh out of my co-teacher and some of the students who understood. Sorry Braun Dip, but I had to.

Today's lunch consisted of some sort of octupus-noodle thing, kimchi, beef soup, rice and a shrimp-egg thing. The beef soup and rice were delicious. All people here actually brush their teeth after lunch. Like, it's a thing. My co-teacher was nice enough to buy me a toothbrush to use at school, so I guess I'm brushing my teeth after lunch now too. Not that it's a bad thing or anything, but usually a piece of gum after lunch does the trick nicely. Anyway, she let me borrow her toothpaste, which I had used once last week, and against my better judgment used again today. I'm not joking, this stuff tastes the way those pine tree air fresheners smell. It doesn't exactly leave your mouth feeling fresh. Gross.

Finally! Here is a short little tour of my apartment!