Some Days Surprise Me

Today started out like any other normal day. My plan was to meet up with two friends for coffee in the morning, read for a while, and then meet with my eye doctor for dinner around 6p. So I met my Korean friend Stephanie and her friend from her university, an arrangement that was created to give the friend, Su Jung, some practice speaking English with a native before her impending trip to America next spring. I agreed to go because I've gotten to the point where I really enjoy meeting new people at coffee shops, provided I'm not tired and they are reasonably good at speaking English. So we met at this awesome coffee shop that was designed to resemble an indoor garden--it was pretty impressive. The three of us shared a muffin, a slice of walnut pie, and various hot drinks as we chatted. Su Jung was extremely shy at first, as is typical, but it wasn't long before we had a good conversation going and her English improved tremendously the more she spoke. Two hours passed in what seemed like less than half that, which was when I suggested we go to a board game cafe to talk over a game. I'd never been to a board game cafe, but I'd heard there was one in the area, and sure enough they knew roughly where it was, so we entered what otherwise would have been a normal coffee shop. The differences were the unexpected amounts of middle school children and board games scattered throughout the place instead of studious adults sipping lattes. We settled into a nice spot and sampled the "menu" of what had to have been fifty games that you can choose from before deciding on Rummikub, a Korean standby. By the way, a board game cafe costs around $2 per hour per person, which seemed pretty reasonable. After two consecutive defeats, I suggested we go for lunch, and Stephanie led us to a fancy restaurant that I'd never noticed before in the downtown area. I felt like I wasn't in Korea while I was in that place, because the decor was made to look European and the servers were completely different from those at a typical place. We each had a different kind of spaghetti (there are about twelve kinds available at this particular place) and enjoyed the complementary desserts, by which time it was 4p. Stephanie had to leave for work at this time, which left me with the decision to continue the outing with Su Jung or to go solo, but as Su Jung had proved to be a remarkably cute and endearing companion, we decided to see a movie together after dinner. As we walked to the theater to get the tickets (you have to buy them a bit in advance here because you reserve seats at the same time--ingenious, I think!) we passed an outdoor concert hosted by a local church. So we made our purchase and returned to watch the "contemporary Christian dance" by the youth group, a voiceless dramatic presentation of the early parts of Genesis, a video about missions, and some Korean drummers drumming.
Now came the tricky part of the evening. I was scheduled to have dinner with my eye doctor at a nice restaurant populated mostly by foreigners called The Holy Grill. It's more expensive than most places, and my doctor was treating (in recompense for writing a recommendation for his practice to go on his website), but now I had Su Jung with me and I wasn't sure if it was okay. Nevertheless, she and I went and got a table to await Dr. Kim. Evidently he was running late and felt sorry about it, and he seemed a bit fidgety, which was totally out of character. I told him it was no problem when he apologized for his tardiness, and used the opportunity to introduce Su Jung and ask about his wife. Bad move. He quite openly told us that he'd just finished having a fight with his wife, which partly accounted for his late arrival, and in his unease he knocked over his full glass of water all over the table and onto my suddenly soaking jacket. Needless to say it was not the bright opening one wishes to have at such a meeting. However, once we all laughed out the awkwardness of the situation things went smoothly. Dr. Kim told us about his multiple trips to the US and about his interest in Taoist meditation, and we ate Philly cheese steaks while Su Jung had a shrimp salad. (Not sure why I'm insisting on adding such mundane details...sorry). Near the end of the dinner another sticky situation arose. We had bought our movie tickets for the 7:30p showing, and it was 7:15 as Dr. Kim was explaining the need for inner peace and communication that comes from meditation, so I didn't exactly want to interrupt the man who was buying our pricey dinner to tell him we were leaving him to see a movie. So I silently prayed that it would all work out, and a minute later, he asked what our plans were for the evening. This gave us a neat exit for the theater, and we arrived just as the previews were ending. We saw Blindness, a strangely filmed movie that portrays an apocalyptic scenario resulting from an infectious blindness. The irritating parts of the movie for me were that it was never explained what caused the initial outbreak, nor what the cure was, nor why one of the characters was immune to the disease throughout the film. Other than that, it was thought-provoking and interestingly filmed in such a way that the audience occasionally experiences the blindness of the characters, but I wouldn't see it again or recommend it to others. Following the movie we went to Stephanie's coffee shop, conveniently located nearby, and shared a black tea latte. I thought it would be disgusting, but it was delicious and free.

The week itself, not counting today, was pretty average. I played lots of word games on Facebook, read a bit, and worked more than usual. I'm still getting over my cold, so I hope it will leave soon. I also figured out my home heating system with the help of my Korean coworker, so now I can heat my house to avoid freezing while I sleep. Oh, and as it's Thanksgiving back home, we are celebrating next Saturday by eating some turkey (I hope--I haven't had any since I've been here...) and other Pilgrimish delicacies. I'm looking forward to it, and I hope all of you who read to the end have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner back home!

Long Weekend, Good Times

I've had a goatee now for more than two years, and I have to admit that I was doubting it's future this past week. I had planned on growing a winter beard to celebrate the changing seasons, but my (now ex)girlfriend mentioned that the goatee was a better choice, so after a week and a half of beard growth, I shaved it off and now I'm back at square one. I don't mind having it, with two notable exceptions. First, when you have a cold and must constantly blow your nose, you run the danger of having less-than-desirable detritus stick in it, such as is the case now with my minor sickness. Second, it requires constant maintenance to ensure that it is neither unruly nor indefinite. A goatee demands a precise disparity between it and the surrounding skin to have the proper boundaries, which accounts for its singular appeal. So that is sometimes a bother, but I think it's worth it.

As for real news, I had an exciting weekend, although it was quite abnormal. Usually on three-day weekends I travel someplace or do something special, but this past weekend I had arranged to go to a high school on Friday, thus reducing my chances of escaping on a getaway adventure (plus, I'd gone to Busan the previous weekend, so I was okay not traveling). The high school was a little tough at first because the students were far more shy than normal shy Koreans, to the point that to ask a question to a student was to induce immediate blushing. After about an hour of awkward conversation, I suggested we try a game. Some students found Jenga (which is played a bit differently here--there's no requirement about how blocks should be stacked once removed from the tower) and then I attempted to teach them Mafia, which they somehow had rudimentary knowledge of. In short, I was there about four hours and it took the totality of that time to tear down the towers of hesitancy and reluctance towards speaking to a foreigner. But it was a good experience to see how Koreans students learn and what their high school experience is like. After that I was growing ill (I had an awfully sore throat) so I went home, read a while, watched some Simpsons, and went to bed. 

Saturday I got up and took a taxi to a nearby university to play soccer. The weather was surprisingly warm--I should consider it the last vestiges of fall--and I was able to play in just a short-sleeved jersey. There were about 35-40 people out to play, and we took turns on the big, nasty dirt field. In between games we snacked on friend chicken, kimbab, and makkoli. I played as a midfielder in each of the three games I participated in, and two of those three games I was happy with my performance. I miss the lush, verdant grass fields of the westside of Jacksonville, though...

A strange thing happened on the bus home from soccer. It was one of those moments that happens once or twice a month (or less, I suppose), a moment of utter coincidence that leads into something potentially wonderful or absurdly bad. I was listening to my iPod shortly after boarding the bus when I was approached by a student at WSI. He said hello and asked what I was doing. As I was tired and ready to go home and rest, I answered truthfully. He then shared that he was on his way to an English study group and invited me to come along. I wasn't keen on the idea, but I felt obliged to say hello to his friends, especially considering he had been down on his luck lately with jobs and I really had no overwhelming reason not to go. So I went with him to a traditional Korean tea and coffee shop and met about a dozen or so Koreans roughly my age. Two of them spoke extremely well: David, a banker, and Vivian, a translator for Samsung studying to be a teacher. I chatted with them for nearly an hour, at which point they decided to go have dinner. So, toting my soccer cleats, shin guards, and dirty socks in a small bag, I joined the group as we made our way towards a traditional Korean restaurant for a seafood and soup dinner. I found David and Vivian's company to be quite charming (particularly Vivian's) and I didn't want to miss what seemed to be an obvious opportunity, so I stayed with the group hanging out until nearly 11p. It was awesome. I'm going to meet up again with the group next week, and Vivian might swing by work to get some ideas about teaching grammar (she teaches high school English once a week) and for some assistance on her writing for the teacher examination.

Sunday I chatted with my family and lounged around until church. The English Bible study was okay, and afterwards I went out to eat with a friend and her mom at a nice pasta place. I had my first teriyaki chicken since I've been here, but it had too many peppers and was a tad spicy. Sunday night when I got home I received an email from an old friend, and that served to be a nice end to a lovely weekend.

Tonight we are doing a scavenger hunt at work. I think it'll be fun, and it's the most work I've put into anything yet at work, so I'm interested in seeing how it turns out. Tomorrow is the first meeting of the book club I'm in charge of. We are reading The Good Earth, and I'm not quite sure how it will go yet. Until next time...

Back in Busan

Sorry for the delayed post. I didn't much feel like writing, but I knew that if I missed one week I'd start to fade out with these blogs, so I'm determined to write one for the past week despite being a few days late. So, last week was my recovery from the laser surgery. It was fine, and except for occasional dryness of the eyes, I've got no issues at all.

Saturday after work I went to Busan with my friend. We went to the beach for a while then saw Quantum of Solace. I could tell she couldn't follow it well because a lot of the movie depended on seeing Casino Royale, but she said it was okay. I found it to be interesting, but it had a higher degree of unrealistic behavior than I can forgive. Nevertheless it was entertaining. After the movie we went to a jjimjilbang to sleep. A jjimjilbang is a Korean bathhouse with separate areas for men and women. In the jjimjilbang there are several saunas, hot tubs, and shower rooms partitioned for each gender, and each of the floors are heated so you walk barefoot. I tried one of the saunas and found it to be pleasing. There's something quite enjoyable about walking around on heated floors and sitting on them and stretching out on them. Perhaps the most amusing part of staying in a jjimjilbang is the price: we each paid about $4.50 to stay for the night. The most unenjoyable part of the jjimjilbang experience is the men's area. When you pay to stay there, you are issued a pair of clothes that marks you as a guest of the facility. However, upon arriving at the men's area, I discovered that I was the only person actually wearing the clothes. The other fifteen or so men wore nothing. They watched TV together, enjoyed the various men's hot tubs, and just sat around chatting--all naked. In such a situation there is little to be done but endure, and when it came time to shower and use the facilities, I was forced to 'do as the Romans.' As initially awkward as it was, I quickly realized that no one else cared, or even noticed. They minded their own business, as this behavior was nothing out of the ordinary and has been standard since childhood. So when I had to take a shower in a large, open room surrounded by a dozen people, the discomfort drained away with the soap suds. Certainly an unusual experience...

We also saw a modern art exhibition while in Busan. It had many mind-boggling pieces, only 25% of which I could make any sense of. Around midday we ate a massive lunch meant that was categorized as "family size" but which we had little difficulty managing between the two of us. We also looked around at a few other places, and returned to Daegu at 7p. From the train station I walked to a bus stop and rode out to Kyungbook National University to meet my friend who was preparing for an English interview later on in the week, so by the time I got home at 11p, I was exhausted.

Monday I decided I needed to spend less time with her. The reasons are multifarious, so it suffices to report that we are still on excellent terms and still hang out, but not much. It was just best that we stay friends, and it was no problem. The last thing to report is that my coworkers found a website that has all The Simpson's episodes available for viewing, so I have enjoyed watching some of those in my free time. Good stuff. =)

A Bright Start to November

Things are looking better than ever these days, thanks to the thoughtful precision and care of Dr. Kim, who performed laser surgery on my eyes on November 1. I'd been wanting to have the procedure for the last six or seven weeks because I was having trouble wearing contact lenses in the dry weather (particularly so in Daegu). Saturday morning at 9 I went in for the procedure, and after doing some final tests to measure the angle of my right eye's astigmatism, I was led to the operating room. As I reclined on the bed, breathing deeply and thinking about the sight to come, I heard an unusual amount of dialogue between the doctor and the nurse. The whispering continued long enough for me to doze off momentarily, and when I awoke the doctor was over me explaining that some small error had occured with the machine and that a repairman from another city was coming bearing a special tool with him. So, I had to get up, go for lunch, and come back a few hours later, but I didn't mind. The surgery itself has a few unnerving parts (not counting the self-fashioned fear of permanently losing your sight). First, there is the notion that you have to be awake the entire time looking at a blinking red light, and that the success of the surgery partly depends on your ability to stay focused on that light. The second, and by far the scarier for me, is that you have to endure a temporary loss of vision in the eye that is being operated on. The unoperated eye is carefully covered by layers of protective surgical armor, rendering sight from it useless. So, as you peer at the red blinking light from the other eye, suddenly the doctor initiates a phase of the procedure that magically erases all sight--for five to six seconds you are completely blind. During this time there is a panic sensation accompanied by the background whirring noise of a machine completing some integral part of the surgical process. A tertiary inconvenience, the deluge of eye drops drained into your eyes, can seem overwhelming, but that is a small inconvenience compared to the instructions afterwards: you cannot open your eyes for the next hour, and at the same time you must not shut them tightly. After I was guided to the recovery room, I rested as peacefully as possible despite the feeling that there were several grains of sand rolling around in my eyes and concrete sealing the corners of my eyes. Thankfully I had a good friend with me to help me relax and not squeeze my eyes shut. Once I received an okay from the doctor to go home, and instructions for the next few days to drink copious amounts of potable water and instill drops into my eyes with hourly regularity while not leaving my apartment for two days, I was discharged. My friend guided me home, prepared a meal, and gently coaxed me into obeying all of the doctor's directives, all while I felt like scratching out my eyes and crying at the same time. But it wasn't long before the pain subsided and I began to feel better. By the time I went to bed, I began to feel I could see mostly clearly, and by Sunday morning, my vision was completely restored. Now when I look around it is as though I'm wearing my glasses or contacts but there is nothing there--it is a wonderful feeling, completely worth one Saturday of my life. I know my description may seem a bit like a deterrent to the surgery, but I wanted to relate an honest telling of my experiences with it. After the day passed, I can see that it was definitely the right decision.

Other news from the week? Well, Halloween was Friday. There was a party at work, but I didn't dress up because I still had to teach my classes and I had to go to sleep early for my surgery the next morning. Koreans don't recognize the holiday, so it didn't matter much to anyone else. I made lots of progress on my reading of Harold Bloom's How to Read and Why, of which the poetry section particularly spoke to me, and I bought Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulizter-Prize winning collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, although I've only read the first story. Bloom's choices of poets and poems are surprisingly potent, though I found his suggestions a bit short and wish there was more to them. Anyhow, it gave me an impetus to put more energy into the labor that is reading great poetry. I don't consider myself capable of writing good poetry, but I certainly enjoy it. Instead, I'm seriously considering penning a few short stories and creating a collection similar to what Lahiri has done, so we'll see how that idea goes.

The surgery was cheaper than expected, which will allow me to spend a little more on a nice winter jacket. Winter jackets are far more expensive than I expected, so barring a little haggling at an outlet-type place, I'm just going to have to shell out the necessary funds to stay warm over the next few months. I'm sure it'll be worth it, but I just hate paying a lot of money for clothes.

I made a good friend recently. I'm more impressed by her each day. She has a gift for intuition and a unique perception that I find endearing and fascinating. She's also quite intelligent, fun, skilled at joining and starting meaningful conversation, and, perhaps most importantly, she understands me like few do. I'll leave it at that for now. =)