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Well, well. Yesterday was a really interesting day, that's for sure. Another bulleted list, because I'm too tired to craft a narrative and respect flow. :)
1. Tony and I spent the morning doing absolutely nothing but sitting around the house until he had to leave. He'd made a date with one of his old co-teachers to go to her family's house for Chuseok dinner, so he left about noon. After he left I went back to sleep, because my tummy was still a little angry about the soju, and I didn't sleep very well or long, so from about 12 until 3:30, I just slept, and it felt NICE.
2. Finally, after I felt recovered enough, I dragged myself out of bed and strapped on my running shoes to go for a jog. Tony had given me his keys and told me where there might be a park nearby, so I decided to give it a try. I'm not going to lie: I was, as always, really skeptical that I was going to be able to do 35 whole minutes. I just always feel like I'm not in top form when I set out on these Sunday runs, and I'm already mentally excusing myself before I even get started. Okay, fair, I did have the remnants of a hangover, which would definitely hinder me, but I try to psyche myself out and prep myself for failure before I even start. Which is unnecessary, because as usual, I trucked on through.
It wasn't easy, definitely. I didn't manage to find the park and trail, so instead I just jogged around Tony's high school where he teaches (it's huge) a couple of times, then set off along the main drag and ran and ran and ran. I wanted to quit a few times, bad, but I didn't. I was actually pretty ashamed of how slow I knew I was running, but especially when I was going up or recovering from mini hills, I just said--I'm running, nonstop, that's what's matters. I stopped dead at thirty-five minutes, but I was proud. Especially because of Saturday's pizza, I knew I needed to finish, and I did.
The excitement came when I tried to go back to Tony's apartment and couldn't get in the front door. I'd gone in with him twice and never seen him use a code, and he hadn't said anything about it, so I was pretty perplexed. It was a little before five, and I wasn't even really expecting him until 6 or 6:30, so I started to get worried. I tried the door again, couldn't open it. I plopped down on the stoop and waited, hoping someone would go in or out. No luck. As I sat there for fifty minutes (timed it on my running watch), I started to have all sorts of terrible thoughts. What if something happens to Tony? It'll get dark, and all my money and cellphone are just inside this apartment building. I was planning what I was going to say, in Korean, to the police, when a neighbor finally went in, and I followed him. He looked at me a bit strangely, but must have thought I looked harmless enough, and I did have a set of keys.
The fun postscript to this story is that Tony still swears there's no lock on that door. True, it wasn't engaged when we came back in later, but I don't think I'm insane. He does concede that it feels like it should lock, and there's a keypad, so maybe it's meant to but doesn't. And maybe when I tried to pull it, I sensed that it should be locked and didn't pull that much harder for fear of bringing some sort of security force. I don't know. Dumb that I sat outside for 50 minutes for no reason. Grrrr.
3. After we chatted and I finally showered, we decided to go out walking and exploring to see what was open on Chuseok and what we might want to eat. I managed to say no to pizza again, which was harder than you might think, because the pizza here was so much more delicious than anything I've had in Naju. We walked and walked and walked, found some places that wouldn't have been too bad, but I sort of believed that the perfect place would present itself, and we would know. And finally, it did. We'd said... we'll go a couple more blocks and then turn around, and then we found a twenty-four hour traditional Korean sit-down (on the floor) restaurant, with an okay looking menu, and went in.
It was pretty busy, which surprised me on Chuseok, but I think, if I remember correctly, last Chuseok I went to a bar with my host mom and her brothers, so maybe all bets are off by Chuseok night. They ended up serving a delicious potato pancakey thing that I'd never had before and the soup we ordered was actually surprisingly good and not too expensive at all. I even enjoyed my rice. It was just a pleasant little meal, and all the better because I knew it wasn't too unhealthy, for twelve dollars total. I would never choose, (well, haven't ever before) to go to a Korean "traditional food" restaurant of my own volition with friends, because I don't really know how to order, I don't know if what I order is going to be good, it's pretty expensive, and it requires sitting on the floor, which I don't usually enjoy. So yay for branching out with pleasant results. We got some potato pancake to go and walked back, and it was a really pretty night.
4. I did, while walking around last night, start to wonder if maybe I would have been happy in a larger city. Well, I'm happy in Naju, so I guess I wondered if I would have been as happy, or possibly even happier in a place like Daegu. I just always dismissed the idea out of hand, because I don't like big cities... even in America. Seems like it would require me to speak more Korean, or at least more confidently, as I'd be using public transit and taking taxis more. Tony doesn't believe it, but he really has improved a lot, because he's had to use Korean a lot more than I have. I'm blessed with a co-teacher who is both perfectly fluent in English and super willing to help, so I could pretty much go for weeks without having to speak Korean at all, although I obviously don't. Because for all the studying I did, and I did a lot at times, without having to actually use it in conversation, it doesn't do me any good. It helps me with listening comprehension, but I'm still so apprehensive about opening my mouth that I might as well not know the words at all.
And Daegu, at least this part where Tony lives, is pretty. There's more people who I could make friends with, hypothetically. (Like Japanese teacher/Monopoly fiend upstairs [more on him later]). More places to walk, jog, and explore. More American restaurants. More malls. More everything. But to a scaredy-cat like me, that means more people to kill me, or at least force me to speak Korean. More chances to get lost or embarrassed. So yeah, I probably could have adjusted, and maybe even enjoyed myself, but I'm too much of a wuss to have asked for this. I was happy to stay in my little town, comfortable with everything already, and where, in fairness, I already love my students and my job. And I'm not too ashamed of that.
5. After dinner we went upstairs to visit the Japanese teacher at Tony's school who loves Monopoly. He also loves apple pie, as he informed Tony another time, so Tony bought an apple pie at Costco (yes, they have Costco in Korea) and some ice cream to give to him as a Chuseok present. (This is why Tony has Korean friends, and I don't.) It's a funny relationship, because the guy is Japanese, but he speaks Korean almost fluently, and very little English. So he and Tony communicate in Korean, despite it being neither of their first languages. Japanese guy has a Korean girlfriend who was also there, and they seemed really surprised to see us, and our pie, but they invited us in, and he immediately proposed a round of Monopoly. (We'd texted, and he was expecting us to come up, but he still answered the door, to see me, in his boxers, then was embarrassed. Weird.) So, all of us fully clothed, we started playing.
Interestingly, it was a Korean version of Monopoly, so all the places were places in Korea. Cute, huh? And the rules were all in Korean, which put them at a serious advantage against us, who were going on our memory. Oh yeah, the Chance and Community Chest cards were in Korean too. (Do you see where this is going? :) I managed to win free parking, amass large amounts of cash, and get three houses on the green spots during the first game--roundly defeating everyone else. It was probably 10:30 when that game finished, and then we ate pie and ice cream and Japanese teacher proposed playing again. Wow. (We did play the speed version, where everyone is randomly dealt three properties at the beginning of the game.)
But first, a note about the pie. Man, it was so damn good. I shouldn't have eaten any. I should have let yesterday be a relatively low-cal day, because of the pizza the night before, but... I didn't. I don't even usually like apple pie, but this one, with a scoop of ice cream, was so unbelievably good. Each bite was like heaven. I'm not sure how much I actually ate, as Tony and I shared a bowl, but it was probably a decent amount of calories. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was worth it. My jeans still fit, I'm going to run a little extra today, and I still remember how good that darn pie tasted.
Tony roundly defeated all of us with just a couple houses on Boardwalk and Park Place during the second game, but they were good sports about it, and seemed to have a good time. It was 1:00 by the time that game ended, and after nice goodbyes, we headed back downstairs. I was super-satiated by the pie and collapsed right onto my sleeping bag. I actually didn't sleep very long. I was probably asleep by 1:30 and woke up around 7:30, but I was awake-awake. It's 8:40 now, so I'm just finishing this up before I get geared up for another punishment run. I'll try to savor the taste of the pie as I'm pushing myself through. Wish me luck.
Have a nice day! :)
1 comment:
Mmmm... pie. Life is full of compromises [or trade-offs], so enjoy both the pie and the running and do not see one as a penance for the other. Glad to hear you are having a good time. Take care. -PW
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