Birthday Party!
Sometimes just being me is an adventure in itself. That is often the case because I tend to make assumptions, and sometimes, okay rarely look for other possible answers until forced by circumstance to do so.
I have been waiting anxiously for bills for gas, electricity, and cable to arrive. My apartment has a inside door, a tiny little foyer, and then the outside door. The outside door has a small round porthole type thing and has something that looks like a cover on it. Now I have never touched it to see if it actually opens at all, but I assumed that my mail would be shoved through that and would be waiting for me on the floor when I got home one day. But no.
Then, this morning as I was locking my door and leaving for school I saw a woman checking for mail at what sounded like a mailbox opening and closing. Sure enough - I went down the corridor and low and behold there was a box with #107 on it. Assuming (again) that like back home, mailboxes are locked, I tried putting the key for my apartment in it open it. That didn't work, and just as I was about to go back to the apartment to get another possible key, I noticed that the opening in the mailbox was big enough for my hand to fit inside and retrieve the letters. As I put my hand in it I could feel that it was hinged and it just opened up. There is absolutely nothing stopping anyone from taking my mail except what seems to be a very, very strong, almost genetic honesty. From what I can tell it just would never occur to a Korean to take anything that isn't his. I could, and have left my wallet on a desk and gone elsewhere and never had any doubt that the wallet and its contents would be there when I got back.
Anyway, there was a pile of mail waiting in my box including what looked like a couple of bills. There was a couple of Christmas cards from my friends, Ian and Nancy, and another one from one of my students who happens to live in my building. There was also a stack of postcards. At first I thought, "Great!" But that was until I saw that they were postcards I had send to people in Canada (sorry about that). Yup, I put the addresses in the wrong place and had mailed them to myself. In relative terms that was an expensive mistake. There were 9 cards, and each cost about $2.00 in postage. That may not sound like a lot, but it is when you consider that a substantial meal here costs me from $3.00-$5.00 (no alcohol) and the combined total of my gas and electric bills was less that $2.00. Live and learn, eh!
Yesterday was my birthday (sort of). It was January 11 here, but not back in Canada, but January 11 is only my legal birthday anyway. That's what's on my passport and driver's licence, but I was in fact born on the 12th which is the date here today, but not till tomorrow (Friday) in Canada. The kids in the English Camp all sang "Happy Birthday" to me in Korean and in English, my co-teacher, Gyong Jin gave me a tin of almonds that she had wrapped with coloured twine and attached a note wishing me good health and happiness. Someone I know was supposed to go with me to a bar for a beer or two, but he never showed up, so at 8:00pm I decided to go by myself. My first such excursion since being in Korea. There's a bar called "Tolstoy", but it reminded me of something unpleasant, so I decided to try a place called O.K. (for O.K. Corral I guess). What I noticed right off the bat was how small the place is....two booths on the left side, two tables for 4 people each on the right, a bar only big enough for two stools and that's about it. As soon as I sat down at the bar I realized that being inconspicuous here would be a challenge to say the least. A really, really drunk guy sat down beside me and started talking right away. I understood a few things...he asked me where I was from, I told him Canada. He gave the thumbs up sign and said something about Canada. After that he became less and less comprehensible, but undaunted by the fact that the person he was speaking to had absolutely no idea what he was saying, he kept talking. I, being a stranger in the country, and in the bar, didn't want to be rude, so for two hours I sat there and occasionally nodded and said, 'Yeeeeeh', answered questions that I understood and generally wished he would find someone else to talk to. He was nice, just a little annoying, but I was just as undaunted and determined to drink a couple of beers. I succeeded!
I left the bar after shaking hands with the guy who was sitting beside me, and then as I walked towards the door, the biggest Korean guy I've seen stood up, and said something like, "You're an ace!" or maybe, "You're an ass", hmmm. Anyway, he stuck out his hand, and so did the waitress standing beside him and a couple of other people. When/if my "celebrity" status starts to wain, all I have to do is walk into someplace I haven't been to yet and "Boom", it's back. Anyway, I went to the PC Bang for an hour or so to check my email. It was after 11pm when I went to bed.
My Birthday Party
Today at school there was sort of another birthday party. One of the ladies who works in the office downstairs at the school bought a cake for me. I decided that I would share it with the class. So around noon, the lady brought the cake into the class and set it on a table in the centre of the room. All the kids in the English Camp surrounded me for a picture (which I have to ask her to email to me tomorrow). She left about six forks, and a knife to cut the cake. I was going to cut the cake into slices for everyone, but there weren't any plates. So, people just picked up a fork and started going at it. I guess it's traditional for the birthday person to wear some of the cake, so one of the kids came up to me and put some icing on my nose.
After school I went home to get my swimming stuff, walked towards the pool and stopped at the bank which is on the way, to pay my $2.00 gas and electric bills. I did my 20 laps, well sort of. After about 10 a bunch of kids came into the pool for their swimming lessons, but they were early and were just all over the pool and a few of them recognized me and before I knew it I was throwing some of them around in the pool as they laughed. Once their lessons began I finished my swim and went back home. Some of the students came over and we played gin rummy for an hour or so. After they left I ate my supper, watched some tv, and started typing up some stories for tomorrow and then started writing this blog entry.
One little bit of cultural info or rather a bit of a curiousity....the day I went to see the tombs of Aragaya Kings with my friend, Hyawn Yung, we were talking about religion. I was under the impression that Korea is about 50% Buddhist and 50% Christian, but he said it's more like 10% Christian and 90% Buddhist. Okay. He is Christian, and asked me what I was. I told him that don't really hae a religion, but that I was born Catholic. He said that Koreans don't think of Catholics as Christian. I thought that was interesting.
Almost 11pm again. I'm going to be tired tomorrow. G'night all.
|
