Today is "Parent's day" in Korea. Which is probably why the PC Bang is unusually quiet tonight. It's customary for children to buy their parents a carnation on Parent's day, which always falls on May 8th. I'm pretty sure that that's the custom...but it was explained to me by a Korean who's English isn't the greatest so forgive me if I don't have all the facts straight.
They don't have separate Mother's and Father's days. Speaking of which, I'll take this time to personally wish my mother a happy Mother's day which falls on the 12th this year (I'm pretty sure).
I've had a pretty interesting couple of weeks. I forgot to mention last time, but I actually drove a car here the other day. I went out for beers with my Korean co-workers last week. They drove to my area cause it was raining and Mr. Gong left his car by my apartment and I told him I'd bring it to work the next day.
The problem with this was that we had a new teacher start that week, and I was supposed to show her how to get to work on the bus the next morning. So what I ended up doing was showing her where the bus stop was and then driving the bus route to school. Of course the bus route isn't very direct and it winds through some pretty narrow streets. However, I mangaged to make it without incident. I have an International drivers license, so I thought I was driving legally. But I found out that, in Korea, you need to have personal insurance in order to drive legally. Ah well, guess I won't be making it a habit.
Last weekend I finally went to the movies here. Spiderman opened Friday and a few teachers and I went down to see the late show. I ran into a couple of my students there. Seeing as the kids were with their parents, it's a good thing that it was kids who's names I could remember. I figure it makes the parents feel better about spending $400 a month if the teachers actually know their children's names. Anways, for anyone who didn't see it, Spiderman was quite good; better than I had expected.
I actually went with Soo,to see Blade 2 on Saturday, so I saw two movies last weekend. For anyone curious, the movies are played in English with Korean subtitles on the right hand side of the screen. It's surprising how you don't even notice them though on the wide screens so it's just like being at home. There was a least one part of Blade though, where I was the only one in the Cinema laughing at a joke...and I started to wonder why. Then it occured to me, that I was probably the only one in the theatre who wasn't reading the subtitles. Even Soo, who understands English almost perfectly, says that he's usually got his eyes stuck on the subtitles.
So, this weekend, I finally ended the Digital camera debate. I went to Yongsan and spent half a million Won on a Canon A-40 Powershot Digital camera. Yongsan is "the area" to buy electronics in Korea. Someone told me that it's the biggest electronics market in the world. I don't know if that's true but it certainly could be, seeing the number of shops that are in the area. I was there with my Korean tutor, Sooyeon, who was my translation service for the day.
Now I know that Korean men really don't like foreigners being with (as they see it) "their women". But a few of the "ajashis" (what you call a middle aged man in Korea) at different shops were just plain assholes. Maybe it's a result of working in a highly competitive electronics market...I really don't know. I think that it was due to the fact that a foreigner was with a young, good-looking, well-dressed Korean girl. Either way, we finally managed to find a good deal (I think) from a guy who was friendly enough.
I also saw some VCDs that were selling 3 for $12. Now, I don't have a DVD player or even a computer, but I had to buy one anyways. I don't know what the quality on them is like...seeing as they must be illegal. But, they are packaged just like a DVD and must at least be decent. I'll eventually pull it out of the package and find out. Not to mention my digital camera. It came with English software but the manuals are in Korean. I found a site to download the English version of the manuals off the Internet, but its almost 300 pages. I'm not sure how my boss would react to me printing off 300 pages at work so I haven't bothered yet.
I meant to have some photos of my apartment up by now...but I haven't been feeling great lately and I haven't had enough ambition to clean up my apartment. My camera can take 30 second video clips, so I'll eventually post a guided tour of my apartment to this site...including sound!!
Last night, I had a really good time. I went out for dinner with a co-worker(Won), his wife, and two of her co-workers. After dinner we went up for a beer and then Won and his wife went home and left me with two young good-looking Korean girls. We ended up sitting around till talking till late. They are both Korean but they teach English at another Academy, so they speak English very well. Of course, the slide into Korean every once in a while and then I assume they're saying things about me. I really layed into Won today at work, "How dare you leave me with two cute Korean girls!" And he didn't even say sorry. :)
Time for bed...tomorrow is another day!
Have a peachy one!!
