| August 1st, 2001 Well, my vacation from work finally came and now is almost over. Friday evening I sat around with my co-workers to celebrate our freedom. I learned to play a new card game called 31; it's a very easy, very fun gambling game. Having an addictive personality, I've never been very interested in gambling and I can see now that it was a wise aversion. It's very addictive. I lost 3,000 won (about $2.75) and wanted to play more. Louisa and Dot were heading out to tour the country on a night train so that left Troy and me without card players. Eventually we decided to go to a nori-bahn--a.k.a. a kareoke room. I've never been one for kareoke either but it's different here. You rent a room and can sing all you want without anyone watching. It's great and I'm more than a little ashamed to say that I'm beginning to love it. Because I have to sing every day with my kindie kids, I'm getting used to the fact that I have a bad voice and honestly, it isn't so terrible these days (every kareoke singer's first mistake). 31 and singing obnoxiously are my new vices. Alison and I had hoped to go camping but the rain kept coming and being "outdoorsy" stopped sounding appealing on the third day of the down pour. Just like a couple of wimps, we decided to go shopping. We went to Namdaemun Market on Tuesday, which is great for shopping when it rains because most of the market is indoors and air conditioned. After shopping we went for a drink and a snack and were headed to the bus stop, planning to spend a quiet night playing cards and watching movies. On the way, we met two guys who are also teachers but in a different city. One thing led to another and after an all night train ride we woke up in Pusan, a beach city on the south-east coast. We left our new friends at the train station, rented a cheap room in a yogwan, and spent the next day on the beach, getting sunburned and playing in the ocean. It was fantastic. I couldn't get over the change in climate--dry air, clear skies, NO RAIN. It was a perfect day for the beach, with the waves just the right size for a fun time swimming. Since we hadn't planned on a day at the beach I was forced to swim in my moo-moo night gown but it didn't matter. More than half of the people there were swimming in their clothes; Koreans aren't much for bathing suits. I've never been to such a crowded beach. Because, as I've mentioned before, Koreans aren't big on sun tans everyone sits under umbrellas, keeping themselves out of direct sunlight and making the beach one big umbrella ad for McDonald's. We got an umbrella too, not having much choice because they basically dominated the entire beach. I was happy we did though because even with it we both managed to get sunburned. We both wanted to stay another day but since we had tickets back that very night, here I am in Suwon, with the sky clear and sunny but without the beach. I'm planning to lay low for the next few days and remind myself that I've exhausted my budget. Money seems to vanish from my wallet lately. |
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