Sunday, November 23, 2008- Dan Moment

It is only natural that I have a 'Dan moment', as my friends put it, at some point during my travels throughout South Korea and Asia. Only I would have hoped that these unfortunate incidences would be few and would only seem as natural and well needed moments of humility in amongst good solid adventures. However, lady luck has decided to visit me early; floating down from the heavens above, she smiled benignly and slapped me across the face (limp wristed of course). Although this story doesn't rank in the pantheon of my all time greats, it is worth retelling.

Today started off with a headache as the apartment is infested with a bad case of mold and I couldn't get to sleep any earlier than three in the morning. Being allergic to mold, I see many trips to the doctor ahead of me. But, that being said, I grabbed some Tylenol an ran to meet my new friend Greg at the 'LOWTOE MARKETA' (a very cool huge super store/huge grocery store and spelled for you phonetically, more on that place later in the story). We took a cab and met up with his friend Jason at a bus stop, hopped on a bus and ended up at Sangsae (something like that) station in Busan and then rode the Subway to Nampo-dong. Nampo-dong, a district of Busan, is a huge market stretching countless blocks: Small stations filled with Hello Kitty blenders, socks, ties, cheap nick-knacks, clocks, tools, lamps and old men and ladies selling their food on plastic stools crowd the narrows of Nampo-dong's alleys. These alleys are flanked by buildings which are occupied by even more vendors smiling, pointing and muttering greetings and prices. Everything can be seen, smelled and bought. Occasionally motor bikes and cars honk their way through the crowd; people move out of the way not really aware of what they are doing. After a while, you start to drift along with the crowd less aware of specifics or destinations; passively wandering from station to station.

I did buy some things. Not without regret in retrospect, but useful items nonetheless: a day bag, sandals and a shitty mick shit alarm clock (of course it doesn't work). Altogether I didn't spend that much, my funds are dwindling and I have till the tenth to survive on what I do have. I need to be more careful and do things like hike, run or take long walks. I need to stay away from monetarily draining activities.

Around four o'clock or so we decided we had had enough and hopped the Subway to the Bus station. From there it was back to Jangyu and a short cab ride later I was back at the Lowetoe Marketa. Greg took off and I thought I'd pop in to get some things for dinner. This is where my night went south. I started off by bumbling around the store with my shopping cart aimlessly looking for what I wanted to eat. I grabbed some milk, orange juice, peanut butter, jelly, bread and, since I had left over vegetables from the night before, I thought it would be a good idea to grab some meat and do a simple stir fry.

There are three things that should be known for the drama of this story to take shape: 1) The meat and fish section of the store is big, noisy and crowded, 2) None of the meat or fish is priced, which means that I have to interact with store employee's, and 3) I don't even speak functional Korean yet (I haven't even tried to study.... that changes tomorrow). Up to this point my experience at the market has been; grab things that are priced, tally said price(s) in my head, prepare cash in advance, wait in line, let them scan products into the computer, hang head down, hand them cash and say, "Gomapsumnida" and leave. The procedure is simple and has no room for major error. Interacting with the Korean public is not for amateurs and shouldn't be tried unless one has put in the hours of study. However, today I decided to get ambitious and walked up a meat vendor selling what looked to be tasty raw beef mixed with spring onions and herbs and asked, by pointing at the beef and price sign, for help. He immediately sprang into action, grabbed some beef with a plastic bag and put it on the scale. He then said something in Korean and stared at me. I said, "What?". And I immediately knew I was in trouble. He kept staring back at me. I said, "What?" and blushed. He then said, "tenty thoulanad, Kobai beeffft". I am not sure why I did this since I had NO intention of paying close to twenty bucks for a handful of beef, even if Kobe Beef, but I grabbed my wallet in my front pocket and began to pull it out. Earlier that day I had bought some Kimbop from as street vendor in Nampo-dong. She gave me the change that promptly fell out of my pocket. Some of the change hit his table and fell to the floor, rolled around and came to a stop. And some arced straight into the huge pile of very expensive meat and disappeared with a slight plop sound. Fuck.....fuckety fuck fuck. But to my surprise all the vendors at the meat counter were on the floor looking for my change and hadn't seen the very dirty coins contaminate their prized meat. I stared straight at the pile of red and white marbled beef and realized I couldn't see the coins through the sauce. I paused, probably in shock; Do I tell them or not? They handed back my change and gave me my tasty red bag. I looked at them, bobbed my head and said, "Gomapsumnida" and walked away quickly. I flirted with the idea of veering off into an isle and posting a lookout to see what happens when a Korean paying customer sees a silver five hundred won in amongst his dinner. But I wisely decided that I needed to get the hell out of there before the fireworks began.

Being as distracted as I was I didn't have an easy time checking out either. I had learned earlier in the day, that you can use your Visa card. I thought this might make it even easier to purchase things. It didn't. The man checking my food asked me several questions to which I had absolutely no answer. I just stared at him and shook my head. Koreans are notoriously impatient and the line behind me started to mutter. Eventually he gave up and finished me up. I grabbed my shit, shoved it in a bag and took off. Prematurely that is. I apparently left four things on his counter and was half way to the door before he caught up to me. The walk of shame back to the checkout line to gather my missing items was VERY uncomfortable. The disgusted Korean gaze is powerful. blech.

I start me second school week tomorrow. Yippy.

The third day is ALWAYS better

Today I feel like I might have past a small milestone. I had fun teaching. If you'd read my last two posts the general themes have been dark and prophetic, more than insinuating my demise both in terms of steady employment and physiological stability. However, the ease at which I did my job (at least during the first part of the day) has lifted my spirits and granted me the emotional leisure to predict a positive forecast. The younger children are becoming easier to handle, partly due to my burgeoning comprehension of their textbooks, and while the older students are obstinate, I feel with time, I will be able to command their attention. Granted, I have a long way to go and hours of review ahead of me, but my vision is clearing. Being able to see is good.

I haven't yet been able to start learning Korean or travel much. Learning Korean has had to take a back seat due to two reasons. Firstly, I have been too freaked out to focus on anything until now. And secondly, my computer (a necessary component to the Korean course work I bought) blew out the fuse box and I can't plug it in to recharge. My roommate had to boil water on the stove and take a cold shower this morning. She wasn't happy about that. And I haven't traveled for the obvious reason that this is only my forth day here and haven't had the time.

(My battery is about to die)

oh, for those of you that have been wondering whether I would have a terrible bout of the ten/sevens in my first week rest assured that I barely got three hours of uninterrupted sleep last evening. I was running to the washroom constantly all night. Very gross. And spicy food makes it that much grosser. blech. Due to my circumstances, I ate only four pieces of white bread all day. Very filling.

First Teaching Day

Today was the first day I taught English. It did not go so well. In fact, If I did not confuse the kids more I would be surprised. I had NO idea what the book was even trying to do sometimes. I would read the passage not understanding what it was trying to question, tell them one thing and then go on to see in the next example that I was totally wrong. Once you look the lesson over and work through it yourself, you can see what they were trying to teach. But understanding the format is hard and foreign and trying to do so on the fly is impossible. I believe that even if I memorized the whole book, I would be lost. I am convinced if I don't improve significantly and quickly I will be fired.

Chelsea (my roommate) and her friend, my co-worker, Greg tell me that all teachers go through this experience and that it is impossible for me to get fired. I hope they are right, because I am going to test that maxim.

My last class was only three boys and they were the most advanced class I taught today. They were by far my favorite class in that I actually think I might have taught them a little. At least conceptually, if not grammatically. But the rest of the day was a wash.

After my last class (incidentally this is my easiest day of the week, tomorrow is brutal with only and twenty min break in a 8+ work day) Greg walked me home and took me out for a form of Korean BBQ. During dinner he let me in on his past and gave me some helpful advice about how to cope with dignity. Apparently my distress was very visible. He also invited me to a philosophy group that meets once a week in Changwan. Seems like fun if I can ever get some stability.

First Full Day

My first full day started off well. Apparently the guy (Derrick) whose birthday I share got so drunk last night he ended up on the couch in the living room. They arrived at 4am and made a bunch of noise. Luckily, I was so tired from the flight I didn't hear anything.

In the morning, our birthday, he wanted to make pizza. Thus I got my first taste of the 'Lowtoe market' (spelled for you like it is enunciated). He then wanted to go on a hike on a mountain by his apartment in Gimhae (think of Jangyu, where I live, as a 'suburb' of Gimhae). So we hiked to the top and it really proved my lack of fitness. I was destroyed. Koreans don't appreciate the gentleness of a lazy trail and decide they like the more direct and efficient route, straight up.

At the top of the mountain there was a nice exercise area and we played around on the equipment for a bit before coming back down the mountain. I think I fell twice.

Due to the late start and my slow pace, we were very late getting to a birthday bash held in Derrick's honor at a weird German bar in Busan (it took us two and a half hours to get there due to traffic, I slept most of the way). The place was packed. The seating area was comprised of large picnic benches and people from all ages were clapping along to this band from some country in the old soviet block singing Korean and American songs. After a bit of drinking the Koreans really went nuts and were dancing on the table and waving around napkins. It was endearing and also a bit shocking to see.

I, of course, was exhausted and decided to skip out when everyone left to go see some DJ Shadow at another bar. I took a taxi back to Jangyu (cost me over fifty bucks altogether this evening). The taxi got lost and for a while I was really freaked out that we wouldn't be able to find our way back. But he eventually pulled up to another taxi and asked questions. I wouldn't be writing you if I hadn't made it back. I am tired and need the bed. I will not be going out for a bit.