The Adventure Goes Mobile...Day 16 in Korea

I woke up Friday with a hunger...not for food, but for American Football. I was messing around of Facebook and kept seeing posts about the Falcons playing the Ravens in their first pre-season game. I could only stand it for about 20 minutes before I finally broke down and purchased NFL Game Pass.

NFL Game Pass is a subscription service that allows users to watch NFL games live through the Internet. There are various packages that one can purchase, but I went with the big one that allowed me to watch live games, archived games (they archive the latest games immediately), playoff games, the Super Bowl, and lots of shows, interviews, and commentaries about football. I sat in bed with my morning coffee while watching the Falcons 2nd and 3rd strings bumble about on the field. It felt very different watching football in the morning with coffee while getting ready to go to work rather than football in the afternoon and evening while enjoying beer and junk food.

The game had gone into halftime when Mrs. Yoon called. I hurried down to the gas station to get picked up.

This day was supposed to be a special day because I was finally supposed to get a bank account. Jenny was going to take me to the bank before classes started and help me out. This made me very excited because it meant that I would finally be able to have a little card that went "beep" on the bus and subway. No longer would I have to dig in my pockets for change!

I made sure to bring my passport and when I arrived at work, I sat in my desk fidgeting until Jenny was ready  to go. She got directions to the bank from Mrs. Yoon and we set off down the street for the bank. (Jenny brought her umbrella in case it rained) Once we found it, we went inside and Jenny talked to the woman behind the desk while I stood there and smiled. They spoke for a while until Jenny turned to me and said "Give her your passport." I complied, and then had to fill out a massive load of paperwork. Once that was finished, I was given a checkbook that had my balance printed on the first page ( 0 Won). Jenny thanked the woman, so I thanked her as well, and we left. Jenny told me that I couldn't get a debit card or a little card that goes "beep" until I went and got my Alien Registration Card. Damn! I wanted that card so bad...

We started to head back to the school. We'd gone about a block when Jenny stopped and said "Oh no! I forgot my umbrella!" (Jenny is good at pronouncing most English words, but "umbrella" gives her some trouble. She says something like "umbleller," which I find to be quite amusing) We back to the bank. While she went in the bank, I waited outside and took this picture. 

Traditional Korean Coffee Chairs

Jenny came back out and told me that everyone in the bank had laughed at her. I found this to be quite amusing. On the way back, I saw a sign that I just had to take a picture of.

Oh, those Koreans and their cigalettes!

When we arrived back at school, Mrs. Yoon wanted to know how everything had gone at the bank. I told her that I didn't have a debit card yet, and that I couldn't get one until I got my Alien Registration Card. She told me that she would show me the place where I could get it sometime in the near future. I was thankful.

Classes went pretty well, with the exception of one class who thought it would be funny to repeat everything that I said. I got them good with "Patrick-teacher, please give me more homework!" They actually repeated it so I gave them more homework. Hilarious.

After my classes were over, I spent my time in the office finishing all of my paperwork and organizing my desk. Mrs. Yoon asked me if I still was interested in getting a cell phone. I told her yes. She immediately conscripted Mr. Lee and told him to take me to the nearest cell phone store (which was downstairs and on the other side of the building). Jenny, Jake, Mr. Lee, and I all marched into the tiny cell phone store. Mr. Lee and Jenny talked to the lady behind the counter (who was beautiful) while Jake pointed out different phones to me. After a few minutes, they said goodbye and we left. I asked what had happened and Mr. Lee told me that they were too expensive. He asked if I would like to stop at the cell phone store in Gwangju. I said that I would if it were convenient for him. We said goodbye to Jenny, and went to collect Mrs. Yoon. As we were closing up the school, Mr. Lee pointed out that there were some students in one of the classrooms. Apparently, they were supposed to come at 3 pm that day, but instead came for a night class. Sadly, Mrs. Yoon had to stay and teach them. (Luckily, they'd both taken their cars that day)

We left Mrs. Yoon and drove to a cell phone store in Gwangju-si. Mr. Lee talked to the guy behind the counter while I sat there and smiled. The guy kept looking at me while he was speaking, but I had no idea what he was saying. We finally were able to get a smart phone with an unlimited data plan for less than my plan for my less-than-intelligent phone in the US. Awesome! The guy told me that I would not be able to activate my phone until Monday at 11 am, but that I would still be able to use the apps on it that didn't require the Internet. The sacrifice was that I had a limited number of text messages and only 300 minutes of talking time per month. (They don't have rollover minutes, free calling to people with the same service, or free nights and/or weekends). However, with my unlimited data plan, I would be able to use an app to text and make free calls to people in the US, Japan, and Korea. Awesome! I was very happy with my new phone, especially because of the fact that it had an 8 Megapixel camera and video capability.

My new phone

As soon as I got back to my apartment, I broke out my phone and started playing with it. I couldn't wait to get service for it.

Mrs. Yoon called a little while later and suggested that we all go out to eat. She gave me directions to the restaurant and told me what time to be there. I waited about half an hour, and then scampered out the door. The walk to the restaurant only took about 10-15 minutes. Mr. Lee, Mrs. Yoon, Jake, and their daughter (whose name I still don't know) were already there. As soon as I sat down, Mr. Lee ordered beer for us. I finally got to use my new favorite Korean toast: "Jook-Ja!" ("Let's die." Apparently there's something that you can say before that changes it into "Let's die from drinking.") Mr. Lee was pretty good at drinking. Mrs. Yoon said that when he was younger, he could drink a case of beer within about 4 hours. I was impressed. 

We talked a lot about Korea, the U.S., the school, and life in general. I found out that their daughter had traveled a lot and would be travelling again very soon. They told me about Korea's rivalry with Japan. I don't think they ever mentioned North Korea. We joked and laughed a lot. Mr. Lee told me that I had an enormous bladder because I'd stayed sitting while he'd gone to the bathroom several times. (I told him about breaking the seal) We even took some pictures.

Mr. Lee, Jake, and a fat guy who thinks he's from Alaska.

Jook Ja!

After saying "Jook ja" several times, Mr. Lee invited me to stay with him for one last beer while Mrs. Yoon and the kids went home. Before they left, Mrs. Yoon suggested that we climb the mountain the next day. I happily agreed. She said that she would call me. I was excited because I'd been dying to climb that mountain and had no idea where to go up it.

Mr. Lee and I sat around and talked for a while longer. After finishing, Mr. Lee asked if I wanted to go downtown. I agreed. We hailed a taxi and rode into downtown Gwangju. I offered to pay, since they'd bought the meal and beer, but the price only wound up being about 2,000 won (less than $2). Mr. Lee led to a building and up some stairs, where he spoke to an older guy who led us up more stairs to a room filled with pool tables. I noticed that some of the tables had no holes in them, while others were the traditional tables that we are familiar with in the U.S. He asked if I'd like to play Korean billiards or Western billiards. I told him that I was up for either. We played Korean. 

Korean billiards was pretty interesting. It only involved 3 balls. I'm still not 100% sure on the rules, but basically you had to use one ball to hit the other two balls and one of them had to hit at least three sides of the table. When that happened, you received a point. We played for maybe 20 minutes. Mr. Lee had about 5 points and I had about 2. He gave the older man some money and we left. I asked him, somewhat jokingly, how much money I owed him, while I silently prayed that we hadn't been gambling. Luckily, we hadn't, and he said that it was just for fun. Awesome.

We went to another bar, where we had a couple more beers and dried squid. I had heard about people eating dried squid in Korea and had been nervous about trying it. I was very surprised to find that it was delicious, and made awesome bar food. Eating it was kind of barbaric, because you had to rip part of it off with your hands in order to eat it. You would dip it in an awesome spicy sauce before finally consuming it. It went great with beer.

I'm pretty sure that ours was purple

Mr. Lee told me that he thought I was a good person and that he was happy to have me at the school. I told him how much I appreciated him and his family and told him that I was very grateful for all of the care that they'd shown. We basically talked about how awesome we thought the other person was for the next hour, and Mr. Lee asked some questions about culture in the U.S. It was a good night and I felt like we bonded well. After finishing our drinks, I paid our tab and we headed out. 

While looking for a taxi, we came across a young man passed out in the street. He'd obviously had way too much to drink. Mr. Lee and I poked, prodded, and shook him until he finally woke up. Once he was awake, Mr. Lee made sure that he had a place to go (and that he could find it) and once he'd confirmed it with the guy, we left. Taxis weren't hard to find, and it took no time for the taxi to make it to the gas station. I said goodbye to Mr. Lee and trudged up the hill to my apartment. I was really happy to be working for a good family with good people. It was about 4 am when I finally got in and crawled into bed. Sleep was already waiting for me as soon as I laid down.