Fish+Wine=Yummy

Let's do a backward post today.

It's almost 1am. I am home.
I bought a bottle of water for 1000 won. It is normally only 800 but the lady looked so peaceful asleep so I just put 1000won on the register. Maybe that was the wrong thing to do and she will be confused but ethically I think it's okay.
Alex and I tried to find Pub Morrison but couldn't. I don't either of us wanted to go really. I don't think it was a wine serving place. This is too backwards really.
Let's just do days. Today I actually had a hard time waking up. It was so nice to dream. I had a dream I was running through trees. Not for long though. I was in a drunken race with Renee and Gareth. It's strange I should dream about the foreign teachers at my school. Not that Gareth was even there very long. It seems strange to have dreams about someone I only knew for 2-3 days over 4 months ago. I wonder why Matt wasn't there. For some reason my idea of a perfect group is 2 guys and 1 girl. I'm not sure why but if I were on a desert island I would want 1 guy there and 1 girl. It's wouldn't even be sexual with the girl. Maybe Matt wasn't there to remove the hint of sexuality or the couplehood. You can't be friends with a couple I've decided. I'm looking forward to them leaving actually. I hope they are replaced with single people who don't abstain from alcohol. I bet they hire another couple. It's smart for the school really. Unless they get the singles to share accommodation. That's a boring digression. I'm not going to take it. Right, Thursday. I had a banana before work. I really shouldn't skip breakfast. It's not intentional. I would eat if I had time or steady source of bananas. They are the only fruit I eat but I tend not to buy them just because they seem expensive and they sell too many and I can't eat them fast enough. I actually have rotting bananas in my freezer. I should do something about them. I bought like a dozen bananas one night. The next morning I had one and it was very mushy. Then the next time I had one, I dropped one and it broke open on the floor and looked mashed. It was a little gross really to have this liquid banana on the floor. I think it was the heat or the bananas I bought were too ripe, overripe, I don't know. I probably shouldn't buy bananas in the dark. Anyways, I thought I'd stick them in the freezer to keep them fresh or the same level of decay at least. Next time I take out the trash I will add them. I really can't throw food in the garbage. I don't make enough garbage so it really only leads to me becoming a breeder of quality maggots and flies. I forgot what it was that they like more than rotting bananas but there was something they just love. I really can get sidetracked easily. Work actually went fine today. My classes haven't been that bad the last 2 days aside from maybe one class. I even got out of work early today. 6:30. Earliest release ever. So I'm on parole for the next 10 hours and I've already enjoyed 6.5 hours of it. It really wasn't bad today at all and I think I know why. I just need to eat and sleep properly. It's amazing what an adequate amount of sleep and food can do. It really was stupid to not eat for most of the day. I used to eat waffles from the waffle family outside of the school but they became unreliable. They opened too late in the afternoon and from 3:30-8 I can't leave the building. I'm really amazed I haven't collapsed at work. The sleep problem can't be helped much unless I get demanding but I've pushed the bounds too much recently. Food wise though I could be doing a lot better. Back to the today. After work I came home and then went downtown to get some food.

We went to eat at a French restaurant called Dijon. Alex was supposed to meet me at Starbucks but due to some lack of coordination he was only able to handle one invitee at a time. The other one being one of his workmates. I've been alternating between workmate and co-worker. I don't know. I don't even work with any Non-North American speakers of English. Nor do I hang out with any. Odd. Anyways, usually Alex is always waiting outside of Starbucks because of my lengthy trip to the centre. It's an 18 minute subway ride plus however long I have to wait for the train. Compared to his 5 minute cabride or less maybe, it takes me ages. Anyways, I was a little perplexed by it but was proud to have beaten him. I had an iced cafe mocha while I waited. It was nice really. I met a university prof of management. Dr, Kim. Dr. Jin-Han Kim. He seemed quite nice really. First he asked me if I was American or Canadian and I thought 'God, not one of these conversations.' It wasn't bad though. He actually gave me a business card and told me if I was interested in working at the university to give him a call. I'm sure a university would be a much better listing on a resume. Member of the faculty of Taegu University sounds much better than Monkey Teacher at Wonderland hagwon. Anyways, maybe I should send him my resume see what happens. Of course, I don't know how long I want to spend in Korea and being only 5 years older than my youngest students would be a little strange. Not that it isn't strange that I teach people born in 1999 probably. Those people shouldn't be able to talk yet. Even then people from 1994 bother me. I have memories from 1994, shouldn't you just be learning how to walk, maybe learning to read at most. I feel old sometimes. Then in Korean class I felt young. In ten years, I will still only be 33 which doesn't seem that old. Plus some guy I thought was like 24 turned out to be 28. Anyways, I felt like a spring chicken kind of. Anyways, that was my run in with Dr. Kim at Starbucks. He first had Starbucks at the airport in Vancouver. A little fact he felt like he needed to share so I will pass that on. Little facts like that I find interesting. I don't know when I first had anything from Starbucks. It must have been hot chocolate though since that used to be all I ever ordered at coffee shops except when I went in Korea it was hot so I needed something cool and the iced cafe mocha seemed the most chocolatey.

I really am a rambler. I wonder why that is. Nate, you can link to him, said he thought he would ramble on like this but his ADD got in the way. He doesn't actually have ADD though. Maybe I just like reliving little pieces of my life. I bet my first Starbucks was in Florida. Those Blakeley's like Starbucks or possibly it was in Seattle when we went to visit my uncle because Starbucks is a Seattle thing. Otherwise my parents wouldn't have gone. They aren't big into coffee and we wouldn't go there on vacation because my sisters and I don't drink coffee. Maybe my sisters drink coffee now. I haven't been around them in them much in the past 5 years or so and I don't talk to them on the phone when I'm away. Maybe once in 6 months or something. I like being prodigal really. I think I'm much more interesting as a mystery. "Oh you have a brother, what's he like?" is better than "Oh nice to meet you, I find you a bit dull." I'm quite aloof with strangers. So eventually, Alex did come and we went to the restaurant. I was actually involved in the conversation as opposed to my active listening and occasional comment that is usually more like a unrespondable remark. I'm a horrible conversationalist really. I had salmon and wine. My salmon was supposedly Norwegian. I still really like Scandinavia. Even though I was only in Norway for 6 hours or something I still feel tied to the region. Mostly because I was in Denmark for 10 months. My mind is actively trying to go off into random tangents. Is that a sign that my brain is processing things better or worse? I guess a lack of focus probably shows a lack of a problem. Anyways, after my yummy fish and wine I came home feeling satisfied. I even got to take the subway back since it wasn't that late. I also feel like I don't pay enough for my meal. Maybe I did but when 2 people refuse to talk the extra money I will gladly take it. I have spent so much money in the past month and I don't even know where it all went. I suppose I don't mind. It hasn't really kept me in my saving $1000 a month but I could've spent a lot more on my vacation. But I haven't made that much really. I think my first month was 1.2 and then 1.5 and 1.5. I get paid again in less than a week. A full amount this time so I can spend $700 a month. I make 1.9 but in my head I always think 1.7. As long as I don't spend more than what I make I should be fine. I really think I've spend like over $1000 this month. No idea how. Well some ideas. I guess that's enough for today. Unless I want to mention Jessy who was my only problem at work today. It really only takes one or 2 bad students to ruin your day. Let's not talk about Jessy. I will only say that I've never imagine anyone being a disappointment to their parents but if he were my kid, I just don't know.

Yesterday was my first day back at work since my little forewarned disappearing act. It was a bit awkward but no kind of harsh accusations. It wasn't even until my break that it was brought up. The first question my boss asked was how my vacation was. It's a bit awkward between us. I'm just going to pretend nothing happened. Amy had a calm talk with me. I guess I created a bit of a divide somehow. I still don't know how. I guess some of the teachers talked about me, asking where I was. Is Shawn teacher not a Wonderland teacher in his heart? Is he not part of the Wonderland family? I really wish they'd avoid using phrases like this. Amy even mentioned something about understanding how teachers wanted to have personal lives but on special days I need to be part of the Wonderland family. I could've argued about it but she brought it up nicely and I was happy to just put it to rest. The next special day I will be there but not if it's one of my vacation days or has no educational element. I don't need to be part of the Wonderland family. Some of the Korean teachers I think might be a bit hostile towards me but in true Korean fashion they would never reveal this to me directly. I'm fine with that. I'm the office rebel now that nobody cares for all that much. I do feel more competent as a teacher all of the sudden. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's all the sleep and food. Anyways, I wasn't reprimanded in any way for skipping out on what they told me were my job responsibilities. I think Amy was more upset that I didn't get permission from her and skipped her in the totem pole. She wouldn't have given me permission plus I knew she didn't want to be there either. She had to cancel a family trip to move. I can't think of anything else worth mentioning right now. Maybe at some later point. There was something that happened a couple weekends ago that I could write about but I won't. You'll have to check out:

http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=alexsoccerboy

and read the July 24th entry. It's much more lucid than anything I could write. What a wild and crazy night. If there's a request I could write about it but it isn't all that exciting. Didn't go much past than what was mentioned. You will learn my actual name though. It's strange how they alternate between my real name and my 'stage' name. Usually it's the stage name but every so often they remind me that I have this other name I went by for 22 years. Let's see if 2 nights of decent sleep will make work any better. I will definitely have a banana tomorrow morning.