January 25th

Time for another update- and no pictures again :(
On the weekend Curtis, Drew and I headed to a basketball game with Drew's Korean friend who was able to get some free tickets (I forgot my camera!). The Daegu Orions is the name of the team, and we are one of the worst teams in the league. The stadium was small, but I estimated that there were about 5000 fans in attendance, and our seats were basically floor seats, about 4 rows from the action. The teams in Korea are allowed to have two foreign players, so basically each team consisted of two large African Americans, and a bunch of Korean guys. The Americans do most of the scoring, but the Koreans are really fast, and can shoot really well. The chants during the game were pretty funny. The way Koreans pronounce English words means that words usually get more syllables. DE-FENCE becomes DE-FENC-SUH, and O-FFENCE becomes O-FENCE-SUH. Our best player was a guy name Hawkins, so his chant was HAWK-KIN-SUH. We got pretty into the game, but in the end we lost. It was like we had been life long fans the way we felt after the loss. During intermissions etc. there were different games that occurred where fans could win prizes. At one point, the cheerleaders came out and threw 10 small basketballs to the crowd, and of course one of them tossed one to me. From our seats, we got to throw them at prizes set on boxes, and all you had to do was hit the box to win the prize. I was the last guy to go, and with 5000 people watching I totally blew it. I was aiming for the best prize, a pair or shoes, and the ball totally sailed off my hand- a complete embarrassment. Drew and Curt started smacking me around after that. The smart thing to do would have been to roll it in the direction of the boxes, it would be nearly impossible to miss. Other people had to throw it because of where their seats were, and the balls bounced over the targets, but I could have tossed a low bouncer that would have cleaned up. Oh well. Also, the mascot spotted us, and put on a little show by us. He pretended to have a sip of our beer before pretending to barf and pass out by some other people nearby. In contrast to an NBA game, the quarters are 10 minutes instead of 12, and music is played during the entire game, not just during breaks, which was pretty entertaining actually.

Other than the basketball game, I haven't really been up to anything that exciting. Work has changed for me again. Friday, Monday, and Tuesday I worked 5 t0 6 hours at Manchon with Curt and the gang, and then headed to my school to teach my regular classes. It was pretty tiring, but I calculated that I would make 1300$ in overtime if this kept up until the end of January. Apparently someone else was doing the calculations too, because my school (Chimsan) gave me Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday off. This was O.K. with me because I would still get lots of overtime, but I wouldn't lose my mind in the process, and I get a two day weekend. So I went to school on Thursday for my shift, and afterwards the manager told me that I would have the rest of January off at Chimsan. I wasn't that pleased about it because that meant I would lose that much more overtime. For the rest of the month I will be at Manchon school (starting at 8:00- even Curt doesn't start that early) , I teach for about 4 hours each morning and then mark essays in the afternoon for Curt and Shelly- or at least I used to. Heeduk told me not to stick around unless specifically asked to- I think he is concerned about my overtime. But this makes absolutely no sense, because Shelly is going to make a lot more overtime than me because of all the essays she gets. So either he pays me the overtime, or he pays her. Shelly figures she is going to make 1300$ in overtime easily. Curt and Shelly wanted me to stay and help them today but, I was not allowed to. Over the span of two days Heeduk told me to help Shelly with essays, told Shelly not to hog me and let me help Curtis and Chris, and then told me not to help anyone basically. I think his sleep deprivation is getting to his brain. I get essays to mark from my one class, so that will give me some more hours, but only if the kids actually do it. Its not as disappointing as I make it sound, I work 5-days a week, am finished by noon, and will still make 500$ overtime this month. AND I'm not at the circus that is Samduk.

Oh, I almost forgot, I was able to get to the gym with Curt since its in the Manchon building. It is a great facility with all kinds of weights and machines, and then another floor has all the hot tubs and saunas of different temperatures and herb "flavorings". We worked our upper bodies, and I told Curt to just do his workout and I would keep up as best I could since he had been training for a few weeks. After working out for close to two hours, we played a few games of pool, and then went to the spa area to relax and sooth our muscles. The next day, and today, I regretted working out as hard as I did. My muscles are extremely sore, it's painfully funny trying to put on and take off my shirt. If I try to stand up with the help of my arms, they shake. I'm super weak right now, but it definitely means I got a workout. It felt good getting to the gym, and I'm going to get a membership close to home soon.

If I do a trip during my 5 days off in February, it will likely be to Fukuoka Japan, so I'll keep you posted. Its a really expensive country, but its also easier and cheaper to get to. I think I'll budget my trip based on whatever overtime I make. That's it for now. I promise pictures next time I post.