Travels

View from my room this week.

August 4, 2003

Yesterday I slept in until 12:00, then went outside Guest Housing in search of playing cards. The little brats from last week stole my two packs. Korean kids LOVE card games. I can't recall how many times they have begged me to let them continue playing instead of studying English.

Anyway, we taxied out to the city bus terminal and took the three hour bus to Jeounju. Derrick was being a complete idiot, he was hammered on beer about halfway there and wouldn't shut up about life insurance or something mundane like that. I felt sorry for Mel, one of the other teachers who had to sit with him. About three-quarters way through the trip, I saw a red liquid seeping on the floor. I didn't think anything of it but that it was tomato juice. Once we exited the bus Mel's big toe was seeping blood. He had cut it the night before on a bottle and the cut had reopened. One of the counselors drug him to the hospital while the rest of us went to dinner :)

Mel came back with three stitches. We dropped by 7-11 for supplies, hearing that this retreat was about thirty minutes outside of the city. Derrick opened the freezer and exclaimed "I'm gonna buy a foooooookin' beer from five different time zones!" Which he did. The hotel looked fine, but the A/C wasn't going to be turned on until Monday morning. That was a problem. It was hot as HELL in the rooms. John, Big John (another teacher from Newfoundland), Derrick the Idiot and I hung out on the outside garden on the roof of the hotel. At least it wasn't hot. The only place that had air conditioned were the Karokae rooms. I tried to sneak down and sleep in one but the security guards put a stop to that. John and I decided to sleep in the garden under the overhang so we wouldn't get wet while it rained. What a great conversation. I think we finally dozed off around 2:30 am. We were awoken at 4:30 by the security guards who said we weren't allowed to sleep in the gardens. Back to the sweltering rooms. Didn't sleep again today. Maybe tonight.

Another non-functioning speaker. He he he

The new group of kids arrived today. Seem to be ok, a bit more animated and higher level than last week. They've already decided their play is going to be a hybrid of Shrek and Cinderella. We'll see how it goes...Jessica is going to join me the last week here. They are short a teacher so she will be contracted. Good to be me.