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the novelty of making dinner has officially ended.
i haven't prepared a proper meal since probably sunday, when i made some sort of chicken dish. i ate it again on monday, went to marche on tuesday, had instant noodles last night, and i'm just on my way out to get some 참치김밥. tomorrow i plan to go out for dinner, if all goes well.
i've been feeling pretty crappy all day, re: the bike thing. i can't shake the feeling that it was totally my fault, and that it was 99% avoidable.
i remember the last time i locked my bike. i was over at a friend's for dinner, and i was sort of late to meet my friend stu for drinks. i sort of rushed home to drop off my stuff and then headed to the bank machine to get some cash. when i got home that night, it was about 5 am and raining, so i was more worried about getting inside and to bed than the state of my bike. besides, it was around the corner now, because of the big box, and i couldn't see it. so i don't even know if it was there that night.
the next night, i went to stu's for poker night, and i was debating whether to ride my bike there or not. it's only a five minute walk away, so i opted not. was my bike still there at that time? if i had rode it, would it not have been stolen? would i have returned it that night and locked it up properly?
like the night my snowboard was stolen - my snowboard that i had used only three time before - if i had only sent it for a wax, it would have been safe in the shop.
hindsight is definitely 20/20. this is undeniable.
this calls for some scotch.
hopefully it will calm my nerves so that i can go to sleep. it's 1 am now.
i'm also wondering what i am going to be for halloween. again, looking back, i should have brought with me some costumes, or have had them sent. if i can find a superman t-shirt, i'll be set again as clark-kent-turning-into-superman. i find it unlikely that i'll find a superman t-shirt here in daejeon. a friend was in seoul this weekend, i of course forgot to ask her to look for me.
otherwise, i may go drag. but then i have to find a girl my size who is willing to lend me a dress and shoes.
ack.
how ironic is it now that my bike has just been stolen?
i was just now walking to the store when i did a double-take as i passed by the spot where my brand-new shiny silver bike is usually waiting. not unlike the time i went to look for my snowboard which had been stolen.
though, i'm pretty sure it was my own fault. as i had mentioned i was locking my bike to a gas pipe, but in the last couple of days someone has kindly put a giant box where i usually park my bike. so i resorted to locking the thing to a drain pipe instead. but what i think i failed to realise is that i locked it not around the main vertical post of my bike, but to the seat post. so the lock was just slipped off and left for dead on the sidewalk.
i bought a bicycle today.
it's a 'girl's' bike. that is, it has a very low crossbar, a basket in the front, and a rack on the back. it was W140,000, including a crappy lock and a bungie cord. it's silver.
back home, the lock would be ineffectual. it has just a regular key, and is not solid like a u-lock, but flimsy cable.
however, in korea - in daejeon, at least - bike theft does not seem to be a lucrative job. people leave bikes lying around without locks; but this is not that common. most bikes are left standing, with just the flimsy cable lock around one tire, so as to prevent simply riding away on it. they are usually not tethered to anything stuck to the ground or a wall.
being my paranoid self, i have locked my bike to a gas pipe. of course, anyone with a pair of decent wire-snips could walk away with my or anyone else's bike.
i had only very briefly considered going into business as daejeon's first bike thief. there is an untapped resource of stealable bikes. the wells tend to spring up in apartment complexes, and outside schools and supermarkets. once i've found the market for cheap stolen bikes, i could also either steal them back again and make double profit, or make even more money by selling proper u-locks at outrageous prices to those who have already had their bikes stolen by me. though, i'm sure people would begin to catch on, that you could make so much money from very little work, like putting up a website that sells factory-direct poodle shampoo. everyone and their brother would open up a stolen-bike shop, and sell imported kryptonite locks. the market would get saturated and i'd have too much competition, and too many bikes. no one would buy bikes from me anymore. they wouldn't need to, because they would also realise that they can steal their own bike just as easily. just as easily as they can walk to the pet store and buy poodle shampoo. so like those people who actually made money off my.poodle-shampoo.com, i'd have to remember to pull out just at the right moment.
luckily, i have a sense of morality, and i couldn't bring myself to steal just one bike, even for myself.
but i bet it would have been fun.
in no uncertain terms, the man who came to the school that day was a gangster. we are not sure what kind of ties the director has.
we are mostly concerned about our safety. concerned about men like him. concerned also about the safety of our building. is it up to code? it is said that there are smoke alarms and sprinklers in every room. i've never actually checked.
anyway, these events have led me to consider what i never thought i'd consider: leaving.
there is a kind of visa, called an F-4 visa, that they give to people like me. gyopo. foreign national koreans. it would last me two years (over my current one), and would afford me many rights of korean citizens. such as teaching privately, owning a cellphone, a credit card, working wherever i want/can.
having this visa would give me a little more comfort, as i cuold then leave the school without having to leave the country (as i know, the school has sponsored my visa, so if i leave the school, they can cancel my visa).
to my readers:
i know some of you have requested some more grit spice conspiracy. what have you. i'm not sure that what follows any of those, but here it is.
9.11 will go down in world history, that is not a question. 10.4 will go down in not in world history, as things like what happened today probably happen every 30 minutes around the world, but it will go down in the history of this school. at least it should.
so there i am, in my korean lesson, and we hear some sort of announcement. but it was muffled because there is no intercom in the room we are in. first mistake. it was only in korean, so even if i had heard it, i probably wouldn't know what was said. second mistake. we ignore it and continue on. then someone sees us and says 'you've got to get out of here. now. go down the stairs and go outside.' i think it is a fire drill that they didn't warn us about. 'there's a man with a can of gas and a match.' a fire drill, of sorts.
i didn't really freak out that much. maybe because i was on the fourth floor, and no matter how fast a can of gas can explode, i didn't think it would have got me just then, and i was right beside the side stairwell. plus, i had to check if there were any kids in the bathroom or classes.
i go outside and find my co-teacher and my class that i don't teach on fridays. all the other kids are out too, and we go out onto the gravel parking lot. so as not to alarm the kids, some classes play some games. some go to 7-11 for treats. i do the latter with my class.
by this point, the man has been apprehended by the police. it is ascertained that he is the brother of the owner/director of the school. it is unclear what events followed. only that the man is not taken into custody by the police. third mistake?
a friend and colleague is fuming. the school seemingly did not press charges against the man. a man who would come to a children's school and threaten arson. he is currently at the police station doing his own investigation into what happened.
we entertain the kids until the school buses arrive, and then send them home. the other director plans to cancel the rest of the day's classes. she is somewhat overruled, as the 3:30 kids have now started to arrive, we can't go inside since we would all start puking from the fumes of petrol, and there aren't really that many buses to go around to take these kids back home. also, some of them probably can't even go home, as they're expected to be at school, and my be locked out. so we take an impromptu field trip to the art gallery's nice park-like front. i make mental note to visit the gallery proper one of these days.
when we get back, the 5:00 kids are arriving, the 3:30 kids go home, and the place is still a little stinky. we move all classes up to the top two floors where the fumes are less. in my opinion, it was still too stinky to run a class, but what can you do.
this just in: the police considered it a family matter. which is why he was not arrested. if the brother wants, he can press charges, otherwise the man is free to go. the man had petrol i think all over the floor, but did not have an open flame. the police say that when they had arrived, the man was smoking. in my opinion still dangerous. all agree that the man was pissed because his brother, the owner of the school, had stole money from him. the police assure that should the man try the same or similar stunt again, here or elsewhere, he will be arrested.
a small consolation for our lives, but oh well.
of course, i'm having a beer.
oh, and i'm coming home on the 8th - of june.
it was a holiday yesterday. national foundation day it's called. basically korea's birthday. i did absolutely nothing.
so today, which is friday, actually seems like monday. i should be looking forward to the day, but it's hard to shake the monday feeling off. pretty stupid, if you ask me. it should be an easy day.
i'm giving a test in the afternoon on things like 'i run, i ran, i am running'. i was pretty hard on the kids, but i think most of them get it now.
my preschool kids however, are learning about time. how to tell the time. some of them just don't get it yet. 'it's five o'clock. what time will it be in half an hour?' blank faces. then: 'six o'clock!' fred sighs.
and to top it off, i got two mosquito bites from who knows where. i left the house for maybe three hours in total, and was outdoors for about half that time.