the end has arrived
I'm done! After two years at that job, I'm finally done. Not that it was that bad, but I'm glad to move on to something new. I've got Monday and Tuesday off and I start on Wednesday.
In other news, my car's battery died. I left the lights on. All day. For the second time.
It's an old car, and I am in Korea, so the lights are not automatic. Here begins a rant about Koreans: Car headlights do not turn on automatically. Even better, some people actually drive around with their lights off at night. I find it truly baffling that someone would think it was a good idea to drive at night with no lights on, as if the sole purpose of headlights was to see in front of your car, if so, then only somewhat understandable since there are streetlights in many places but not everywhere. Also, there's some strange sort of etiquette that some people follow which dictates that if you are stopped at a traffic signal, then you turn your lights off, only turning them back on when you start to move. This doesn't bother me, since they are at least putting their lights on, but it makes me wonder why. I can think of ony one reason why one would do this, and this is that one's car's headlights are misaligned and are pointing more towards the horizontal than it should be. Considering the lack of importance considering their headlights, it doesn't surprise me that headlights are simply installed improperly. Last bit: on dark, rainy days, about 2% of cars have their headlights on. Driving like this scares me sometimes.
On a brighter note, something happened today that shows me the other side of Koreans that I love. I mentioned my car's lights were on all day. I arrived at work about 9:30 am. There is another English school across the street from where I parked. The school bus drivers had noticed, since the morning, that I'd left my car lights on. Many people put their phone number in the car window (This is because as well as not turing on their lights, Koreans are horrendous parkers. They park anywhere and everywhere and especially where another car is completely blocked in and the phone number is there so that you can call someone to move their car...), but I don't so the nice bus driver couldn't call me to tell me that I'd left my lights on. All day the nice bus drivers think about this and wonder why I had my lights on, especially since it was the morning. Who in their right mind would turn on their lights during the day? Well you see, when I come out of my parking garage, my lights are on because the garage is a little dark. I forgot to turn them off when I left the car. Anyway, around 5:15 in the afternoon I go to my car to load some things. Strange, the power locks don't work. Anyway. Then it occurs to me. Power locks don't work 'cos there's no power. So I look and sure enough, the headlight switch is on. I curse. I go back inside to ask a friend if she has her car and can she give me a boost. As I return to the car, one of the nice bus drivers comes by and tells me he would've called me to tell me my lights were on if only I'd had my number in the window. I know, I know, I say. Soon all the bus drivers start milling around me and my friend and our cars. I pop open the hoods and have got my jumper cables ready. Suddenly all of the bus drivers are doing everything for me. They're all arguing about how to do it properly, they've got red going to black, and nothing grounded, and sparks fly, and smoke billows, and strange burning smells diffuse. I sat back and watched, saying only once that one end should be grounded... The car starts. They pull of the cables, I say thanks, and they're off to drive little Korean kids home. I thank my friend and sit in my car for a few minutes listening to the Kill Bill Vol. 1 soundtrack on my iPod hooked up to the car stereo while the battery recharges.