It doesn't snow very often in
Korea.
Haiku inspired by the sight of kids sliding down a hill as I walked to work this morning:
three inches of snow
small hill, a piece of cardboard
this is happiness
Okay, so it's not very good. Dammit, Jim, I'm an English teacher, not a poet.
I had an interesting night last night. A few of my fellow teachers and I have agreed to have weekly "pocket ball" (what Koreans call pool) nights every Wednesday. I was on fire, won four games in a row, before finally losing, and even that one was very close. Ron, the older guy, went home, and Dave and I went to Elvis, our favorite bar.
This asshole from Gwangyang was there. I don't know his name. An engineer, working at a steel mill there. Total bigot. Canadian, I'm ashamed to say. I've seen him there before. Always move to the other end of the bar when he comes in, so I don't have to listen to him loudly talking shit about Korea and Korean people, and sexually harrassing the bartenders, who happen to be friends of mine. Since he found out that I'm Canadian too, he always tries to talk to me, but I give him the cold shoulder. Found out today that this apparently makes him want to kick my ass. Or so he said to Sam, who happens to also be a friend of mine. I'd like to see him try, with 203 centimeters (6'9") of Dave sitting beside me to tear him limb from limb. When you're not particularly buff yourself, it's nice to have big friends.
A bunch of the Korean teachers from my school were also there, including the new one, Mi Hi. Talking to them, I revealed that I now have a girlfriend. Mi Hi seemed disappointed. As if to confirm the suspicion that her reaction raised, she stayed behind to talk to me alone after the others left. Although she didn't admit it outright, some things she said revealed fairly clearly that she's had a crush on me since coming to the school. Why is it that I couldn't find a single girl interested in me for my first year in Korea, and now that I have a girlfriend, they're crawling out of the woodwork?
Checking my cell phone, some girl called Hye Jung called me around 2 PM today. I've got her in my phone directory, but I have no idea who she is. A year and a half in Korea, and their names (Eun Jung, So Jung, Hye Jung, Su Kyung, Sun Young, Eun Kyung, Mi Young, etc...) still give me trouble. I think that might be the name of the new girl at Elvis, but I'm not sure. I don't know why she'd be calling me, anyway, and I don't know when I put her number in my phone. Must have exchanged phone numbers one night when I was drunk.
I'm going to Muju Mountain with Eun Jung on Saturday. I have to ask her if she wants to come back Saturday night, or stay until Sunday. I hope she opts for the latter, since it means we'll get a room together at a yagwon (motel). No, I'm not planning on getting laid. She's a Korean girl, (seemingly) innocent... and I don't like to have sex this early in a relationship anyway. But we always go out with other people. There's only been one time I've had a chance to be alone with her in a private place, and that was before we became a couple.