This black Saturday was extra special in that I shared a few precious hours with a couple friends who helped direct me to a couple long awaited necessities: a Korean cell phone with charger and headset (used: 70,000 won), plus pay-as-you-go service (30,000 won), and two more plug adapters (4,000 each, 8,000 won). When Si and "Si's friend" left to go back to their mountain dwelling (I'm looking forward to visiting next weekend) I continued my spree. Next stop: The gym!
There's a gym right at the subway stop which happens to be a five minute walk from my building. It's called Jamaica Fitness and is located on the thirteenth floor (yep, it's actually "13" on the button!) of a multi-use commercial high-rise. I purchased a one year membership (the most economical at 390,000 won) in hopes that all works out, put there is a portion of that which is refundable if it doesn't.
My last stop was an electronics store where I picked up the three remaining appliances that should last me the rest of the year: a blender, an electric kettle, and a toaster-oven (for a combined cost of 100,000 won).
I feel a little more settled now, and considerably more secure. I'll be able to send my first check home home in a few days once I budget my monthly living expenses (I'm estimating 500,000 won should be plenty).
On Sunday I made a point to go venture to find a church that advertised on Facebook, which I assumed was English-speaking, and so I set an alarm and awoke at 9, 9:05, ok 9:15, got ready, and was out the door by 10. An hour and a half later I'm wandering around Suwon, a totally foreign neighborhood, if not a satellite city of Seoul (I'm still not sure where Seoul begins and ends), getting increasingly frustrated. When I realized how fruitless this endeavor was becoming, I decided that instead of wandering around getting frustrated looking for a church (if that's not counter-intuitive I'm not sure what else could be) I decided to find my way back to the bus and train and enjoy the hour-long ride back, and take blissful advantage of the recently purchased gym membership after a nice big meal.
Now if a meal was made to kill a man, it would be the one I made myself yesterday morning. l was given a pound of bacon my a newly-met "cousin" living here in Seoul about two weeks ago. I've been whittling it down since, but I still had a good portion left, seven pieces to be precise. Now the best ratio I can figure is two strips of bacon per egg. I know my eating habits so I played it safe (ha!) with three eggs to my seven strips. I cooked the bacon. I emptied the grease into the can I've been using and cooked the eggs in what was left in the pan. I topped it all off with a pan-seared sweet-muffin and ate like a king!
A few hours later it was time for the gym. I realize now that my problem has not been that air-drying my clothes has been causing them to stretch, not at all; I've shrunk. The first trip back to the gym after a year plus of abstaining from any rigorous workout is a humbling experience indeed. However, truth be told, I was just looking forward to the hurt today. Unfortunately, I don't think I was able to sustain enough work to illicit the desired lactic-acid build-up, and the resulting "that's-right-,-I-worked-out-yesterday hurt".
So at least I have a bit of a plan now: Teach, Work-out, wander aimlessly around Suwon until I find said [English-speaking?] Church, Eat and repeat. I should see most in eleven months (give or take) pretty much as you remember (priceless).
All my best to all!
- Foster
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