Mid Life Crisis

Hello all!

This week I went to Costco for the first time EVER! To be honest, it wasn't as good as I expected. It was a nightmare, actually. There were people everywhere, and they didn't care if they ran into you or not. To make it worse, the carts were huge. So everyone was just running into everyones carts and just kept on movin. I went with Tyler, and it took us a good half hour to figure out how to get to the other levels of the store. There are only two. The main level is like electronics and cookware and lamps.. home stuff. Then the basement is all the food. I bought a gigantic 3 pound bag of whole coffee beans, but couldn't find a grinder, so I had to order one. After we checked out we ate lunch at their little cafe thing. I had a calzone and hotdog, and boy was it good. 

Here are my spoils!

One of the days this week me, ben, and the big Korean man who works at the front desk of our building were on the roof getting some "fresh air" before work. The Korean guy barely speaks any English, but his personality hints that he's pretty cool. There was a bee lurking around and Ben got all jittery (he claims hes allergic). Anyway, the bee landed on my wrist and started crawling around on my bracelet. I was just watching it do its thing when all of a sudden the front desk guy casually walks over and flicks the bee with a god-like force. The bee made a bee line (hahaha) straight into the bench and made a noise that a bee shouldn't make when it hits something. The bee just fell over and was barely crawling around. We all just busted out laughing so hard! It was a great one of those language barriers being breached. We all understood the moment and the comedy in it, but we didn't say anything to each other. 

On the same day I was doing an exercise with my students about the "Water Crisis", which is just that our water consumption isn't sustainable (did you know it takes 1,500 gallons of water to make 1 pound of beef?). One of my students who sits in the back and rarely speaks said "I think an invisible water system (basically our system of water usage where we don't see how the water gets to our faucets) is bad because people don't realize the effort and money to sustain such a system. I was awestruck. I just dropped my jaw and started clapping, I didn't know what else to do. I thought she didn't know much English because she didn't really talk much in my class. I was all hyped up on her until the next day I did the same lesson with the same Korean teacher and a student said the same exact thing verbatim. Which leads me to believe that neither of them understood the complexity of that sentence, but I was still very impressed. 

I've started walking to work recently because of the beautiful fall scenes. Here are some pics:

These few pics of the little creek are a creek by where I live which, if you walk along it, conveniently leads me to work.

This is a street behind my school. Those are all gingko trees. They are everywhere here!

These neat little paths are all over the creek. They are big rocks but spaced out so you can walk across the creek.

Joon is leaving us :( but he's remaining in Seoul. He just needed a change of scenery. Here are some pics of the night he took us out:

Alan, Tyler, and Cathy (she works in Bundang)

Nancy and Mark. Joon was out on a phone call and Ben was sitting behind me.

This is a number marking where this guy parked on the street. I always pass it on my way from Gold Bar to the lamb place. This time I finally pulled out my camera and snapped a photo.

The other night me Tyler and American Emily made a late night impromptu visit to the creek I was telling you about earlier to chill out and enjoy some brews.

Today my coffee grinder came in the mail to school, and they gave me a little bag of coffee! I love it, but its made of wood that was just freshly cut, so I think I'll take my coffee with a some wood chips.

AND FOR THE BIG FINALE! 

I bet you were wondering why the title of the blog is mid life crisis if there wasn't any crisis. Or, if you weren't thinking this.. shame on you. 

So Friday's are my day off. And it just so happened that Joon's last day was Thursday. We met up in the afternoon for some beers. Heres how the conversation went:

Joon: "What do you want to do today"

Me: "I dunno. Anything but Gold Bar"

Joon: "I don't want to drink the day away"

Me: "Yeah, me neither"

Joon: "Haircut?"

Me: "Yeah, I suppose"

And so it begun. We were two young men on a mission from then on. We finished our beers and headed to Itaewon. We didn't find a place to get my hair cut, but we did find a place that served excellent Bloody Mary's (which is arguably better than finding a haircut place, I was nervous all day). We also stopped at Taco Bell, and I finally got eat some. I was so stoked! I talked about it forever and the moment finally came. The Taco Bell here is actually better than home! The taco shells are definitely more homemade than the taco shells at home. Here is our feast:

I swear I could have eaten at least 17 of these tacos, but I only had 2. 

And so we went back to Sinchon (conveniently where Gold Bar is) and went to a haircut place. Now, I haven't cut my hair in about 2 years, and before that I only had really really short hair, so I had no idea what style to get. Me and Joon leafed through some catalog books and I settled somewhere between the picture of George Clooney and some Asian guy. Here's the before pic! Attractive, wasn't I???

So, before they cut your hair they wash it, like at home. However, after they cut your hair, they wash it again! To get all the cut pieces out. And then they style it. It's great. Joon was translating for me the whole time. The girl gripped all my hair in one hand and in one fell swoop cut it all off! I was miserable. She then showed me the locks and walked off with them (probably to sell it for a wig at a good price, this hair was golden). She then said in Korean to Joon "He has no hair" I was like WHAT!!! AM I BALDING!!! But I guess (hope) she meant that my hair was really thin, because Korean hair is so thick.  Luckily, they have computers there. And luckily, Joon was documenting the whole thing and posting it to my facebook wall, to be harassed by millions. Towards the end, Joon asked the girl what she thought of my new look, to which she replied "He went from Jesus to a movie star". God bless her. 

Now that I got it cut, when I walk into one of my classrooms all my students go "WHOOA! OH MY GOD!" and I just say it back to them. Then they have the audacity to say "teacher, much better" I'm like what, it wasn't attractive before? I was teaching one class on Saturday with the door open and one of my teachers walked past the room and just casually glanced in. She kept going. She then back peddled into the door and just stared at me. I was like Hello Kyung Un teacher. She just put two thumbs up and kept movin. 

And now the time has come.... the finished product! Any casting calls?