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I bought a bicycle! It's certainly nothing special, it cost about $65 used, but it's a bicycle. I've ridden it around a little bit and it makes it much more convenient to travel to the 24-hour place up the street to eat. I found a halfpipe and I played around on it a little bit. I had never ridden a bike on a halfpipe and it was pretty scary. I didn't even ride to the top, which was no more than 5 feet, but I did start to get a feel for how to do it. I may keep playing around on it, I don't know.

The other exciting thing to note is that I organized a teacher get-together last night. 9 of us went out to dinner after work. More would have come but they had phone calls to make before the end of the month, which is rapidly approaching. I plan to make it a weekly thing. At first we went to a Korean barbecue place and had soju (the Korean rice liquor stuff). One or two left at this point, but we did play a lot of drinking games until the place closed down. Then we went to a karaoke place for an hour, where we drank more soju. Then we went to our favorite bar, which was closed, and then on to a seafood place that was still open, where we drank more soju. By 4am there was just 5 of us left, and we all went home in varying states of disrepair.

I figured the first few get-togethers would just be a time to dump on our bosses and vent some frustration that we otherwise can't because the office atmosphere is one that dissuades one from conversation and friendship, and that's exactly what this one was. One of the girls is quitting whenever they train her replacement, and she had some fun stories. It's really a shame because she's a good person and she enjoys the kids, and without smearing anyone on my blog, I will say there are irreconcilable differences and bridges have been burned. It was great for everyone involved to begin to feel a kindred for their fellow-workers, and I hope these weekly forays into the local bars continues for a long time (though in truth I could do without the karaoke).

I am still half-heartedly saving for an iPod, but I'm hoping for some bday money to get me to my goal (hint hint, mom). I've been without one for almost two months and want to convince myself that I don't want it (which is true), but I definitely want it enough to still justify the purchase of it. It seems like half the use my laptop sees is just as a music player, which is quite a waste of resources and electricity.

Due to John's inspiration in China, I've decided to take up a martial art. Taekwondo is the national sport, but the form I've wanted to learn for a long time is aikido. Unfortunately it's not popular enough to have a presence in the smaller town I live in, but maybe hopkido is close by. If nothing else I will just fall back on taekwondo because I do just want to do it more for the exercise. A potential hurdle I've been made aware of is my schedule. I am free in the mornings on the weekdays, when most others aren't and therefore many things are closed. I could do it only on the weekends, but that's not what I want because it wouldn't be a sustained, continual workout.

The weather is becoming chilly at night. Tonight's low is 14C, or high 50s for you people. The days rarely get further up the scale than the low-to-mid 70s, and the humidity is almost non-existent (at least to a sub-tropical native such as myself). It's quite interesting to see the seasons change in such a dramatic fashion, since I've haven't seen anything like it in 10 years. I look forward to the quickly-approaching winter. I hope to get some hiking in before the temperature gets too cold.

Chuseok is on October 3rd. Briefly, Chuseok is like Thanksgiving. It's a three-day festival, so it if happens to fall on a Tuesday or Thursday then a 5-day weekend results. However, this year, it falls on a Saturday, which means I get 1 day off. I don't want to complain, but can't Korea get its act together and make sure these holidays always fall on a weekday, like America does? This is year is the worst in recent memory for holidays falling on weekends. In the 6 months I've been here I've had 1 holiday off, and took 1 day of vacation off. I've worked most Saturdays and many Sundays. The next holiday isn't until Xmas and New Year's, and the one after that is March 1st, which may or may not be an important holiday, and anyway is the last day of my contract. With all the holidays added up, in the 365 days from March 1st, 2009-March 1st-2010, there will have been only 4 holidays that affect weekday workers. But at least I got a job.