OK.  So there was that one day where I thought I lost my credit card, and I travelled all over Seoul trying to find it and it turned out it was in my back pocket.

Then, somewhere between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning I LOST THE TEACHER’S TEXTBOOK I borowed from my co-teacher to see what level of reading the children were at.  Yesterday, I retraced my steps pointing out Lost and Book from my phrase book to different places I had gone, and nothing.  As a result, I was late arriving to the area of the adoption protest I was going to join and went the wrong direction and by the time I got pointed in the right direction, there was only about a half hour of it left and I still had to walk twenty minutes towards it, so gave up.  Afterwards, I went to go pick up the phone I had reserved to borrow in another section of the city.  I and some other adoptees ate lunch with a Korean volunteer, and then we all got lost trying to find the subway station upon leaving the restaurant.  I was supposed to go back to the school, but by the time I got home school was closed for the day.  Sigh.

Yesterday, I met Art from Texas and he met me to go salsa dancing.  I downed a bottle of soju first and off we went.  (all by myself, since Art doesn’t drink, compliments of Art.  For some reasonI have always been able to down a lot without much backlash)  The club was small, the music pretty good – a mix of bachata, regular salsa, and Cuban salsa.  The dancers were all intermediate.  Not real or natural dancers, but also rock solid on what they knew and at least on the beat. It was nice that there were no competative world class dancers there.  All in all, a decent experience, but also not exciting enough to want to do more than once every couple of months.  Anyway, the subways stop at midnights, so Art had us stay at the house of a Philippino lady “friend.”  She bent over backward to be hospitable – probably the only hospitality I’ve received in Korea thus far.  Her friend and daughter said if they had downed a whole bottle of soju by themselves they wouldn’t be able to walk, much less dance.  It must be the Korean blood…Woke up as I always do, same time no matter what, and had to watch t.v. for about four hours until someone else got up.  It’s like being trapped on a boat – note to myself not to spend the night anywhere anymore, as this always happens – killing time at someone else’s place by yourself is such a drag.  It was then I realized I’d left my black long hoodie at the club.  God damn it – I am LOSING EVERYTHING.  I have suddenly become the most absent-minded, irresponsible person ever!

By the time Art got up and around, and he had shown me around Itaewon and taken me to coffee and pastry and shown me some tourist resources, helped me try and figure out my phone, etc., etc., etc., it was 2 pm.  (Art, btw, has been awesome – let me have a memory card for my phone, purchased the soju the night before,  the breakfast, and lend me money for a book)  But on the subway I of course fall asleep one stop before my home stop – and of course I miss my stop and have to double back.  The thing is, once you are outside of Seoul, if you double back the other direction, then you have to pay 900 won AGAIN.  The seats on the subway are heated, and the motion of the train is like a giant cradle, putting you to sleep.  I think from now on, as much as my feet hurt, I will get up and stand when I am near my stop.  It’s just stupid to pay twice for the subway like I did today.

So I called the salsa club called Gachi, and asked them to hold onto my jacket if they find it.  It’s 4:30 pm, and I have to turn around in about two hours to go get it, and then I have to come back again.  It’s about 45 minutes each way.  I’ve just wasted half my day on the subway.  Again.

Tomorrow – must write lesson plans.  The following day is D day.  Hope I don’t do something stupid like leave my brain at home.

At least the dryer works.  Takes about three hours to wash and dry one tiny load, though, so at some point soon I will purchase a drying rack anyway.