A Non-Existant Drinking Problem

Man I really have a drinking problem. It's been close to ten days since the last time I consumed alcohol. In this country where alcoholism does not exist (since everyone is one) ten days without booze constitutes a drinking problem.
Anyhow now that I've remedied the situation (aka beer currently in hand), let's get down to business. I went to the bank to pay some bills today and came to the realization that some people should never under any circumstances be allowed to touch anything more technologically advanced than a toaster. To start off with in Korea there are not (to my knowledge) personal checks, therefore when it comes to paying bills there are two (to my knowledge) options. You can go to a post office or you can go to a bank and pay the bill. In Bongcheon since I lived a minute away from the post office I paid my bills there. I'd hand the lady the bill and the appropriate amount of money, and in theory the bill was paid. In Shinchon or Yeonhui-dong or wherever the crap I technically live it is easier to go to the bank to pay. So today I head out to the bank to pay the bills. Darrell had done this previously and told me that it was an automated process and all I had to do was put the bill in some machine and swipe my bank card. Sounded easy enough. He said that if I couldn't figure it to just stand there looking confused and some bank clerk would come and assist me (I guess that's what he did). So I get to the bank and there's some 아주마 (ajuma / middle aged woman) in front of me. She's trying all sort of crap to make this machine take her bills and or money. 10 minutes pass. She turns to me and asks me in Korean if I know how to use it (I actually understood her). I told her no I didn't, because I usually went to the post office. She sighs, tries some more crap and gives up. I'm a little nervous now. I get to the machine, and unlike the ATMs there is no English option. I push the button that translates roughly to pay bill. It asks me to insert my bank card. I do so. It asks for my bills. I insert them. It asks me to verify the ammount. Good to go. I hit accept. Bills paid. Ok so with my limited knowledge of Korean language I figured this machine out in all but a minute. It took the machine longer to process the transaction then it took for me to figure out what to do. However, the lady before me could not for the life of her figure out what to do, and she could read everything presented to her in the menus, unlike me who could kind of understand a couple of the choices so I picked the one that was closest to what I wanted to do. Like I said some people should not be allowed near technology.
Tomorrow I'm going to see Dream Theater with Darrell, so that should be decent. I'm not a huge Dream Theater fan like Darrell (he's got like 2,300 minutes of Dream Theater tunes on his computer), but it should be rocking to see a real rock show again, since the last one I went to was Cherry Filter in November.

Anyhow here's an assload of random photos I've taken.


Don't mind if I do!


The hat says it all.
Zack you might be #1, but I'm Champion bitch!


This is a bus. It looks like every city bus in the world right? I'm sure you've heard the expression never judge a book by it's cover. That holds true with this bus (and all other buses in this country).
Everyday I take one of these to work. I throw my 900 won in the coin box, grab a seat and pray to whatever higher power a person who doesn't pray prays to that I'll make it to Goyang-dong in one piece.
Korean bus drivers have this attitude like they are kings of the road. They scoff at traffic laws, cut off other vehicles (including cement mixers [it happened today]), drive at obscene speeds, stop radiply or not at all at traffic lights, honk at people who get in their way (even if those people have the right of way), and in general drive a (insert large number here) ton bus like it's a friggin' sports car.


One day these sprouted up along the side of the road my bus takes to get me out of the country back to Seoul. I have no idea why they are now here, but they go on for about a kilometer or so. I snapped this picture from the inside of a bus during the 3 second period the bus was stopped while people were getting off.


This is the main street of Goyang-shi (Goyang City). Man it doesn't get any more metropolitian than this. Check out the friggin' one story buildings. What the crap are they trying to pull up in this piece? Behind the trees houses the building where my school is located.


So there's this big ass can of corn on a shelf in the teacher's office at work. Today was the end of the semester so the kids got to spend this funny money the earn for good behavior on crappy prizes. Jokingly I suggest the big ass can of corn as one of the more expensive prizes, adding, "I know I'd pay 30 funny money for this!" My boss then was like, "You can take it if you want." Holy crap! I now own 3kg of corn which in the English system of measurement is like a lot of corn. Unfourtunately I have no can opener...안돼!!!


So I brought a belt with me when I came to Korea. Over the course of a few months, I lost mad weight and had to punch more holes in this belt. Over time, the holes I had punched had become too much for the belt, and the leather began to crack. I taped it up and it continued to serve me for the remainder of the week. I purchased a new belt to replace the "tape belt," and that belt lasted me a couple months, until the buckle randomly burst asunder from the rest of the belt. It being the middle of the week, and me being too busy/lazy to buy a new belt, "tape belt" was again pressed into service, only this time proved too much for old "tape belt" to bear. The cracks began to tear apart as the belt pin was forced through the last hole I had punched. After finally purchasing another belt. I laid "Tape Belt" to rest. Here I am preparing for the service. Though I was suppose to be upset in the picture I look like I'm about to laugh (which I probably was).