Poker

Had our poker final last night. I went into the game in third place and finished off the night in fourth, which won me $100. We pay $100 at the beginning of the tournament so really I just got my money back...but whatever, at least I made it into the money position.

Unfortunately the final table night also fell on the eve of open class, where the parents come in and watch a kindergarten class. I managed to get out of JRock around 3, but then was woken up by the winners around 6:30 this morning. In comparison to my three or so hours of sleep, Joe, the winner of the table, managed to get in a 25 minute power nap before heading to Poly this morning for open class. Both of us must have been on poker adrenaline because we both managed to make it through the day, and I think my open class went fairly well. I think I might like the mothers better than the students :0

We have another poker tournament on Saturday which is an all day thing and it's usually a pretty fun day, and at least I have my winnings from last night to cover my entry, and then some. If it sounds like all I'm doing lately is gambling, that's because it is. Somebody might need to schedule an intervention for when I get home, but try and do it AFTER the family trip to Vegas.

Next weekend is another 3 day weekend, and I'm not too sure what is happening for it yet but I'm sure we'll be getting out of Daejeon for it. I should go to Busan and visit Tom because he's been to Daejeon a lot since he's been back and I've yet to go, but we'll see. He and I might go to China for the July vacation and visit Richard, who's teaching there now, as it will probably be the last time the three of us will ever have the opportunity to hang out together. Who knows though, between the earthquake and the Olympics I might rather spend my time on a hot beach in Malaysia or something.

Anyhow not much else to say, hope everyone is doing well!

Double 00's

What a weekend! At the coaxing of yours truly there was a group of about 8 of us that went up to the casino on Saturday. Andrew, Mikey, and I went up early to do some shopping before going to the casino. Andrew had gotten a bracelet from Tiffany's, as a gift, that he wanted to exchange and there's only one in Korea so we hit up the swanky department store in hopes of exchanging it for something fantastic. Unfortunately it had been purchased in Japan and it couldn't be exchanged. Now I'd never been in a Tiffany's before that and it's never been anything that has struck me as anything to get excited about, but WOW, the jewelry was amazing, and I'd be lying if I didn't say I tried to get Mikey to propose to me right then and there. I think I actually amazed the two of them cause it's probably the girliest I'd ever acted around them.

After that we set about to do some shopping but it wasn't much fun cause I wanted to look at clothes and I didn't want to do it with the two of them waiting around on me. So at about 3:30 we agreed it was time to go to the casino. I went straight to the roulette table and started playing number 9, the number that drove me crazy the last time that I was there. Finally it hit which let me get off my obsession for it, but I'd spent so much time playing that it pretty much just evened me out again. For awhile I was up a few hundred dollars but as the night went on I went up and down and up and down. A few hours later Ron, Tony, and Daniel showed up and we continued to play roulette and take advantage of the free drinks. The casino also serves free food so we went and replenished on some dim sum and club sandwiches.

Before we knew it, it was around 9 o'clock in the morning and we were all broke and exhausted. We headed back to the train station and passed out on the train. Fortunately Andrew and Tony woke up in time for our stop otherwise we would have been in Busan when we woke up. It was close to noon by the time I got to sleep, and other than waking up for a couple of hours to shower and eat I slept the day and night away.

Teacher's Day!

So today was Teacher's Day, and ever since I arrived at Poly people have been talking up this day saying how much the parents spoil us. The haul was alright, I suppose, it's crazy to think what some parents will spend on us, especially when they are already paying hundreds of dollars to the school each month. A few people got hundred dollar gift certificates, and that would have been nice but I wasn't one of the lucky ones. I got a lot of tea, some chocolates, Clinique and Hera make-up, vitamins, flowers and a 14k gold anklet. The anklet's nice, but in typical Diana fashion, I will be returning it tomorrow for something I actually like...hopefully cash :)

This weekend we are escaping Daejeon once again and heading up to the casino in Seoul. I can't wait, the only thing I really want to play is roulette. The poker tables seem like they might stress me out a bit, (even if I'm in first place in the poker league right now!), and I may try out blackjack for awhile, but roulette is still the most fun.

Other than that not too much is new around here. I bought myself a new pair of rollerblades last week and I've been out a few times on them. There is a great trail just down from my apartment, but the bugs have started to get bad here and they are 100 times worse down by the river. Also, the trail is paved with astro turf so it's like blading through mud, which I suppose is giving me a great workout. Gonna try and go in the mornings and see if that can help with the bugs a little bit. With Heidi gone now, I'm not so motivated to go to the gym before work but being outside is a little appealing right now before it gets too humid.

Three Day Weekend!

Just finished off another long weekend and it was packed full of fun and games.

Friday night was Heidi's last night in Korea so we finished work and then headed over to Andrew's place for some food and drinks. Her original plan was to come out to the bar with us and then go home and grab her stuff around 4 am, but in the end she opted to say good-bye to us all at Andrew's and she headed off around one. It was a sad good-bye for all of us but I'll have a chance to catch up with her one day back in Canada I'm sure. After that we headed out to the bar and danced the rest of the night away. Ron's friend Daniel had just arrived for a visit from New Zealand so everyone was in full party mood.

On Saturday a few of us headed out on a short motorcycle ride and grabbed some lunch at a little place outside of Daejeon. I headed back to my place to grab a shower and a change of clothes and then headed back out to celebrate Chris's birthday. Spent most of the night drinking and playing cards at Chris and Ron's and then finally headed out to JRock for a few hours at the end of the night. Walked home as the sun was coming up for the second night in a row.

Chris had planned a motorbike excursion for his birthday as well, so on Sunday we all geared up and headed out of Daejeon to a REALLY rural area for some camping. Being that we had been up all night we didn't actually make it out of Daejeon until close to 5, so by the time we arrived and got settled it was time to eat some dinner and start back into the drinks around a bonfire.

This morning we got up and went to an ATV place for some four-wheeling and paint balling. I think that was the first time I had been on an ATV since flipping one back when I was twelve and I was a little weary at first but after a few minutes I felt fairly confident that I wasn't going to end up with a four wheeler on top of me. After ATVing we played some paint ball for an hour or so and then it was time to head back to Daejeon, which was good because I was still wearing my outfit from Saturday night and I was extremely dirty from the camping, atv dust, paint ball, and just not showering in general. I think showering might have been the highlight of my day today despite all the other fun things.

Now it's nine at night and I've got to gear up for another week at work, but it should be pretty good because there are two days of level tests, which means I get to sit around playing on my computer while the kids write their tests, and then Thursday is Teacher's Day, and apparently the parents at our school make a pretty big deal about it.

Alright outta things to say for now, hope everyone had a good weekend and a HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

Parting of the Seas

I've been back from the weekend for a whole ten minutes and I'm already posting...this deserves a round of applause.

Had a fantastic weekend, it actually feels like I've been gone for five days as opposed to three; which is a change from how the weekends usually fly by.

We headed outta Daejeon on Friday night in a group of twelve and managed to annoy and be repeatedly shushed by the stewards of the KTX train. Arrived in Mokpo close to one am, found a hotel, dropped all our stuff and headed out for some noraebang.

Saturday we went to the ferry terminal and got some information about where we should head for a nice beach, to enjoy the 3o degree weather. We boarded a ferry and headed towards an island that had a promising looking water amusement park. After an hour on the ferry we arrived at a very basic looking island. Upon exploring the island we discovered that the water park was lacking water and not opened for the season yet. The rest of the island was as good as deserted. We debated catching the last ferry out and heading back to Mokpo, but ended up getting two rooms at a small homestay and figured it would do for the night, being that we had an entire beach to ourselves and it was the perfect night for a bonfire. Ended up having a beachside game of poker with seashells for our chips and played until it was too dark to see the cards. Two of the restaurants that we had been considering were closed because it was after eight o'clock so we were left with the decision of extremely fatty pork bbq, or fish stew. A group of us opted for the fish stew and had a pretty decent meal. We bought the restaurant out of their entire beer supply and most of their soju and headed back down to the beach. Stayed up until about one, which was when the tide came in and put an end to our fire.

Sunday it did nothing but pour rain. So Heidi, Heather, and Chandrie headed back to Daejeon, and the rest of us decided to make our way to Jindo for some sea parting action. By the time we took an hour long cab ride to Jindo it was freezing cold, with thunder rumbling in the background. We decided to grab some food and wait the weather out. Just as we got to one of the food tents, a lady was grilling up an amazing looking chicken stir fry of sorts, called Dukbal, and Andrew, Ron and I decided that that was what we were having. When it arrived at our table we eagerly started eating because we were starving. In my opinion the chicken looked kind of fatty and there seemed to be lots of skin on it, which is often the way in Korea. All three of us were a little questionable about it because it wasn't tasting too much like chicken. Then Ron remembered that 'bal' in Korean means feet. We were eating chicken feet. Yes, there are pictures. The second dish we were eating was just as questionable and I'm willing to bet my life on the fact that it wasn't chicken, but I'm not sure I want to know what else it might have been; as I've never eaten crunchy meat before. As you can imagine, there were a lot of leftovers on the two plates.

After our so-called meal, we braved the rain outside and could see the sea beginning to part but decided it was far too cold and we would return the next day. Took a taxi into the city of Jindo and found another hotel to crash in for the night. By this time it was down to Jeremy, Ron, Christine and I, but others who had been travelling on their motorcycles called to say they were coming in to meet us. They arrived around 7, we went out, ate some dinner, and then we sat around and had few drinks til the early morning.

Today the weather was beautiful again and we headed back to the Parting of the Seas, but we had to catch our train back to Daejeon so we couldn't stay late enough for the tide, but it was a beautiful day for walking around and I've got a nice sunburn from the wind today which will hopefully brown up tomorrow.

So even though we didn't really experience what we went to see it was a great time, lots of friends, drinking, and beaches, and lots of pictures, which I will put up shortly.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!