Cinemas, beds and Aussie Day...

Just a short one today I think. This weekend was Aussie Day and also the birthday of Tim- our resident Aussie. So I think I told you all about the nightclub on Friday night. Saturday night was the night of the international-sliding-down-the-hall competition- an event which we are hoping will turn into an annual gathering in the near future. Have I told you about shoes in Korea? In as much as you don't wear them in the house- why not? Because the heating comes through the floor- very nice, no cold feet in the morning- which also means that there are no carpets. And since everyone is walking around in stockinged feet there is quite a lot of sliding. And Rebecca's house has a very long hallway- use your imagination as to what happened next. The Tipperary lad put up a brave fight from the Irish corner when he just fell flat on his face and the evening has abandoned all together as tim crashed into the cat's food bowl sending Kitekat flying everywhere for about the fiftieth time. We are planning a rematch for Paddy's Day though.
The next day was a day of many soju heads (local deadly beverage which I no longer indulge in after my first night out here- coward that I am!) and I went fish shopping with a couple of other teachers. That is goldfish shopping- yep, everyone wants a bit of goldfish action now that they have seen the joy that Fluff and Nip bring to my place. We settled Eric's new fish into their new tank and new Zen-style tree house (underwater though obviously, like the lost tree house of Atlantis) and then went off to the cinema. Now this is the third time that I have been to the movie theatre here and the third one that I have been to. And I am still intrigued about something- namely why the person stands behind a screen so that all you can see is their hand poking out of a small mouse hole at the bottom to collect the money. Maybe it is all part of the witness protection plan over here in Korea. So I asked my classes about this on Monday and they told me that it is only like that in Mokpo. I advanced my next theory which they agreed with- that only ugly people work at cinemas at Mokpo and it would put the average punter off the movie to see them! Could be the reason I guess. Anyway, we all enjoyed Monsters Inc and celebrated by Eric buying another fish on the way home.

I can't write much today because I am tired. And I will share with you why this is- I was reading a good book last night that i just couldn’t put down. Finally I finished it and got up to switch the light off and the bed collapsed underneath me! I heard a BANG and then the mattress disappeared into the base of the bed. I couldn't leave it like that (though would have done had the drawers under it not made the whole thing a little lopsided) so heaved the heavy mattress up and out of the bed and propped it up against the table trying my best not to knock the fish tank over. Now I could see what had happened- several (not just one) of the screws had come out and the frame was on the verge of collapsing. So I dashed over to the drawer and got out my wonderful sanity keeping Swiss army knife and screwed the whole thing back together again. it took about another five minutes to balance the mattress back where it was supposed to be and ten I climbed gingerly in and didn't move again for the rest of the night. Traditional Korean beds are heaps of blankets on the floor but a lot of people now sleep in western style beds. But they don't have any sheets, pillowcases or duvets covers anywhere- which makes every night feel like a wash night where I can't be bothered to put the sheets on- very odd!

So, short by my standards and I bid you farewell as I have to get back to class soon!