Olympics, Payday and English

As everyone is well aware, the Olympics are currently being held in Beijing. To my advantage, I can watch them as they air and not have to be up at odd hours or TiVo them for later. This is a thrilling experience as I was able to watch the Opening Ceremonies live and without commercial interruption. The downfall is that I can't always watch Americans. I didn't see the famed 4x100m relay (and NBC won't let me watch online because I'm not in the US). However, what truly makes me happy is the way Koreans watch and cheer on their athletes, their country. The night Minho Choi won the gold in Judo my entire floor erupted in cheers. All of my students know exactly how many medals South Korea has won, 8 to date, the third highest. Last night as I was headed home, I saw the fruit vendor that sits outside of my building with his TV. He and about 15 others were huddled around the TV, in very hot and humid weather, watching the archers take on Italy. The chicken wing place in the bottom of my building has a big screen and I kid you not, at least 50 people were watching there. It paid off, Korea took the gold.

I got my very first teaching paycheck yesterday! It will be my smallest of all teaching checks, but the largest check I have ever received. It's kind of nice going to the bank to make a withdrawal and seeing 1,267,020 on your account slip. However this roughly translates to $1,270. I had $270 taken out for my hospital visit, $88 for taxes (yes, only $88), $56 for medical insurance (thank goodness or the hospital visit would have been about 3x what it was) and $99 for pension (which I get back when I leave Korea, it'll be about $1,000). All in all, its perfect. I can pay my bills (more like start paying off my bills) and still have money for living expenses. I have Friday off and I am thinking of going to Busan for the weekend, but I still need to get a train ticket and a place to stay, nothing like the last minute I suppose. I did go back to COEX yesterday so I could buy the Korea Lonely Planet travel guide. It was suggested I buy this before coming to Korea, but after looking at the online reviews from Amazon I chose a Frommer's guide instead. However, everyone I have talked to loves their Lonely Planet so I thought I'd jump on that wagon. The bookstore at COEX has a ton of Lonely Planets, my next purchase? Southeast Asia on a Shoestring.

For the last few weeks I have been meaning to post about the random things that happen while I'm walking to work or headed for the subway. Most of them (all of them) are encounters with English. A few weeks ago, as I was headed for the subway, a man came up to me and said, "hello, lovely day." I just siled at him because I didn't realize what he had said until a few seconds later. For the last week, on my way to school, I have seen a man walking the opposite direction of me. The first morning he said, "good morning." The second morning we had a conversation. He said, "good morning again." I replied, "good morning." "My name is Simon, what's yours?" "I'm Molly, nice to meet you." "You too," he replied. I saw him yesterday and we exchanged a simple "hello."