Ronnie Does Daegu

Before I get into describing my latest adventures, I just want to air something out to all of my readers. I feel that you need to fully understand the lengths I go to in order to ensure that you are guaranteed a good read when you check out my blog. You see, since I've started documenting my days here in Korea, I've been putting my liver and my safety on the line on a regular basis. I do this to ensure that you won't be disappointed when you read said entries. Every day I am going out of my way to meet new and interesting people and subject myself to situations where there is no guaranteed outcome. There I said it, if I come home with a bunch of new names in my little black book and a head full of memories of totally random episodes, well then I say it is on your heads!

So last night there was a typhoon warning in most of Korea including Daegu. So before I leave work my director tells me to go straight home and make sure I close all of my windows. Apparently, many people get injured during typhoons because they are standing right next to an open window. As it turns out, we got nothing more than a crap load of rain and the first real gusts of wind that I have experienced in Korea to date.

I woke up this morning to more crap loads of rain, but it didn't break my resolve to take a bus downtown and wander around aimlessly. Seeing as this is my last weekend in Daegu, I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass me by. So I trudged the 4 blocks to the place where I suspected a bus might take me downtown and got on a bus that I suspected would take me downtown. By golly it worked! About a half an hour later we came to a great big place with great big buildings. As I didn't actually know where I was going, I decided to get off when more than 3 Koreans got off at a stop. Good call Atcheson! When I got off with the 5 other Koreans, I was smack dad in the middle of an intersection the size of Churchill Square ( for those of you readers who don't live in Edmonton, it was freakin' big). On the upside, no more than 3 blocs away was a group of buildings that looked like they belonged in the year 2112 (good phot-op).

Since I had been where all the cool shops and bars are last weekend, I decided to walk in a direction that i suspected the area to be. 2 for 2ish! I found the area (which is probably 30 blocks by 20 blocks) and dedcided the best plan would just be to wander around and hopefully run into someone who spoke English to find out exactly where I was. Well, I actually found the Cinema I had seen last weekend and the big department store I had seen last weekend before I saw another non-Korean individual or individuals. Alright, so I now knew where I was but still noone who I could openly share the experience with. Then just as I was giving up hope, I scoped a white dude in a shoe shop. I believe my exact first words to him were "please tell me you speak English". Turns out dude's name was Kenneth and he was wandering around with a bunch of GIs stationed in Daegu for a 3 week course. I politely asked him if I could be their mascot for as long as they'd have me. He agreed and he introduced me to the rest of the crew. There were 3 other guys (Renee, John, and I don't remember the 3rd guy's name) and a girl named Andrea. We hung out for 2 or 3 hours together and I have to say it was just what the doctor ordered. As they left to go back to their camp we made plans to meet up 2 weekends from now for their last weekend in Daegu. It felt really great to just hang out with really cool people who understood the words that were coming out of my mouth.

On a side note, after they left me to go back to camp I got my first experience of some sort of anti-whitey feelings towards me. I really just wanted to sit down and have a beer after walking around all day, so I sauntered into a Beer Hof (sounds about right doesn't it). Well, I sat down and asked for a beer and pointed to a dish on the next table as I couldn't read the menu.About 10 minutes later and I still don't have my beer and some little troll who I assume was the manager does that whole kneel down garbage next to the table with all of his staff watching and mumbles some Korean to me. I tell him "Mula" which means I don't know and he gets all frustrated and says something to his staff and they laugh at me. Now I am not saying that all Koreans are rude, far from it, but I don't think I've ever been so pissed off in my life! I wanted to grab him by his litlle scrawny troll neck and drag him into the bathroom and give him a swirly (if you don't know what that is use your imagination). As it were, I just put my coat on and told him in plain English that I would never treat a foreigner that way and that I was disgusted with his behaviour. What do you know, it actually made me feel better! That's all I got to say about that.