Bloggenstein (Mar. 4)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 8:37am
Well, today has been much better. For a variety of reasons. Let's begin with the first.

It's not square root day anymore, but let's talk about the root of all evil: MONEY. Today my money came in, and I got sufficient funds for a few days. It seems really complicated because it's sitting in a global account right now as dollars, but I need to get it transferred to my real account in won. By the way, the exchange rate is pretty darn good, and I want to time the transfer into won with the best possible gain.

To spice things up, let's counter the good news with some hilarity.

Today I was in my restroom, minding my own business when I accidentally hit a button I'm not suppose to.
Before I tell what happened, let me explain how the bathroom is laid out. Walking in, there is a sink in front of you, and directly next to the sink is the toilet, and on the wall next to the toilet is the shower fixture. My entire bathroom is the shower. There is a drain in the floor and the walls are waterproof. It's pretty neat, I think. How is this really super neat shower operated is what you're wondering I bet. Well that's simple. Right at elbow height is a metal button, and once you push that button, water comes out for a few second, so that you don't waste water.
On to the story. So I'm in the bathroom, lost in thought, when I accidentally lean against the shower. I didn't realize it though, so a very unfortunate series of events occurs in a matter of seconds, or, as dogs would call, minutes (I know that dogs would probably call seconds ruf-ruff or wow-bow-wow or something else, but it's a timeline joke so let's carry on). At first, I heard the shower kick on. However, like most things, there are some steps which can help explain human behavior when the action happens.
1. Denial- I heard the shower kick on, but in the milliseconds before I discovered the truth, I thought maybe the person in the next room was showering too.
2. Shock- All I felt in the world was coldness. Wet, moist, slippery, uncomfortable coldness. However, this soon gave rise to:
3. Anger- So once I figured out what happened, all I could do was scream something that probably sounded like I was coming to terms with an unexpected shower. The sound wasn't pretty.
4. Depression- I had all my stuff in my pockets, regular clothes on and no expectation of a shower so early in the day. It was the saddest moment of the day. Luckily, as soon as the water shut off, it all melted into:
5. Acceptance- Let's face it, when you are in the bathroom and accidentally get a nice cold shower in your street clothes, it's funny when it's all over. I couldn't change that I was wet and cold, so I just laughed and laughed and changed clothes.

So after all that, almost immediately actually, one of the guys who works in the international affairs office came by and told me that he had contacted a chinese girl about playing ping pong. Not only was she good, she was supposed to be the best on campus. Boy was I pumped. Only problem was that the ping pong room I knew of now had health fair stuff in it because they had a health fair going on there until the eleventh. However, (the guy's name is Hang) Hang knew that my dorm has a ping pong table in the basement. I was even more pumped, because the girl wanted to play at seven. It was six! I went and ate dinner and then it was ping pong time.
It made me feel pretty good that she wasn't much better than me. When I concentrated and performed like I should, I didn't lose many rallies. She was good though, I can't take that from her. Long story short, I had a great time playing my favorite sport for about three hours. Now I think I have a solid group of people who like to play too, and that's practically invaluable because I should be able to get much better by the time I leave.

For tomorrow's plan I think I will go and check out some second hand stores in Ha Yang, or in Daegu, wherever they may be.

Oh, before I forget:
I want to thank Kayla Baker for letting me borrow money from her while mine was in transit. It was a good 4 or 5 days so for her to take on my food costs (which is plenty) and my dictionary is truly a testament to her kindness and the caliber of person she is. Thanks Kayla, you helped make my trip happy thus far.

Until next time,

Aron Huckaba International Vagabond