Turns out i saved myself a lot of money by not buying a bike yesterday- the family took me to a place they always go to and spend lots of money - and i am talking >> the father and son each have a bike worth over a million won. Mine was cheap - 100,000 won ;) so around 50/60 quid - and they threw in a light and a bike lock free. i had to buy an expensive ass light for 30,000 won, but it's good quality so yeah >> the helmet proved too expensive - the cheapest was around 50,000 won, but it turns out little lee - whose name, amusingly enough, is Kang[somethingthatihaven'tworkedoutyet] - had a helmet he doesn't use anymore 'cause he has a flashy new one worth more than my monthly salary, so I'm happy enough with his old one yo. It does the job.

They showed up around 4pm (!) so despite me getting to bed at around 6am [cause I was in the pc bang all night XD!] and hiking myself up at 8:30 in case they came early, I hung around in the apartment all day first and did interesting things like handwashing laundry [cheaper than a laundromat yo] ghetto style in the kitchen sink using dove shower cream 'cause I haven't bought proper stuff yet. As I said before: it does the job ;) - and moisturises the clothes to keep them wrinkle free. Apparently. And study, and clean my floors - you get the idea. I had no food in the house, still, from friday, barring dry noodles and equally dry cereal, so I grabbed a handful of said cereal to sustain me through the second day running, not wanting to go out in case they showed up.

After buying the bike, the family showed me the way from home to school [and inadvertantly lottemart and really any big shops i want 'cause they're on the same route, yay!] yesterday, and I took to riding the bike much more easily than I thought - after 6 years of no hard exercise and no bike riding at all i thought i'd be way out of shape... but I'm so not,yo. That was a really good realisation about myself, too! Feel good factor for a sunday. In fact I was in such a good mood that when they invited me out for a drink after, I said okay! - as it was now 6:30pm and none of 'em had irritated me a single time!! i thought I'd reward them ;) - and went along with Mr Lee, Mr Park [i think that's his name] and we picked up Mr Gon [blackmac!] and his son* [whose name eluded me. again.] and went off to a chicken joint where we had this gorgeous sesame type chicken that was just yum and this bbq chicken that was yummy but OMG SPICY and they ordered THREE PLATES of this last thing 'cause Mr Park went off home to get changed, came back and ordered another bbq plate, then mrs lee showed up and they ordered another bbq plate... not to mention the salad bowls and snacks we all got through XD;

We had an on the spot type pop quiz sorta while we were there, with Mr Gon pointing at the tv screen and saying whozat whozat to his son. The people involved were: shinhwa [I couldn't name more than one of 'em 'cause I'm really not that fond of shinhwa >> but i know who they are as a group], Sim Eun Jin and Hyori all showed their faces, along with a few people i know from other programs but don't know the names to. I'll find 'em out eventually, no doubt. I understood a bit and half the time beat the kid to an answer - which earned me o.o respect from him. he's too shy to actually talk to me at the moment - likewise, actually [god i smell the bread shop baking :9999], but maybe in the future. we'll probably end up seeing each other relatively regularly, after all.

Mr Gon's son had control of the eating place's remote, and he shoved it onto SBS...a kingka queenka style game show [anyone whose ever seen any of these shows knows they're utterly hilarious] and who did I see on my screen? Micky and Yunho from DBSG ;) Guess they're old enough to do that shit now - and it was HILARIOUS. Random aside for the dbsk crew - Micky's looking much better healthwise. Still skinny - I nearly fell off my chair at one point. They were playing a version of musical chairs where they had to jump on - and break - a hard little round shell on the floor to pass the round. All the guys managed it - half the girls were too light, and Micky... was too light, and at one point ended up leaping a little >> wrong. Thunked down on it and about creased over in agony :X Yunho was smooooooth baby hooking all the girls, and albeit Micky starting off a little shy, he warmed up pretty damned fast - to the point where he didn't want a rose some girl threw at him - directly at him XD - so he ducked down and let the guy behind him catch it. rofl. XD I'm almost rescinding my statement about not wanting a tv for that reason >> eventually I might buy one anyway - it'll help my Korean when I get more vocab and such. But anyway, well worth the watch, seriously XD it was on SBS Drama last night around 8/9 pm.

So I make myself wake up every hour again last night and managed to get about 4 hours in before I had to lug myself out of bed x.x and yank my new bike out onto the road. It took me about half an hour to get here today - I dare say I'll get faster as I get more in shape and my knees / backside decide to stop slaughtering me XD. I now understand why cyclists have those padded shorts/trousers! The lesson went okay - Celine was in watching me and she kept taking over >> which in a way was the only down point 'cause she kept running over what I said - but I can kinda understand 'cause she wanted to make sure we got through everything. The 25 minute thing I mentioned last week IS going down, so this afternoon from 1-6 I'm teaching eight different classes. 6 of 25 mins and 1 of 50. I hope to get away about 6:30 - or whenever I find out what I'll be teaching tomorrow AM - cycle home. Prep lesson, study for an hour or two, and then fall into bed x.x Buying the bike has left me incredibly broke despite the cheapness, so I'm going on a severe budget. I get free meals at the school at lunchtime, so I'll live on those during the week for a while. Free food is always welcome. As is the free internet I get at the school - I'll be online thusly mainly between 9-12 every day at school. Weekends I'll use the pc bang until I sort out my own home conn. I think, at least until I get more money, I'm going to avoid use of pc bang mon - fri - I'll probably be too tired anyway! - unless people really need me around at a certain time - and even then, bear in mind I have to leave the house at 7am for 11 [plus] hour days, so... ;)

zzz

*I've jacked Mr Gon's son's age down by a few years. I hadn't heard him speak before. I'd put him at about 14-16 now, and thankfully there were no stupid insinuations this time.