Roberts Arrives In Daegu.

Friday 4th June.

My train pulls up in Daegu and I look out of the window at the view. Looks like a shit hole. Luckily, once I met the manager of my school and jumped in a taxi, the rest of the city looked much more promising. I'm seriously tired and even the rush of being HIV negative cannot hold back this fatigue.
My manager asks me if I want to come and see the school this evening. I most definitely do not. She asks if I would like to meet my fellow teachers. Not really, I'm imagining five Wisconsin Kids and four guitar twiddling, ice cream salesmen who wont shut up.

But being the refined gentleman that I am, I say I would love to see the school and meet my colleagues, and inwardly vow to be as polite as necessary and then get home and watch Planet of the Apes on my laptop.

We arrive at my apartment and I am pleasantly surprised that it's not a complete hovel with a hippy as a flatmate. I've got my own place thank fuck and it's walking distance to the school. Not only that but I am asked if I would like a couple of weeks off before I start working and $300 to tide me over? I look at my manager as if she might be mental, but it seems she is serious and relatively sane. The day just got better.

I meet the other nine teachers and forget their names within seconds. They are finishing work and talking about getting food. I for one am definitely not going out or going to drink. I am too tired to talk, and want to spend one night without a random cretin pestering me with questions.
No, I am without any question going home and not to eat or drink.

"Four more beers please. Wow only 3 dollars a beer, that's good and this Soju stuff is a great shot."

What a failure.

But it's panning out well. Everyone is cool, and this Korean spirit "Soju" is like drinking water but gets you drunk. And it's all cheap. Taken alongside my blood test results and the failure to pass training by the weeks most irritating gimp, this is turning into a positively okay Friday.

I will now introduce you to one character from my group of co-workers. From here on, she will be known as "Little Spoon"; due to her diminutive stature and the fact that she has the general knowledge of a kitchen utensil.
Myself and three other teachers stay drinking for half the night and Little Spoon is one of them. She is a good laugh, as you can laugh with her at something witty you have said and also at her when she says something absolutely ridiculous. That is double the amusement.

Little Spoon says she wants to go to the nearby beach resort of Busan tomorrow to meet up with Blancquita (another teacher from our school) and some friends of hers from training. Apparently there is a sandcastle and sand carving festival on the beach. Well that sounds like...well like...erm possibly the worst festival that anyone in the history of the human race has ever devised. But with $300 in my pocket, begging to be pissed down the drain on a pointless excursion to a "festival" that a toddler would be ashamed to admit thinking up, I say an enthusiastic yes to my invite.

And that will take us to Busan, where I encounter sandcastles and psychos and learn the fate of a poor soul named Richard.

Until next time...

Monkey Roberts.