Oh, The Amusements of Which Ignorance Robs Us

I know I just wrote yesterday but this is too good to let slip by and possibly forget to write. So, I'm sitting here studying Korean, and I'm doing exercises using 좋아하다, which is a verb meaning 'to like' (I've known this verb for a while, but this particular instance hasn't hit home til just now). While doing this exercise, I was reminded of the first few weeks in Busan and my utilization of the Korean language at that time. One of the first things I learned to say was '좋아해요' (Cho-ah-hae-yo), and I was told that it meant 'ok' (actually how I think this explanation went down was that I asked my teammates how to say 'ok' and they told me '좋아해요'...but similar to English, the phrase 'ok' can be used in many different situations, and if attempting to explain how to use it in one or two situations, you could easily fail to include certain insinuations which are usually implied when using, and if you don't understand these insinuations you could end up saying something really stupid...). Taking the parenthetical explanation into consideration, I think I asked how to say 'ok' in a situation where someone asks you if you want to do something (or suggests), e.g. 'let's go for a run!' or 'let's eat octopus!', so the connotation of 'ok' would mean something similar to 'good idea!'.

Let me remind you of another connotation of the work 'ok': 'don't worry about it!'

So, as I am doing my homework, doing these exercises with 좋아하다 (cho-ah-ha-dah), I was reminded of certain situations where I used to say '좋아해요', back when I thought this mean 'sure!' and 'yea!' and 'no problem!' and 'don't worry about it!' When in actuality, if you say this phrase out of context it means 'I like it'...

Hahaha. Wow this is great.

Here's the situation. The team is at a restaurant following a Sunday bike workout at Songjeong beach with the youth team. It was a special day because one of the older triathletes (older as in around my age, a few years younger) had returned from an injury that kept him out for a few months. Anyway, all of the older kids on the team as well as a good amount of parents/adult supporters (like the man who comes to practice with the van who has food and supplies for the kids, etc.) were there. We're chillin', munching on the side dishes while waiting for the main meal, which was rice cooked in a hot stone pot (there is a special name for it but I forget - bah). So after a bit the waitress comes over and gives us our big stone pots, inside of which is the special delicious rice. And while rice usually comes in a metal rice dish, for this meal the rice dish is served but you actually scoop the rice out of the stone put and put it in the metal dish and then pour hot water into the stone pot and let it sit and then have like a rice soup-ish type thing after the hot water un-sticks the rice that you couldn't scrape out. None of this is actually important to my story except for the fact that there was a butt-load of things on the table because of the humongousness of the stone pot in addition to all of the other side dishes and the metal rice bowl.

I'll start to get to the point.

I say 'start' because I am aware of my digressions that happen to happen without my foresight, and perhaps in spite of my intended foresight.

See above for example.

What was I talking about?

Me and Dostoevsky should really hang out - I think we could successfully fail to finish a conversation in 3 hours that would take normal people 10 minutes to exhaust.

ANYWAY. So the waitress comes over and, in the midst of juggling all of the dishes, she drops one of the side dishes which she has picked up to clear off the table on my lap. Attempting to tap into my almost non-existence Korean vocabulary, I think, 'great! I know what to say here - 'that's ok! no problem! 좋아해요!'' After saying this, one of my teammates starts laughing, and repeats what I said. I started laughing too, because after he started to laugh, I realized (or thought that I realized, in my ignorance) that I had said 'good!' instead of 'no problem!'

But now I realize that I actually said, 'I like it!' HAHAHAHA. Someone spills something in your lap, and instead of 'no problem', you say 'that's good!' Exbarrassing, kind of. Nope, not me. Apparently I enjoy having food spilled in my lap.

Please, dump some more food on me. I was previously stanky from sweaty exercise, but now I smell fantastic from this delicious aroma that you so kindly bestowed upon my lap.

What a nutcase.

Assignation

(Note: the title of this blog has nothing to do with anything except for the fact that it was one of the vocabulary words I learned in War and Peace and I think it is a fantastic word. If you don't know what it means, you should look it up :). )

Oh boy. It's been a long time since I've written and I can't remember what happened yesterday. Although I know two things about my last week and a half: I've been very busy (partially busy doing nothing though, aka watching movies, but in the midst of the movies I've been making bike playlists so that I can monitor my RPM in the absense of a functioning cyclometer (as well as other similar activities), so I'm not completely relaxing), and I've been having a lot of fun.

I haven't had school since Dong Sang English Camp. I go back to school tomorrow, and I am scared. I hate vacations! Especially if I'm not doing anything specific, like taking a trip - because then I get all nervous about going back and working. I'm such a strange breed - I would rather just work if I have nothing special to do - I hate relaxing for the sake of relaxing. Or more accurately, I hate getting out of the swing of things. But if I do something specific like take a trip, then I am not really getting out of the swing of things because I am not doing nothing in the place where I am usually doing something. Does that make sense? Ha. Ok moving on.

So in the absence of time, I will keep this pithy (or at least attempt to). Basically, when I haven't been exercising, I've been sitting at home in my bed (where my heating pad is located :) ) watching movies, making a Microsoft Excel Chart for some of the songs on my computer (I'm only at the C's and have about 200 already), indicating the name, the RPM associated with the beat of the song, and the song's time, so that I can make specific playlists which aim at different RPMs (for example, if I want to make a hill workout the RPMs must be challenging but not at the same speed that I would use for a more flat course), reading, uploading pictures, and best of all, saving a butt load of money by substituting heating my apartment with simply using my heating pad. Now I know those activities don't sound like things which could take up an entire day, but they certainly have. Multiple days, actually. Oh yea and I organized my computer which took many many hours as well - which sounds mundane I'm sure, but I feel much better - much more clean. If that makes sense.

I feel like I am rambling. I apologize.

And now I am being the opposite of pithy. Bah.

I've started getting interested in reading, and so this past week I've read the Catcher in the Rye (I've already read that book but a) I didn't remember most of it, and b) it was one of the only English novels that was at the English book store that I went to a few weeks ago), and now I have started War and Peace. FINALLY. Oh goodness. It is great. Although I am only on page 31 and I already have a vocabulary list 3 pages long started on my computer. But it's great, because I'm learning a lot! I am legit going to triple my GRE verbal score just from reading this book (which says a lot for the rich vocab in War and Peace but also says a lot about the fantastically horrible score I must have gotten (and did get) on my GREs. But hey no one is perfect :) ).

Ok I think that's enough. I have to go study Korean now.

PS I had a SICK swim workout today. I'm so pumped. This isn't going to mean much to most people but I'm going to write it anyway: my pace for 2500m (in the swimming pool granted, which is easier than open water), if sustained for the whole 3.8km in Ironman, would produce a time of just under 70 minutes...which would knock off 14 minutes from my IM time last year...haha. And I was pulling. BOO YAH! Take that 6 weeks of no swimming.

I have no life. But it's ok, I've accepted it.