Big Fall Blowout!

So last week, I had one of those days. You know the kind. It starts simple. Maybe you wake up 10 minutes late and run out the door without your breakfast. Then you spill looseleaf tea all over your office, which leads to you leaving your photocopied worksheets in said office, causing you to be late to class. When it rains, as they say, it pours annoying minor misfortunes on your head.

Therefore, I wasn't even a LITTLE bit surprised to walk out after work and find that, lo and behold, the battery in my car had died. Why? Who knows. Even the repairman who came out to give me a jump seemed perplexed, and that's never a good sign. But hey, it's a 12 year old car. It's seen a lot. I call him Clint for a reason. He's doing his best.

Now, more than anything I'd been looking forward to getting home, taking a nap, and having a nice relaxing evening. No worries, I thought, I'll just take a nice little drive out to the countryside and back in order to charge my battery. Got a nice book on tape and a granola bar, life is good.

I should have known. I should have effing known that my bad luck couldn't end there. About 20 minutes out of town, my right front tire blew up.

F**k this shit I'm out!

See that tiny tire waaay in the background? Yeah. That used to be on my car. Pretty cool, right? This is how it happened: I was driving along, happy as you please, when suddenly my car jerked like a Great Dane that's just seen her best friend on the other side of the street and has conveniently forgotten that her owner is on the other end of the leash. I slowed from about 50 km/hr in a matter of seconds and tried to keep my car from shuddering off the road.

As I told a friend soon after the incident, at first I thought the road was messed up, then quickly realized that it was my own car that was messed up. Luckily there was space to pull over soon, and the second I stopped moving and the reek of burnt rubber wafted in through my windows, I could guess what had happened.

fuck

It was worse than I'd even expected. The best part was, the car hadn't been running long enough to charge the battery, so as I climbed out of my car to survey the damage, I had to leave the engine on as a bonus backdrop to my onrushing panic attack. Each frantic breath just brought in more of the acrid reek of rubber. I wasn't entirely sure where I was. I was hungry and cold, not entirely dressed for the weather.

I breathed.

Luckily, my insurance comes with an app that will contact local repair shops and send people out to fix you up. So I punch in my info and wait for the call, only to realize that once they called, I would have to know where the hell I was. I knew the name of the small town that was nearby, but I was pretty sure that and my rudimentary Korean skill was not going to be enough.

Luck! Across the road, an older lady was waiting at the bus stop. As the mechanic spoke to me like a child after I asked him to slow down, I sprinted across the 2 lane highway and desperately pushed my phone into her hands with a plea to "explain this location." All was well. The mechanic was on his way. She gave me her phone number and told me to text her when I made it back into town.

Eventually, the mechanic showed up, and to my embarrassment, it was the same man who had fixed my battery not one hour before. He asked a few questions and I fumbled my way through answers, and in the end it was decided that we'd have to call a tow truck, and I'd need to buy two new tires. Apparently they come in packs of two. Learning!

Instead of waiting on the side of the road, we left my keys hidden on the ruined rim of what used to be a tire and drove back to the repair shop together. We sat in silence for a while, each of my muscles tensed from anxiety barely held in check.

"How many times have we met?"

It took me a second to realize what he asked and understand the question, but finally I hazarded "Twice?"

Turns out it was actually our third time meeting; he'd replaced my battery a few months ago, and he assured me that my car wasn't garbage, it was just old. These things are natural.

"This is a great day. Do you know why?"

I hesitated to answer, worrying that I was now stuck in a car with a mechanic trying to hit on me.

"No one was hurt! Your car could have flipped over! It could have been serious. But it wasn't. So, today is an amazing day. Right?"

I supposed it was. As I sat in the office waiting for my new tires, watching the pet channel and sipping bad instant coffee, waiting for my muscles to unknot themselves, I couldn't stop thinking about that. Today is a great day because all the things that could have happened didn't happen, which was pretty much in perfect opposition to what I'd been thinking all day.

All this to say I made it home safe and my little trashwagon is puttering along smoothly once again. I'm grateful that there are kind mechanics and women at bus stops to help me when I feel like the world is giving me a tough break.

Neither Rain Nor Rain

Don't let the snazzy background fool you. I was annoyed.

That right there is the face of a survivor. Much like the USPS, neither rain, nor wind, nor rain, nor more rain...so much rain...was able to stop me. But really guys. There was so much rain.

It's been a busy couple of months, between 9 hours of Korean class every week and piles of lessons to plan for winter camp, so recently I decided to get out of Wonju for a bit and actually see those beautiful fall leaves everyone's been talking about it. So, on a Saturday, after 6 grueling hours studying Korea, I hopped in my car and set off for the lovely seaside town of Sokcho.

Naturally, I managed to choose the worst possible weekend on which to take a spontaneous trip. As I drove along the highway, the rain started to get heavier and heavier. Did I worry? Nah. I'm Pacific Northwest born and raised, so it takes something more than rain to ruin my nice drive. What kind of something?

My windshield wiper breaking. There I was, zooming along the foggy and rain-drenched highway at full speed when, in a matter of seconds, I was down to one functioning wiper. Because I'm blessed with the worst luck in the universe, that one, still-moving wiper was...of course...on the passenger side. Joy.

Fortunately, I was only a couple kilometers from a rest stop. So, I moved over into the righthand lane, leaning over to see through the half of the windshield that was still being wiped and trying not to have a panic attack.

Once safely in the parking lot, I just sat for a few minutes trying to collect myself. At this point I was more than an hour away from home, so I couldn't exactly phone-a-friend. Luckily, my windshield wiper hadn't entirely broken off and gone flying into the void as I'd previously suspected. It just had a screw...bolt...well something was loose, so at that point I figured all I needed was a wrench. In what felt like a stroke of genius, I got back into my car, wet as a drowned rat, and carefully maneuvered the car over the the gas station. Gas stations have wrenches, right?

Wrong. I pulled up and, rolling down my window, tried to explain to the perplexed 20-something manning the pumps that no, I didn't need gas, but that I was a damsel in distressing need of a wrench. He responded by telling me I needed to drive over to the next town to get it fixed at a car center. No matter how many times I explained to him how impossible that would be, the turnip-head didn't even think to look in the office for a wrench.

Finally, as I was trying to decide whether to start crying or wring his neck, a middle-aged couple pulled up next to me, so I went up to the man and showed him the issue. He spoke to the manager, and lo and behold, a wrench was found, and the offending wiper was fixed. All in all, it could have been much worse, but I was paranoid about the thing for the rest of the drive. 

I stayed the night in a cute little hotel right near the beach, with the most dramatic wallpaper, as you can see in my first picture. I was finally able to relax, eat some dinner, and hang my wet clothes up to dry.

The next day dawned...wet and rainy. Bit surprise. But I was determined! Armed with raincoat and umbrella, I braved the stormy coastline.

There's actually something enjoyable about the beach during a storm. The waves were crashing onto the beach, the wind sending spray to mix with the rain until my cheeks were salty--though the seagulls had the good sense to stay home.

A lonely spectator.

If I looked at the water through my umbrella I could almost pretend the sky was blue. Further along the beach I came across a secret little garden, and I wanted to explore, but my shoes were already soaked through at that point, so I didn't want to tramp around the wet grass.

Secret farm.

Rain and spray-soaked, I trudged up the road to get some lunch and hopefully give my shoes and chance to dry out. I always feel awkward eating alone in Korea, but the lady was really nice, and there was a hiker-gang of grandmas at the next table singing and chatting up a storm, so I got in some quality eavesdropping in while I ate.

Originally I'd planned to take a short hike on Seoraksan after lunch, but as the rain showed no sign of letting up, I elected instead to take a scenic drive. Much warmer and a lot less wetter. 

If you ever have a chance to visit Seoraksan, it's well worth your time. It does get pretty icy in winter, though, so be sure to wear correct footwear! I nearly slid off the edge of a cliff the first time I hiked there. At least I got to keep a fantastically large bruise as a souvenir!

I think it's important to get out of routines every once in a while. I get so caught up in day to day living, studying and working and stressing. Just one day away can make such a difference. A change is as good as a rest, or so they say.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Buying a Car in Korea

As usual, I managed to go for weeks without posting, despite my best intentions. There's something about vacation that just sucks away what little ability I ever had to stick to deadlines or regimes, and suddenly it's been weeks and nothing at all productive has been done, even though I actually have more free time. It's a great mystery of my own personal universe.

In my defense, a lot has been going on. I did manage to buy my car, but not after what were probably the most stressful 48 hours of my life. Buying the car itself was pretty easy, but trying to get insurance...well, the phrase "when it rains, it pours" is pretty accurate here. Okay, story time.

So, I was cutting it pretty close, budget-wise, but I was pretty sure I had everything worked out. I'd heard from various people a ballpark range for insurance for a year, and naturally I divided that over 12 months and figured it was totally doable. That was, of course, where I made my first mistake.

IMPORTANT FACT IF YOU ARE BUYING A CAR IN KOREA: 

Unless you have a KOREAN credit card, you have to pay for a whole year of insurance all at once. Also, at least based on my own experience, that card has to be in your name, so no putting it on your incredibly generous and kind friend's card and paying her back. That was the original plan, but you know what they say about the best laid plans...

So, about 48 hours before I was slated to buy the car, I discovered that A) my plan for paying for insurance wasn't going to work and B) I had to somehow get my hands on over $1000 in a very short amount of time. Normally I'd make a withdrawal from the National Bank of My Mom for an emergency like this, but since it takes time to transfer money overseas, that route was out.

Fortunately, I am in possession of more than one incredibly generous and kind friend. I was stressing to Harry over FB when he just...offered to loan me the money. He even bullied me into accepting his help, totally against my wishes. In the end, his mom helped me to find a slightly more affordable plan, and talked me through the whole process and loaned me the money to pay for it.

That whole 24 hour period of uncertainty about insurance filled me with so much stress and anxiety my body started to think it was having a heart attack. The only other time that has ever happened to me was when I was preparing to move to Korea; it's pretty intense and scary, but at least this time I knew what was happening.

So finally, I reached the day: Friday the 13th. I signed the lease of one of my favorite apartments on a Friday the 13th during a thunderstorm, so I feel that the date is relatively auspicious. I wasn't able to officially leave work early to meet Adele at the car registration office, but my coteacher said, with a wink, that I could take a "long lunch" and promised to cover for me if anyone asked where I was.

Registering the car was probably the easiest part of the process, though if you don't speak any Korean it's probably a good idea to bring a Korean-speaking friend, as all the forms are in Korean. We were also really lucky to have the help of one of the office ladies who spoke fantastic English. She shepherded us through all the different steps, and before I knew it, I was handing over an envelope full of money to Adele in exchange for the car registration and keys.

And then...I drove back to school. In my car.

He's a beauty.

So yeah. That's pretty much the most interesting thing that's happened in the past few weeks. If you need any tips or more specific information, I'd be happy to answer questions to the best of my ability! It's really hard to find reliable information about all this stuff.