Chapter 4: Roosters and Politicians

And so again, yesterday morning, I am awakened by a lightening sky and the sounds of roosters. This very early morning thing is not normal for me, but it doesn't appear to be killing me, so I'll just learn to deal with it. I very casually made some breakfast, showered (hurray! I have hot water!), read a little bit then went out for yet another morning walk. All in all, it was a very tame morning. Nothing truly exceptional happened at all.
The afternoon arrived, and with it the director, Cindy. She let me know that we'd be out doing more recruiting at about 2:00. So at five after one, everyone comes looking for me to tell me it's time to go. Things change, I guess. We get set up outside another apartment complex on the other side of town and wait. No one is around. No children, no parents. It's very hot. The occasional person straggles by and we launch ourselves at him or her and force pamphlets and rulers upon them. At around 4:00, we start getting kids coming home from school and taekwondo. Good, now we can do stuff. One child apparently called me a crocodile. No one is sure why. So, if you don't mind, I think I'd like to go by Crocodile Steve from now on. Or maybe not.
At 5:30 or so, we're taken home, and despite the lack of activity during the day, I was quite tired. However, I discovered that a computer had been moved into my room. All I needed to was hook it up. So, I did. However, not only was the internet not a possibility due to a lack the proper length of wire, but Windows didn't seem to want to open either. Oh well, the computer in the room is a luxury I wasn't expecting to begin with. I did explain the issue to the person who put the computer up there, the math teacher (I didn't catch his name), but everything got very confused and he ended up leaving me his key to the school so I could get in the following day to use the computer. That wasn't what I was after, but I thanked him profusely anyway and accepted it.
So, that leads to today.
Today, instead of being woken up by sunrise and roosters, it was sunrise and politicians. Well, one politician, really. He was just across the bridge (which is really close to the school), playing loud and happy techno music to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb, among other children's songs, all overlaid with glorious rhyming political propaganda. I discovered after getting dressed and going for a walk, that he was standing on the side of the road, bowing and waving to all passersby, except me. I guess I'm not part of his riding. The rest of my walk was pleasant, I spent it exploring the not-quite-open-yet central market. It's kind of interesting to watch everyone arrive and begin setting up their vegetables and fish. This walk was mostly to kill time until I went to the computer to listen to the hockey game. Yes, I listened to the game while in Korea. And I couldn't resist having a beer as well. Sure it was 9:00 in the morning, but it was game one of the finals. The game went well and many of you, I'm sure, know.
After this I went back out the market, had some really tasty fritter type things filled with cinnamon and sugar as well as some sort of doughy substance with various vegetables in it on a stick, then bought far more strawberries than I intended to (I only wanted a few, but she made me take the whole basket). This was followed by another trip to the hill with the Buddhist temple on it. This time, being the middle of the day as well as Buddha's birthday (a national holiday) everything was open. The old temple was gorgeous, the woodwork and painting was spectacular. I also went to the municipal museum, which was interesting, yet not very informative to me seeing as all the information was in Korean.
And that about catches us up. I'm going to go back out in a moment, hang out by the river until sunset. I'll let you know if anything interesting comes of it.
Crocodile Steve/Guy