Day 500: Constants In Life

HOLY FUCK! 500 days in Korea??? WOW! I just completed the Korea Indy 500! ;-)

So today's lesson was all about constants in life. There's some things in life that you can always count on. We all have to pay taxes, we'll all die one day, and moving day is always hell on earth. And Michael's moving day today proved to be no exception. Today Michael is moving in with Pauline and Tim! He's leaving Guro and his fantastic apartment with the psycho neighbour behind to live with our two good buddies in their spacious apartment in Hongdae. He's only gonna be with them for the summer anyway, and it'll save both him and Pauline and Tim some money. I was actually a little envious, it sounds like that apartment's gonna be the happenin' place!

Well about mid-afternoon today the skies opened up, and it began to P-O-U-R! Yes, that's right, Monsoon Season has officially arrived. Descending upon the Korean peninsula one day earlier than predicted, the annual torrents of rain are here. And once they're here, that's it. You can kiss sunny skies and pleasant weather goodbye for quite some time. Yes, it's a good time to be leaving Korea soon... What a day to have to move! Ugh!

Nick, Pauline, Tim, and I all volunteered to help Mikey move, so we met up at his place around 6pm to move all the boxes downstairs. Michael had called a moving service to come at 6:30pm and move all of his belongings in a truck to Hongdae. Well the driver started calling around 5pm saying that he was in the area early and wanted to move right now instead. Ummm....how about no? We made a reservation for 6:30, and we're not gonna be ready until then. You can wait buddy!

So 6:30pm comes and we've moved all of Mike's stuff down itno the lobby of his building. We go out to look for the truck and Mr. Impatient Truck Driver, only to see no one at all. What the hell....where is he? So Michael phoned him and, much to his horror, was told by the guy that he had left. He went hom!!!. I guess, according to Mr. Asshole, he didn't feel like moving in the rain so he just left. And didn't even fucking phone us to let us know that he was abandoning us! So there we were, with all of Michael's stuff, out in the lobby, with no moving truck and no driver cause the fucking jerk was pissed that he had to wait til 6:30 and didn't like the rain. Well buddy, it's your fucking job to move us!! We had a goddamn reservation!!! Fuck, sometimes the people in this country make me so mad!

Not knowing what to do, as it was Sunday night and raining cats and dogs and we had everything already moved out of the apartment, we all just sat there in stunned silence while Michael cursed up a storm at the driver. Wow, I've never seen him that angry before! It was kinda scary!! Luckily things worked out in the end. Michael phoned one of his students who was able to get us a truck and driver from another moving service. We had some time to kill before they arrived, so Mike ordered some pizzas and we had that and beer while camped out on his furniture out on the landing. Oh, crazy times, I tell ya! And the movers that came later to help us were the nicest Korean couple you could ever meet. What a difference from the last guy!

Thakfully Michael's building has an overhang, so we were able to get the truck all loaded up (a pick-up truck with a tarp) without getting wet. We drove on over to Hongdae and when we got to Pauline and Tim's the rain was still coming down like the end of the world was coming or something. Should we have called Noah to come help us move instead? Hoping that the rains would slow down we waited a while, as there was no protection from the elements at their apartment, and moving would mean that not only us, but all of Michael's stuff would get absolutely drenched.

We waited and waited but then realized it wasn't going to let up. So, we stripped down to shorts and bathing suits, and began what must've been the fastest move in history! That tar went up and we had shit *flying* up the stairs into their place. Forming a chain-gang we were a wet but incredibly speedy flurry of flying furniture and cardboard boxes. We were amazing! In ten minutes we had that whole truck emptied and moved into the apartment with very minimal contact with rain water! Couches, TV's, suitcases of clothes and boxes of fragiles, all made it in safe and sound. Wow! That's gotta be some record!

We were soaked and dirty and sweaty and exhausted, but feeling pretty damn proud of ourselves. It had been a shitty night and we had been presented with a dismal situation, but we made it through. And actually kinda had fun with it by the end. You know you've got great friends when! Never a dull moment here...