(Day 72) Hwaseong Immigration Detention Center-day 59 C-24

sit-ups	push-ups	chairlifts
1 x 100, 2 x 50	2 x 35, 1 x 130	2 x 35, 1 x 30

Breakfast	2 hard boiled eggs soy milk bread with red bean filling
Lunch	rice & kimchi salad with lettuce, bell pepper, cucumber, & carrot chicken and veggie soup
Dinner	rice & kimchi cabbage and onion chicken and veggie cream soup

I should probably explain the differences in Chinese detainees. Not all detainees are created equal, no matter what Korean authorities like to believe.

First, there are the fisherman. These Chinese happen to have been caught illegally fishing in Korean waters. Usually, they are simply crew members working for a bigger company. Their boat has been confiscated and in order to get it back and released, they'll have to pay huge fines. These fines eventually get paid by the companies and if they're not, the detainees do jail time. They are usually here for about 6 months before they are repatriated. It's cheaper to pay fines than to buy a new boat, but the detainees stay until the Korean government tires of them and pays to send them back to China. They don't speak Korean. The fisherman are just normal labourers. They are usually uneducated and the same as most blue-collar, uneducated rednecks in any other part of the world. They can be rude and inconsiderate, but it is unfair to attribute it their ethnicity,  as I have previously. It is simply a matter of up bringing and education, just like anywhere else on the planet.

The next two groups are a little more complicated. One group is ethnically Chinese and the other is ethnically Korean. Both have lived in Korea so long that they have jobs and families here. For some of them, the only Chinese thing about them is the language and the passport. This is the group that bothers me the most because they have the Confucius/Korean ajjoshi  attitude of entitlement. They think, because of their age, they are superior-- and the more of a commoner they are, the bigger the chip. There is nothing humble or any humility in these idiots. The Chinese who walks and the Chinese who yells and the Chinese who showers fall into this group. All three of them are between 40 to 45 years old and are actually Koreans born in China and got busted for drinking and driving. They are here because they're ethnically Korean, but technically Chinese. They are not Korean enough for Korean society and too Korean for Chinese society. To me, they are just  more asshole ajjoshiis.

The ethnic Chinese tend to be a bit more humble and nicer. They have been living here for years like many Canadians and Americans and also have wives, children and jobs. Their visas have lapsed and they have been negligent getting them renewed. This is where are not all foreigners are created equal, because Americans and Canadians would never be detained for the same offense. I know this, because I was in this exact situation for 6 months before I tried to leave the country. I even had paperwork and appointments to rectify the situation. I didn't bother because I was leaving the country anyway, and they had no choice but to detain me this time around as a result.

Since it's Chuseok, it got me to thinking about families in Korea. There is one detainee here who must be at least 70 to 80 years old. How did he get here? Where is his family? No one that old should be in here. This is no place to spend, what could very well be, the very last days of your life. Since it's a holiday, there are no visiting hours either, but since it's Chuseok, this should be the one time of year when they have special visiting hours for detainees with family.

Because of Her I find Chuseok particularly bittersweet. I'm not a fan of holidays like these-- Christmas included. It's a sad reminder of years wasted with a person I thought I would be with forever and of years wasted apart from people I should have been with instead. And here I am, one more holiday in a shitty place, due to one particular person, when I should really be with the family I've always had. I really do blame my current predicament on Her. She abandoned me in a foreign country and left the dismantling of the seven years of our life together completely up to me while She escaped to wherever. She may say its my fault for doing certain things, but I wouldn't have done those certain things if not for Her or lack of. I can't say it was any one action or really anybody's fault. We are both responsible but her reaction was extreme, cruel and selfish. Never again.

Today was a very painful day. Too many memories of my marriage and no booze to wash them away. Facing them does nothing but make me want to forget, which makes them all the more vivid. I remember things I haven't thought about in years to the smallest detail and I don't think it will ever get any better when times like this occur. I need to get out of here and make new, better memories.

24 days to go...