| sit-ups | push-ups | chairlifts |
|---|---|---|
| 50 x 3 | 50 x 3 | 0 (no chair) |
| Breakfast | skipped |
| Lunch | missed - was in court |
| Dinner | rice & kimchi cucumber kimchi slimy seaweed in hot water |
Well this is it. The day of reckoning. I really hope things go well but I try not to get my hopes too high because I'm usually just disappointed if I do. It sure would be nice to avoid jail and to be able to leave the country. And all you newbies? Playing with/groping yourself under your blanket isn't fooling anyone. Save it for the shower, the toilet or at night when everyone is asleep, and even then, you'd be surprised how many people are still awake.
I never thought I'd say this but I actually miss the two hard boiled eggs soy milk and caramel flavoured bread this morning. Today's breakfast actually made me nauseous when I saw and smelled it.
Well, that was a fucking complete waste of time. The judge threw the proverbial book at me. And the two cases I thought were dismissed, were not dismissed all. My appeal was dismissed. I'm still guilty for both offences. What this all means is I have to fulfill four sentences, for a total of 160 days... It's October 24th now, so I should be free to leave this country sometime in April of 2013.
Now, I'm back at Mokdong immigration, locked in a room full of Chinese again, and wouldn't you know it-- there's a fucking Korean drama on TV. I really, really dislike this country.
And we're back... I guess we're at Day 0 or 1 again at Seoul Nambu Correctional Facility. I'm feeling pretty depressed about this whole deal. I spent three men looking forward to this day on the chance that I might get out only to find myself worse off than before. Now I have 179 days until I leave. The only good thing is I've already served 19 days, so I actually only have 155 days left.
I was told to stay positive. I can get a newspaper everyday now. I have a pencil and eraser... I can't think of anything else... I'm in Seoul again so maybe I'll have more visitors...
Of course, as I was being processed I had to fight for my notebook, sketchbook, textbooks, newspaper, pens and pencils. I even had to fight for my electric shaver and instant coffee-- all of those things I just listed, as being items I previously acquired the last time I was here, so they are things I know they have for sale from a list posted in my cell. Somehow in the confusion, they still manage to take away my phone card, so I can't make any phone calls-- even if they allowed me to. I guess I'll have to try to get it back tomorrow.
I'll have to wait until Monday to order a watch and wait until Wednesday to actually get it, so until then I have no idea what time it is and I'll constantly be scolded for my ignorance until then. My best guess is I'll be here until April 3rd or 4th.
My exercises will have to be limited to sit-ups and push-ups. Now that I'm back in a 2 m x 1 m cell, there is no chair or comparable object, or even enough room to do the chair-lifts I was doing before. It's too bad really, my triceps were getting huge, along with my forearms. I suppose I'll have to settle for rock-hard abs, a big chest and shoulders.
Back to watching only two channels-- KBS1 and KBS2 at limited times of the day. For now, it will have to suffice as my clock. There's a documentary about whales on TV right now and it was originally filmed in English but they've dubbed it into Korean. If you listen closely, really closely, you can still barely hear the English dubbing. I don't even know why I have the sound turned on...
One last thought... I'm reminded of the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks, where his character describes trying to commit suicide because it was the only thing he could control. He goes through all the trouble of making 30 feet of rope and hauling a piece of wood large enough to test the strength of the tree limb he plans to hang himself from. He throws the wood tied to the rope off the cliff and the tree branch snaps, showing him that he didn't even have control over his own death. The next day, the outhouse door washes up on the beach with the incoming tide and he use it as a sail to escape the island. While constructing the raft, he needs another 30 feet of rope and he has to go back to the cliff to get it from the place he hasn't been since the suicide attempt. He tells this story to a friend after his rescue and at the end, he says that when he found the outhouse door, it was a sign that he had to stay alive, because you never know what the tide might bring in. That's how I feel about my whole day. It was a really shitty day and I'm pretty depressed about it, but 155 days from now I'll be free to go and that's a lot better than being stuck on an unknown island in the South Pacific.
PS. I got a souvenir from the immigration detention center-- a shirt with "foreigner detainee" written in Korean on the back. I'll never be able to wear it in Korea, but hopefully when I'm done, I'll never be coming here again.
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