River Cree Action

I had heard that the River Cree Casino in Edmonton was supposed to be fantastic, so Aaron and I stopped by as we arrived in Edmonton on Friday for the Superbowl get-together. The poker room seemed reasonable, perhaps a bit smaller than some Alberta casinos but it looked like they had tables outside the actual room to expand if necessary.

Surprisingly, there were no limit games at all running yet at 7 pm on a Friday, but there were about 5 full $1-2 NLHE games rolling. Walking by the main game, one dude had what looked like a sickly $1500-2000 in front of him. The max buy-in is a staggering $500, but I only bought in for $300 and sat down at the end table. The first hand I played I flopped the nut flush in a raised pot. I checked, the raiser bet $80 all-in, a donkey who acts before me called, I raised another $100, donk called and bullet check-called the rest of his stack of $120 on a blank turn with bottom two pair. This $750 pot sustained me for the rest of the night as I didn’t get much.

I heard one of my neighbors whisper that one of the two girls who was railbirding this game (rooting for one of the fish) was none other than Jerome Iginla’s sister Theresa, but I didn’t hear that clearly and couldn’t be sure. After a quick google search a few minutes ago, I can confirm it from the photo. Kind of interesting.

Anyways my NLHE cash game experience is very limited and I basically just use common poker sense and my NL tournament knowledge, but this game is so action packed in Alberta right now that I’m seriously considering giving it some solid study.

Whiz

So I was hanging just outside of the Elbow around three in the morning and some drunk dude comes out for a smoke. Suddenly he unzipps his fly and says “I hope nobody minds if I piss on their car” as he positions himself over some helpless bicycle. Then this other guy steps in and announces that he works security and that he reconsider. So drunk dude has to cut off mid-squirt but at least he was not tased.

Phone Test

This was posted from my new phone!

Midnight Run with Haisok

So I called my good friend Haisok with the sudden news that I was leaving.  He offered to drive me and my ample luggage to the airport in the morning, which was very generous and I owe him big time.  After having some trouble finding my hole of a place he arrived around 1 am.  I still hadn’t completely finished packing.  It was about 3 am when we finished packing, chatting, shutting down the apartment, and loading up the car.  We went for a drive in his awesome car to his place.  We were both really hungry, so we stopped for some sushi.  It was incredible sushi.

I got to check out Haisok’s apartment, and it’s actually pretty nice.  We managed to catch about two hours of shut-eye before his alarm TV started blasting news in Korean.  We hastily got ready and headed to his car.  Let me tell you, it was damned cold.  I’d say it was about a -25 degrees Celsius windchill, which felt REALLY cold since this winter had been pretty mild in Incheon up to this point.

It was a fast drive to the end of Incheon where the toll booth for the road to the airport awaited.  It’s a pretty remarkable road for a few reasons: the toll is $10, it’s 3 lanes on each side (a lot of traffic for just the airport), and it’s built over the ocean.  So we’re driving along, pretty stunned still at it being so early and only having two hours asleep.  I’m tired but also wired at the same time, excited to be seeing home again and uneasy about how my flight will be.  Will they lose my luggage yet again?  Will my computer work after taking the beating of travel?  Will I be stopped and questioned at immigration?  How much will they charge for my extra luggage?  What will I do when I get home?  Suddenly, wham!  A car on the opposite side plows into the meridian in front of us.  We swerved and slowed down a bit, but the other car didn’t make it to the our side.  Whew.  “Wow that was crazy.”  “Yeah that was close.”  A few seconds later, there is a flurry of smoke and exhaust ahead of us.  Another car has successfully jumped the meridian in front of us.  “Look out!”  Haisok hits the breaks as the truck in front of us collides with the car.  We stop in time to not hit them, and I glance back nervously to see if anybody on this freeway will rear end us.  I see the traffic slow behind, so I turn and look at the scene a few meters in front of us.  The white truck’s front end is destroyed, the engine is bare and fluid is leaking onto the road.  “Call somebody!” I say in a panic.  “Yeah,” Haisok replies dumbly, as we both stare stupidly at the two destroyed vehicles.  Then the passenger door of the truck opens and a man stumbles out clutching his arm.  He walks drunkenly to the side of the road and sits down, still clutching his arm.  A woman in the other car that had jumped the meridian also gets out, I think from the passenger side but I don’t remember.  She looks injured but not critically, and she also walks unsteadily to the side of the road and sits beside the man.  The road underneath the truck is now soaked in fluid.  At this point, seeing that two of them are ok enough to help themselves, we hit the signal light and make our way around them.  That’s a bad place to get into an accident, on the way to the airport where pretty well everybody has a flight to catch.  I felt a pretty callous just leaving them, and hope that nobody was badly hurt.  I had hoped somebody behind us who could speak Korean and wasn’t late for a huge flight would help them out.  I wondered what had happened to the driver of each car, but looking back it might have been only involving the two people I saw get out of the vehicle.  The driver’s side of the truck was pretty messed up, so perhaps it was the driver who got out of the passenger side.

So now, after 7 hours of total sleep in the past two nights, and the excitment/anxiety of leaving, and the adrenaline rush of the accident, I was REALLY REALLY wired.  We made it to the airport, I got a cart and somehow managed to fit all of my luggage on it.  I was surprised it all fit onto one cart because I had 3 almost oversized pieces and 3 other smaller pieces.  With my cart straining, I snapped a photo of Haisok and his luxury car:

He apologized for not being able to see me off because he had an important meeting right away, which was ridiculous because he had done me a huge favour driving me to the airport so I owe him big time.

The Midnight Run Drug

I finally mustered up the will to hit the “Purchase” button for my plane ticket home. I am officially making my midnight run on Saturday at 11 am.

Today, my last day of working here ever, I felt like I was on a drug all day. My heart was beating fast. Despite the lack of sleep, my eyes were wide open and I was alert. I laughed easily with the kids. I also was thinking differently. You know, like after you see a really good movie, and for a brief time after the world around you is just different. Stuff like, when I was watching the kids do their tests, I could notice how their clothes give signs as to what kind of people they are. Definitely a drug.

A side affect of this drug was paranoia. Just before work, I had withdrawn all my money from the bank. It’s difficult to talk to my bankers, so when they said “Cancel?” I just nodded. About halfway through this process I realized this might be a mistake. Perhaps it would red flag me and my employer or somebody would be contacted. This is of course a silly thought for a normal place like Canada, but this place is far from normal. A couple of months ago, when I wired some money home, the banker picked up the phone right in front of me and called my school and director. Anyways, I got my money as they cut up my bank card. Because there are no big bills here, it looks like quite a lot! I felt like a gangsta as I headed back to my apartment with my suitcase full of money.

Anyways I was a little worried the school would find out my account had closed today, but the director didn’t even show up. My classroom had a view of my apartment building, so all day as I wondered what the director was up to I looked out the window to my apartment to make sure my computer and money were safe. After every class I eyeballed the secretary to make sure she didn’t look at me suspiciously. As the day wore on, and still no director, my worry grew a little.

I have not told anyone at the school I am leaving tomorrow. I want to keep it quiet until the last moment, because yes, I am a suspicious man. Talk in the teacher’s room was a bit awkward, with me giving hinting and dodging answers all day…

• “It’s Jen’s birthday next week,” answered by my “We’ll see if I make it to next week!”
• “Let’s split up what we’re doing for the level tests next week,” to which I replied “Let’s do that later?”
• The foreign teacher asks the Korean teacher when exactly she is going to quit, to which I suggest “I think you should quit on Monday,” knowing full well that Monday is going to be a shitstorm.

Huge News

I have big news, but I’ll post it this weekend.  You can email me for details if you’re that curious.

www.jimroy.ca

So I finished registering jimroy.ca which was kind of a pain. So far all it does is point to this place, but perhaps some day I’ll add more stuff. I had to pick it up due to www.jimroy.com being taken by an imposter. He’s a shame to all the Jim Roy’s in the world! Just kidding, I guess, but he’s still an imposter.

Myongdong

Here’s a clip from shopping on a random night in Myongdong in Seoul in 2003. There are a lot of shoppers in South Korea.

Building

I’ve been wanting to add a little character to my blog for a while.  Check out my new franchises page by clicking the tab above!

Absent

The director did not even show up today.  The week has passed without the promised further discussions.  I am being jerked around.