Buzzkill Goes Shopping

Can't sleep. There's a weird pain behind my left boob (that's where my heart is, right?) and it keeps waking me up. So I interrupted the weird waking dreams to just say feckit and compose a post.
Many people will know I'm not really crazy about shopping, not the best person to spend an afternoon in a shopping centre or strip, going from place to place spending money. Ethan definitely knows this - he calls me 'buzzkill' cos I'm always telling him not to buy shit and can we go have a sit down cos this is boring and purposeless and indulgent. There are some exceptions though. Earring shopping at second-hand stores, for one. Gift shopping, another. So my trip home next week in birthday season gives me the occasion to gift shop. And shop and shop.
I got quite a few things last week - I mentioned that I'd finally got what I hope is the perfect gift for lil bro Jack's 21st. But yesterday, that was something else. I had to teach in the morning, til 1.30, which, weirdly, was totally pain-free. Then I headed to Hongdae to get my hair cut, which was fine, and the JD Whatever met me out the front and we started pounding the pavement of that neighbourhood.
Seoul seems to have two clear purposes: allowing one to eat and drink oneself into a gluttonous frenzy; and allowing one to shop for disposable fashion and cutie ephemera until you reach an orgiastic delirium.
I had: a shopping list and a few ideas; JD to be my interpreter; no food in my tummy. We made a strong start, picking up the cutest most stupid shit that will have to remain TOP SECRET until KP and TT open their el-cuto-rama pink boxes with rainbow ribbons. Then we went to a Hello Kitty store and looked at baby shoes. At some point later I remembered that 'babyshoes' was a pet name for me that an ex came up with...
Anyways, Jack had asked me to get him some '$2 What The?' so I headed to Artbox where I found the perfect thing... Also picked up a CD I wanted for Jack at the awesome Purple Records. Oh and we had to weave through a throng of giant soju bottles and dogs.. Hongdae was getting crazy as the day disappeared. Halloween idiots everwhere. I was overdue for a feed so we ducked into a Thai place and ate noodles, chicken, salad, and drank Singha while thinking we had done pretty well already.
The most important gift of the day was for Dad, and we had to drive to Insa-Dong for that. We parked and hit Insa-Dong-Gil right by the awesome Ssamzie, where the show 'Wake Up Andy Warhol' had generated massive crowds. Sssamzie is a kind of open three storey boutique shopping centre, with a plaza area in the middle. For the Warhol show, they have wrapped the entire building in Warhol print, hung hundreds of umbrellas from the atrium space and, inexplicably, parked a Mini Cooper on the roof.
We walked and walked, looking for the right shop to get this special little customised gift for Dad. We'd been to one place in Hongdae and were alarmed that the things were made out of ivory and buffalo horns and stuff I couldn't conscience buying. So we had narrowed my odds by wanting one made of marble. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little storefront, we went in, just on closing time, spent nearly an hour with one of those cute old man artisans, who regaled us with jokes and gruffness and advice.
I was now laden with bags... Happy happy. Got some perfect things for some wonderful people. Can't wait to get home and share the love.

I'm a Beautiful Man

Went to see a band last night.
I'd got a barrage of text messages at 4am on Wednesday for the beautiful Ahri. She wanted me to come see her 'love band' peterpancomplex. They were launching their third album. So I've had a crappy cold this week cos of the weather change and me being totally unprepared but I wanted to see Ahri and see music, so I went to Hongdae last night. First we ate fried pork cutlets with cabbage salad, rice and miso. All for $4. Ahri knows all the dodgy student cheapo places to eat. It's great. Anyways the gig was at a venue with NO bar and NO smoking... What?? Weird. And the music was what Ahri described as 'modern rock' but is what I call 'epic sook' even 'shit'. To Ahri's credit she said that this was supposed to be their breakthrough album and it was sponsored by a mobile phone company... Seems they had lost their edge.

Today I walked home for lunch along that street where the market was... Not only has that gone but this week workmen appeared and either dug up or cut down all the trees. There were playing fields for some kinda team football with nets, pagodas for people to ogle me from and shade for old men to stack cardboard. All gone. And today, a bulldozer raking over the dirt. As I was walking I noticed a guy on a bike pass me twice. What? On the third time he reached out and grabbed me as he rode by. Kinda on the arm. It was REALLY strange. Dunno if it was a grab like 'tag' or a grab like 'grope'? I may never know.

I could write about the mystery that is Halloween; about me cranking up the floor heating in my apartment; about how Zen and the Art etc is killing me; about how I have to work on a Friday night and a Saturday; about the yummy cheesecake I'm anticipating; about the great convo I had with Birthday Boy LTR; about all the mixed up feelings I have all day everyday about being here and not being there. But.

Still a Democracy

Here in Korea, I've become more aware of the happenings in America, as the only TV news I get in English is CNN and the papers are derived from big papers in the USA. So I'm acutely aware that there is an election on 7th November. And I'm also aware there are some reasons to hope for change in America - change for the better. Three reasons I'm know of today ::

1. Barack Obama
2. Nancy Pelosi
3. Kevin Tillman

Obama is a very sexy Congressional Senator who may/not run for President and be the first black person to do so. He wrote a book called 'The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream' and is a Democrat with lotsa good ideas.
Pelosi is the representative for San Francisco and currently the first woman to lead a major political party in either house of Congress. Talk is that she who could become the first female Speaker of the House. Her Democrat credentials are convincing.
Tillman is not a politician but rather a champion sportsman, however, he has just written a very political piece about the War on Terror and the upcoming election. He joined the US Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan 2004 by 'friendly fire'; and Kevin was discharged in 2005.

If you are American, please vote! It's only 2 weeks away. Make sure you are registered and if you are away from home then please get your hands on an absentee ballot.

Happy Birthday

Birthday season has commenced in style. I spoke to a hungover Sweet Charlie this morning who was sleepily adjusting to the fact that he's 26 now. Friday is LTR's 26th as well and then it's Dadda's, Jack's and my birthdays in quick succession. Sweet.

Yesterday it rained and poured and was chilly and then last night I was thinking of the poems Mumma had written about the rapid change of seasons in Turkey. For some reason I couldn't carry the knowledge with me when I left the house this morning sans umbrella or warm clothes. Feckin freezing today. The bitter descent to winter has also commenced.

Charlie is on the cusp of submitting his geek manifesto but somehow still manages to make time to calculate the minutes til I land in Melbourne :: 16957 minutes. We're not excited at all. Happy birthday, beautiful boy.

Su Azucar

Think carefully.
What is the logical love-child of canvas nanna shoes and nineties platform sneakers?
The espadrille!
So yesterday I was badly, badly hungover. On Friday I'd played poker 'with the boys', 'in the hood' and played ok, for a girl, so was paying for my celebratory tequila shots with some serious pain. Anyways, at about 5pm I managed to get it together to leave the house. I had to go to the department store where my brother's 21st present was waiting to be collected from a feisty saleslady. I was glad I went when I did - Mac cosmetics had a demonstration on and for some reason next to the make-up artists there was a nearly-naked hot Korean guy wearing a few feathers on his head and shoulder and waist. I WISHED Ethan was with me. I got the gift ok and thought I'd wander the store and the underground shopping mall nearby. Wow. It had amazing restorative powers. I bought the handbag I've needed and been looking for for ages - for a 'nice price' cos I'm a 'pretty lady'. Then I found a shop with these ::

Of course another feisty sales pitch, but I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

Received some mail this week containing music love and photos. The music is gold. Lyrics from Joan as Policewoman ::

it's true what they say about me
that I'm out of my mind
but I think that you like it
so take the chance,
be reckless with me

Stayed in last night admiring my new shoes and watching Arrested Development (and Two and a Half Men, but shhh!), so slept well headed off to see the Basquiat show. Not bad. Not a huge fan but picked a favourite, a tiny little piece from a great year... 1985 ::

Oh, and, my Mumma, Helen Lucas, is a poet... And she was raved about on the blog of a good poetry night in Melbourne where she featured last week. Nice.

Bow on a Bike

I've been meaning to post about seeing guys here bow on their bikes as they ride past acquaintances. I think it's really funny. And then tonight the owner of the photo shop had just mounted his scooter as I approached the store, so he was bound to bow to me from his scooter. Love that.
Some old lady grabbed me on the arm tonight -hard- as I was trying to enter my building and said a whole lot of stuff I didn't understand. She wouldn't let me go, and pinched my cheek. I deduced that she thought I looked melancholy and should smile at the world. So I did. It made me happy. So happy I thought I would call KP and tell her about this little sweetness. But first there was mail in my box -a phone bill- great. Tore it open as I went up in the lift and felt myself perspire. 372000 won. That's $514 Aussie. That's for a month.
Makes me wonder for the billionth time if it's all worth it. This week I feel really conflicted. It's all in my head. Should I stay or should I go now? I end up wishing it would become unsafe so I would have an excuse to go home. But I don't need excuses to go home - there is so much there that draws me. But financially... Ugh.
Anyways tonight I went to yet another of these restaurants that feature a particular ingredient. This time it was pumpkin. Everything decorated orange and giant pumpkins and sacks of pumpkins all around. Dishes were served inside pumpkins. Pumpkin juice. It was tasty but the side dishes were all pickled radish and I'm not a huge fan.

Trashed

I write a lot of posts in my head as I walk to and from school. Then forget them til I do the walk again, or they just ebb and disappear without ever being written. I'm glad I walk instead of getting the bus now, the exercise is good, even if the air ain't fresh. Today I walked home to make lunch as well, so I reckon it was about 8 kays of walking.
Anyways, when Charlie was here we found a different road between home and work and that's the route I've been taking. The first week I saw a market on the corner and was rapt - another place to get groceries, nice. But then the next week there was a giant claw ripping the marquees apart and pulling out power lines. The lot where the market was has been kinda derelict since, half torn-down. Then Monday I saw the place had been trashed. There is a small building next to the market that was the agricultural co-op's office and shop; everything was thrown out the windows and the doors were asunder. It made me really sad.
I didn't know why the market and co-op were 'decommissioned' or 'trashed'. Like the apartment blocks that are perpetually being demolished all around my neighbourhood, they seemed operable and viable to me.
Then this morning I walked past and the building had been set on fire. Inside there was a big black hole, with charred crockery, office furniture, spectacles, baskets, stuff... I felt shocked and sad all over again. What's with this? Why wasn't the stuff cleared out?

this mellow ride

Picture if you can an 8-year-old Korean girl wearing a white k-shit with a picture of a zebra and the following text ::

PROI

66

The best quality Action and spension
Sports & system light nr-0989
unit PROI Basic & people of world
PROI jeans NO-4012
From sessioning a handcrafted
spinning laps the park, the Dominant
With a ture twin-tipfreestyle shape and
flex, this mellow ride look jibs and

Another Leap

I survived the bungy jump. That's the most important thing today.
And I had a *super* day yesterday. Nice weekend all round...
Friday night I got shouted a big platter of fried duck and wayyy too much beer at a late dinner with Olivia (who lives in my building and works at my sister-school) and her boyfriend Ken. The placed had closed but that didn't stop Ken ordering more and more longnecks. Nice.
Saturday Ethan and I planned to knock another something off THE LIST which was a flower market. Ethan was running late so I spent 10 minutes discovering a second-hand clothes market that was massive... Heaps of people with newspaper or blankets spread out and piles of shoes, daggy clothes or junk piled up. When Ethan appeared we explored it a little more and I made a significant purchase:: more blue shoes!! These ones were 3000 (4bux). Best price yet. Though I mayyyyy have compromised a little on style.



We got fed and I caught up on Ethan's trip and stuff and then realised that the cut flower part of the market would be closed by the time we walked there. Fuckit. So we headed off anyways, not sure what we would find. There were a bunch of warehouses and greenhouses which we wandered into and found some kind of floristry school where there were maybe 100 students at desks in a big space with tiered seating around. They all had baskets of flowers and there was a panel of what looked like judges half asleep at the back of the room. It was amazing. I took some zenit photos so I'll have to wait to share that.
Mmm we wandered around the potted flower greenhouses and saw some calligraphy guys at work on ribbon banner things. Then we wandered and wandered, finding empty shopping centres, black rice ice-cream, people feckin staring constantly, a forest, a photo shoot, a memorial to a citizen's rebellion, and eventualllly, Jack's birthday present! That was the icing on the cake. I love Ethan for suggesting we check out just one more store before heading home.
Stayed in last night cos I was knackered and had to get up at 7.30am (on a Sunday!) to go bungy jumping with some Korean girls. Maybe it's a cliche, but I think I discovered something about myself in doing the jump... I wasn't scared at all. And it was familiar, that feeling of everyone freaking out but me being all calm. Funny. I stress about stuff I oughtn't, and then something like that doesn't faze me. One of the girls we went with chickened out on the platform. And GyeongAh and HeyYoung both stalled, but I practically ran off. I saw stars and crapped myself a second into the air. And coming back down, I landed in a little dinghy, I couldn't stand, everything was jelly and a-quiver. A very strange feeling.



We headed to the closest restaurant for lunch... So hungry. Un/fortunately it was a Chinese onion restaurant so I think between the four of us we ate maybe a dozen onions. Yum-o. Briefly spoke to the girls about the nuclear test and they thought 'nothing to worry about' and said 'let's just enjoy now'. Ok, fine. Spoke to Dad yesterday as well and he seemed to think that unless I felt really uncomfortable, I shouldn't be racing back to the 'safety' of the antipodes.

Stop Worrying?

Ma called last might all worried about the bomb. Neither of us were convinced by my limp argument that as we live in an 'age of terror' I'm as safe here as anywhere else. Then kp called and we thrashed it out as best we could but were stumped by the proposition of an article I read (lost the link but this is similar) when said that there were 4 possible reasons why there wasn't much evidence of an actual nuclear test other than bluster::
1. It was a failed test;
2. It was a fake;
3. USA made it up;
4. It was a short-range weapon developed to attack South Korea.

Yeah. Not that crash hot. So today I checked the DFAT site and it mentions the test but hasn't elevated warning about visiting Korea - it remains at the lowest possible level. So, ok. I asked my boss what she reckoned and she said HER Ma had called from Japan where she lives to check my boss had her passport ready so she could flee to JAPAN if the shit hits the fan. Then my boss, Sidney, said that North Korea is just like a baby and nobody pays attention to anything they say. She said none of the teachers at my school were talking about it and that nothing has changed.

I'm trying to know a bit more about the players and the trends so I can piece together a feeling for this. So many questions... Am I any less safe now that I was 3 months ago? Am I any more safe in Melbourne? Is worrying part of the problem? Are South Koreans not concerned because they've spent decades like this? Or are they not worried because they are indoctrinated into hyper-capitalism? Is that mean? Am I crazy?

I've been reading various blogs, trying to get a handle on what others are saying. There's just a massive diversity of opinions. Check out the Marmot's Hole for some DIFFERENT views...

A Giant Leap?

Can't believe it's been days and days since I posted. Not to worry. All is well.
Thought I better show I'm alive as I've been getting some worried emails from people who've heard that North Korea has been playing with fire... The short version is, I have no real idea what's going on. I don't watch the TV news or listen to the news radio, and I get a newspaper once a week when I go into the city and see a newsstand with an English paper. I get my news in dribs and drabs from The Age and BBC news and a few English-language Korean websites. So my guess is as good as yours regarding whether I need to summon a knight in shining armour to rescue me...
But last night I asked my boss' husband what he thought the tests meant and he said 'suicide', meaning that the USA doesn't like instability and that this latest performance was brinkmanship. (By the way, I'M teaching HIM English and he uses words like brinkmanship in casual conversation, after class.) I asked what the South Korean public were reckoning and he said it was the final straw and that there was no more tolerance left. I'm not sure about that. Anyways. Then I went for dinner with a guy I met in the hood and he said 'looks like this could kick it all off, eh?!' and said his friends reckoned the Won would fall and we should get our cash out of Korean banks and send it home before it's devalued. Yeah, not sure about that neither.

I'm going bungy jumping on Sunday. Was there ever a better time or place?

My Island Catfight

Well a day away from the intermenet and I got some excellent emails. Thanks. Some really pleasant surprises. I also got some lil sunburns as I sat on the beach in the sun, soaking it up.
We didn't get to Muuido, but we did get to an island to some beach - ended up going to Yeongjongdo, which is the island Incheon airport is on, now joined to the mainland by big bridges over the mud flats. Steph and I went the long way there, catching a ferry and then a suicidal bus to one of the beaches on the far side of the island.

Ferry ride was a highlight, though it only went for 10 minutes. I love ferries. And memories of other great ferry rides came flooding to my mind as I watched the Koreans throw prawn chips to the seagulls. We were absolutely knackered when we finally got off the bus - I'd had some god-botherer pestering me with questions about the semester dates for Uni Melb and what projects UNICEF had going in India. Erm? So knackered and hungry that we weren't sure which town we were in. Didn't matter. What did matter was that I don't like seafood and every single restaurant had MASSIVE tanks out the front from which diners chose fish, sea dick, mussel, crab, prawn, or whatever for dinner. We ended up desperately asking one of the spruikers where we could get barbequed meat and got the hook-up. Steph and I instantly fell silent when the meat was ready and we stuffed our faces with pork, chili sauce, kimchi, and garlic all wrapped in sesame leaves.
After stopping at a hof and drinking 2000cc of beer while we watched guys and drunk girls test their strength on those annoying boxing machines, we bought some longnecks and parked ourselves on the beach to watch and listen to the fireworks everyone was setting off. Yeahhh.
Had a bit of a sore head when I woke up, which was fixed up by going for a really lovely walk all the way around the bay, climbing out to some rocks and gazing out over the fisher people to the water and sun. Lots of big granite rocks, families having expansive picnics, men scaling tiny fish, tiny crabs running across out path and fresh air. We went back to the same restaurant for some soup and rice and as we were arriving the ajumma spruiker was starting a fight with the ajumma spruiker from the restaurant next door. (Ajummas are a Korean phenomena, basically women working in businesses... they are older, terrifying... it's hard to explain. And in this case, all of the restaurants there had painted ajumma spruiking invasively as the cars crawled along the dense, neon beachfront) All the customers and staff watched with interest, amusement, then horror as the fight quickly became physical: pulling each others; hair; ripping t-shirts; and grinding faces into the wet, fishy gutter. Another highlight!
Whiled away the arvo lying on my Singapore Air blanket reading the beginning of Zen and the Art etc and watching the tide creep in. Also noted the Koreans don't swim at the beach; don't wear swimmers; don't read at the beach; don't use rubbish bins at the beach and don't much play sport at the beach. They do, however, wear high heels on the beach, ignore the smell of piss and shit coming from the toilets; ride around in circles on noisy quad-bikes; fish and cook their fish anywhere in the sand, using noxious smelling accelerants to ignite briquette thingies; and stare stare stare at me.

Felt sad as I was coming home, via the Airport Limousine. Last time I caught it was when I'd just farewelled My Dearest Charlie. It's hard not to think I'm crazy. Anyways. Home. Thanksgiving holidays over and less then a month til I'm in Melbourne.

West Sea Isles

Yeah I had three or more days waking up all wrong and feeling low.
But I think I'm past it... A few good phone calls from home, small sleep-ins, and idle time spent not angsting. I finished The Plague and started reading Fury, by Salman Rushie, which I'll finish today. I haven't checked the reviews of it but I have a feeling it's not regarded as one of his better works, though it is entertaining.
Today I'm gonna embark on an adventure. Steph and I are gonna head to Muuido, a tiny island not far from Seoul. We've made no bookings and speak no Korean and it is the peak holiday time of the year. So we'll see how we go. Yay.

Lots more on my mind but I'm damn inarticulate lately. Hmm.

Wrong Side

Woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Again.
Woke up with a line in my head. Two lines, one from the Mountain Goats, one from Sandon McLeod, nearly identical ::

"spend each night in your arms, always wake up alone"

Check out Steve Smart's mp3 spot and listen to some of the bestest poetry ever.
That's my tip of the day.

Over and out.

Jung Chul

Jung Chul is the name of my school.
Today I finally remembered to take my cameras in to take photos of the rugrats. Of course today was the bestest day to do so, as every single kinder kid wore their hanbok, the traditional getup which is consists of brightly coloured stiff pajama like things. I took photos of the kids clowning around and also playing 'traditional' games like hopscotch and arm wrestling.

And I took photos of Albert, Thomas, Amy and Lisa from E1A elementary class. They are wayyy naughty and obsessed with my boobs. Albert called me an 'angry dinosaur' the first time he met me. I teach them heaps. I have to teach them from a little white 'conversation' book that has 'conversations' like this ::
A: Hello
B: Hello, is Euri there?
A: Yes, she is. Who's calling please?
B: It's Andy, Euri's friend.
A: Hold on, please.
B: Thank-you.
The kids have to rote learn one of these each class. And only one. So that's it for an hour. They hate it. So do I. I spice it up by letting them do it in 'frog' voices, 'monster' voices, etc. Wow.

Anyways, I think the photos give a good sense of my school, the kids, a bit of my life here. I would post more right here but blogger is being a pain, so just go to my album if you want a shot of cuteness.

In other news, one of my kids was apparently on TV on the weekend cos he was playing soccer and some strangers who saw him set up a fan site cos he is so cute! What the....?

Tonight I taught my private lesson out the front of the library cos it was closed due to Chuseok. While I was pressing my pupil on the marketability of low-alcohol soju, my eye caught a movement - A RAT! Just a metre away, wandering around. I JUST READ THE PLAGUE! Why now? Ahhhhhhhhh.

Lazy Sunday

Things I'm thinking about. Websites I've found. Interesting photos. Intriguing histories. More questions than answers.

• The manipulator, Jill Greenberg. A photographer who got in trouble for making children cry for her photos. Ethical? Art?
• Are Jews Smarter? Thinking about this after a friend got spammed with some anti-Arab rant about how many Nobel Prizes Jews have won. Quote: "We’re living in a new golden age of scientism—the idea that there are scientific answers to all human questions. People are so rattled by the speed and complexity of their lives that they need rock-solid certainty. They cannot bear to live inconclusively. Religion provides one definitive answer; science provides another. The important thing for most people is to feel that the way they live is an inevitable outcome."
• The blog of Hongik professor Ahn Sang-soo featuring photos of people covering one eye.
• Uprising and massacre in Korea at Gwangju in 1980. 207 people killed or maybe more when the army opened fire on demonstrators, many students. What was the Carter administrations' role? So many websites with too many opinions. I can't figure it all out.
• Blog of a Finnish PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology at University of Helsinki with great photos, fascinating stuff about Korea.
• Morbid interest in the death of Daniel Smith, Anna Nicole's son. Weird, tragic, awful. Why? Do I care.

Good Morning

Why do I wake up at 7am on a Saturday? Especially when I went to bed at 1am? Especially when the day stretches out before me, weird and empty? So annoying. When it happens, I usually try to go back to sleep, fail, get up and put music on, potter around, fold some clothes, take photos out my window, then go to the pc bang.
Today I thought I was going on a day trip to some lake with JD Whatever, Steph and maybe some other girls. But JD had weirdly disappeared... So, I dunno. Maybe later if he doesn't call, I'll go hang out with Steph. Anyways.
When My Dearest Charlie was here, he read a book. It was The Plague, by Albert Camus. He'd actually started it long ago, and one of the first best memories (and photos) I have of him is him sitting quietly at my place in Eltham reading it while I hurried about, preparing to depart. Anyways, KP kindly leant her copy to him as he was heading to the airport to visit me, and when he finished it, he kindly left it behind for me.
Everyone seems to agree it is a brilliant book, and I really wanted to read it, but Dad cautioned me to wait until the lament of Charlie's departure had eased. So after a pause, I started reading it. Most way through now and golly, genius. And yeah, beautiful. And some humour. So many quotable, all the stuff about love, especially. And ideas put some simply ::
" The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding."

On my way here I noticed all the flags on the lamp-posts. Another series of demonstrations of nationalism. Hmm. I feel so removed from it. When I was in Lithuania I felt so much more connected to these happenings, cos I was studying cultural anthropology and ethno-nationalism. But here, I understand less.

Lyrics for the morning come courtesy of The Shins, and my brother Jack, who gave me the CD ::

Eyeless in the morning sun you were
Pale and mild, a modern girl
Taken with thought, still prone to care
Makin tea in your underwear

Thanks

Next week is 'Thanksgiving' here in Korea. Actually, it's Chuseok. So that means a lil holiday for me and lots of rice cakes for everyone. Yay. Dunno what I'll do with the time off but Steph and I are working on a plan. It might involve catching a train to the coast, or it could just be shoe-shopping in Seoul. Hmm.

Last night I met up with Steph, and as we were walking to a new! cute! bar! I saw a men's jewellery store that I thought was one Ethan has recommended. So I thought I'd best check it out as I'm currently in the market for some men's jewellery. As I stepped in to the store, though, a guy came out from behind the counter and said 'This store is for men only, so you must leave'. I was taken aback: 'I'm looking for a gift for a male, can I not have a look?'. The reply 'No, it's the store concept, you must leave, you can come back with a male.' Steph and I stepped out of the store and I stood on the step and asked 'Can you recommend another jewellery store?'. The answer: 'No'.

We needed a drink. Badly. After this.
The basement bar she took me to had nice low chairs, some terrible art, good tunes and a LIBRARY with maybe $10000 worth of THE BEST ART BOOKS ever, for customer's perusing pleasure. And the bestest magazine rack. I'm soooo going to while away my hours there.

T-shit of the day was on a student. Bright pink with a hood, puffy sleeves, teddy bear print and in big gold lettering ::

O'lord you
BESTOW GLORY ON ME
AND LIFT UP MY HEAD

My Cup Runneth Over

It's happening! My brother Jack turns 21 on the day that stops a nation. And so I wanna be there, with him, in Melbourne. And so I will. I've just booked a ticket home for the first week of November - arriving the morning of my Dadda's birthday, in time for the PARTY THAT STOPS A NATION, then leaving the following Saturday.

Things I wanna do:

• kiss
• hug
• drive
• breathe Eltham air
• eat scones
• drink good coffee
• bask in the sun
• hold babies
• buy sexy undies
• celebrate birthdays
• go op shopping
• party like it's 1985
• just be and talk with my peeps and my fam

Oh my. So excited.

Japan Down!

Walking through the subway Charlie and I saw a poster for a disaster movie - we wondered what it was and looked for some English and were shocked to see the website was www.japan-down.co.kr ::

I assumed it was some anti-Japanese creation of the Koreans. I shouldn't have. It's a Japanese filum called 'The Sinking of Japan' and the synopsis kinda goes like this: Japan has just received its death sentence. In less than a year, the island nation will sink! Earthquakes, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions roil the country, leaving millions dead and stranded. Japan’s only hope lies with one plan… and one man!

It opened at number one in the Korean box office and took US$3.2 million here in its first four days. Not bad.

Random word of the day:: onomastics: the study of naming and proper names. I was reading about Korean names and how the popular names change each generation. And I learnt a new word.

Oh yeah. And I went to the Prom party with Ethan last night. This is us all dressed up and excited about going. And this is me today in the gear I was gonna wear to the Prom but just wore today for no reason instead.

Juicy Bunny Slope

Yep, yesterday I saw some shit::
JUICY
BUNNY
SLOPE

Terrible. Also saw that a street food vendor had an anti-FTA petition. Hmm.

Also saw the shit that I wanna buy for KP - which says something about a lost dog which answers to TOBY. Ah perfect.

So last night I bought a skirt for this Prom thing that I'm Ethan's date for tonight. Then I spent 2 hours painting my nails a weird opaque blue colour. The picture shows my stupid nails, the skirt and the Singapore Airlines blanket that Dearest Darling Charlie was kind enuff to steal for me on his way over. Nice.

Today I've been reading up on parecon. Ever heard of it? Am I the last to know? It's the funky abbreviation for 'participatory economics', which was developed as an alternative to capitalist market economics.

Why has this song been in my head on PERMANENT ROTATION FOR WEEKS even though I haven't actually heard it for years n years?

Picture yourself on a train in a station,
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle,
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes.

Thanks Lennon n McCartney, for that foolishness.

Ohhh it's the most beautiful day outside. I'm gonna try to find a lunch date, go for a walk, take a book, work on my tan (freckles).

Hung, drawn

I've been here 3 months now. That's a quarter of my way through my contract. Christmas is the half-way mark.

So in three months I have::

• fallen in love;
• got 3 pairs of pants taken in;
• worn stilettos to work;
• written about 60 postcards;
• sweated more than I thought possible;
• had my first coldsore;
• taken photos I'm happy with;
• affected an American accent day-in, day-out;
• made some very good friends;
• rocked out;
• eaten kilos of kimchi;
• heaps of other shit.

Guess I feel good about my life here. 'Specially since Charlie the One and Only came to visit, this place feels good. I'm not feeling as lonely and now my kinder classes all have textbooks so my teaching is easier. I've found a place that prints my photos how I like. I know my neighbourhood better and better, and have started running into neighbours and students, which is nice. Still don't know much Korean but I learn little bits everyday.

Hmm.

Another day I may write a list of all the shit I miss at home and all the shit I hate about here. Heh heh.

Blown Away

One of my students was sporting a new tshit today; navy, with jeans appliqued on. He's about 13, has braces and an attitude. His shit::

KNOW THE FUTURE
READ THE PAST
BLOW AWAY
THE DARK CLOUDS
AND WALK
THE AIR
HIGHWAY
LOOKING FOR
A
WORLD
OF
DELIGHT

Maybe it's private, but... I think Charlie is right when he says Mr Jose Gonzalez is spot on with these lyrics::

Ten days of perfect hues
The colors red and blue
We had a promise made
We were in love

Also, my solitude ended on Sunday when I met up with Ethan and his lovely mate for lunch and some tomb-spotting. Dunno why but the whole day stunk like fish. Just got worse. Anyways, all was good and I had some yummy tofu lunch and then cast an eye over some martyrs tombs. Zenit came so photos later. But! My Zenit album has been updated with photos from the previous month - the lake trip, randoms, chairs, My Dear Charlie, etc.

Still Life

Been meaning to post this still life from my place for a while now.
It's the wall above my bedhead. On the left is my fabulous map of the world that has been keeping me entertained for 2 years. Next is some funny car perfume thing that Ethan brought me back from San Fran. Then, the blue bag that I take to work everyday - which actually belongs to KP, and can be traced back to the Australia Centre at the Uni of Melbourne. Up top is a postcard from KP, of the amazing Federation Square. This came in her care package to me. Yay. Then there is a black-and-white postcard from Samos, written by JCW from the idyll of the Aegean, which cracks me up everytime I read it. And makes me sick with jealousy.

Also, one of my students was wearing a tracksuit that had French on it. Mine is rusty and I think there might be some non-words but can anyone reliably translate... something about would you like to dance with me? ::

Se prendre dami tie pour on voulez vous danser avec moi?

Anyways, I think it's safe to say that the tracksuit is actually a trackshit.

So I have spent the past 40 hours by myself. And it's been ok. The solitude has been pleasantly interrupted by phone calls from JD Whatever, Ethan, Oh My Goodness Charlie! and... Ilona! What a wonderful surprise to answer my phone and hear Amsterdam calling. It's been more than 2 years since I left Europe, well over 2 years since I saw Ilona in Holland. I have so many good memories of the time I spent with her in Vilnius, and Minsk, and on the roadtrip from Kreuzberg to Huizen. And she inspires me about life and the world. Definitely makes me want to be in Europe next summer. She threatened to bundle me into a car, and drive across the Alps to Slovenia. Wonderful.

69: Two Girls and Dead Fish

There's a few tiny restaurants in my street which I never stop at or consider eating at. One has a tank out the front full of seafood to choose for dinner. It changes, and today I noticed it had some prawns swimming around and some small silver dead fish floating. Yuk.
Then I remembered that JD Whatever told me the place was called 69: Two Girls and was disgusted all over again. A crappy fish restaurant with 5 tables with a dirty name. Yuk.

Been reading and thinking and learning some stuff. Just random.

I have a Bladerunner soudtrack CD, with 'Vangelis' written on it. I like the CD, it was cheap, and it is funny and atmospheric. But I never knew what 'Vangelis' was. Well, 'it' is an old Greek guy, who scored Bladerunner and Chariots of Fire and... erm... Mythodea, a piece that was used by NASA as the theme for the Mars Odyssey mission. How do you get a gig like that?

Any Mussolini fans out there? What about fans of the nutty Italian fascist-era architecture? I wanna go to EUR, aka The Esposizione Universale Roma. It's just 15 minutes on the subway from the Colosseum, and is a 420-acre complex, built in 1935 as a symbol of the success of fascism the world. It was never fully realised, owing to the interruption of that was World War II, and then the eventually the collapse of Mussolini's regime in 1943. It's an example of the utopia the fascists wished to contruct... with large, symmetrical streets and austere buildings, inspired by ancient Roman architecture, or Rationalism, and built in limestone, tuff and marble.

Lyric of the morning::
"God does not need Abraham, God can raise children from stones."
Thanks, John Darnielle. Again.

Tea for Two

Ohhh yeah. There's some tea and rice snacks... for Charlie and I... Served variously on polystyrene and my journal... On the corner of my bed. I think it's clear from this picture that life can indeed be very sweet.

In other news, yesterday I saw a t-shit - black and red striped with big white messy letters - which said 'Free The West Memphis 3'. Intriguing.When I had a look-see on the intermenet, I learned that Eddie Vedder also sports this t-shit sometimes. The three are three guys who were convicted of killing three 8-year olds. There is a campaign to free them as it's reckoned there was a miscarriage of justice and the three are innocent. Hmmm.

FTA and DMZ

Last week Charlie and I went to North Korea... But didn't go in.
I really want to write a proper post but doubt I will.
Suffice to say it was one of the feckin weirdest days of my life, where parody was overlaid with irony all wrapped up in some old-skool propaganda. It's hard to imagine a more ridiculous situation, let alone a way I could feel good about paying US$40 for the experience.
Things I 'learnt' about on the tour - hosted by the USO ::

• The North are the baddies;
• We are free and safe in ROK;
• The North engage in brainwashing;
• PowerPoint presentations need to be timed perfectly;
• My illegible signature written in pencil is worthy;
• The North Koreans hack people to death with axes;
• There are North Koreans working in factories owned by South Koreans;
• In the very near future Korea will be reunified and the DMZ will be the bestest nature reserve.
• Oh, and this I found just now by accident. Erm?

Ok, and the FTA. At the moment ROK and their friends the USA are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement. Remember when Australia did the same? So I've seen anti-FTA protesters on the TV, but also protesters in my suburb. They had an amplifier and about 4 smartly-dressed people handing out well-produced fliers to passers-by. If only I could read it. Instead I looked at the cartoons, which showed a fat exploitative USA ripping apart ROK. Anyways, need to learn more on this cos I think it will be the topic for my next lesson with my boss' husband, Eric.

We had our first meeting tonight - at the Korean version of McDonald's, Lotteria. Didn't buy any food but just sat upstairs and talked. It's gonna be hard. His English is very very good - he has a senior position in a big (evil) multinational and does ALL his written work in English. Just wants to be able to argue his case to his CEO and field questions after his budget PowerPoints with aplomb. He came prepared with a topic - 9-11. Great. So I pressed him on the Korean attitudes on related topics such as: compulsory voting; risk management; invisible hands; single-term presidents; etc.

And.
Spoke to JC and Dad today, which was excellent...
Of course I miss Charlie, but the sweet love is making the separation easier to bear (not easy).
And of course I'll get on top of my emails soon.
And Britters had a baby! Again! She's a machine!

Time to Get Lonely

Ok so I feel like a definition of 'bereft'.
Think of Geoffrey Rush in Lantana when he uses the word.

But I can also be the live version of the Mountain Goats song 'Half Dead' ::

Can't get you
Out of my head
Lost without you
Half dead

Took my spot at the window
looked at the road
Dots and dashes of traffic
Like a message in code

But there is also so much more.
Charlie's flying high above us, flying home to Melbourne, and I'm here... Washing to do, classes to teach, life to get on with, new plans to make...



We had an unbelievable 10 daze together and did so much wonderful stuff. Yesterday I had the privilege of introducing Charlie to the work of Mark Rothko, one of the best Jews ever produced by Latvia. There was a small retrospective here in Seoul at a very beautiful gallery. It showed Rothko's final painting, and a few of his very large 'colour field abstractions'. Charlie said he felt giddy. Later I thought the feeling of falling in love is like the feeling of falling through/into the emotions in Rothko's best works.

Saturday it rained. Charlie had been so lucky and had fine but cooler weather. But he wanted it to rain so he could get the full Bladerunner effect of Seoul. Voila! And we had scheduled a walk up the hill near my house. So we ignored the rain and walked (apart from the stairs which Charlie had to sprint!). Amazing. We saw many scary spiders, some very cute critters scurrying about, and an old lady being piggybacked from a small farm by some ambulancemen. And I could show Charlie what I meant by 'outdoor gym'.

Friday and Sunday night we pretty much stayed in, but Saturday we had dinner with Ahri and Ahrong and then raced to FF to see Nunco for my 5th time. Again, so glad Charlie was there so he could witness the goodness first hand. Ethan came and he's blogged all about how great they played, and the other 2 bands on that night. I invited my new K-friends and they were a hit, loved the music and danced up a storm. I tried to stay off the dance floor (for obvious reasons) but had strangers asking me to dance with them so it was hard to stay cool.

Still Joyful

Hi everyone. Sorry I didn't reply to your emails. And thanks for your posts.
I've been really busy... And really really happy.
It's been the bestest week ever.
Really.
It's all about love. It's all about joy. It's all about Charlie.



Each day I've had to leave him in the mornings to go to work... Then have met him for my 2-hour break... Then had to leave him again for my afternoon elementary classes. Each time it kills me. So I dunno how I'll go on Monday when it's goodbye for who knows how long.

Anyways, a list-in-progress ::

• We went to the DMZ Tuesday, saw North Korea, and lots of Americans;
• Ate lots of barbequed meat and one little speckled egg;
• Listened to Paul Simon and my new CDs, the Shins and Mountain Goats;
• Saw the gorgeous Steph on her birthday and drank tasty white zinfandel;
• Drank rosemary wine in a huge weird bar called Cafe Orchard Mama;
• Got offered more work;
• Thought about the Macedonian flag;
• How small is Rwanda?
• I wanna go to those islands above Scandanavia;
• Stuff, kisses, more stuff, a lot more kisses.

She trails off....

It's All About Love

Hard to know where to start.
This is just a quick post to advise that all is well in paradise.

Oh Charlie.




We have actually left my apartment, thankyouverymuch.
And today - horror - we had to seperate so I could come to work.
Charlie has been pointed in the direction of an outdoor gym, and headed off with his asics on and an energy drink in hand.

Had the best. weekend. ever.
Oh my. We've done a fair bit of touristy stuff, yesterday went downtown, showed Charlie a statue of an impressive guy, however, more impressive was the fact that some important person was also looking at the statue so there was maybe 50 armoured trucks lining the street and hundreds of armed police around... great. We went to the World Press Photo show - amazing - heartbreaking - then went and sat by a stream and watched the kids play and the mums drop mobile phones in the water. Was truly happy. Walked to Insadong and saw some Joseon era re-enactments and drank delicious tea in the tea house with birds flying about (and loud yanks yakking).
Anyways, Charlie seems to like the place. Loves the food, is trying to speak as much Korean as me, loves the barely legals at bar nabi, likes the beer, likes the snacks, the subway...

My Conquest

He's flying to meet me.

I woke up at 6am... Excited. The sun had turned the villas on the hill pink.

Just 4 kinder classes and then a 90-minute bus ride... We'll be bumping teeth in no time!

Erm.

Lists

I see KP has started to list the things she wishes to blog about, a fascinating technique that I am wont to use from time to time.

Herewith my list ::

• CHARLIE TIME!
• Who orders the alphabet?
• I learnt 16 K-characters and read my first sign;
• Someone special told me they're 80% gay;
• Odyssey to the seamstress and my newly adjusted pants;
• Cool/cute/boring/late stuff in the mail;
• On July 1, 2004, more Australian children were born than on any other single date in the past thirty years;
• New K-friends as of last night;
• 'Hostile' architecture;
• My ongoing crush on the school photographer (female, Korean, 40, butch, hilarious);
• Trip to the science museum today;
• Thanks to the guardian angels/management/farewell committee who have facilitated my happiness in so many ways.

A Little Prayer

The moment I wake up
Before I put on my makeup
I say a little prayer for you
While combing my hair, now,
And wondering what dress to wear, now,
I say a little prayer for you

Thanks, Burt and Hal.
Thanks, LTR, for all my mix CDs. Especially the first one.

Well I found out yesterday what my boss' husband wants help with - I've been asked to give him private Engrish lessons on the down-low (it's illegal). Sweet. Pocket money.

Had an epic dream where my mum's cousin was tracing our family history back to the Mongols. Erm?

Hurt one of my students yesterday by acidently dragging a fingernail along the inside of her arm when I picked her up during a game of 'duck-duck-goose'... I'm waiting for the parents to turn up with a demand for cash. Shit.

Oh! And! 4636 minutes to go!

Marginally Better

Still in a bad mood but ::

• TLoh called me and was cute and funny last night;
• Charlie;
• Interesting stuff happens out my window;
• Spoke to Jack;
• Thinking about a poem by Sandon that is in my head always;
• "Oh my morning's coming back. The whole world's waking up." Thanks, Bright Eyes.

Also, the rain has returned to Seoul. Rained a bit here but in Central Seoul it was more serious ::

Bad Mood

In in a bad mood. Such a bad mood that the puter crashed.

There's a few reasons, including the fact that I promised myself I'd stay in this weekend. And that is so boring. Also I promised myself I'd study Korean. And that is so boring.

So, on my mind tonight ::

• Korean false messiahs, especially Jeong Myeong-Seok aka the Korean Sex Messiah
• Chaebols, especially Lotte
• Anomie as an economic force (which creates chaebols)
• The Beauty likes Pomegranate
• TLoh
• Toby's post on Kiva

Delegation

So yesterday I went home early, as I said, I napped, I talked on the phone, etc.
I planned to go into town and see Pix so I could get some books and stuff from her and say goodbye.
But my boss called, to check how I was. To get a list of my symptoms so she could go to the pharmacy for me. To ask what foods I wanted so she could bring me some after work. WTF?
I madly straightened my room up. Oganised someone to meet Pix as I couldn't call cos she's surendered her phone. Then received a delegation bearing porridge (with 4 side dishes) a huge cake, some pills (?) and some sachets of disgusting granuals. Sweet jesus. We all sat on the floor while they watched me eat. It was intense.

Today I'm still crook, though I've dragged myself to work to supervise some colouring-in. Very glad it's the weekend, and this weekend won't be crazy. No Pix, no Ethan. Want to save my won for Charlie's visit too.

First and Last

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Today I woke feeling a bit deadly. I had an energy drink, two bananas and listened to OutKast. Tried to get myself together for work. I'd had a leeetle bit of a late night farewelling Pix, but I felt deadly. I think the kid's snots are contagious.
Made it to 12 then told my boss I was going home. Honestly couldn't face teaching Brown Class at 12.30 after crying on Tuesday when they were mean and then having my boss come in and whip them yesterday when they wouldn't shuddap.
So came home, spilt chocolate milk everywhere, read some more of Overland. Called Charlie. Called Mum. Mum leaves Turkey today to head back to our little house. I reminded her of Spicks and Specks and now she is excited about coming home. Ha ha.

First sick day.
Last day of Pix in Korea.

Thanks to my mate, Leonard, for the lyrics.

Blanket Confessions

Ok, admit it. You've stolen airline blankets before - pretended they were complimentary like the eye masks. Slipped it in your carry-on. I know I have. Two small blue blankets have adorned my bed at home for years - one stolen from United Airlines back in 2002, the other from British Airways back in 2003. I love them. Money couldn't buy them.
Anyways, some loser (aka 'repentant passenger') has returned a blanket he 'accidently' stole from Korean Air. With an apology note. And this made the news here. Sweet jesus. Read all about it then 'fess up and tell me which blankets you stole from which airlines. Yeahhh.

Morning Sadness

Last night I had an epic dream. Actually this morning. I pressed snooze for 20 minutes cos I wanted to find out what happened. It was full on. And the first thing I remembered was that it featured The Canaries. And Nicholson Street. I was trying to direct my boss from Melbourne to Toby's house. Dunno why. But we were getting lost - coming from North Fitzroy to North Carlton. I called the Boy Canary and he was telling me all sorts of useless stuff about the lie of the land in Carlton and how is is deceptively flat. It was very frustrating. We eventually parked out the front of some big old unfamilar house.
That was all I could remember for a while. But then it dawned on me that it also featured Otto. I've had a lot of dreams about him. It is so upsetting. It's so real and so heartbreaking. He was coming home to this house, we were parked out the front. I was in the back seat. I think now Jack was with me. Otto looked early teens, was wearing a schoolbag. I think Jack gave him a hug. We were very surprised to see him.

Anyways. I guess it's better to remember him, see what he looks like than not at all.

Forgot to say I saw the best ever rainbow. Truly. It was a huge arc, and as I watched, a second one appeared within it. I was standing on a roof at the beginning of a hill. It was so beautiful. The sky was really dark and the air was just right.

Curiously Uneven Blessings

I think I may use a paraphrasing of John Kenneth Galbraith's as much as possible. In my care package from KP was a copy of Overland, which looked strangely familiar... Then I remembered I had done something of a proof when sitting at Dante's. Ahhh. Anyways, it's about the Australian ugliness, and there's a bit of Boyd, a bit of Galbraith. I loved the idea of 'the curious unevenness of their blessings', which comes from this passage in The Affluent Society ::

"The family which takes its mauve and cerise, air-conditioned, power-steered, and power-braked car out for a tour passes through cities that are badly paved, made hideous by litter, blighted buildings, billboards, and posts for wires that should long since have been put underground. They pass on into a countryside which has been rendered largely invisible by commercial art... They picnic on exquisitely packaged food from a portable icebox by a polluted stream and go on to spend the night at a park which is menace to public health and morals. Just before dozing off on an air-mattress, benath a nylon tent, amid the stench of decaying refuse, they may reflect vaguely on the curious unevenness of their blessings."

I think my Zenit is a curiously uneven blessing. Oh the joy. So I've posted the most recent photos from it in my Zenit folder. And here's one for you, taken on the hill behind where I live.

Joy Post

Ok I'm hungover today but I'm not a bit melancholy. I have a joy post to write. That is, a post that's all about joy, all full of joy and goodness.
Yesterday I listed all the things that made me joyful - it's a long list that also has a couple of thank-yous. Then last night I went out and saw 3 really fun punk bands and I experienced EVEN MORE JOY. So good. We went to DGBD to see Nunco Cobein but they had 2 bands before then, Cool Age and Star Bow, both of which were SO CUTE and SO FUN. The club is really small but everyone was standing up, there was skankin' happenin' and it was all about love. Pix mobbed the lead singer of Nunco Cobein and I told him I was stalking him. Great.

I took a buncha photos, including ones of the great sunset over Hongik University, and some stencil art and Vilnius-style graffitti.

My joy list goes like this (in random, joyful order) ::

• * I received a care package from KP, completely brimming with kisses and cool thoughful wonderful stuff like books, postcards, magazines, clothes. Oh. My. Wonderful. Day. Thank-you!
• * I received a postcard from LTR in Turkey which appeared to be written by someone else - some relaxed and happy holiday boy. Wonderful. Thank-you. And I eagerly await my personalised 'Best of Rod' album.
• * Yesterday was a birthday party at work. We have them every month. It means I only teach 2 of my 5 kinder classes and I get to eat fried chicken and drink pepsi max all morning. Check out the table laden with treats, yum... So many rice cakes!
• * I have a little crush on the lesbian photographer who comes to shoot all the events at school. I asked her for copies of the photos which I am in - I have to pose with the birthday kids - and she said 'Ok, no chargie, service'. Excellent. I love her.
• * The kids were all ok yesterday and I didn't have to yell at all. Or stamp my feet - my usual method of getting their attention. This alone will make for a good day.
• * I made lots of jokes with my students about the silly ones drinking soju and we all thought this was hilarious.
• * Feckin. PERFECT WEATHER. Seriously, beautiful. From my window yesterday morning I could see someone was drying chilis in the street. Sun shining, blue sky, no humidity, a breeze. Best weather yet. Today is the same but I'm hungover. Shit.
• * My Ma was in the newspaper for her poetry reading in Turkey.
• * Z tells me Otta knows his alphabet. Genius beautiful child.
• * Thinking about Charlie and the most amazing 9 days.
• * Thinking about Charlie and our future memories. Joy.

History

I know there are some things more important - like language study and maths or whatever, but seriously - HISTORY! Is it possible to consider NOT making its' teaching compulsory? I'm so shocked. And don't people know that history is not History? School history studies were so inadequate when I was at school - particularly Australian and Asian history - I would just have assumed it was better now. It's critical that kids leave school knowing the history of their area, their culture, language, and their nation. Sweet jesus.

Also - rant over - here's a reason to walk home - two guys in a computer shop having a thumb war. So funny. They were laughing so hard. And I bumped into a Dad from my school. He is the only Dad I know - he wrote me a letter asking me to give special attention to his kid whose English (and Korean) is hopeless. His kid has a perm and frequently wears micro shorts to kinder. No kidding.

Thunder

Can't believe I forgot to say that I saw Thunder in Ilsan!
Thunder, which is 'chundung' in Korean, is the name of a horse that stars in a new Korean movie called 'Lump of Sugar'. I've seen the posters of a smiling girl and a horse around the place. Never could have dreamed I'd be lucky enough to see the horse for real. Thunder had a tiny jockey in silks atop it as it paraded through the Ilsan shopping mall and posed for photos.

There's a few changes to my working life. Basically, more work. Longer hours.
Next week I begin my extra teaching class which will comprise my colleagues here at the school, all the kinder and elementary teachers - who are themselves Engrish teachers. Twice a week I'm to facilitate an hour-long 'class' at 6.30pm where all us ladies will sit around and talk in Engrish... About what? I have no idea. I will need to come up with something. And snacks, too.

And - does anyone remember Pong Su?
I'm gonna read up on it so I don't get my facts wrong. But it was a North Korean boat that got busted bringing heaps of heroin to Australia - Lorne, actually. Twas extra contraversial cos they reckon one of the guys on the boat was part of the North Korean government. No-one was convicted, but the Australian military destroyed the boat by bombing it (what?!). The Koreans and others on the boat faced trial and were deported. It made me think - did they spend time in Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre? Probably.

Push Your Luck

Liberation Day's best t-shit was the above. But there were more. This one is just for Richard Watts.

Today I saw ::
Nature to
nearbysoon

Excellent.
So yesterday, I went to Ilsan, finished my book on the way. Looked out the windows one we left the underground and saw fields, horses, low-rise building and mountains galore. JD eventually met me and we drove to another lettuce restaurant. Strange thing - no kimchi - and that night, I had (pine nut) porridge and there was no kimchi either. It really felt wrong.
It was sooo hot yesterday and JD and I walked around the artificial lake in Ilsan and nearly expired. I was entertained by the masses of Dads on mini motorbikes giving their kids dinks around the park - HOONING! What a great way to celebrate Liberation Day.
Anyways, I was shit yesterday. Emotionally worn out and just walking in circles on Struggle Street. I should have gone home a lot earlier than I did. Sorry to all those who crossed my path. But then when I did get home JD spotted a couch abandoned in the street by my apartment.... We dragged it up and installed it in my *cubicle* of an apartment. So now HALF of my furniture are street refugees that I've dragged in. Must admit it looks more like a home now.

Took some photos on my camera but they're shitty (of course, cos I was shitty). But JD's camera has some gems on it... Need to get them.

Anyways, the last post I think I made one very brief statement about Australian politics and it generated quite a response. Notably from people perceiving the absence of alternative leaders as some sort of confirmation that Howard is the one and only for Australia. Erm? And from people who think that the results from the past 3 Federal election are somehow unarguable. Erm? It's clear that one of the greatest changes the Howard decade has affected is that of a shift of mindset, to a new culture where we don't imagine that a better life is possible, a life where we channel our energies into complaints about petrol prices, tax types, and interest rates, and into xenophobic negativity about asylum seekers, terrorists and muslims. But all of this is not seen/portrayed as within Howard's sphere of influence. Ahhh... I trail off.

And! Joy! 24323 minutes to go!

Liberation Day

Walking home today a truck caught my eye on the other side of the road. Two young guys were in the tray at the back, one standing, one sitting. They were hanging flags from the streetlights as tomorrow is Liberation Day in Korea. On 15 August 1945, Korea was liberated from Japan after 35 years of colonial rule. After the atomic bombs were dropped and World War II ended, the Japanese surrendered and Korea gained its independence. The Soviet Union and the U.S. agreed to oversee the Japanese surrender of forces in both the north and south, respectively, and the Republic of Korea was formed, also on August 15, in 1948.

Ok. So there's a lot on my mind but I thought that was worthy.
In my ignorance, it seems that lots of Koreans will still be eating in the plethora of Japanese restaurants this week, as every other week. And Korea will carry on living divorced from itself.

So other things on my mind.... I haven't done a wrap-up of my weekend... Let's just say I went to a medieval fish den, back to Jazz Story, argued about etymology of Barely Legal, played word games at the Camel place, passed the morning in the company of beautiful women who played the piano, went to a sauna and sat in a 44 degree pool, then powernapped on the floor along with 300 Koreans, went to a Filipino street market, a 6 storey romantic cafe with hosts of cinderella waitresses and all you can drink sweet teas.

Quote from the brilliant book (A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian) that I'm reading too fast and will finish tomorrow on the train to Ilsan ::
'But this is all in the past, Nadia. Why do you have such a bourgeois preoccupation with personal history?'
'Because it's important... it defines... it helps us understand... because we can learn... Oh, I don't know.'

Joy at the news that Howard dropped the bill that would have meant all asylum seekers arriving in Australia would be sent to other Pacific island countries for 'offshore' processing.

Some other Charlie, who said 'Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky'.

The one and only Charlie, who tells me there's 26013 minutes left of the countdown. (Kisses)


PS. How to celebrate Liberation Day? How about taking to the streets with posters reading : “A curse on U.S. imperialism!” and chanting “Let us trust in the Korean people’s own virtues!”

On my mind

Of course, after I thought of happy stuff to list, more came to mind. And staying in last night, my mind was abuzz. I have a new column on my side-bar called 'Weltenschaung' which is supposed to list the stuff I'm thinking about. But it changes so often. How can I keep up? So these are part of my Weltenschaung today ::

• Mayor Bloomberg saying the secret weapon in the war on terror is 'courage';
• The lyric 'the scene ends badly as you might imagine, in a cavalcade of anger and fear' from the The Mountain Goats;
• Getting a text from a girl in my building saying I could swap my 4th floor apartment for hers on the 13th floor;
• The French neighbourhood in Seoul, where 539 French people live and streets sign are in French and named after places like 'Montmartre';
• The French guy who lived in this suburb and last week found two dead babies in his freezer - the babies are his;
• Complete absence of irony in Korea;
• Rodeo Street in Apgujeong as evidence of the complete lack of irony;
• The Lithuanian government has declared a state of emergency in the agricultural sector due to a severe drought;
• Happy to have Ethan back;
• Russia, Russian, Ukraine, Ukrainian;
• More grisly news from Korea - an army conscript shoots two high-ranking officers before attempting suicide - the father of one of the dead told the media: 'Right before he went into the Army we went to the public bath together and I washed him from head to foot.'

*Credit where credit is due :: I stole the Weltenschaung idea from Toby's Zeitgeist idea. Ok.

Pink

Dear diary,

Please remember, on days like this, things that make you happy here. There are little things - and sometimes big things - everywhere, that make my heart sing or smile.

• A student cutting out some cutie paper from her girly magazine to give to me so I can use it as notepaper with a matching homemade envelope. That was great.
• A student giving me some bit of squashed rice treat from her pocket.
• Finally stopping at the market near work and buying some random sweet and discovering they are really tasty.
• Best thing today - going to the photo shop and being greeted BY NAME even though I've only had 2 filums processed there. The greeter was a teenage guy in FLUORO trucker cap over his long gelfling mullet, and -wait for it- baby pink oversize t-shirt and baby pink oversize long shorts. Gold bling. Great English.
• Getting free drinks at Nabi even when Pix isn't with me. Excellent. That bar has a HOST of cuties staffing it and I've managed to get in favour with 2 of the Barely Legal Girls - in the absence of the Barely Legal Boys, who are rocking Japan for a whole fortnight.

Yeah maybe it's the little things.
But the last few days I've been struggling so that's enough to keep me truckin'.
Oh, and the full moon on Wednesday. Amazing.
And the poems Ma has sent me from Turkey. Oh yeah.
And it's ONLY 30466 minutes to go.
And this 'definition' of Barely Legal Magazine is funny. So was JD's face when I told him BL is a porn expression.

oh and

34843 minutes to go

drenalin

Today's best t-shit ::

[front]
drenalin

[back]
CURTAINS TORN
STAGE INVASION
MIRRORS BROKEN
MIC THROWN
DRUM K STOLEN
IT MUST BE

Love this shit. I reckon kp will like it too - makes me think of Heaf.

So tonight I was supposed to be having a gym & curry night at Ryan's but he's cancelled on me cos the poor bastard has to work. Not too sure if I'm ready for the gym anyways. Of course I was ready for the curry. Weirdly, a taste of home.

My boss told me today I'd be starting from 9.40am now, instead of 10.15. I will now have a break from 12:30 to 2:30 every day, which is good. I think. I will be able to do something, whereas previously I had two 45-minute breaks thirty minutes apart, which was annoying.

I wore my new top to work today - I bought it from a t-shit stand in the street by work for $5. No stupid print, oversize white buttons and blue polka dots. But the key feature is its lack of sleeves, which I thought was controversial, as there's a bit of a dress code. Pix advised me against wearing it and told me she was sent home from her school and told to change. Anyways, no complaints. One student who is in kinder looked at me admiringly and said 'teacher! new!' and pointed at my top - A SEVEN YEAR OLD BOY. 'Thanks, Benjamin'.

A new student came in today and my boss told me her name was 'Abril', and I said that was unfortunate as it was obviously supposed to be 'April' but someone cocked up. My boss replied 'but I thought it was a pretty name'... She had chosen it for the student... Foot in mouth, I explained, any name is a fine name but people might get confused because 'April' is more common. She then printed a list of girl's names from the internet and I went through and told her to avoid names like 'Winifred', 'Silvester' and 'Gertrude'. Sweet jesus.

Still hot as hell in Seoul. Damn.

Oh, and I always knew London sucked. Now I have real evidence: Stephen Bayley, an art critic and journalist submitted a to the Conservative Party's policy group focusing on quality of life. It said, in part: "Putting 10 million aggressive hominids into close proximity and inviting them to engage in serial acts of competitive individualism ... for jobs, schools or parking spaces, could not be considered a reasonable idea... You put rats in claustrophobic circumstances and they become homosexual, murderous and cannibalistic in no time at all. Instead humans find ingenious solutions, underground car parks, coffee shops, Chinese takeaways, one man buses, cycle lanes, tall buildings."

Tag Dag

Ages ago KP tagged me to do this thing. Finally I did it ::

four jobs i have had in my life:
a] assistant secretary to the vice-chancellor
b] executive assistant to the pro vice-chancellor
c] video ezy chick
d] engrish teacher

four movies i could watch over and over:
a] chopper
b] the breakfast club
c] terminator
d] labyrinth

four places i have lived:
a] eltham
b] acton
c] vilnius
d] cheolsan

four television shows i love to watch:
a] the bill
b] oz
c] law and order
d] 7.30 report

four places i have holidayed:
a] tassie
b] minsk
c] france
d] california

four sites i visit daily:
a] path of most resistance
b] fully functional android
c] la trobe university credit cooperative
d] the age

four of my favourite things to eat:
a] doritos
b] mango
c] poached eggs on sourdough
d] rice pudding

four places i would rather be right now:
a] with charlie at my house in eltham
b] ici in fitzroy eating brekky
c] in my car driving to healesville
d] drinking in vilnius

four people to tag:
abcd] my mates have already done it. i'm slow.

Build a Fort, Set it on Fire

A salute, to Jeffrey Wright.
I think he might be the black Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Is that racist?
Anyways.

The fact that his back catalogue includes Homocide: Life on the Street is enough for me.
However, it just gets better. He played Basquiat in the eponymous filum. He was brilliant in Syriana, and in Broken Flowers. Both really interesting movies... And he is really compelling and convincing on screen.

Erm - he has a BA in Political Science, nice.


ps. 37509 minutes to go.

Happy Birthday Boys

Had some very happy moment last night as I climbed outta the hole I was in from Friday night's craziness. Pix's friend Ryan came back from a lil trip to PRC with a big bottle of Grey Goose vodka and invited us to come help drink it and have a swim in the rooftop pool of the hotel he calls home. I didn't need to drink, but the swim was great. The sky was so beautiful... Moon shining as the sun showed us a very nice sunset. We sat in the jacuzzi, people-watching, chatting, relaxing. As I walked around the space I had a moment of feeling very happy.
But later, down in Ryan's apartment, just after he played 'You're the Voice', all I could think about was 194 and the fact I wasn't at the Rose boy's 21st. So I called that familiar number, had a chat with LTR, JC and then Jack! Who'd turned up very fashionably late, of course. LTR was serving up dumplings as he was talking to me and the whole scene sounded happy and fun. Nearly killed me. Luckily JC had a few gags for me - she'd just been on the decks and had spun 'You're the Voice' - seriously - and her dulcet tones were exactly what I needed to hear. I do need to stop making these kind of calls though- I'm yet to get a phone bill so I've no idea how much they cost me.
Anyways there came a point (after a swimsuit shoot - not sure if I should post those photos) when Pix and I thought a taxi was a good option - rather than head out, head home. Lovely cab driver switched on a massage thingy in my seat so I got a weird mechanical massage as we sped westward to my home. Was the first time I'd not waited for the subway but got a taxi - I think I should do it more often now that I know it's less than $15 from Hongdae-ish.
Now my brief 'summer vacation' is over so it's back to the kids tomorrow, sweet jesus. But I'm on the countdown to Charlie's visit, so that will make it easier. Yay. It definitely feels like I've been here for longer than 7 weeks. Hmm.

Wrong

What could be the reason that justifies this?
Casinos here are 'foreigners-only'.
Not that I will ever go there, not that I'm dismayed I can't meet locals while I spin the big wheel... But, c'mon, that's just wrong.

Struggle Street

I think I saw Shakira in Hongdae last night. Or maybe not. But those hips don't lie.

I definitely saw Mr Big's album 'Hey Man' at a bar called Melancholy Punchdrunken Hole.



And drunk a jug of sangria - with some help, phew.

Really on Struggle Street today though.


Charlie tells me it is 38923 minutes.

Photo Collections

I wanna make a whole buncha series of my photos.
It seems I keep taking the same shots over and over.
Series I'm working on ::
1. Public phones
2. JD in green stripey tops eating lunch
3. Colourful plastic chairs
4. Blue sky & orange roof

These are of course in addition to the t-shit and stencil art collections.

One Word For

yourself: delerious
your partner: genius
your hair: boy
your mother: poet
your father: ab-sa-fucking-lutely
favourite item: camera
your dream last night: hot
your favourite drink: cold
your dream home: warm
the room you're in: bang
your pleasure: colours
your fear: stupid
where you want to be in 10 years: home
who you hung out with last night: peeps
what you're not: late
your best friends: lucky
wish list item: shoes
your gender: girl
the last thing you did: uploaded
the last thing you ate: pumpkin
the last person you talked to on the phone: pix
who are you thinking of now: jd

stolen from dave mack, the mack-daddy.

Lou Diamond Phillips

Another guilty, unjustifiable pleasure is Lou Diamond Phillips. And as he was the guest star on Law and Order SVU tonight, a whole bunch of guilty pleasures coalesced into an hour of entertainment for me.
Favourite quote was from BD Wong: "every choice becomes a sacrifice". Yeahhh.

So the episode, called 'Fault', went like this ::
Solid investigative work leads the detectives to a violent repeat sex offender Jeremy Paul Wilson (guest star Lou Diamond Phillips) who was recently released back onto the streets. Wilson, a cold blooded murderer and pedophile, is in possession of a cache of hunting knives, has kidnapped two children and has nothing to lose. The manhunt for Wilson brings Dets. Fin (Ice-T), Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Chris Meloni) to a bus terminal where a violent and emotional showdown with Wilson takes a dangerous turn.

Angelstone

Someone please help me.
As I walked through the subway last night I was having a few Bladerunner moments. Then I saw a poster that made me feel like I was in 'The 6th Day', with the RePet cloning program.
The poster was for a company called 'AngelStone', and when I look at the website, it seems that they can help you cherish the memory of your deceased pet by turning them into crystals and putting them in a little decorative bottle with the pet's (living) image etched into it. Well, that's what it seems like. Erm?

BTW, typing in 'repet' to google - I get this:

North

Check out this photo essay from the North. And this one: fascinating!
I wish I could read Russian - the essay is about Russian tourists to the North.
Thanks to The Marmot's Hole for sharing.

Honest Dissent vs Disloyal Subversion

Title is from another t-shit seen yesterday. Sweet baby jesus.

Friday night got such a long post that I didn't get to cover Saturday, which was an excellent day.
After getting home around 6.30am, still drunk, I had a 4-hour powernap that I woke up from neither hungover nor refreshed. Had to get up and get moving as JD Whatever and I had made hair appointments for 12 noon in Hongdae at Head Rush. It was a bit of a struggle... JD got a taxi from his place, a million miles away, and turned up just in time to get our washes done together... I was offered a drink and gratefully asked for a coffee. Shitful, but then I had to drink it.
Anyways haircut is underwhelming. But ok.
The graffiti I saw after haircut was intense.
Decided to get a cab to an area I'd not been to before - need to get out of Hongdae - and JD spotten a taxi driver getting into his taxi - he'd stopped for a snack and we'd grabbed him. He thought that was hilarious, so we were all laughing at nothing really. I think I was delerious with fatigue.
Got to Hyehwa and we went to a nice place for chicken lunch. I was worried cos it's all bones and my chopstick skills are ok but the last time I had this same meal it was a disaster. Not to worry - they brought aprons for us and JD got scissors and cut the meat for me.
After eating, felt much better, then stepped outside and the heat hit us. There are heaps of market stalls selling cassette tapes! hairties! theatre tickets! dvds! and crazee toffee in cute shapes.
Then we headed to Amsil, which was the scheduled highlight of the day. Amsil is 'darkroom' and the idea was to go there, use the studio space and then develop our photos. I'd brought the zenit. Small flaw in the plan was that neither JD nor I know how to process filum. The last time I did it was in 1995. So they have a bar there and we had a beer and looked at black & white magazine.
As we left I saw a strange sight: old guys with loud speakers and sandwichboards ranting. There was a display of heaps of posters in front of them. JD explained that they were complaining that there would be no reunification of the Koreas until the Americans leave. Wow, ok. I was intrigued, looked closer at the displays, then realised they prolly all thought I was a Yank too.
We wanted to see a movie but most cinemas only show junk movies in English - Superman or Garfield? No thanks. So we went to a DVD bang and chose Broken Flowers, which I never saw as the day I went to see it the projector at the Rivoli broke. Also thought it might be a little boring, which JD likes.
Well. First of all it was WEIRD to walk into a DVD bang and see the large black vinyl lounge and the box of tissues and the pillows and big screen and not be in that little private space with a lover, which is obviously what it's made for... But it didn't matter cos about 5 minutes into the movie, JD fell asleep, so I just made myself comfy and enjoyed the film, putting my feet up and laughing loudly whenever I wanted. I'm glad I've been to a DVD bang now though. I went out last night and scouted for some in my area so can take Charlie when he gets here. Excitement.

The countdown has begun - Charlie tells me it's 44000 minutes to go. Geek. Bless.

Just in case we forgot

Two Koreas exchange fire along DMZ

Border guards of the two Koreas briefly exchanged fire Monday but there was no report of South Korean casualties, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Tuesday. The incident occurred at around 7:35 p.m. in Yanggu in the eastern part of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), as North Korean soldiers fired an estimated three bullets toward a South Korean guard post, the JCS said in a statement. South Korean border guards immediately fired six rounds in response but there were no further shots from the North.
Two of the three North Korean bullets hit the wall of a South Korean guard post inside the DMZ, but they didn't kill or injure South Korean soldiers, the JCS said. The other North Korean bullet fell near the guard post."We demanded an apology from North Korea via a loudspeaker right after the exchange of fire but there was no response," said Col. Ha Doo-chul, spokesman for the JCS, noting that South Korea returned fire in accordance with the rules of engagement inside the DMZ. It was not immediately known whether there were any North Korean casualties."
The U.N. Military Armistice Commission will conduct a probe into the shootout because it is a violation of the armistice," Ha said. The commission, a United Nations agency, supervises the implementation of the truce terms of the Korean War.
The two Koreas are still technically in a state of war, since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The mine-strewn 4-kilometer-wide DMZ, which stretches for 248 kilometers from east to west, serves as a buffer zone between the Koreas.