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.