Feb. 25th

Another week, another week, another week. They go by like minutes here. So, I fear that my little tales may fall into the category of repetitive drivel if my life stays so comfortably stable and full of pleasure. Sorry in advance. SO....

Last weekend...
Friday night I played music with Jon at his place in Suji until his neighbor deemed it too late and expressed his sentiments with several wall pounding gestures. So, we could only play until midnight (we weren't really loud) his friend Caylor came over and he plays bass, but we couldn't play because of the previous noise violation. What to do? We chatted for an hour or so and went to a bar. The best one in Suji, which is to say it plays 3 year old shitty hip-pop songs in unrelenting succession at quite a blasphemous volume, and is full or foreigners. We chilled at the bar all night and talked about music. Caylor got pretty excited about playing with us, and committed to 2 practices a week. It took no arm twisting on our part, and we ended the night at 5a.m. all psyched to start playing. We're meeting a drummer or two this weekend, which will complete our little project member list, if we all click.

Saturday I woke up at Jon's and we headed to Seoul. I got off our bus in Itaewon with the plan set to meet up with him around 9p.m. in Jongno or Hongdae. I got my suit from the tailor, ran back to Bundang, triple s'd, and ran back to Hongdae to meet Yumi for a movie. We had dinner at an Italian place, and an entertaining little event unfolded.
Perhaps because of the food's cheese levels, or the hangover clinging to my belly from the aforementioned 5a.m. beer marathon, or a combination of both, I became eager to hit the bathroom immediately after I finished my meal. I get to the bathroom and there is only one for both sexes. Fuck, this could get embarrassing I thought. I hoped for a quick and quiet release, but the gods fickle whims denied me such ease. Yumi is rushing to finish her food so we don't miss the film, as this is happening. I enter the bathroom and lock the door, and begin the process. The toilet is one of those super hight-tech toilets that does everything but give you sexual gratification. I am nervous as hell that it's not going fast enough, and there is only one thing I could be doing in there for that long, and Yumi knows what it is, cause everyone poops, and I'm getting really fucking embarrassed, and I can't turn off the heated seat, and beads of sweat are starting to form on my forehead and,... Someone knocks at the door. Shit, shit, shit, shit, (no pun intended) I can't stop in the middle of this movement it's one of those painful semi-explosive events that need to run their course. "One second" I call out timidly in English, as if they fucking understand English just cause I'm in distress. 5 minutes later, I've finished seeing the man about a horse, I try to flush the toilet, but it' s all in Korean and I didn't exactly throw the word for "flush" in my weekly flashcards, (fatal oversight) so I just push all the button after the first two attempts do nothing, well the second one turned off the heated seat. SO, SHIT is the only world in my head. After pushing all the buttons, the toilet still didn't flush, but the bidet starts coming out of the back like some robotic sanitary shit is about to start going down, and I just close the lid before it begins shooting me in the face. There is another knock at the door. Fuck. I say sorry in Korean, and go to the sink to wash my hands and wipe the sweat from my forehead. I know it's gonna be a woman, (Murphy's law) and she's gonna see this big nasty toilet debauchery, and I'm gonna shit myself with embarrassment right in the restaurant. Sure enough, it's a woman, mid to late 20's, and really attractive. I smile a guilty-oh-shit-I-gotta-get-the-fuck-out-of-here sorta smile, and rush to the table. Yumi just finished. I think maybe I have a chance to get out of there before the woman emerges from her traumatic toilet experience to look at me like a leper.
"Taheseo?"(done?),
"Ne"
I start to walk to counter as quickly as I can, since A) I don't want to seem strange, and B) I feel like I could need another trip to the bathroom at any minute. I pay the bill, and we are out of there as quickly as I can say goodbye in Korean and bow, which is pretty fast since it's one word and a simultaneous bow, and ppfhhewwww, relief.
I was still feeling really sick and worried I might have to just head home at any moment, but being the slave to a good time that I am, I decided to try to make it through the movie. Good call Dom, good Call. I prepped Yumi for my seemingly imminent bail maneuver with an "I feel really sick Yumi". Luckily after sitting through the discomfort for an hour, it just went away. Atonement was a great film, and I enjoyed how comfortable Korean movie theatres are. In Korean movie theatres, you have assigned seating. Annoying? Maybe if you're into that perfect seat kind of shit, but I'm into showing up during the first preview and still having a non-neck breaker seat.
The rest of Saturday night I went to a few bars with Yumi, Jon flaked out and didn't call me till 10:30 or so, Yumi and I had to get up early so she could meet her mom by noon, and we wanted to catch the last train at 11:30 to save some cash. I told him I'd see him SUnday around noo in Seoul. It was great chilling with her at her place, I drank more beer, she acted too cute, we sang to Smith's, and New Order songs together quietly the way people do when they want to sing like they're alone but are too embarrassed, but still comfortable enough around the person to sing at all. We still didn't get to sleep till 3, and got sleep in until 11:30 cause her mom was late I guess or whatever, and it was....well....pretty great. I'd like to repeat that about two hundred thousand times, but I realized on the train, I could probably only do it about 60 more times before I finish my contract, and I wasn't too bummed.
I met Jon at 4p.m. In Jongno on Sunday. We were supposed to meet around noon in Hongdae, but he never answered his phone or called back until 2p.m. and I was about to head home when I finally talked to him. We met at 4p.m. in Jongno. I read for two hours at a cool cafe nursing a $4 cafe mocha, and finished 100 pages of a book I bought a block away. Jon and I went back to Hongdae to find out about prices for practice spaces there, and we were pleasantly surprised. $250 for 20 hours, drum kit, two half stack amps, and a PA system in the room. Sooooo, basically it's a walk up with a gig bag and pedal bag, plug in and jam for $6.25 an hour each. Rad. If the drummer works out, we'll be practicing for two hours a day, twice a week. We headed back to our respective suburbs, and I read the rest of the 260 page book I started at the cafe, and passed out. Good weekend, wanting anything more would just be plain greedy.
Today I went to my kindergarten kids graduation. Pretty much 50% modeling, 20% babysitting, and 30% boring, but it beat teaching classes. Kids are cute to me pretty much always, so I don't think it bothered me as much as the other guys. Plus my boss told me I looked great in a sincere sort of "very professional young man" sort of way. Wearing a suit felt totally comfortable after wearing a shirt and tie every day, and it's pretty tight so it felt kinda like my regular clothes. Now, I have classes from 3:40-5:10p.m. tomorrow, 3-6p.m. Wed, and 3:40-4:30 Thurs. Great week if you ask me. It'll be the next weekend before I know it, and I can play music with Jon tomorrow, and go to Seoul to kick it with Yumi Wed. and perhaps even Thur. night. Rad. and I'm getting paid all the same. Salary, sometimes you work a shit ton, and have to drink a hundred cups of coffee, but weeks like this even it all out. So I'm off to get some beer and study the Korean, perhaps read another 60 or so pages of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", and finish my report cards tomorrow morning. Sorry my life is getting boringly routine for this blog perhaps. Just comment that it blowz hard if you think so, and I'll write less.

Until next time friends.

보교싶어 (I miss you)

Super high-tech video tour

So, on a whim, I decided to make a short video of my living situation for all those concerned to witness. Sorry for the lack of creativity or narrative genius, I could only allow myself to do one take of such a silly outing. Next, I will do one of the walk from the land of stores to my front door. Who knows when. But now I must cook the food, for the stomach is addressing me with slanderous phrases and obnoxious facial gestures. Good night all.

Small teacher, Domino Pizza teacher, and all that shit.

Feb. 18th

<--- Jon's place

Another weekend has come and gone.

Sorry I didn't write on Sunday night. I got 3.5 hours of sleep on Sunday morning, so I lived very few hours that day. I was asleep at 8:30 pm.

The Saturday performance I had to work for was basically babysitting 102. Give these kids bananas and make sure their face isn't dirty. Help them change. Attempt to keep 10 kids quiet for 2 hours doing nothing but sitting on a mat on the floor. Nonetheless, I enjoyed their incessant affection and mauling. I had to make a mad-rush for Itaewon for a custom suit fitting after my school obligations were completed. Pretty simple, make this shorter, this should be a little longer, joa (I like it) etc. Then it was all Subway sandwich (English free transaction!) and a long subway ride to meet Yumi and Jon for Bjork.

Bjork, wow! Theatrical indeed. She had great light effects, day-glow face paint, and a like 20 piece brass section. They did cool synched shit. She had the cutest accent and expressions ever, and everything, everything sounded fucking perfect. I have never heard such great sound at a show. It was in a large venue (think Boston Garden for those Bostonians, be creative others) Practically full. Her voice is huge, and haunting live. Top 3 concerts easily, for sound, performance, and experience / company. Jon, Yumi, and I headed in nearly an hour early so we could get a good place. We ended up about 40 feet back before Bjork started, but once she began, herd-like compression put us more like 30 feet away. Seriously, I'm still short in Korea, it hurts, oh the pain, even Yumi is about a centimeter taller than I am. Needless to say, after about 3/4th's of the show, I couldn't see shit because some pushy Korean guy oblivious to my lament, weaseled his way into my already small window of Bjork viewing. When the crowd began moving forward, much to my enjoyment, Yumi reached behind her, grabbed my hands, and wrapped them around stomach. Not a bad start, I thought. To sum it up quickly, the show kicked ass, holding Yumi, perfect music, falling fog of confetti (spelling?) at the end.

Then to Hongdae, (this surprises no one, it's my typical Saturday night adventure) I still haven't gone to all the cool bars even. It was Jon and three of his friends from school (all female), Yumi, and I. Yumi and I took a different train so she could chat with her friends for a few minutes. Then her and I went to a cool cafe for some dinner. She suggested a large grilled chicken salad for us to share, eating off the same plate, another great sign I thought. We chilled alone for an hour or so and talked about Korean, music, a few movies, then met Jon and his friends to go to a cool bar called Stereo, Because Nabi (our favorite spot) was completely full. This place plays great music. We had a few beers and headed to Nabi. Nabi is low (near only candle) light, Hukahs, chilling on the floor, surrounded by pillows, in nooks, greatness. We smoked a hukah, chatted, Jon played the Djembe, I drank more than everyone else, Jon and his friends passed out in near simultaneous succession. At 4 a.m. Jon and crew departed to Yumi's and my own barely concealable relief. At about 3a.m. she had told me "I have to tell you something." "ok, I'm listening", "When we're alone, ok." This could go either way I thought, but she keeps holding my hand, 80% chance it's good. It was just her and I then, so I asked her what she had to tell me. (* I previously had asked Yumi in these words, "do you have romantic feelings for me?" She replied, "I don't know, can I think about?") I think relaying the conversation nearly word for word, now that the setting is clear, would be the most descriptive and simple manner to approach this. It went (to the best of memory) exactly like this.
"What do you want to tell me?"
"Remember what you you asked me before"?
"I asked you a lot, what do you mean?"
"You asked me if I have romantic feelings for you"
"Yeah I remember, so"
"Ask me again"
"Do you have romantic feelings for me?"
"Yes"
"Perfect, so what does that mean"
"What do you want it to mean?"
"I want you to be my girlfriend"
"Ok"
"Kisu Juseo" (please give me a kiss)
"Not here, later"
"Ok"
We spent the whole night together, finally fell asleep well into daylight at 8a.m. and it was perfect.
And so it is, my patience has landed me on the other side of the river. Rad. Needless to say, I have been in high spirits about this.

I have been trying to figure out a way to study Korean with someone 2 times a week at least. All the options I have found as of yet are $200 a month. I am studying pretty hard by myself right now, learning vocabulary, and trying to wrap my mind around Korean grammar. It's daunting, but I'm a fairly determined person when I want something bad enough. I really have to do laundry, and study, and watch this movie "There Will Be Blood" tonight, so I'm gonna make this a short entry. But before my departure, I want to share some quirky things about Korea that I keep forgetting to note. I know I'll forget some, so from now on if you see a final paragraph labeled "Only In Korea" it is the perpetual continuation of this little rant. Here goes...

"Only In Korea" (ok Probably other places, but I haven't been there yet)
*Beer cans with braile on the top.
*Taxi door handles with braile on them.
*Everything is recycled except food, and random unrecycleables such as cloth, wood, etc.
*Men wear man purses, many of them, I'm not talking messenger bags, this shit's Gucci, LV, and they are not gay.
*Men hold hands, and keep their hands on each others thighs, sleep on each other's shoulders etc. (not as common as the purses) and they are not gay.
*Miles of sidewalks paved with rubber running track material.
*No trashcans, one just throws their trash on the ground in piles on the sidewalk by the street, and some mysterious underpaid individual picks it up before dawn.
*Everyone has a washing machine, even in the tiniest studio apartment, but dryers are next to impossible to find.
*Taxi's are freaking nice! And yet they are half the price of Boston or New York.
*To get your waiter or waitress, you have to yell "Yogiyo"(come over here), or Push these buttons built into the table that ring a bell. It's not rude.
*There is no good beer.
*Free purified water everywhere nobody drinks tapwater. Bathrooms everywhere.
*Street food is part of the cuisine, excellent, cheap, and fucking everywhere, and by everywhere I mean fucking everywhere.
*I saw over 100 people in one day with professional quality 5-20 thousand dollar cameras in one district. (Even with light meter professional)
*Koreans dress up way too much to do anything. Full-on racing gear and pro-quality bikes for a few guys riding around Seoul, Full-on we're gonna climb Denali gore-tex'ed out, trekking pole toteing, 3000cu through-hiking pack wearing day hikers. *Also, refer back to cameras.
*and seriously couples wear matching shit like it's cool, there are even many stores devoted to this disturbing cross gender coordination. I'm talking beyond the tacky "I'm with stupid" t-shirts, this is jacket, hat and shoes disturbing.
-Ok, that's enough for now. I'm inevitably forgetting the best examples. Call it the CD shopping phenomenon.

* (Most of these pics are from Hwaseong fortress wall in Suwon, Jon and I went there last week. He takes all the photos, I just beg for them. I'm trying to get some from Bjork, and Nabi too. I'll post as I receive)

Until next time

Feb. 15th

Here's a quick snippet. I will try to write more of these, as a garnish per se.

So this week has been one of my confused uninspired weeks. I'm not exatly alarmed, as I have had these throughout my life. Annoying nonetheless. I have not been inspired by music much this week. Just don't feel like playing it. I think I found a drummer for the band in the making, so that seems promising. Jon and I will meet up with him next weekend.
Work sprung a performance by our kindergarten students on us yesterday, it takes place tomorrow (Saturday). I thought that was a bit short notice, but hey, they rarely tell us anything until the very last minute, so no big change. It does destroy my Korean language class term, which is what I am most bummed about. Because I missed last Saturday's class, and I have to miss this Saturday's, I won't be able to continue on in this course. They are not running this course at this languge school next month, so I'm not sure if I can pull off the self study enough to start the next level course. I am experiencing periods of frustration and reward with Korean. I am learning vocab, and understanding more, but I feel so far from being able to express myself in this langauge. Forming complete sentences is rather difficult. This week is one where I feel progress is slow, and I am impatient to speak. The process seems absolutely daunting.
Girls, they confuse the hell out of me. The ones I want to be serious about are slow and indecisive, the ones who want to be serious with me, I compare to the former, and can't commit to because it always seems like at any minute I am about to be completely intimate and serious with well,....Yumi. I spent Valentines evening with her. Our times are haunted by the lingering "what are we going to do?" It's sort of like we've come to a river after a long walk, and we have to decide whether we should cross to get to our destination, or head back. Currently, we are walking alongside the river and dipping our feet in it waters. I, being the impatient fool I am, have thought about heading back and starting a new hike, but there is a beautiful mountain on the otherside, and the view from the top is tempting me. Meanwhile, there are many mountains here in Korea, and still mountains back home where I wish to return. I don't really know how much longer I will keep rolling up my pant legs and going shin deep, only to return to the familiar bank. Yesterday, Yumi couldn't explain to me in English how she feels, so she said "I'm just gonna tell you in Korean even though I know you can't understand" I listened for 2 minutes, nonethewiser. I said, "Did you just say you just want to be friends? It's ok if so", "No, I didn't" No further explanation. Just the parting words as we rushed to catch our last buses. "I don't want to leave you now", "nado(me too) yumi". Other girls are so simple, but so much less inspiring. Bjork is tomorrow, it should be great, we will end up spending 12 hours together which is nice, but I doubt there will be a serious headway in the great quagmire of where are we?, where are we going? Meanwhile there are two really cute girls who live closer and want a serious boyfriend, like yesterday.
I love reading still, it's better than most things. I think about moving back to the states next year often, but my reasons are all confused, and thus I am torn. Where will I move? New York? San Diego?, San Fran?, Cambridge?!!?! No not Cambridge. There are reasons to go any of these places, as well as to come back to Seoul, and an equal number of reasons not to. What a shamefully confused lad you are shithead. I think my biology is tormenting me. Well I'm off to my favorite class in 10 minutes, so I bid thee farewell. I shouldn't go out tonight, but I probably will, why? Hedonism folks, hedonism and the avoidance of loneliness.

Until Sunday

Feb. 10th

Wow! has it really been nearly two months since I last graced the WWW with my tales of woe and glory in in the land of the morning calm? So the blogspot suggests. Well, the time for details has escaped me, thus the synopsis cometh.
If I could sum up my last two months in Korea with a single sentence, it would be, "what the fuck?" What the fuck happened to my fear of Korea?, What the fuck am I doing drinking till 6a.m. at least every saturday? What the fuck is in this food? What the fuck did he say? What the fuck is it going to feel like to go back to the western world after this? What the fuck happened to the time space continuum that made two months pass like a week at summer camp flashlights and swimtrunks and all? What the fuck is GW doing, giving us checks for $600 signed "your social security fund"?
Where to start..

Christmas, well everything was open, in the famous words of zazaza and leeds, nobody cares. I drank beer with coworkers had dinner, bought myself a gift in the spirit new shit. It was alright, but no Christmas by any sort of standards I once new. End of story.
New years, this was pretty rad. I spent the coming of the new year with my friend Sun Mi, we watched a huge screen count down the seconds on a large buildings facade. 3,2,1 kiss, 200 zillion people shooting off fireworks above our heads, and we somehow managed to make our way out of a times sq.esque crowd to a taxi. We went to Hongdae, where we watched a show, got wasted, she got a little too wasted, and I had to practically beg her to call it a night and head to her place at 5 a.m. She and I were pretty close for a month, but drunken brattiness, and dragging me to dance clubs wore me thin, and she got pissed when I declined a serious relationship. I do like her, we had a lot of fun, but she'd just end up dragging me places I don't want to go way too often. We're still friends, but I sense a bit of resentment from her at times.

The rest, weeks fly by waaayyyyy too fast, weekends even faster. I pretty much practice the art of 12 beer, all night Hongdae bar crawls on a regular basis. I've been making music with my good friend Jon here. However, this weekend, I decided that we need a human drummer, drum machines piss me off. The kids at my job are cuter than ever, way cuter than white kids (sorry misguided white parents who think they're babies are cute, you're misinformed to the fullest extent) I absolutely love my younger students! One 6 year old girl in a class of mine keeps calling me"appa" (dad) as she attaches to my lower leg and refuses to leave a seated position on my foot. I wish kid, I fucking wish. You rock. I'm doing pretty well at my job now, and marathon 11 hour days are rare. I usually arrive at 9 and leave at 6, fair enough.

Friends, well, they're different here. Many of the foreign friends I have, I hold at distance with the gloves of one who knows we'll leave in 10 months, or in three, or in one even. It's nice to be in a city the size of New York and run into friends at bars often though. Korean friends are less abundant, but I have some, and they really help me with my Korean. There is a girl, and she kicks ass, and her name is Yumi. She studies film, she has the best taste in films, books, and music I have ever encountered in one package, and she dresses quite hip (did I mention cute). We're getting pretty close, I think she's going in for the kill, I'm barely pretending I'm not a wounded gazelle on the savannah, the rest is all night chats at a hukah bar called Nabi, with beer, intimate topics, and cuddling on the floor. If she falls in love with me, I could be done for. This surprises nobody, as I am a romance slut. Text messages abound, broken Korean is spewed. Laughter and comfortable silences make us very content glued together. We'll see how the rest unfolds when her and I go to a Bjork show next Saturday I guess.
(side note) [I've been taking Korean classes on saturdays for 6 weeks (2 of which I missed because Friday night I drank a little more than was necessary). I'm doing pretty well. I can get directions, and have most of my transactions be in all Korean, make jokes with friends, talk about basic shit I want to do. I believe after this year I'll be conversational)
I've had a break since last Wednesday for Lunar New Year. I drank a lot. My friend (Korean American from L.A.) Kathie and I went out Thursday and Friday night. Had a blast making jokes, and laughing at funny "only in Korea" shit, throwing little Korean snacks at a passed out Korean guy near us at Club FF, fucking up each others hair, talking about music, drinking excessively, and talking the long cab ride home away. It's strange to watch how people treat Korean Americans here. They give them constant shit that their Korean isn't good enough, talk shit when they speak English, and generally treat them worse than other foreigners. Once a cab driver just started talking to me in broken English because Kathie didn't understand something he said in Korean. I don't know if she noticed or cared, but I thought it was pretty shitty. Anyway, Kathie is pretty punk, fun to talk to and drink with, she's kinda rad.
This weekend Jon and I did sightseeing type shit, went to a giant several mile fortress wall in a city called Suwon, went to a district of Seoul called Samcheong-dong where the prime minister's house is, and a huge palace, and lots of cultural relics stand juxtaposed with all that is Modern Korea. We walked around for hours in the freezing cold, wandered into art galleries, and hiked a mountain to get a view of Seoul.

I've been reading a lot here in the Korea. I've plowed through some books, despite my hedonistic beverage rampages. I read "East of Eden" by Steinbeck (600 pages!), Two books by Jose Saramago, "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder, "Memoirs Of My Meloncholy Whores" By Gabriel Gracia Marquez, and I'm 1/3'd of the way through "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by the latter as well. I've even been working on a history book about Korea when I can take the non-fiction. The University did a number on me though, and progress is a bit slow with that one. I'm now about to go to sleep before the beginning of another week I'm bound to feel has disappeared like dukbokkgi on my plate (did I mention Korean food is soooooo damn good? Jinja mashitah!) I truly miss everyone from my life before, and I lament the fact that the universe won't let any of us ever have things be the way they once were in life. No redo's bitches, get it right. I love all you sluts, and I swear I'll try to do a more respectable job of documenting my existence in Asia. At this point Intrigue or Disdain should perhaps be replaced by bouts infatuation and frustration, but one can't take back that which they say, or write even, so the title remains, a subtle reminder of my quickness to judge, and the worlds remarkable way of transforming a situation in our minds, or perhaps transforming us to a situation. I'll share a small amount of pics for those visual learners out there.


Until next time