The Wisdom of the Apes...

AS NOTED AT SOUTH-CENTRAL "ZOOLAND"
























By the Tragic Monkey...

And when you are done extruding your intestines..

cleanup is easy...

another classic clip from Korean TB.

Schedule is out..

The schedule is out and if it stays where it is it looks good for the remainder of the year. Most of my classes are late-afternoon and evening, which means I’ll have the mornings for work, stretching, and rambling. This should allow me to reset my goals for the first year in Korea. Many of them are achieved, so it’s time to get some new ones going. The summer was kind of unfocused, partly because of the killing heat and partly because of the ever-changing schedule.

That’s all gone now, so it’s time to get back to work.

I have the Japanese Studies kids again – they are my only Uni class. My big class is teaching BPU Administrators – that’s three nights a week for two hours each. These are important peoples and, if I were planning to stay at BPU, I’d really put the dog and pony show on. As I’m not planning on staying, they will get my typically slipshod approach. ;-)

The middling class is a “Conversation I” class, which sounds appallingly like it will be people new to English. It is only one hour at a time, though, and that kind of timetable can be conquered with nothing more than some new bumpers on the clown car.

So.. then the goals for this semester should be…

Lose about 7 more kilos… it’s a health thing, of course, but the more weight I can lose before I have to interview in Seoul, the better.

Do a movie about Woosong

Get to 100 pushups

Get back to the writing (I need to make this a bit more specific)

Learn some danged Korean – I actually studied this week and, lo and behold, I learned me some vocabulary…This is by far the most difficult thing I’m working on now. I am too easily distracted and just want to chuck it over when it doesn’t come to me quickly. Having canceled my internet and cable may help me with this, since I won’t have as many easy distractions at hand.

Viewer suggestions happily accepted…

Updates (and pulled plug)

Amazing how much you can get done when your internet is pulled. One of the "bad" things about moving apts is that I got reamed for 100 bucks of penalties on intarwebs because the new building won't accept Inet service from my old provider...

So they came today to take my porno away! This meant no random searching around for internet meaning.

But, it did mean that I got my list of things to do.. well.. done...

I have a good "moving towards final" draft of my paper, I fixed up my CV.. and here is Seoul, brother...

Heck, tonight I might even read something!

First, two quick pictures from the night before. Here is the OAF posing by the river. And, as we walked along the river we saw, under each bridge, some kind of entertainment and crowds of Korean couples and families. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but one of the truly grand things about Korea is the amazing amount of public entertainment and the Korean pleasure in going out and doing social things in public. Even in the shittiest weather you can find Koreans under bridges, playing cards, drinking, sleeping, fishing, whatever. That was certainly true this Saturday night. Under one bridge there was some flute music, and under the bridge in the picture, someone was showing cartoons on the opposite wall.

Sunday was a quick trip to the Starbucks and then up to Insadong. The OAF had been to Insadong twice before, but on a previous trip she wasn’t really happy with. This time, with sun beating down, she happily bounced up and down the cobblestones saying, “I’ve never been here before,” and “They didn’t have all these cool things before.” I didn’t point out to her that if she had never been here before she could scarcely remember whatever cool things might or might not have been around. After a couple hours wandering about, we had tea in the same tea shop, several years ago, that Ed first introduced me to Mrs. 신 – who promises to be most helpful in my efforts to get that next job.

On our way out the night before we had noticed that the “Restaurant That Serves The Ickiest Soup Ever” was now swaddled in the framing and cloth that Koreans put up prior to demolition. The Maitre’ D however, was sitting outside the cloth sheath and when he saw my look of befuddlement he quickly walked us through an alley and to the new version of the old restaurant (which, mysteriously, was mentioned in the translation that BKF and I just worked on). So, if you want some delicious hemmorhage soup you’re gonna have to come to me for directions. ;-)

Then it was a walk back to Cheonggye Plaza and the food festival. This was a major disappointment. There were only about 20 booths and they were all standard festival faire, by which I mean non-food festival fair. The OAF had some corn that was so soggy we tossed it out. When the New York Hot Dog is the tastiest food at the Korean Food Festival? Something went a bit wrong. I hung around for a bit and watched people get a shot at the ttok-dough (entirely different from Dokdo!). You had to really pound the crap out of it in order for the smallest bit of dough to fly, and it was interesting to watch people try. Then it was off to the Texas bar for a beer and to Seoul Station to get the OAF back to South Central in time for her work the next day. I also bought my ticket for the next day – but this time I got a 새말 ticket, which is much cheaper and the trip, as it turns out, more scenic if a slight bit longer. I went back to the Hotel and was so tired that I didn’t go back out again. So when I lay my head down at about 10:30 it came as a considerable shock that I couldn’t go to sleep. Just could not.

Finally dozed off sometime near 1, woke up at 3:30, and then woke up again for ‘good’ at 6:30 the next morning. I spent the whole day in a semi-coma. The day was highlighted by a sweaty trip to KLTI to drop off the BKF’s translation and then a trip back to Seoul Station to discover that I had purchased a ticked from Daejeon to Seoul and not one for the direction I wanted. The nice ticket lady exchanged these tickets with minimum fuss although I did have to wait an extra 40 minutes to catch my train. The ride down was nice, except for about 20 minutes of atrocious behavior by a child sitting behind me. Then it was home, off to the CafÈ Idee for two glasses of wine (French! And for only 5 bucks a pop) and back home for some sleep which came quite easily.

I woke up the next morning to discover I had lost my electronic dictionary, which was a bit of a bummer, but I was soon to get over it.

Today I will Save the World!

It goes to the top of my list, because I just got a link to structured procrastination, which suggests that if I try to save the world I actually will get around to..

1) Writing that Conference paper
2) Updating my CV
3) Blogging some pics of Seoul.

Tip of the hat to: MAF

Seoul-oh

The trip to Seoul was uneventful, which is just how I like my train rides. The time in Incheon was also predictable. As noted, I purchased some trousers and some books.

My book purchasing habits are abrupt. I went into What The Book and had my two books within 10 minutes. A book on Korean history and a book of essays on Korea. Just more attempt to backfill those vast holes in my knowledge. The OAF, on the other hand, approaches book-shopping like a 35 year old virgin nerd approaching a gaggle of hookers – she’s excited, apprehensive, gonna check everything out, and likely to blow her wad once she has (or spend two hours pretending she hasn't).

In fact, I’m just going to cut and paste that description of her book-shopping should the subject ever arise again. It is rare that I describe something accurately, and I’m not gonna waste those times I do.

But her endgame takes time, so I was off to the bar and some reading.

Then we headed off to the hotel. Again, the ChungJin, which is north of the Han River and convenient to a lot of things, including Insadong, the palaces, and Cheonggye Plaza, which was where the opening to the “Hi-Seoul” food festival was to take place. And it is here that my essential silliness was first exposed.

OAF and I dropped of our stuff at the yeogwan and I studied what the intarwebs had to say about getting to the plaza. Apparently we needed to go back to our tube station, head to a transfer point, and then go North to Gwanghwamun Station.

Simple really…

And it probably only took us 20 minutes. The end of which was the OAF actually figuring out which direction we should go.

Which means, really, I let the side down.

We went to the river, checked out the lights, food, this and that… and then walked down towards the other end (after a quick stop for a bracing cocktail and to watch the first innings of the epic Korea-Cuba gold-medal baseball game) of the river.

Did so and slowly walked back. As we did that, I noticed the second-coolest-building in Seoul was getting really close to us. And since it was really close to our hotel, we were walking back towards that as well.

We watched the 8th inning of the Korea-Cuba game in a square with a ton (gaggle?) of howling Koreans.

Although I wanted to stay his was not Yvonnes gig, so we started to walk back to the hotel. Which turned out to be 2.5 blocks away.

Not one transfer and two stations, rather, 2.5 blocks. We had spent two bucks and 20 minutes to circle around the place, and then get slightly farther away. The bad graphic “over there” (A phrase I’m now using to avoid “right” or “left”, since my commentariat – they put the common into “comment”- is a bit callous to my dyslexia with respect to those arbitrary directions) demonstrates what we did. From Jonggak to JognoSam to Gwanghwamun.. and then back to that green dot that was across the street all the time.

After all this was concluded, and we had left the plaza, we ducked into a franchise Japanese restaurant to watch the conclusion of the Korea/Cuba game. It was mad with drama, and the Koreans won despite the fact it looked like they were gonna lose in horrible fashion (and after a Cost Rican umpire seemed to go all Carribean on his strike zone. I mean, I'm suspicious of Korean claims of screwdom, cause Koreans sometimes make them randomly, but this guy and the women's handball decision? You be giving the Koreans fodder for paranoia!). It was a grand game.

It was silly, but I’m sure we enjoyed it. Still, probably should have looked at an actual map, and not just a subway map. ;-)

Which brings us to Sunday.. which is tomorrow…

like, you know, in the past tense and that now tense...

Back from Seoul...

Shortly I will have much to say about that, including two tales of my own ridiculous stupidity. The OAF and I headed up on the KTX and went straight to Itaewon so that we could buy books and I could buy trousers. A consequence of my weight loss is that my pants don't fit in a way that no belt can help.

Apparently my fat ass shrank (although my face still resembles an explosion in the pock-marked blubber factory) and thus the back of my jeans slipped down to the point that they were trodden upon by my heels. This led to a singularly unattractive look, even by my standards.

So in Itaewon I dicovered a lacuna in Korea fashion. The Costco claims to have jeans in "Western" sizes, but does not. Itaewon has jeans for fat dudes, but fat dudes have to be pretty fat. There are no "normal" fat guy jeans. So I got some jeans with a 38 inch waist - this is too big for me, but the tailor next door at least has the length right. The search for jeans with a 36 inch waist will go on!

And, in any case, since I was up to 42 in Cali, I'm going to take all this fashion failure as a win.

This would be the last win of my weekend. Details to follow....

Here Comes Trouble! (Why it is good NOT to be Norwegian in Korea)

The Korean women's handball (yeah, that's a sport, apparently) lost last night on a call that was pretty shady looking. I'm guessing the Korean press is not going to take this with any kind of equanimity, if history is any guide. Already netizens are getting riled:

How dare you, you two people on top of me!
Don’t you dare insult Korea like that, You fuckin’ people, I don’t care of I’m Japanese-Korean, I’M STICKING TO KOREA, and Korea is not a bad sport!
Learn about our history and see why!
And, If you really look at our history, Korea was and is being tormented by Japs and Chinese, so you have no right to say ANYTHING!

Heh.. gotta love that "Japs and Chinese" thing. Hard to say how that had any influence on the game (All of the judges seemed to be big, fat white people), but this response is probably indicative of what is to come.

I'm also interested, though I'm not sure why, that the Chosun Ilbo isn't currently playing the story at all in its English edition, and has it top, front, left on the Korean edition. The Hanky seems to be playing it down.

I think this weekend would be a good time to visit the Norwegian embassy in Korea (Note to self: check to see if there is one), because I'm pretty certain its going to be the scene of some bloodletting. What is the Norwegian national bird? ;-)

Suwheeet!

The long missing Peace Education Conference just contacted me, and I am presenting on September 27th, in the afternoon.

Book me that ticket to Seoul!

And, or course, BKF is co-writer on the paper, so it's a win all around....

now.. I must party... they will find me just like they found Heath Ledger...

well, except he was fit and handsome.. but you know what I mean. ;-)

Another Brilliant Day...

Heh..

OAF lost her key last night so had to swither over here for lodgings. We got up and went to the BPU Bakery. OAF, who has eaten from any bakery or coffee-shop I've taken her to, took one look at the goods and said, "I don't trust anything left out on a shelf!"

I was rather boggled, since we've spent our lives eating food from shelves, and after a bit I persuaded her that this place was no different than our normal bakery and that we were hitting this place about 4 hours earlier than we did our normal bakery.

She sniffed suspiciously, but ate.

Then I came home to read and write. A productive day that way - at least one of my papers will be good.

I went out three times and the day was brilliant - A promise of spring. Humidity down below 50% and temperatures in the 80's. Korea, Sparkling, man!

Came back to write and read for a while, and just looked up outside the window. The day has gone. To my surprise it is about 8 and I need to think about dinner and sleep.

As BAX would say, "just another day in paradise."