From Evening to Twilight to the Twilight Zone, then Home

After a night of see-saws and merry-go-rounds, I woke up at a friend's house in Itaewon having hardly slept. I helped Peter and his roommates clean, watched some news, and left. In a dizzy daze from the night-long carousel ride, I meandered through town and somehow got to the train station. I got to my train and rode to the transfer two stops away. I went to the 4-line train and got on.
The train went and went, dropping people off, letting people on, but at one stop, everyone got off, except me, and one man stepped on. The train pulled off. The man, noticeably drunk, sat next to me on the empty train. Then, unexpectedly, the train stopped. We were a bullet in a chamber. It was completely dark around us. During this time, the man tried to talk to me and breathed drunken Korean in my face. I didn’t understand and he didn’t know English. He repeated himself as if I would get it after several tries. He was persistent and wouldn’t leave me alone. I was in no state to try and converse with someone speaking a different language, especially a drunk person, and I didn't feel like putting the exhaustive effort of skipping through my phrasebook toward this conversation. The train sat there for what seemed like eternity. I simply wanted to be home, or at least on a train with other people on it and this man not so close to my face telling me to uncross my legs because they’re in the way of people walking by – on the empty train.
Finally, we started moving again, but in the direction I came from. “Why’s the train moving the other way?” I asked, not wanting a response, just speaking out of tired frustration. I got off the train, completely ignoring the man, and looked at the signs. They said all the places I needed to go, but in my still-dazed, tired stuper I didn’t realize they were the places I had gone, so I got back on the train, but not in the same door I’d exited, and I sat in a different carriage than he. After two stops I realized I was in fact going the wrong way, and utterly baffled at the twilight zone experience, stepped off the train and got on the next one going back the way I needed to go. At the third stop, everyone got off the train, including myself, and it pulled away empty.
Eventually, another train pulled up and everyone got on and it took me to Gyeomjeong, where I got off, transferred again, and rode two more stops to, finally, Anyang. I went up the stairs to the exit and swiped my T-money train card. Error – insufficient funds. “What?” I pleaded. I went to recharge my card at the card machine, but it didn’t work. I felt so helpless and exhausted after the trip that had already taken twice as long coming home as it had when I went. Eventually, help arrived, let me out, took me to a machine that worked, and I recharged my card – but there went the last of my cash. So after walking across town one way to my bank, and across town the other way for water and eggs, I’m finally home. My what a day.

Pizz-orea

Sweet Potato Pizza Roll Crust Pizza

i ordered pizza last night - a sweet potato pizza... i ordered a full pizza, but if you only get a slice, they serve it to you squished into a tiny dixie cup - the kind you see hanging on a water cooler...
some things are weird here... but, it works, and i guess it's easier to carry than a plate. my pizza box was wrapped with ribbon to carry. the ribbon went around all four sides with a bow in the middle. i brought it home, cut the ribbon, and opened my pizza. i saw the sweet potatoes. and then i saw that, if you order a sweet potato pizza from Pizza Farm in Anyang South Korea, it will have sweet potatoes on it, and it will also have ham, pepperoni, corn, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. the lady put Parmesan, hot sauce, and pickles in with my pizza. i remember when she asked if i wanted parmesan, hot sauce, and pickles. i told her "anio" which means no, and she promptly put all of them into my box. but the hot sauce was nice to have. the pizza fed me for three meals. and thinking about it now... maybe i need another!

The other morning I woke up and made myself a two egg omelet with mushrooms, eggplant, onion, and garlic and boy oh boy was it delicious! Mashisoyo!

See You on the Windy Hill

One of my duties as a foreign teacher is to correct the students' journal entries. I get a kick out of what I read and can very easily notice when the students use their dictionary. I've started writing down some of the entries that I find especially funny for whatever reason. Here's a few:

15th is Korea's Independence day. At 1945, August, 15th, Korea became out for Japans rule. For radio, Korea people listen the voice of Japan King, Hirohito. He said, "Japan is give-up!" Finally, Korea is out 36 years of Japans rule! At this day, all Korea people said "Hurray!" At August 15th, all Korea people is hang the national flag.

There are father, mom, sister, and my. family hobby is father car drives mom chatting and cook sister taking pictures my watching movies and tv. mom and father job mom cook father brives bus we go on a picnic family we are very happy. my family kind and funny fun my family

They are white hair and crumpled oval faces.

Kargrandfather is so haggard

Other mouse is poll one's bedclothes over one's head.


I've read sentences that had words I didn't understand - I'd never seen them before in my life! These kids are too funny!

If you don't look up AND down, you'll miss out on at least 2/3 of what Anyang South Korea has to offer

***
Statements I Found Interesting for One Reason or Another While Reading

"The patriot sticks to his moral principles."
"She had abandoned herself to fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference." - The Awakening
"If you hear even the little child, and his words go straight to your heart, accept them as the Truth. But reject all that does not go to your heart - no matter how high the authority - yea, even if God be the speaker." - [paraphrased] Yogavisashtha, Upanishads
"The prayers of all good people are good." - My Antonia

***

I had a dream. I won't relate the dream to you and save you the boredom. But something was said that resounded with me. I don't know why.
A bearded farmer wore an old farm hat with a brim that blew in the wind. He was soft spoken, strong, and kind. I told him and his wife goodbye. Very softly, his chin tucked into his neck, he said, "See you on the windy hill."


I assure you, it's night


Masks


Robot Hand

Look who made it!




Out with Amanda for some Soju

Driftin'

Mornin Joe

Mornin' Joe (aka A Sip at a Time)

Sometimes, When Life Hands Us Lemons, God Passes the Sugar

On the way home I looked up and saw a rainbow glowing through the sky in a perfect semi-circle. “Caspita,” I thought. (Another one of those times when I want to say something in Korean, but only Italian rushes to mind.) I stood at the intersection waiting to cross for home. I stood on the corner that had the perfect view of the colorful bowl swooping over the road, over the buildings, and dipping behind.
Gods shoot arrows from this bow. Pulled back, the horizon its string, an arrow could pierce the stars. I stood in awe. The light changed and I went across, only to find that the rainbow had an end. It fell in front of the mountain in the background. I’ve never seen the end of a rainbow. I couldn’t help but smile, teeth showing, at the majesty. I rushed home, grabbed my camera and took to the streets, but the rainbow was gone.
(That's where the rainbow ends... sometimes.)

I decided to duck into an electronics store, as I’m searching for a tape recorder presently. No recorder, I stepped back out.
I wanted to go to that mountain where the rainbow disappeared and while waiting for the crosswalk again, I noticed two people crossing toward me, perpendicular to the way I would go, holding their cellphones up in front of their faces. “Boy,” I thought. “People are always texting here, or doing SOMETHING on their cellphones.” Then a truck drove past with a man hanging out the passenger window holding HIS cellphone in front of his face. “Something must be down that way,” I thought, but couldn’t see. I noticed people down from me all facing the same direction with cellphones in front of their faces. And people crowded on the pedestrian bridge. I crossed, looked to my right, and there was the widest, most pronounced rainbow casting up from the middle of the road in the far distance, up and across and over buildings again. It stopped short of the mountain; I rushed to the bridge.
People stood everywhere on the bridge. People never stop there. But there they stood, cellphones in front of their faces; or if they were lucky, their point-and-shoot.
I walked among them and shot and shot and shot while everyone else did the same, and for those who crossed having not yet seen the phenomenon, they saw one of us, kept walking, then saw the pack of us, and looked. Some of them stopped. For those of us who paused, we felt a part of something. We stood there quietly and lost ourselves in the colors. As for me, my eyes teared when I heard deep breaths drawn in reverence, wonder, awe-struck gasps and “Look!” in Korean tongue. It seemed that everyone stopped, if only a stutter-step, to take in the sight for a little longer. Couples stopped to take a picture, friends stopped and passed the camera as each other gave a Peace sign and smiled excited, myself thinking, “My God,” but unable to say anything beyond that. Moments earlier I sat in the school office thinking how nothing seems to truly make me happy here. Yet, when life hands you lemons... God passes the sugar.
The rainbow was slowly smudged away and the sun had by that time fallen behind the opposite horizon.
I stopped for tea and, on my way home, something held in the air. It would have felt ominous had it not been for the blessings passed to us by that rainbow. The streets were quiet. Many people walked about, but conversations were hushed and no cars passed, no whining mopeds, and of nothing else, John Lennon sang “Imagine” from the speakers of the corner store.


"Going Home"


"It Takes Two" (If you look closely, you'll see a second rainbow faintly on the outside of the first.)


Does anybody notice the lady wearing violet and the man wearing green? :D

For those of us who look back at the past, it sure is hard that time seems to gain traction and speed up as the years progress. I'm realizing, we don't always take advantage of the bliss that is our youth. Having said that, we're young until we die, if we want to be. I hope for this. But hoping is pointless if I don't take actions to make it so. What I mean is, I don't want to get caught in the twisted vines of everything people expect. There's a clear path somewhere. Taoists call it "The Way." It's nothing more than a spiritual path - a connection with God. I hope we all find that clearing eventually - sooner rather than later.

Lest we forget

Sigur Ros tends to isolate me, which can become very lonely. But sometimes, it puts me in a field of sunflowers under a blue sky with cotton-ball clouds. Then, the flutter of dove wings taking flight throw dandelion seeds into the air, and all wishes come true, and all I can do is smile, maybe eyes tear with overwhelmed joy. Maybe you'll like it. Maybe not. But there's a story to go with it. Maybe play it, and lay down on the carpet with your eyes closed. Try it? (If it causes you to cry, like it has me, I say accept. Life is about joy and a good cry, if you ask me.)

I love you :)

brian

Sigur Ros

Week2? Only 50 more to go!

Hello Everyone! Ready for class?!


This is where I go to school.

This is the produce market just outside my apartment.

Trucks full of fruits and veggies drive around blaring advertisements through bullhorns. First time I heard, I thought there was some sort of security crack down and I was in big trouble cause I can't understand what they're saying! :P

People take these carts around to gather cardboard. I don't know why. Maybe they get money for it...

This is my kitchen. The photo is taken from my bed...

This is the meal I made for lunch. Pretty killer. Rice and pork wrapped in cabbage with fresh garlic and/or onions, marinated tofu (cold) a sweet potato and corn. Not a bad lunch!

I've yet to be able to say "Coffee with cream and sugar." So in this situation, instead of drinking coffee with cream and sugar among other Koreans with the hopes of conversation, I sat alone in a curtained room with a TV, ice cream, tea, and a waffle...

You might think waiting for fast food to be delivered would negate the "fast" part... but I've seen these guys drive!

Like this guy... He had a red light, so did donuts in the middle of the intersection. All these crazy drivers, and I've not yet seen a wreck!

Rush hour traffic from the bridge I use to cross the street.

It rains in South Korea too!

Wires EVERY which way!

At Chonung Market, you can get ANYTHING.

Like a pig's intestines, or ears....

Or smiling face... Looks rather peaceful, doesn't he...

I like Anyang Market... just wish I could talk to all these girls! This is where a man greeted me on a bench and eventually took me to dinner. It was a delicious dinner! He was very kind with a great laugh. He'd just bought gifts for his wife and baby girl. He's a laborer in Anyang.

I like the stairs in this building, if you can see them there through the windows. Just kinda neat.

So much fun watching these kids have a ball in the fountain.










I'm finishing the week of summer vacation, then I begin teaching. I think it will go well. The students are enthusiastic and rather taken to me (for no reason other than I'm tall and white..?). So that should make things easy...... maybe.........
Of course I'll keep you all in the know.
I hope you are all having a great day doing whatever you're doing. Blessings.

Love y'all,
brian