The Monster Hushes for Shabat

A lovely damp night, cool with overcast skies of rains past. Quiet Sunday chatter of young friends before they return to school, old friends before they return to work; people walk or jog or bike along the soggy path in the soft murmuring night. Buses heave through stoplights and laughs rise; traffic slowly sighs over the rain-watered roadways. Distant apartment lights come on and balcony lights turn on then off. Mothers with daughters carry the weeks produce home from market. The neon lights never calm down, even on a Sabbath evening. Two old men speak in disgruntled tones, but what of? A family of three moseys through savoring ice cream cones and casual conversation. The daughter notices something above. Her father looks, but keeps going. She looks a little longer and lags behind. The family goes at its own pace, like their family name. A little girl chuckles into her mother and grandmother's downward glance. They lift her by each hand over a puddle. A boy and girl hold hands. An old man struts in his wind-suit. A young couple, laughing together, splits a husband and wife quietly strolling the opposite way around the park perimeter. An airplane casts its roar over the steady hum of traffic and conversation. An old man hollers some form of 'so long' to his buddies and peddles off. A cool breeze passes through the scene like a gentle whispered prayer. whish whish whish whish grows louder as she passes, power-walking under the cooling evening. Crickets mirr in the bushes and a dog starts barking. The sounds are mostly familiar and steady with an occasional man breaking in with violent coughing phlegm and a whlup to throw it out of his mouth. Lights reflect off the glossy pavement and dark figures amble through the empty park center. Three young girls bring a rush of silly and wrestle and tickle and giggle and squeel, then momentarily settle, but it rises and falls for a while as they carry the games further away. A man in a black jacket and black pants walks with a long black umbrella he uses as a casual walking cane, tapping the walkway with each right step. It's 8 o'clock and the clouds are low.

Some Things

Walking the damp pavement, the wooden soles of Spanish shoes scratching the grit of concrete in the quiet back alleys of An Yang City, and suddenly there were lit-pink rooms with lavishly dressed Korean women in exotic sequined dresses donning the windows. “Where have I ended up?” I asked myself. I still don’t know.



I watched, and the water still boiled!


Standing on my bed in my underwear, with a toothbrush hanging out the side of my mouth, I dive after a floating mosquito… and GET HIM! I also killed his two brothers. The trio of demons have bitten my right shoulder, left arm, and right wrist, and the night is still early.

Last night, killed three after getting in bed, and upon waking in the middle of the night, killed two more, and when I woke up this morning, killed another.... UGH!



Chance of Rain.


I sat at the coffee shop with my cup of coffee and my books of this and that. Two Korean girls with good form - I mean, healthy looking - sat at the table beside me with two cups of coffee and a cake to split between the two of them. They ate the whole thing! I guess it's Korea's "Ben and Jerry's"



Yesterday, Amanda and my two new friends Bol and Eunkyoung came over for an art party. We shared a couple bottles of wine and pastels and pencils and paper and pictures. It was a really great time! Bol and Eunkyoung brought me gifts. They gave me a Mickey Mouse pen, brownies, honey roasted peanuts, and FLASHCARDS! Now I can learn Korean for real. Actually, I have a test over 20 cards next weekend. Bol said that if I do well, they'll cook me a delicious meal! But if I don't do well, they'll cook me a revolting meal... but either way I get to eat! It was a good day.


Oh! and of course... HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY!! I love you!


Oh to be simply cat.

Halloween, and then it was winter

Brian in a cardigan. . ?

Sorry no pictures just yet. My battery's dead. So maybe I'll repost this later with pictures scattered about.

Well, Halloween's come and gone with no big to-do. We were going to have a Halloween party at school, but it was canceled because of Swine Flu. So instead, the students came to class and we had snacks all day and speaking competitions. So, instead of Halloween party, we had a Friday Celebration... The only change in the day was that fewer students dressed up. So weird. No real "Swine Flue aversion"...


this kids actually a demon child!

As for my Halloween, I laid in bed all day long. It was a cool day and dark, rainy all day long. I've been so tired lately that I just wanted to stay in my room and not do anything. It was nice despite the lack of productivity. No carving party here. No decorations except the pumpkin and card sent by my loving family. The candy corn they sent was eaten at school. The students and teachers were a little apprehensive, but some liked it, some didn't, and some were too scared to try.




Today is gray and chilly. It's not raining now, but could later. And tomorrow's high is 6 Celsius (42Farhenheit). That's the HIGH! It's supposed to get down to -1C which would be like, 30F. I'm a little nervous for if I'm prepared for this kind of cold. I'll say though, I hope it kills all these blasted MOSQUITOES! They eat me alive every night and the worst is hearing their menacing buzz right near my ear. It makes me shudder. eee

Other than this, I might spend my day in the coffee shop, drinking coffee, eating chocolate treats, and reading. What a great way to spend a cool, damp day :)

funny stories... oh, and send some cortizone........

I have a few short stories to share:


Today one of my students came into the office. I made a mean face at him for fun, he made one back. I shook my fist at him, he shook his fist and said, "Knuckle sandwich." I taught him that the other day in class. Then I taught him "right in the kisser," and "this is six months in the hospital, this is straight to the moon." And the alternative, "this is six months in the hospital, this is sudden death."He's a good kid and fun to have as a student.


This week I went to the coffee pot to grab some good ol' joe. Well, next to the pot stood a bottle on which was printed "Scotch Whiskey." "Whoa," I thought. Not something you'd have standing around a school in the states. Ends up it was plum juice in an old whiskey bottle. But still. Really? Didn't remove the label or anything! Means SOMEONE's been drinkin'!


My students take word tests almost every class. In my later class one evening, I passed the test out to the students and started saying the words. I looked up as one girl was looking intently, yet briefly, at her hand. She saw me look, then acted like she had to wipe her forehead, then rubbed her jeans vigorously to wipe off the words that she'd spelled out before class. I thought it was funny how she reacted.


I have to call students at home these days to have a brief conversation with them as if they are on a flight. I say, "Which would you like, beef, chicken, or fish?" And the student chooses one and says "please." It goes from there. Here's an excerpt from my conversation with Jada:

"Hi Jada. How are you?"
"Yes."
"Are you good?"
"Chicken please."
"Umm, okay, which would you like..."

Well, once we got on track, she pronounced everything fluently and clearly. Of course, listening is an important part of any language, I suppose.



Aside from these stories, I have a new case of poison ivy breaking out on my right shin. I have not been in any poison ivy, so I can only guess that SOMETHING I wore had poison ivy on it, but my wardrobe hasn't changed except for one pair of corduroy pants, but it was summer when I had poison ivy, so I wouldn't have worn those... I'm at a loss... and nervous, because I don't know how to take care of this kind of problem here.

Here's a video to consider (sorry it moves so fast):

Middle Night

I’ve been woken by angry drunk shouts by youthful lushes outside in the streets and the collapsing mounds of trash caused by stumbling drunk men will not cease clamoring. Men shout angry about what I cannot understand, but the drunken hopeless sadness outside my window refuses to quiet itself and persists through my now sleepless night. Of all those who’ve passed my window, I heard a group of three laughing together and the rest argued, shouted, mourned their lives staggering drunk and oblivious with nothing accomplished tonight except another lost mind to Soju and Cass. Now I lay here unable to drift away from the invading noise from outside, but certainly this can’t be everything..

This Weekend

On Friday I started coming down with a cold. I felt it coming. I hate feeling it come on while I’m at work, because there’s not challenging it. I have to stay there all day and become its victim like I’m clasped down onto a bed and injected with it.

Well anyway, I went straight home after work and had a small bite, did what I could to qwell the cold and went to sleep. I went to sleep early because I planned to meet my director at Soksu station Saturday morning to hike up Mt. Samseung. I went to sleep, but didn’t sleep well at all on account of my festering cold. But I woke up Saturday at 8:00, made some tea with the honey I got for Chuseok, got ready and left, filling a little ill, but not much worse than the night before.

I met my boss and we left the station to hike up the mountain. We hiked up for nearly four hours when we finally came upon an old Buddhist temple. A service was actually going on when we got there. The service consisted of a monk reciting prayers and followers praying, standing up, kneeling down, then bowing with their foreheads to the floor. They said a short prayer, then stood up again. It was very interesting to see. And there, on the side of a mountain.

It was beautiful.

Down the path there was a small garden. And what struck me as very odd were the famous set of large rocks that people visit, called “Fertility Stones.” Why are they called this? Well, they are shaped, by nature, to look like male and female genitals, and found just beside each other. People go there like they would go to a wishing well. It’s a little added luck, but not what they put all their hope in.

Me and the Male stone

We walked around the temple, ornately painted with beautiful stonework and I saw a massive drum and giant bell. The bell rings once on January 1, my director told me. And on December 31, it rings all day long, I assume once every hour.

It’s a very large bell. I don’t know what the drum is for.

Well, after we hiked the mountain, his wife picked us up on the other side and we went back to the school where he had to do some work and offered to feed me. All the blood that had been flowing easily through me slowed down and I started feeling heavily fatigued and terrible sick.

We went to the office and sat down to eat. We had noodles with a very thick dark sauce, which was less than appealing in my state, but I ate it, and it tasted fine, but I started to loose my mind looking into the bowl and thinking how tired I was. And without thinking through what I was saying, I looked up and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t eat this. I’m so tired and don’t feel well.” And I felt bad for how I said it because he was then very concerned for me and apologetic. I tried to reassure him saying it was okay, that I wanted to hike the mountain and that it was good that I did. He apologized again and I went to the pharmacy, bought a warm tonic medicine drink, a medicine powder, and a pack of capsule medicine, which cost me a total of 3 dollars (3000 won) and I went home.

I laid in bed unable to sleep, but relaxing with my feet up and the medicine working and when I finally got out of bed, whatever time it was, my director showed up with medicine. He passed it off, visited briefly, then left. I spent the rest of my night in my room, took medicine once more, fell asleep on and off throughout the night, and here I lie, 10 o’clock Sunday morning feeling much better – still sick, but it’s on the retreat.



This is only 1/4 of Seoul! You can see the gradient of pollution from a hazy brown to blue above... ugh!


The beautiful mountains... and the filthy smog from surrounding cities sifting through...


Somewhere, behind all that pollution, is my apartment in Anyang.


I love Dragonflies!

Hang-pok-han Chusok!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chusok is Korea's Thanksgiving. I think it goes way back to when the pilgrims and Natives ate their first peaceful feast together... :P okay, not really, but it is a time when families get together to celebrate each other and their blessings and pray and eat a big feast together and give and receive presents (sambun). (It's interesting, actually. "Sam" means "wrap" and is used in food, as many meals consist of meat and vegetables wrapped in lettuce, like Sam-gyeup-sal. And to further this lesson, "sal" means meat. "Gyeup" is a certain cut of meat. So Sam-gyeup-sal is "this-cut of meat, wrapped." And Sam-bun is... I don't know "bun," but I'd guess gift or item or something, wrapped.)

So! I get Friday (today) and Monday off!

I'm going to Seoul Land with Amanda and some other friends tomorrow (Saturday) which oughta be a great time! I'll let you know.

In the meantime, some photos:


My director gave me a gift for Chusok


Ends up it's a box of honeycomb honey!!






David


my good friend Yungeun






Yungeun and his girlfriend Youmi


My friends Oomin and Heenbeen










Height, Width, Depth