a man named mr. huh (huh?) is sitting across from me, maybe 3 feet away, passed out in his chair. i think today was a busy day for him, as he was dressed up a little fancier than usual. i suppose that reflects increased activity? he just stirred ever so slightly to scratch his nose. but back to sleep he goes.
there's a kick ass game on my hand-uh pone. it's called "halloween fever". the object of the game is to match up ghouls, goblins, pun-kins, and other halloweenie flavored items in groups of at least 3 until you have cleared the board. it's remarkably similar to a game i've played before but whose name i can't remember. tri-towers? no. crap that's going to bother me now.... i'm currently on level 28. but i haven't been this stumped since i was back on level 2 and had to have one of my students clear the board for me. the humiliation, god it's unbearable! so yup, this stupid fucking game is the highlight of my life right now.
in a funk lately. little things are making me very, very angry. i think this recent phase swept over me after i got back from seoul last weekend. the increasing changeability of city hall/my job + credit card debt + the subtle tone of condescention in random peoples' voices = jamie angry! jamie want punch wall! jamie want punch human! raaaarrrrgggghhhhh! or jamie just want cry uncontrollably? at any rate, i certainly feel like any time i open my mouth i'm just going to start either blubbering on and on about feeling sorry for myself, or scare people by seeming a wee bit crazy. but this too shall pass.
on friday, i just woke up in a bad mood. i hate it when that happens. came to the miracle library burdened by the weight of knowing that my only responsibility for that whole fucking day was to merely show up. and monday (today), same same. granted, this is only because we're between english drama sessions. still sucks balls, though. so at the end of friday, i had absolutely nothing to show for my day. makes one feel a little, i dunno, shitty and useless. also makes me question what the fuck i'm even doing here in suncheon, south korea. lots of people at city hall are moving on to bigger, better, more focused/goal-oriented pursuits post-suncheon. shit, 2 out of the group are going to law school, with another one going to grad school. and then there's me. i have to stay in korea for a few years, just because there really is no other rational recourse for me, financially speaking. so knowing that in all actuality i don't have a choice makes me feel paranoid and claustrophobic. if i had the choice to make--to stay or to go--i would choose to stay anyway. but now my finances dictate my choices, and of course my reaction is to want to disobey my finances, whatever that means. but i suppose that's what being an adult with lots o' debt feels like.
anyhoo, back to being pissed off. friday in particular. i think it's a proven fact that the best way to feel better about feeling shitty is to continue to dwell on the shitty, recording every little mundane detail of said shittiness for the sake of posterity. when i went to seoul last weekend, i took a coin purse with me. my friend clayton was kind enough to pay for EVERYTHING. but it meant that when i got back, i had to live on $2 for a week. so friday rolled around, and i was thinking i got paid. at noon, still no paycheck. so that pissed me off. but i thought, "jamie, you've got $2. a ministop bulgogi burger is only $1.80. maybe this isn't such a shitty day." just when my spirits had lifted with visions of meat, mayonnaise and soggy brown lettuce, they sank to new lows when i realized they were out of these stupid "premium" burgers. falls into the category of small defeats that can be disproportionately devastating. i was a wreck. and left to face the prospect of a weekend that now only had a $.20 budget. but at a little after 6pm i went back to the bank and my money was there. hallelujah! i could still get drunk. there is a god, and he totally rules!
friday night meant getting drunk at juliana's. a little bit of suppressed crying at the bar (nothing a tequila shot can't fix!) and then molesting people at black dance club. lots of strobe lights, lots of booze, lots of idiotic dancing on my part. i harassed some korean dudes (i figure i've earned the right to make korean men feel uncomfortable) and that made me feel better. there were two other people who took off their clothes at the dance club. pictures of what transpired forthcoming on my flickr website...
saturday i woke up and felt like doing something. but i was unclear as to what that something should be. so erica and i hopped on a bus to gwangju, bought some random sundries, ate at tgi friday (or is it friday's?). the allure of western food was overwhelming. when we started looking at the menu, i was quite intrigued by cheddar macaroni bites. fried bits o' macaroni. genius! i didn't order them, but i'm sure thinking about my next trip to gwangju...i came home 4 books richer. realized i've been mispronouncing "godot" for as long as the word has been in my consciousness (actually, it was on sunday that i realized this mispronunciation. i hate moments like that. recalls the first time i ever said "yeats" out loud. it looks like "eats" with a y tacked on the front. easy enuff. my boyfriend at the time promptly corrected me. shitballs.). instead of going out on saturday night, i read and played aforementioned halloween game. party animal.
on sunday, a long overdue phone call to the parental unit was made. also talked to jules for a long time, as she and rory were preparing to get on a plane to the china the next day (probably still inflight as i type this). then it was over to kirsten's going away brunch. i drank lots of little mimosas out of dixie cups. kirsten cooked a fuckton of awesome breakfast foods. paula made up some game involving a champagne cork and a stuffed pig. it was a good afternoon of not really doing too much and thoroughly enjoying it. later that night went out and ate pork ribs and neck meat (mmm!). beers at juliana's. home.
so today is monday. mondays always start with a meeting at city hall. for the most part these are fucking pointless. but i've had anxiety about them for some reason. i dunno. it's just general unhappiness at the job, so being at the place responsible for my job makes me irritable. plus there are inevitably snide comments made about how i'm not a "real" teacher. yuk yuk. i've always loved being the butt of peoples' jokes. and today was no different. then i come to the miracle library, and everyone is furiously mopping, wiping, sweeping. and my co-worker comes up to me with her pink rubber gloves and tries to hand me a wet rag to start cleaning. bitch, you crazy! instead i decided to organize the english book section. anyhoo, for some reason her presenting this wet rag to me just hurt me. deeply. i can't really explain it. but i'd already been joked about at the meeting (not even a lot of joking. just offhanded comments on which i dwell. which only hurt more because they are for the most part true. i'm not a "real" teacher and i don't actually do anything a lot of the time. i think it's more annoying because i know i'm not the only person who has a lot of "free time." i'm just the most vocal, i suppose. the moral is: jamie, shut up. long parenthetical there...).
anyhoo, there really wasn't anything too irrational in a woman handing me a wet rag, but it prompted a whirlwind flashback to cleaning up after people at shakespeare's, which sometimes felt like the most demeaning thing in the world. and cleaning up after people here at the library, when i'm sposed to in theory be teaching english. a huge overreaction on my part, but again, feeling pretty sensitive this past week. what the hell's wrong with me.
and here i am now, finishing up a lengthy blog. which, if i'm to be fair, should make me feel as shitty as that woman handing me a rag did. writing a blog isn't teaching either.
i guess i feel better. we have thursday off this week. i am going to label that "official de-funking day."
Monday, February 26, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
bloggy blog
Lots to report. let’s see. I’ll start with last week. There’s of course one day that stuck out, like it always does, even though it’s a totally stupid, arbitrary holiday. Yup, valentine’s day. Here in the korea there are two valentine’s days. on feb. 14th, the chicks buy the dudes chocolate and various treats pledging their undying devotion. On march 14th it’s white day and the ladies get the treats. And then there’s black day in april when all the single people are sposed to commiserate, lamenting their lack of a significant other whilst slurping down black ja-jjang noodles. I guess relishing one’s independence isn’t a viable commercial option. How exactly do you market that? Anyhoo, on valentine’s day, I attended an animation festival at the library, then met up with my other two pathetic single friends and ate copious amounts of pizza. Not too different from any other day. Except for the level of pathetic-ness. I could be mistaken, but I think it was heightened.
The next day was english play day. Woohoo! The time was nigh. I had been burdening myself with some arguably undue stress over these english plays performed by the munchkins at ye library o’ miracles. I tend to stress out about things that for the most part don’t warrant so much mental stewing. It’s not like I was the one who had to stand up there in front of lots of people and try not to embarrass myself. For some reason, the kids didn’t realize that until this day. They arrived at the library at 4 to begin practicing (actual performance at 7). Up until this point, lots of the beginner munchkins still didn’t have their lines memorized. by about the 3rd run through, they had them down. They spoke quickly, and konglish-y, but at least they didn’t have to look at their papers. Then we only had to worry about adding microphones and using props for the first time. Also, at the last minute of the advanced english play, 2 of the students dropped out. So we had to add a little tango number at the end—replete with roses in mouths—to make up for the dialogue the quitters had taken with them.
only when people began filtering into the theatre did my kids get really really nervous. It was just about the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Now these lines “why are you three cutie cuties walking alone in the woods” had some actual weight to them--there was an audience! Both my students and myself were equally surprised to realize that there were a shit-ton of other foreign teachers in the audience. I knew mike, erica, and scott would come, but I wasn’t sure who else would end up there. I think it really motivated them to know that other people who might actually understand the english they were speaking were in attendance. When it came time to actually perform, they all spoke soooo quickly, but with very few mistakes. Of course I understood every word they said because I’d written it all. I was so proud of them, and they were so proud of themselves. Afterwards, all the city hall teachers posed for pictures and mr. Bak (city hall supervisor) gave me a bag of candy that had a bunch of empty wrappers in it. But there was plenty left. And it was a nice gesture.
On Saturday, I decided that even though I had no money, a trip to seoul over the extended weekend was in order (the lunar new year meant an extra day off work. It also meant mandu dokk guk su soup. Traditional lunar new year soup. Also, random and not necessarily worthy of parenthesis, but I got a gift from my library director on account of the holiday. As I was leaving on Friday she handed me a large, heavy box. I chose to open it on the bus, excited by the innumerable prospects of what could possibly be contained therein. So I remove the lid, and to my surprise it’s a box of cans of tuna. I think there are around 20 of them. gotta be honest, never been a big tuna fan. Especially tuna in oil.). When I arrived by bus in seoul, a man from my bus approached me. He said that since I was a foreigner maybe I needed help with a taxi or hotel or something while I was here. I didn’t really have any plan, so I took him up on his offer to help in some way. He helped me buy my return bus ticket, he bought me lunch and he told me all about the mission work he had done in africa. And I sat there the whole time wondering “what’s the catch? When are you going to molest me, or try to get me to go to your church?” and he didn’t do any of those things. He just said that it was his duty as a man of god to help people in need. And because I looked confused, I was a worthy recipient of his good deeds. I’ve had so many bad experiences with korean men, this was a welcome contradiction.
Anyhoo, my only real plan was to stay with my friend’s girlfriend’s korean family. That was sort of uncomfortable, just because I hate when people feel like they need to entertain me. And I can say “don’t feel like you have to entertain me” and they can say “oh, we don’t feel like we have to entertain you” (or they can say nothing because they don’t speak english) but I still feel like a burden. But at least I got the guilt about being that burden out in the open ahead of time. Anyhoo, seoul was good. always good to hang out with clayton (friend from high school) and sung hi (clayton’s girlfriend). The only bad part was sung-hi’s dog. she hates me for some reason. The last time I was there, she snapped at me and made me spill coffee on myself. Same thing this time around. I was just reminded of the world according to garp when garp bites bonky’s ear. “garp bit bonky.” I don’t think I’m that brave enough to bite a dog though.
On Saturday and Sunday, did lots of hanging out, lots of drinking. Sunday I went to a hookah bar with clayton (sung hi had to work quite early). I haven’t been to a hookah bar since I was in toulouse, france a few summers ago. And it was nice to be reminded of the glory that is travelling. Sometimes I forget that I live in a foreign country. And oddly enough, this reverie of my first travel adventures abroad brought the reality that is my current life in south korea back into focus.
I also got to see a family I used to tutor in columbia, mo while I was in seoul. That was round 2 of the traditional lunar new year soup. It’s so hard for me sometimes to believe that I’m getting to see these people in their native country. A lot of the koreans I know I’ve met in missouri. And when I was in missouri tearfully wishing them goodbye, I never actually believed I’d get to see them in korea, even as I was crying and blurting “I’ll see you in korea.” Sitting in the cho’s apartment in seoul was sort of surreal. Here are young lim and su hyun, the little girls who have grown up almost beyond the point of recognition. Their mastery of the english language growing with them. so we sat on the floor of the cho’s apartment and played uno with the whole family while drinking coffee. And there wasn’t a damn thing awkward about it. The girls were quite bummed that I wasn’t spending the night. They wanted to stay up all night watching cartoons with me. But I promised them that next time I was in seoul we would have a sleepover. But I had very important matters to tend to the next morning. Which leads me to this next vague thought: there are a lot of decisions I need to make very quickly that have to do with seoul. I’m nothing if not indecisive.
Jules and rory will be in the china very soon. It doesn’t really affect my life directly, but the fact that they will be geographically closer to me and getting to have their own unique excitement and drama (all good, I hope) makes me exceedingly happy.
The next day was english play day. Woohoo! The time was nigh. I had been burdening myself with some arguably undue stress over these english plays performed by the munchkins at ye library o’ miracles. I tend to stress out about things that for the most part don’t warrant so much mental stewing. It’s not like I was the one who had to stand up there in front of lots of people and try not to embarrass myself. For some reason, the kids didn’t realize that until this day. They arrived at the library at 4 to begin practicing (actual performance at 7). Up until this point, lots of the beginner munchkins still didn’t have their lines memorized. by about the 3rd run through, they had them down. They spoke quickly, and konglish-y, but at least they didn’t have to look at their papers. Then we only had to worry about adding microphones and using props for the first time. Also, at the last minute of the advanced english play, 2 of the students dropped out. So we had to add a little tango number at the end—replete with roses in mouths—to make up for the dialogue the quitters had taken with them.
only when people began filtering into the theatre did my kids get really really nervous. It was just about the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Now these lines “why are you three cutie cuties walking alone in the woods” had some actual weight to them--there was an audience! Both my students and myself were equally surprised to realize that there were a shit-ton of other foreign teachers in the audience. I knew mike, erica, and scott would come, but I wasn’t sure who else would end up there. I think it really motivated them to know that other people who might actually understand the english they were speaking were in attendance. When it came time to actually perform, they all spoke soooo quickly, but with very few mistakes. Of course I understood every word they said because I’d written it all. I was so proud of them, and they were so proud of themselves. Afterwards, all the city hall teachers posed for pictures and mr. Bak (city hall supervisor) gave me a bag of candy that had a bunch of empty wrappers in it. But there was plenty left. And it was a nice gesture.
On Saturday, I decided that even though I had no money, a trip to seoul over the extended weekend was in order (the lunar new year meant an extra day off work. It also meant mandu dokk guk su soup. Traditional lunar new year soup. Also, random and not necessarily worthy of parenthesis, but I got a gift from my library director on account of the holiday. As I was leaving on Friday she handed me a large, heavy box. I chose to open it on the bus, excited by the innumerable prospects of what could possibly be contained therein. So I remove the lid, and to my surprise it’s a box of cans of tuna. I think there are around 20 of them. gotta be honest, never been a big tuna fan. Especially tuna in oil.). When I arrived by bus in seoul, a man from my bus approached me. He said that since I was a foreigner maybe I needed help with a taxi or hotel or something while I was here. I didn’t really have any plan, so I took him up on his offer to help in some way. He helped me buy my return bus ticket, he bought me lunch and he told me all about the mission work he had done in africa. And I sat there the whole time wondering “what’s the catch? When are you going to molest me, or try to get me to go to your church?” and he didn’t do any of those things. He just said that it was his duty as a man of god to help people in need. And because I looked confused, I was a worthy recipient of his good deeds. I’ve had so many bad experiences with korean men, this was a welcome contradiction.
Anyhoo, my only real plan was to stay with my friend’s girlfriend’s korean family. That was sort of uncomfortable, just because I hate when people feel like they need to entertain me. And I can say “don’t feel like you have to entertain me” and they can say “oh, we don’t feel like we have to entertain you” (or they can say nothing because they don’t speak english) but I still feel like a burden. But at least I got the guilt about being that burden out in the open ahead of time. Anyhoo, seoul was good. always good to hang out with clayton (friend from high school) and sung hi (clayton’s girlfriend). The only bad part was sung-hi’s dog. she hates me for some reason. The last time I was there, she snapped at me and made me spill coffee on myself. Same thing this time around. I was just reminded of the world according to garp when garp bites bonky’s ear. “garp bit bonky.” I don’t think I’m that brave enough to bite a dog though.
On Saturday and Sunday, did lots of hanging out, lots of drinking. Sunday I went to a hookah bar with clayton (sung hi had to work quite early). I haven’t been to a hookah bar since I was in toulouse, france a few summers ago. And it was nice to be reminded of the glory that is travelling. Sometimes I forget that I live in a foreign country. And oddly enough, this reverie of my first travel adventures abroad brought the reality that is my current life in south korea back into focus.I also got to see a family I used to tutor in columbia, mo while I was in seoul. That was round 2 of the traditional lunar new year soup. It’s so hard for me sometimes to believe that I’m getting to see these people in their native country. A lot of the koreans I know I’ve met in missouri. And when I was in missouri tearfully wishing them goodbye, I never actually believed I’d get to see them in korea, even as I was crying and blurting “I’ll see you in korea.” Sitting in the cho’s apartment in seoul was sort of surreal. Here are young lim and su hyun, the little girls who have grown up almost beyond the point of recognition. Their mastery of the english language growing with them. so we sat on the floor of the cho’s apartment and played uno with the whole family while drinking coffee. And there wasn’t a damn thing awkward about it. The girls were quite bummed that I wasn’t spending the night. They wanted to stay up all night watching cartoons with me. But I promised them that next time I was in seoul we would have a sleepover. But I had very important matters to tend to the next morning. Which leads me to this next vague thought: there are a lot of decisions I need to make very quickly that have to do with seoul. I’m nothing if not indecisive.
Jules and rory will be in the china very soon. It doesn’t really affect my life directly, but the fact that they will be geographically closer to me and getting to have their own unique excitement and drama (all good, I hope) makes me exceedingly happy.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
plays
so i have those plays coming up tomorrow. the english plays performed by the kids who barely speak english. i've been working really hard for the past couple of weeks. anyhoo, my city hall boss asks me yesterday how long the performance will be for the two plays, and i tell him "maybe 20 minutes total." to which he sort of chuckles (not that korean men chuckle...), and then says "3 months you've been preparing and the plays are only 20 minutes long?" thanks, a-hole.
i guess i would really just like for someone i work with to tell me "good job." instead it's constantly shit like "you're not a real teacher" or these newest comments. and when i brought in all the props i made for these stupid fucking plays, no one said anything to me about them--not my students or my co-workers. it's not that they necessarily needed any of the crap i made (magic wands, motorbikes, crowns, etc...), but the whole point is that they have props so they think someone is taking it seriously.
that's all.
i guess i would really just like for someone i work with to tell me "good job." instead it's constantly shit like "you're not a real teacher" or these newest comments. and when i brought in all the props i made for these stupid fucking plays, no one said anything to me about them--not my students or my co-workers. it's not that they necessarily needed any of the crap i made (magic wands, motorbikes, crowns, etc...), but the whole point is that they have props so they think someone is taking it seriously.
that's all.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
"take a rest"
well, i've been told to "take a rest" so i guess i'll write a blog. i guess i look tired. probably because i am. my neighbors on ye olde 7th floor need to learn how to walk correctly. they walk like gymnasts. i don't know how to further qualify that, but maybe you know what i'm talking about. anyhoo, i'm routinely woken up at about 6:20 when these peeps get up and walk about. and they seem to enjoy moving furniture late at night. assholes.
anyhoo, what's new, jamie? oh, nothing much.
hmmm. i could talk about my lunch today. well, i was going to go eat chee-juh don-kass-uh (cheesy pork cutlet thing. one of the most common korean dishes, yet it tastes decidedly un-korean) but then i was magically invited by my co-workers to go eat at the last minute. that rarely happens. i think my co-workers don't want me to eat with them, and i would rather eat alone because then i can at least talk to myself instead of sitting in a room full of people and speaking to no one as they talk about me but not to me. but anyhoo, in the van on the way there my co-workers tried to describe this soup with fish that has fat cheeks. that's all i knew about what i was eating. but it was suprisingly good. i guess i'm adapting. i already ate octopus this week (also in soup form, seems to be a popular medium), so a little bit o' fish is hardly anything to gag over.
i just checked out a book to myself from the library. miss mr. pizza's english books have finally been stickered and made their way to the shelves. so they're fair game now. including the roald dahl books. so i checked out the wonderful story of henry sugar.
um, i don't have anything exciting to talk about. wait! erica and i went on the suncheon city tour over the weekend. 4 touristy places covered in one fell swoop! assah! the set of a korean soap
opera (reminded me of blazing saddles when they build the fake city. no tumbleweed here though), songwongsa (very pretty. oddly enough, reminded me of tibet. did i really go there? weird...) nagan folk village (hey, i didn't puke this time!) and last [certainly least] the dismal and disappointing suncheon bay. erica and i took a boat tour so we could better experience the beauty that is mud and an unplaceable stench. i guess that's just how dirty water smells...
so i can check all those things off my list of the top 100 things to see in suncheon. they sort of cheated in the guidebook, as maybe 50 of the places on this list are actually at suncheon bay.
on sunday i went to a traditional korean song and dance show with mike and erica--i've comfortably fallen into the third wheel position again. we were the only foreigners in the whole theatre (also perhaps the youngest people there), a novel fact that was not lost on the elders in the room. the woman behind me actually started petting my hair. it's already odd, but i thought it was even more odd, simply because i have dark hair like all the koreans. she should have been petting mike (a dirty ging!) or erica (blondish brownish). but instead she petted my dark locks. fair enough. the native folk stared at us pretty much the whole time. but the entire affair was two hours long. i'm all for cultural, arty events (more dead bodies and organs, please!), but 2 hours is a very long time. anyhoo, some of the things these people did with their voices was amazing. and all in unison. the notes to all the songs seemed to stay in the same register for the most part. another thing that can make 2 hours seem like a veeeerrrryyy loooonnnnnggggg time.
i got a few emails on myspace this week from complete strangers insinuating "doing it." that's really weird to me. sure, you emailed me, i guess i'll make sweet love to you? is that how hooking up with someone is sposed to work? this is an honest question, actually. does this protocol actually yield results? i'm an idiot, or at least i'm charmingly naive.
anyhoo, what's new, jamie? oh, nothing much.
hmmm. i could talk about my lunch today. well, i was going to go eat chee-juh don-kass-uh (cheesy pork cutlet thing. one of the most common korean dishes, yet it tastes decidedly un-korean) but then i was magically invited by my co-workers to go eat at the last minute. that rarely happens. i think my co-workers don't want me to eat with them, and i would rather eat alone because then i can at least talk to myself instead of sitting in a room full of people and speaking to no one as they talk about me but not to me. but anyhoo, in the van on the way there my co-workers tried to describe this soup with fish that has fat cheeks. that's all i knew about what i was eating. but it was suprisingly good. i guess i'm adapting. i already ate octopus this week (also in soup form, seems to be a popular medium), so a little bit o' fish is hardly anything to gag over.
i just checked out a book to myself from the library. miss mr. pizza's english books have finally been stickered and made their way to the shelves. so they're fair game now. including the roald dahl books. so i checked out the wonderful story of henry sugar.
um, i don't have anything exciting to talk about. wait! erica and i went on the suncheon city tour over the weekend. 4 touristy places covered in one fell swoop! assah! the set of a korean soap
opera (reminded me of blazing saddles when they build the fake city. no tumbleweed here though), songwongsa (very pretty. oddly enough, reminded me of tibet. did i really go there? weird...) nagan folk village (hey, i didn't puke this time!) and last [certainly least] the dismal and disappointing suncheon bay. erica and i took a boat tour so we could better experience the beauty that is mud and an unplaceable stench. i guess that's just how dirty water smells...so i can check all those things off my list of the top 100 things to see in suncheon. they sort of cheated in the guidebook, as maybe 50 of the places on this list are actually at suncheon bay.
on sunday i went to a traditional korean song and dance show with mike and erica--i've comfortably fallen into the third wheel position again. we were the only foreigners in the whole theatre (also perhaps the youngest people there), a novel fact that was not lost on the elders in the room. the woman behind me actually started petting my hair. it's already odd, but i thought it was even more odd, simply because i have dark hair like all the koreans. she should have been petting mike (a dirty ging!) or erica (blondish brownish). but instead she petted my dark locks. fair enough. the native folk stared at us pretty much the whole time. but the entire affair was two hours long. i'm all for cultural, arty events (more dead bodies and organs, please!), but 2 hours is a very long time. anyhoo, some of the things these people did with their voices was amazing. and all in unison. the notes to all the songs seemed to stay in the same register for the most part. another thing that can make 2 hours seem like a veeeerrrryyy loooonnnnnggggg time.
i got a few emails on myspace this week from complete strangers insinuating "doing it." that's really weird to me. sure, you emailed me, i guess i'll make sweet love to you? is that how hooking up with someone is sposed to work? this is an honest question, actually. does this protocol actually yield results? i'm an idiot, or at least i'm charmingly naive.
Friday, February 02, 2007
nurples. ice skating. mp3 player.
my body hurts. particularly my inner thighs and my wingspan area. i don't have wings, but you know the general region i'm talking about. why the pain? Well, today is friday, i went to the gym on monday. For a few days, I could hardly move without grimacing and/or saying "oh!". i think i'll never again underestimate the value of sound and proper stretching before exerting oneself in a gym-type setting.
Ahh, The magic that is donsuh fitness in suncheon. I took the liberty of adding the h to the end of "dongsuh". They spell it dongsu, but that just makes me want to read it dong-sooooooo. Call me crazy. Monday was my first time going to the gym, as 1) it is sometimes intimidating to perform routine tasks or visit routine places in korea 2) it has naked saunas 3) I'm really fucking lazy. Erica and I shook on it though, so we had to go.
tuesday i hurt a little bit, but i guess there was a delayed reaction, as Wednesday was the worst of it. i hate exercise, but this old girl's getting up there in years so i guess i'm sposed to start thinking about that crap. my body is a temple. a shabby, run down, crumbling foundation-having temple.
other bodily news. i went to an exhibit featuring lots o' dead bodies a couple of days ago. here in the suncheon. i didn't really know what to expect, except for bodies. and my expectations were met. i did see bodies, and sections of bodies and organs. and nipples and pubic hair and penises and large saggy nuts. on these bodies where all the skin had been removed to show the muscles or other interior bodily system[s], they had strategically left the nipples in tact along with the giney/wenis area. Hmmm. it was really interesting though, despite the fact that most of the stuff was in korean, so I could only guess what a lot of the organs were, or what affliction had ravaged them. Even standing there looking at all those bodies and organs (I could have touched them, but I assumed the korean words with big exclamation points said "hey asshole, don't touch!!!") it was difficult to take it all out of the abstract. These were at one point functioning bodies, functioning organs, much like my currently functioning body and functioning organs. and they were probably somewhere during their lives looking at things, specimens on display too, similarly trying to digest it all. Their brains and hearts, just like my brain and heart. And somewhere in those seemingly small organs, a personality, a language, a catalogue of desires and annoyances originates. It's bizarre to think we are all self-contained little entities, with each component a part of the whole. blah blah blah.
Moving on, I went ice skating the other day. Falls into the category of "things to do in suncheon, south korea so I can say I did them in suncheon, south korea." I haven't been ice skating in many years. I remember when I was little, going to the washington park ice rink in good ol' jeff city, mo. My dad would line up buckets and jump over them. I, however, am not that good. Although I've got some pretty boss figure skating moves when I'm on dry land wearing regular shoes. check out my triple toe loop, bitch! also that one move where you put your heels together and stick out your arms (like a gingerbread man, or something. great analogy!). i'm really good at that one. There were lots of speed skaters practicing on the rink, so the ice was uneven and torn up. made it even more difficult to stay standing. But I didn't fall. and the lord saw that it was good.
I have an mp3 player now. And more than that, I have an mp3 player with songs on it now. My life now has a soundtrack. Me likey.
Ahh, The magic that is donsuh fitness in suncheon. I took the liberty of adding the h to the end of "dongsuh". They spell it dongsu, but that just makes me want to read it dong-sooooooo. Call me crazy. Monday was my first time going to the gym, as 1) it is sometimes intimidating to perform routine tasks or visit routine places in korea 2) it has naked saunas 3) I'm really fucking lazy. Erica and I shook on it though, so we had to go.
tuesday i hurt a little bit, but i guess there was a delayed reaction, as Wednesday was the worst of it. i hate exercise, but this old girl's getting up there in years so i guess i'm sposed to start thinking about that crap. my body is a temple. a shabby, run down, crumbling foundation-having temple.
other bodily news. i went to an exhibit featuring lots o' dead bodies a couple of days ago. here in the suncheon. i didn't really know what to expect, except for bodies. and my expectations were met. i did see bodies, and sections of bodies and organs. and nipples and pubic hair and penises and large saggy nuts. on these bodies where all the skin had been removed to show the muscles or other interior bodily system[s], they had strategically left the nipples in tact along with the giney/wenis area. Hmmm. it was really interesting though, despite the fact that most of the stuff was in korean, so I could only guess what a lot of the organs were, or what affliction had ravaged them. Even standing there looking at all those bodies and organs (I could have touched them, but I assumed the korean words with big exclamation points said "hey asshole, don't touch!!!") it was difficult to take it all out of the abstract. These were at one point functioning bodies, functioning organs, much like my currently functioning body and functioning organs. and they were probably somewhere during their lives looking at things, specimens on display too, similarly trying to digest it all. Their brains and hearts, just like my brain and heart. And somewhere in those seemingly small organs, a personality, a language, a catalogue of desires and annoyances originates. It's bizarre to think we are all self-contained little entities, with each component a part of the whole. blah blah blah.
Moving on, I went ice skating the other day. Falls into the category of "things to do in suncheon, south korea so I can say I did them in suncheon, south korea." I haven't been ice skating in many years. I remember when I was little, going to the washington park ice rink in good ol' jeff city, mo. My dad would line up buckets and jump over them. I, however, am not that good. Although I've got some pretty boss figure skating moves when I'm on dry land wearing regular shoes. check out my triple toe loop, bitch! also that one move where you put your heels together and stick out your arms (like a gingerbread man, or something. great analogy!). i'm really good at that one. There were lots of speed skaters practicing on the rink, so the ice was uneven and torn up. made it even more difficult to stay standing. But I didn't fall. and the lord saw that it was good.
I have an mp3 player now. And more than that, I have an mp3 player with songs on it now. My life now has a soundtrack. Me likey.
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