day off.

well, not really, i had to teach one class. big sigh. yesterday i taught 9 classes. it's sposed to be summer intensive classes for the next two weeks--denoting reaaaallly long days--but my schedule doesn't really seem too intense. tomorrow i was sposed to have the whole day off, but i have to go in and level test the childrens for my weekend class. yes, i meant to type childrens. it just sounded cute, and since i'm drinking a beer at 4:07 pm, i feel like being cute.

some things. i got a desk. a computer desk. it's real nice. so my computer is no longer sitting on the floor, requiring me to lay on my stomach and type. that was a bit uncomfortable.
here are some things i am currently in like with:

-lists. i feel like i haven't been making very many lists lately. and now that i've started this one, i realize how much i missed them. a list is a nice thing.

-my landlord, mr. kim. when i came home at 6 in the morning the other day, he wasn't judgemental he just wanted me to tell him exactly how many bottles of beer i'd consumed so he could decide if i was as good a drinker as he is. i remember my first night in this new apartment, i asked him where the nearest grocery store was and he walked me to the lotte mart by my apartment. then he made me buy him 2 bottles of soju for the trouble. that set me back a whole $2 or so. he has a wonky eye. and i wonder how one's eye becomes that way. was this a natural part of his aging process (yes, he's old. and also very short). was there some accident in recent or ancient history that made his eye that way. was he born that way. i'm curious. he sort of looks like a turtle, his neck and head sinking--pitched forward ever so slightly--under the bulk of a dirty blue uniform shirt that is 3 sizes too big for his seemingly shrinking stature. he wrote my address for me on a yellow, aged piece of paper in both korean and english. i can't imagine how long that took him. his self-assigned homework. he is always passed out in his little landlord booth in my apartment lobby at 3 in the afternoon, and when he comes to he excitedly yells hello and waves to me as the elevator doors are closing, his greeting abruptly muted. he's a funny, pleasant old korean man. and he says i am his friend.

-the dirty three and blonde redhead. i've been listening to both of them for a few years now, but i guess just not paying attention. many the lengthy subway commute under my belt now, and i have been listening to these two bands over and over and over and over and over....you get the picture.

-my new job. i normally work 6 days a week, but when i'm actually doing my job, it's so easy to be an effective teacher. i'm busy the entire time i'm at work and i feel like i'm valued as both a human being and an english teacher. the korean teachers at my school work infinitely harder than i do and seem to genuinely enjoy their job and my presence. though other foreign teachers seem to complain about basic tenets of their job that they are expected to honor, i have no complaints thusfar about any aspect of my actual job. i'll be honest, the commute was starting to suck, but now it's done. always nice to quit doing something before you reach a breaking point you know exists somewhere.

-ilsan. i really don't know it that well yet (still...this is the first week i haven't had to commute to seoul for some work-related reason). it's very clean. my apartment is great, and there's a nice tree-canopied walkway that runs parallel to the street my hagwon is on. walking under those trees today felt like i was in an urban jungle of sorts. well, not really. but i like the idea of it seeming like an urban jungle, no matter how remotely. things are green. it's muggy. there are several playgrounds (just like in the jungle, right?). no monkeys or other jungle animals, but lots of bikes to dodge, mothers and children haphazardly navigating the pavement together. the pace of life here seems relaxed and lazy. lazy with the good connotation. people, make a note, i'm saying positive things about my life and about korea.
-beyonce. i dunno, she's just cool.

i guess that's a decent-sized list. i had a good weekend. worked on friday and saturday, but saturday night i actually went out and about drinking and whatnot. seems like i haven't done that too much lately (aside from earlier in the week last week when i went out with clayton and co. and ended up doing tequila body shots off another female teacher i work with. NEVER buy the whole bottle of tequila). but back to saturday. met a friend from columbia in the hongdae area. we actually hadn't hung out too much back in missouri, but based on our brief interaction, i knew he was cool as hell. went to a place called skunk hell. didn't actually go in, but hung out outside. something about drinking warm beer outside a punk rock venue made me feel really happy and really comfortable. i know i don't really look too punk rock, but it's comforting to see people who have escaped the traditional sort of roles assigned to them by korean society. if someone had shown me a picture of this place and the clientele, i wouldn't have believed it was in korea. lots of suspenders, pompadour haircuts, tattoos, piercings, plaid. and all on korean ladies and gents. foreigners too, but that's nothing too shocking. i would have expected this sort of vibe in japan, but never in korea. i was pleasantly surprised.

also went to a couple other places. one of which was a dancey sort of place where i sweated my balls off and danced like a fool. the other place had a bunch o' bands playing. i'm never optimistic about live music in korea. i've seen some foreigner bands before, and they tend to be shitty cover bands, as well as painful reminders of the wealth of unique, live music that was at my disposal back in the america. the venue itself was sort of uncomfortable. i guess not the place, but some of the people there. they just seemed condescending, and not even for any real reason. it was a party to promote some indie rock magazine. and yet, at the punk club where the people should have been intimidating and cold, they weren't. anyhoo, only two bands were really notable. the first band was galaxy express, a korean punk band. they were fucking amazing. i was totally blown away. i did not expect to hear these guitars and that sound from these three dudes (incidentally, they were korean. only really notable because they tried to say some things to the mostly english speaking audience, but had some difficulty. it was charming though). the best part was that they played kick out the jams as their last song. a lot of people probably don't think that's too notable, but again, you would never EVER hear mc5 in korea. i don't know how they fucking knew that song! the other band was we need surgery. all foreigners, sort of like clinic i guess, very danceable. i was impressed to see musicians who weren't tools and who actually didn't suck.

there was this other band that was sort of ridiculous. they were a "funk" outfit. but the lead singer/guitarist you would have never guessed could play guitar. so they'd be in their song, where uber-white lead singer is sort of scatting and then he'd just break out into this gratuitous guitar solo that went on for 5 minutes. don't get me wrong, he was very talented, but it all just seemed so random. he was clearly a dude in korea because he couldn't get any pussy at home. and surely that guitar solo was going to win him some points with the throng of adoring [asian] ladies? fair enough.

at the end of the night, went to a park nearby, where lots of different demographics of people were just hanging out, drinking, swinging, playing music, whatever. it felt very comfortable, very familiar. and it was a healthy mix of koreans and foreigners. most of the time in korea you're accutely tuned in to where you are by something that you perceive to be either slightly skewed or totally fucked up. it's not really easy to forget where you are and to not label things as korean or not korean. but on this night, things were just so easy. labels were stripped. people were just people. bands were just bands. the park was just a park. korean, foreigner, it mattered not. i guess that's what i would define as comfort. being able to do things without feeling obligated to put some sort of label on them to either justify or condemn them. i do that all the time and i hate it.

it was nice to come home without the burden of that familiar sinking feeling, the physical manifesation of desperation to which i've been accustomed on many the occassion. i have this habit of staying out way too late, waiting for something amazing and life-affirming to happen. i did it in columbia. i did it in suncheon. haven't really done it too much here. saturday when i got home, i was exhausted. but i wasn't drunk, and i felt like some part of me had been satiated. a sense of satisfaction that's been missing from a lot of my social ventures.

so yeah, got home early in the morning. sun coming up. refreshingly sober. it was a good night. i felt like i had something to show for my weekend, and the past couple of months in general. the music and everything sort of woke me up, jolted me out of this apathetic funk i've been in for a while. apparently there's a music festival in incheon this weekend. haven't decided if i'm going yet, but i think i really have no choice. i owe it to myself and the rest of my time in korea to see whatever limited musical offering there is.