Another Rainstorm || No. 1

Another Rainstorm || No. 1

Rainwater is dripping from the ceiling panels, but I still have wifi.

The number of native English speakers here in Goesan, South Korea has increased at least twenty-fold—from (probably) 4±4 to about 80, but the sense lingers that we Americans are a nuisance more than anything else.

Shuffling ajusshi’s and ajumma’s have the extra obstacles of snapchatting and instagramming twenty-somethings on their 10-months-of-the-year clean and quiet sidewalks, and more than a few Korean curse words have been muddled under breaths.

Cultural exchange, for now, comes at the expense of the locals’ patience. Two days ago a drunk dude wanted to to know (in Korean) why my lip was a little messed up (born with a cleft)—good to know Korean beauty standards are what I remembered them as.

Number 34 is my 24601; there’s 69 of us being oriented here in the middle of <redacted for my 10 yr old brother> nowhere. It’s Korean language for breakfast and lunch, teaching workshops for dinner, and exhaustion for dessert. I fall asleep smiling.

North Korea briefly invaded our campus—which admitted looks like a North Korean gov’t building, prison, palace, or all of the above depending on the weather—for movie filming purposes. Cool to see 황정민 from 10 feet, but seeing Korean women almost faint while fangirling too hard from <3 feet away was more exhilarating.

Thoughts

Stomach wasn’t ready for daily 8am kimchi.

Non-Asian Fulbrighters may have trouble with Confucian values.

Korean 5th graders love to dab and laugh more in one day than I might in a year.

Quotes from Koreans to me: “한국인 이지요?” “You’re Korean, aren’t you?”

Keeping faith post-college requires purposeful action—it’s also worthwhile.

시골의 시골: this is the “country hick town of the country hick area.” 

News

Wick of Time: Keanu Reeves’ former stunt double is his director—also looks nothing like him.

Groundhog Day: “What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” => How you answer that question is your art.

Vuja De: when you’ve seen something a 1,000,000 times, but it seems like the first time. Challenge your ‘logical’ assumptions from time to time.

Culture Change: authoritative compliance ≠ optimism. Change happens through emotional response and commitment through shared values or dissatisfaction with the status quo.