God is LOVE

easter parade in ansan
Originally uploaded by nightwing.

dear diary–
on sunday i was enjoying a nice relaxing day of watching tv. i was in bed watching "medium" when i heard what sounded like a marching band. at first i thought it was music coming from one of the many stores. usually when a store is having a grand opening they play music and have dancing girls. not thinking much about it i turned back to the tv. the music got louder and louder. i decided to go downstairs and look out the window. a couple of blocks away i saw people walking down the street in a parade formation. i was tempted to put on shoes and ran down but it didn't look that interesting. i watched for a few minutes and then returned back upstairs. about an hour or so later i was into the second episode of "medium" when i heard the music again. curiousity always getting the best of me i ran downstairs to see where they were now. the parade was only a block from my house. as i watched i noticed someone dressed as jesus carrying a cross walk down the street. that alone should have been a clue that perhaps this was an easter parade. to be honest i didn't realize it was easter. where were all the easter bunny pictures? the chocolate bunnies? the colored eggs? the peeps for christ sakes [forgive but i had to throw that in]? it wasn't until the bus with the "god is love" slogan passed by that it all came together. it was such a bizarre little parade. very haphazard and no one stopped to watch it pass by. i did manage to take a few pictures but seeing that i was so far away they're all slightly grainy at best. i'm adding a link at the bottom so you can view them if you like. its definitely the little things like this which i love about being here. you never know whats around the corner. i hope you all had a great easter. i was always a bigger fan of the white chocolate bunnies. not sure why. i always had to one. the chocolate bunnies jsut wouldn't do the trick. how i miss having an easter egg hunt too. weren't those the days. you'd get up. look at your easter basket. stuff some candy into your mouth and then get ready to tear your house apart in search of eggs. of course the plastic eggs with toys, candy, and money were much better than finding real eggs. what about the malted chocolate eggs. they came in several different colors and if you licked the candy coating enough you could then apply it to your lips as lipstick. the things you come up with as children. although i must say everytime i have one of the malted eggs i still put on the candy lipstick. somethings will never change. anyway…i hope somewhere out there a little child bit the ears off their white chocolate bunny for me. be well…

snaps from the little easter parade that could…
Links

• easter parade in ansan

open studio exhibition

dear diary–
while i was out and about on saturday i took some photos of the exhibits. overall they came out all right. some are a little blurry. especially since i was in a low light area and quite a distance away. i didn't want to use a flash. the ones where you see the guy filming the artist were taken in the loop. as you can see i got a little carried away taking pictures of the filmmaker. oh well. my favorite thing i saw that day were the walls. they were in the middle of a walkway. not really sure why i was drawn to them but i was. especially the one that looks like an elephant. anyway…enjoy. be well…

snaps from the open studio exhibition in hongik unviersity area
Links

• open studio exhibition

samurai

samurai
Originally uploaded by nightwing.

STIKFAS: "it's simply fun!"

one of those weeks

dear diary–
wow. i can't believe it's been an entire week since i last wrote. this week seemed to really fly by. i'm not even sure what i actually did. after speaking with my sister today i learned that my father was scheduled to go home on saturday. i have yet to speak with him since it was too late to call. if i'm up tonight i'll try to reach him in the morning, otherwise i'll wait until morning to call when it will be sunday evening. it sounds like he's doing all right though. thats a big relief. my sister has been quite busy too with relocating to fort lauderdale. they are actually there now waiting to move into their home. i'm not sure how she mangaged the move especially with three little ones. hopefully things will settle down and they'll be able to enjoy their new life in florida.

as for me my week was busy with preparing for friday night's dinner party. i spent most of my week running back and forth to carrefour for last minute things i forget. if i don't see the inside of that place for a couple of days it'll be great. on tuesday i started round one of preperations. let's just say that it was quite interesting trying to make food for this party especially since my kitchen is uber small. the first task i tried to conquer was the potato salad. it was fairly easy except that i couldn't fit all the potatoes in the pot so i had to boil them in two batches. it was a good thing that i hard boiled the eggs on sunday. i added two sweet potatoes in with the other potatoes and i must say it turned out fairly well. the only bad thing was that i added too much onion. oh well. on thursday after another run to carrefour i attempted to made this sweet potato noodle dish, which i've had a some korean restaurants. a couple of months ago while out with work people i my a comment about how i was going to make it. since then they kept asking me when so i finally decided to make it for friday. i figured might as well kill two birds with one stone. can i just tell you what a pain in the ass it is to wash and cut fresh spinach. i'll admit i have no patience for chopping vegetables. i think it took a good hour and half to prepare the vegetables. while i was trying to drain the noodles, which without a strainer is quite interesting, the lid of my pot popped off and all the noodles end up in teh sink. luckily enough i had the stopper in the sick so none of the noodles vanished down the drain. it was like my own bad sitcom. once the noodle dish was done which took a total of two hours i made hamburger patties. finally around midnight i was done. everything was ready to go for friday. all i had to do was cook the hotdogs and hamburgers. friday morning after thinking i wasn't going to make the deviled eggs i found myself in the kitchen once again.

after school i literally ran home to start cooking. i had the hotdogs and burgers going at the same time. the pot and frying pan barely fit on the stove together. when i thought the hotdogs were done i pulled one out of the pot to taste it. as i chewed on it i thought something tastes very weird. thats was i realized that each hotdog was individually wrapped in plastic. yes i had just cooked 14 hotdogs in their wrapping. so now i found myself peeling the plastic off the damn hotdogs. the best though is when i grabbed a hotdog bun and discovered it was filled with creme. yes, thats right it had freakin creme in it. i should have known being in korea that the bread was filled with sweet creme. in the long run it didn't really matter if i had buns or not because they ate all the dogs. all in all the evening went off without a hitch. it was actually quite nice and everyone seemed to enjoy all the food i prepared. needless to say i was glad it was over.

to top off my week during mini-soccer on wednesday in taekwondo i broke my pinky toe. at least i think its broke. on thursday the toe was twice its size and black and blue. damn mini-soccer. during our class we also had two little kids in there. everytime they got hit with the soccer ball you'd hear this little voice go "ouch!". it was actually quite funny watching them play mini-soccer with us. it was also quite interesting to watch them during class. they are quite good at taekwondo. i'm sure they got a good laugh at watching us try to kick. the swelling of my toe has gone down quite a bit since then and it's only slightly black and blue now. i'm going to have to be careful on monday. perhaps i'll skip the mini-soccer.

on saturday horace and i went to hongik univeristy area since the ssamzieSpace was having their "the 6th open studio exhibition". the ssamzie space is somehow related to the dalki space [i think they were created by the same guy] and was created to promote cutting edge art in korea. there were definitely some interesting pieces there. there are three different gallery and then some studio spaces. there's also a gift shop were i found the best action figure ever and it was only 1,000 won [$1 us]. i'm sure you can imagine how excited i was about that. we also stopped in two other gallerys in the area. one the loop we got to see teh artist work on his piece. there we lots of people there video taping him and taking photos. it was actually quite cool to witness. would have be evn better if we knew what they were saying. we stayed for a ffew minutes sitting on the stairs watching the whole process. i have some photos that i'll upload later this week. the last gallery we went into was by far my favorite. its called team-preview and had artwork from several artists. there were a lot of interesting pieces. as we walked around the hongik area i also managed to snag several posters. i'm now decorating my apartment in street posters. knowing that there was a subway in the area we headed over there to grab some food. subway has never tasted so good. i thought i had died and gone to heaven. there was also a free market happening in teh park which consited of artists selling their stuff. there were lots of good finds. i bought this really cool punk-rock tie that was in two pieces. it kind of reminded me of the tie i bought in thailand and lost. except this one is 100% better. there was also a stuffed bunny i was going to buy but decided not too. its really great to see artist out selling their stuff. that why i love this area. it kind of feels like being in san francisco. while walking around i saw a group of korean mods. art school kids. theres nothing cuter than that. be well…

drunken tiger

dear diary–
my weekend is officially coming to an end. what a jam packed weekend it was. saturday night i met heather and jenny for dinner at our favorite madame galbi's. she a new side that was cold brocoli with a strawberry dressing over it. so good! i don't think i've ever had a bad meal there. love her. afterwards we headed over to jungang-dong to meet ryan. we had plans to go to the b+b hip-hop club to see drunken tiger. ryan was running late so the three of us thought we'd go up to the club to find out what time they were going on and if we could get tickets now. dt was going on at 1am. it was only 8pm. none of us wanted to spend that much time in the hip-hop club so we asked the guy if we could buy tickets and then get stamped to come back out. it took awhile for him to figure out what we wanted to do but he got. we paid, got a free drink ticket, a glow bracelet then left. we told ryan we'd meet him at the wa bar. before meeting us ryan went and did the same thing we did. we stayed at the wa bar until midnight drinking beer. we figured we should head over just incase we misunderstood what the guy said. wouldn't that have sucked. once inside we checked our stuff into the "rockerroom" not lockerroom but "rockerroom". the club was all dark with lots of blue lights. it kind of remindered my time at electric avenue in orlando. it acutally had the late 80's feel to it. there was even a cage going around the dancing area. for a second there i felt like i went through a time warp. i couldn't even tell you the last time i was even in a club. surprisingly though there weren't that many there. i'd said maybe 75 if that. these korean hip-hop kids, they're crazy. there was one other foreigner there besides us. it quite interesting to say the least. when we got there some dj was on. we did a little dancing, drank some more beers, watched all the people. every once in awhile i felt like i was in a zoo because so many people were staring at us. finally around 1:15 ish drunken tiger came out. everyone went crazy. i've never really heard them before but was interested in checking something different out. i watched one of their videos beforehand so i kind of new what to expect. it was actually quite good. and this is coming from a person who's not a huge hip-hop fan. everyone was getting into it. they had great engery. it was all around fun. after the third song they left the stage. of course he said something before they left but it was in korean and none of us new what he said. jenny thought they had to use the restroom. a little odd to leave but all right. we waited around a bit. heather and ryan wanted to go and jenny and i were up in the air. i told jenny we should find out if they are coming back on. we walked over to the "rockerroom" girl and asked. she replied by saying "go home. bye. bye." which meant the show was over. i think that has to be the shortest set i've ever seen in my life. perhaps that had a "real" show somewhere else earlier and where just doing a stop buy. who knows for sure. at this point we all decided to head for home. here's drunken tigers site is any of you are interested www.drunkencamp.com. they are actually based in the states so check around they might be coming to your city soon. here's a link to a video i took while at the show drunken tiger video.

on sunday morning i awoke at what i thought was at least 10am. it wasn't. it was 8am. why am i up so early during the weekend and all i want to do during the week is sleep in. i stayed in bed until 10am. got a call from my sister, then p, and then damion. it was marathon talking. while talking to damion, the land of the morning calm was struck with an earthquake. yes, i kid you not. we had an earthquake. my whole apartment was shaking. it felt like i was on a boat or something. it was very surreal and quite unexpected. still feeling semi-lazy and not wanting to cook i went to mcdonalds where i ran into two of my students. they happen to be brother and sister. they ran over and said hi. it was cute. around three i met heather and jenny at oido to head to a little market. it was actually nice being outside. its was still cool but not as cold as it has been. while walking through the market i heard this chirp-chrip sound. when i looked over there was a cardboard box with yellow, green, and orange baby chicks [see photo album link below for okgu park]. yes they were real. and they were only 1,000 won [$1 u.s.]. i came so close to getting on. how cute would it be to have a little orange baby chick running around my apartment. he'd be chirping all morning. you'd be amazed at all the people buying them. as we walked along the market i'd hear a chirp-chirp every once in awhile and a person would walk by with a chick in a plastic bag or in their hand. the more i think about i should have gotten one. oh well. after the market we walked over to okgu park to walk up the hill. there were a lot of people out. there was a soccer game going on too. at the park they have a rock/stone foot massage path. of course we did it. some of the rocks really hurt. there was a little boy there you just stared at me the whole time. even as i went past him he could stop looking. it was cute. it took about 10 minutes to get to the top of the hill. the park is really nice. there's a great view from the top although it was a little hazy. it was also very windy. we finished off our day with some grub. jenny wanted to go to this train car restaurant she went to a month ago. however, when we got to where it was it had been torn down. thats the thing about here. one day it here and the next its gone. that pretty much sums up my weekend. i'm now ready to lay in bed and watch some tv. be well…

snaps from the drunken tiger mini-concert
Links

• drunken tiger

snaps from okgu park
Links

• okgu park

lounge (closing time)

dear diary–
i have the most amazing friends ever! i want to thank all of you that sent emails and phoned. i really appreciated it. you guys don't know how much that meant. after i wrote my last entry i felt a little better. its amazing how simply writing out your thoughts can help you get a better understanding of things. especially when you know that other people are going to be reading them. this whole process of writing and opening up has been great for me. it something that i needed to do for awhile now. i kind of have the tendency to keep things to myself. i'm not really good at expressing myself to others but i think by writing my thoughts and not holding back i'm coming out of that shell. i will admit that i'm still not truly expressing everything but that will come in time. there are a few things i need to do before i reach that point but i have a feeling that will happen soon. especially in light of what happened to my dad i don't want to be a stranger anymore. as for my dad he's progressing slowly. i had a long talk with my mom and sister last night. although to be honest when i saw that they both called at 11pm i thought for sure something bad happened. thankfully that wasn't the case. not sure i could handle more bad news in this week. anyway, my dad is off the ventilator but he still has an oxygen tube in his mouth. his heart still needs some assistance in the breathing department. apparently due to all the medication he's on he has no idea of what happened. even though the doctors told him my mom had to tell him again yesterday. he's also getting quite frustrated since he can't really communicate with anyone quite yet. the doctors had him sitting the other day and they think that in a couple of days he might be able to walk. i'm sure the recovery process is going to be a long one. i really do admire my mom though. she has prven to be a lot stronger than i imagined her to be. it goes to show that in situations like this you have to do what you have to do. and right now she has alot to deal with. because she's got not other my dad to look after but also my grandmother. i'm hoping that my mom's brothers will come through and take my grandmother for a little while. my mom could definitely use the break. plus then she can just concrete on helping my dad.

while talking to my mom last night she told me that my bank/credit cards statements were still being forwarded to their house. two months ago through online banking i reguested them to stop sending paper statements. so much for online banking. needless to say i spent the next hour or so speaking to every department until i got it straightened out. thanks for sucking up all my minutes bofa. i think i had two coctails and let 8 smokes while dealing with them. everytime someone said goodmorning i replied "morning its 2am here, can we get this settled". i'm sure they loved talking to me. i can be such a bitch sometimes. which most of you probably know.

today i took a journey to emart to try to find hotdogs, hamburger buns, and hotdog buns. who would have thought finding that crap would be so difficult. this friday is the school dinner and i decided on burgers and dogs. to my complete amazement emart had everything i was looking for. i love emart. of course while i was there i kept throwing more shit into my cart. like i needs strawberry milk mix. am 8 years old? and then i got suckered into buying the pizza baguette. it looked so good. when i got home i torn into that thing. as you can imagine, being in korea and all, nothing is ever what it seems. my pizza baguette was anyting but pizza. no pizza sauce, no cheese. instead it was some sort of salad thing: crab meat, ham, peppers, corn, onions, some other mystery thing, and a ton of mayo on a baguette. i must say though it was actually quite tastey. i'd have another. this week there was also a high number of crazy apartment intercom speaker. at least 8 times. no lie. and its always in the morning. before they speak there a little "ding.ding.ding" which is now forever stuck in my head. i only wish i knew what they were saying. be well…

stab

dear diary–
last night my world came crashing down on me. i received a call from my sister around midnight. when i answered i had a gut feeling that something bad had happened. i immediately thought that it had to due with my grandmother who hasn't been doing well lately. fortunately she was fine, however, my dad wasn't. apparently he had a heart attack the other night and now had to have quadruple bipass surgery. from what my sister told me he had died twice and was shock back to life. i felt completely hopeless. there was nothing i could do. it would be one thing if i was in the states then i could easily get a flight home but being so far away makes things all the more difficult. my thoughts then went to my mom. knowing that neither my sister nor i could be there for her i couldn't stand the thought of her being by herself. thinking of her having to sit alone and wait for the outcome saddened me. i immediately tried to call her but i couldn't reach her on her cell phone. at that moment i felt like dropping every thing and heading off to the airport. but i realized i really couldn't do that and what would it change. i was up most of the night. unable to sleep. every time i closed my eyes my thoughts turned to my parents. the feeling of hopeless comsumed me. all these scenarios played in my mind. there is nothing worse than knowing there was nothing i could do. i felt the need to be with my mom. to console her. hug her. hold her hand. anyting. my sister told me she was trying to get her father-in-law to go to the hospital. that made me feel a little better. at least someone would be with her. i knew the thoughts that were running through my mind and i could only imagine what was going through her mind as she sat there waiting for news. i'm not sure what time i finally fell asleep but i did manage to get some rest. in the morning i had gotten up too late to call my mom. i didn't want to wake her because i figured she needed to get some rest after her night. my sister called me around 11 am. apparently the surgery went well but for the next 24 hours my dad would be in a semi-coma state and these were the most critical hours. she did tell me that a friend of my mom's went to sit with her. i felt good about that although i still wish it could have been one of us. during these times family is always so much better. i spent the majority of my day in a daze. for the most part my mind seemed to block out the events of home. it also helped that i had non-stop classes from 2pm to 8pm so it didn't give me much time to dwell on what was happening. although i did check my cell regularly to make sure i didn't miss any calls. i never mentioned anything to people at school. i really couldn't talk about. before going to taekwondo i got a call from anna. she's one of the korean teachers at my school. her and christine were at a bar and asked if i wanted to join them for a drink. i did. while having a beer with them i told them what was happening. it felt good to be able to talk about it. it times like this that really sucks being away from my friends. i really needed them. what i wouldn't have given to be able to sit with any of them at a bar right now. i suppose i could have called someone but its just not the same. i needed to be with them. to see their faces, have them make me laugh like i know they can. i realize how much i need them in my lives and it just not the same without them. sometimes i wonder if i can do another year here. i know it would benefit me greatly to do so but…i don't know. i guess i can worry about that later. i just feel really alone right now. after taekwondo i tried to call my mom again both at home and on her cell phone but i didn't have any luck. i really just need some kind of information. i need to know what's happening because not knowing is killing me. i did manage to talk to my sister again. she hadn't heard from mom yet today. her feeling was that no news is good news. i guess and i hope she's right about that. i'm trying to do everything i can to keep my mind occupied but its to no avail. all i really can do right now is wait, so that's what i'm doing.

be well…

dunkin donuts manga art

dunkin donuts manga art
Originally uploaded by nightwing.

dear diary–
i really must say i love all the random stuff i see around here. i mean even the dunkin donuts has cool manga-style art. i saw these three pictures the other day when i was there with "j". of course i was eating my favorite tart donut. its a glaze donut with a semi-hole that has jelly and topped with chocolate icing and toasted coconut. its so good. for some strange reason i feel that i might have described it before. if so sorry. anyway, the way the dd is set up here you get to select your own donuts using a tray and tongs. its kind of like some of the bakeries in the mission. which is perfect for me because then i can choose the one with the most jelly. so i noticed these 3 drawing and was quite drawn to them. a lot has to do with my big fascination for manga and anime these days. although i thought it was kind of funny how none of them looked asian. perhaps the middle one could pass. who knows. all i know is that the dd here is cool and hip. just look at the pictures if you need proof. there were two others but they were more "family" orienated and were a different style and not as fun. basically they sucked. i'm hoping that maybe the dd's back home can learn a little something from their eastern friends.

as for my actual day it was pretty good. there's one class though that has a way of turning my good mood to bad. its literally 40 minutes of them calling my name in whining voices non-stop. tkd was really good today. after the big blowout a couple of weeks ago the classes have improved greatly.the bs has stopped and we are actually concentrating on doing taekwondo. imagine that. more importantly though is that i scored the winner goal in mini-soccer tonight. i should go pro.

be well…

the thing i'm craving
hostess pies

white day mania

chocolate goodies
Originally uploaded by nightwing.

dear diary–
tomorrow is white day. no its not the day that whitey takes over, its the male valentine's day. yes, it seems here in korea valentine's day is the day for girls to give chocolates to boys and white day is the boys turn to give chocolates to girls. you got to love this country. yet another day for the candy companies. the shops in jungang-si where crowded with young boys buying giant boxes of sweets. you should see some of these things. it was absolutely crazy. i met "j" over there around 3pm to do some shopping. our first stop was for coffee and doughnuts at dunkin doughnuts. once we acquired our sugar and caffine buzz we set out onto the windy cold streets to do some shopping. unfortunately this area is quite bad for clothing shopping. there were a few cool stores here and there but nothing that really said "buy me". i did find one store that had smurf merchandise. how happy was i. i did see a smurf baseball cap that i wanted but decided against it. they just don't work on me. at least i know the store is there so i'll check back periodically. there was also a batman store which sounded promising but it wasn't. go figure. we had some time to kill before meeting belle, a co-worker of "j", so we opted to have a beer or two. it was so relaxing to be kicking back some beers on a sunday afternoon. i haven't done that in ages. it made me a bit homesick for the good old beer bust days. we meet up with belle and headed off for the movies. i still love how they have assigned seating. we went and saw million dollar baby which was absolutely fantastic. i really didn't know much about the film aside from the awards it won. i went into it thinking it was the female rocky. needless to say i was wrong. i won't say anything about the film incase there are some of you who haven't seen it. i will say this though, if you haven't seen it you should. after the movie we went to eat at vanga [at least i think thats how you spell it]. belle said they were famous for the pork cutlets. that was all i need to hear. i guess alot of celebrity stop in there to eat. they had a wall of autographs one of which was the vienna boys choir. if the vienna boys choir ate here you know it must be good eats. i had the pork cutlet stuffed with cheese. YUMMY! the food was great. after the meal i had a lemon tea which tasted like hot liquid lemonheads. my teeth feel like they are going to rot out of my mouth. its no wonder everyone is always on the go due to all the sugar in everything. prior to meeting "j" i decided to put together my samurai stikfa i bought when mkd were visiting. when i originally bought my little samurai i didn't realize i had to put it together. the stikfa has all these little plastic parts that you have to break off before the assembling begins. the instructions consisted of a picture plus these words "remove plastic parts from frames with proper tools carefully to prevent sharp, pointed or jagged edges". ok. let's just say that my samurai has some pointy edges. i guess i didn't have the right tools. sadly it took me about an hour and half to build this little samurai of mine. i also managed to cut myself numerous times as i tried to smooth out the pointy edges. however, it was all worth it. as the box says "it's simply fun!" can you guess how much i love my little samuri. ALOT! i think i need more. i'll post a picture of him one of these days. now i'm at the point where my sunday is coming to an end and school is appearing on the horizon. weekends are just too short. be well…

HAPPY WHITE DAY!

prom night

prom night
Originally uploaded by nightwing.

dear diary–
well tonight was the big night. it was misty's 15th annual pnye's prom night in san francisco. while all my friends we're getting decked out in their prom best i sat here in korea all dressed up and nowhere to go. mostly because i'm trying to rid myself of this cold. this was the first time i missed the event in 5 years. i received a phone call around 4:30 pm [korean time] from heather who was at the big night. i talked with her a bit. she told me that jojo was crowned queen. that tiara should have been mine. then she passed me to adawg, who was decked out in her best goth girl outfit. i can't believe i missed seeing her. i'm sure she looked hella cute. i also got to speak with the hostess misty [who had a giant curl in her hair], derek [who was wearing big shoes], the lovely kate [who was wearing the prom dress she never got to in high school], and heather's hubby scott [who was decked out as spicoli]. i can't wait to see all the pictures of everyone. from the sounds of it everyone was having a great time. they all said they wished i was there. me too. i love these guys. it was especially great to hear adawg's voice. i've tried to call her before but never made contact so this was extra special. she said some really great encouraging things to me on the phone which meant so much especially since i've been feeling down. sometimes i think i'm the luckiest guy ever to have such great friends. i look forward to the day that i head back to sf to resume my life. i really do miss them all.

this week at school while i was helping one my students another one jordan started to play with my hair. they all seem to be fascinated with the curls. when i looked over at him he started to giggle. i told him he could touch my hair. with that he started to pull one of the curls and watched it spring back. sometimes these kids are too cute. didn't do much today expect for relax. i couldn't believe how wiped out i was from the week. i'm starting to feel a bit better too which is great. tomorrow i might be meeting my friend "j" from taekwondo and do a bit of shopping and eating. be well…

blu

dear diary–
have you ever had one of those days where you simply feel blue for no apparent reason? maybe its the effects of the lingering cold that won't seem to go away. maybe its the never-ending winter season. the strange thing about it is that you know you are feeling this way but you can't simply shake it off. one of the first cards i got was from misty. on the front was a poem about blu. i saved the card and it now hangs on my wall. i'd like to share it with you:

blu

blue is teh color of a mood.
blue is simply a color
blue rhymes with true. blew. and you.
blue is an idea.

blue wonders about red.
blue feels the feeling of sad.
blue can be measured in nanometers
blue is an adjective (a blue mood)
blue is a state of being.
blue is the space between things
(like the sky)

blue is a sound.
blue is a shape.
blue takes you high.
blue takes you low.
blue is a depth.
blue is me.
without you.

o, blue.

be well…

what would brie vandercamp do?

dear diary–
last month horace invited the gang from school over to his house for dinner. it seems that they are quite interested in seeing our apartments and how we live. he made them a pasta dinner. it was on a friday so i missed out on the dinner since i had taekwondo and went afterwards for some beers. now its my turn. i told them i'd invite them over this month. my problem is that i have no idea what to make. obviously pasta is out. seeing that my kitchen consists of two burners, a frying pan, and a small pot my options are limited. if only i had a oven. my first thought was to make hamburgers but i really don't feel like frying them in a pan. then i thought about a mexican fest but that means trying to find refried beans and shells. which lead me to think about tiny sandwiches with the crust cut off. i feel like i'm at a loss. trying to plan an american meal in korea is tough. this leads me the the question what would brie vandercamp do? she'd have no problem coming up with a great dinner party theme with limited resources. since i can't really ask brie i thought i'd pose this same question to those of you reading my diary. if any of you have any great and simple ideas i'd love to hear them. the date i have in mind is march 24. that gives me two weeks to figure it out. speaking of cooking. there's this sweet potato noodle dish that they serve here which is very tastey. i was asking some of the teachers how to make it. they all looked at me like i was crazy saying "its too hard". being the stubborn person that i am i told them that it can't be too hard and now i found myself with the burdon of actually having to make this dish. and worse of all is that they all want to try it. its even gone as far as jane's friend, who's a home economics teacher, actually buying me the noodles since i kept telling them i couldn't find them. how to i get myself into these messes. after two months of them asking me when i'm going to make it, i think i'm going to give it a try this weekend. wish me luck. all right…time for some tea and tv. be well and please send your advice on the dinner party ideas. i'm counting on you all.

purple

dear diary–
tonight i became a purple belt. i wasn't really expecting to take a test so i was caught off guard. the worse part was that "h" wasn't in class so it meant that i had to do it by myself with everyone watching. eeks. luckily i passed although "the master" told me i need to syncronize my feet and hand movements. it's something to work on but i'm starting to feel more motivated about class now. i think it was good for me to have to take the test solo. usually when there are others with me i tend to rely on them. so i said goodbye to my blue belt which i've become quite fond of and am embaracing the purple one. whenever i think of the color purple, no i'm not talking about the movie although it is a great movie, i'm reminded of my aunt nan and her bedroom. my aunt loved her purple. from her clothes to her bedspread and wall paper. everything was purple. and if memory served correctly she even had purple eye shadow. when i was younger we went to new jersey every summer to visit my relatives. my aunt nan and her husband lived with my mommom [grandmother] and my other aunt. aunt nan worked at a police dispatcher so during the day she was sleeping. her husband uncle clint would sit either on the porch or in the living room working on word searches. my cousin and i would sometimes run to the corner store to get me smokes and he'd give us some extra movie ofr candy. summer's in jersey were pretty humid and these old houses didn't have air conditioning. but aunt nan's room did. we'd always run in there during the hours she was up. it was always freezing cold. it was like a purple paradise. the purple velvet curtains would be drawn shut to make even darker inside. dolls were littered along the bureau and she had lots of old movie star pictures on the wall. her side of the bed caved in slightly from her weight. we jump onto the bed with aunt nan and uncle clint, enjoying the coldness, and watched tv with them until we were called out to go to bed. that room was always like a mystery to us. i remember getting so excited when we were able to get inside if only for a brief moment of time. my two aunts, uncle clint, and mommom have a passed. the little purple room within the big house is no longer standing but i'll always have the great memories.

be well…

neopolitan

dear diary–
it's sunday night. 9:30pm korea time. i'm sitting here at my tiny computer desk eating neopolitan ice cream out of the tub. why can't i stop? the fat cells are mocking me. "eat more fatty!" "one more scoop!" i blame you misty! they came to korea bought ice cream and left it in my freezer. i guess if i finish it now, i wouldn't be standing in my kitchen at 4am eating it. news flash: it official the chocolate section is now gone. hello vanilla and strawberry. here comes papa!

photo booth

dear diary–
misty finally got a scan of the infamous photo both pictures. even to this day, every time i look at these i have to laugh. the whole experience was so surreal. an entire store devoted to photo booths. in walks 4 americans with no clue and here are our results. we got to love it! korea rocks!!

to the batcave

dear diary–
well…it's official. i've sold my soul to devil and have become a noraebang fan. who would have thought. after all these years of "i hate kara-oke" i now find myself staying out until the wee hours of early morning singing my guts out. and the best thing is that i absolutely suck. more on this later. let's back of to how the beginning of the evening started. to do so we must go to taekwondo class. why does the root of all evil start there? upon my arrival at class i noticed that there was a new student there. apparently he was there on wednesday too. i however wasn't since i wasn't feeling up to it. "j" wasn't in class either on wednesday which lead to some interesting comments of us being both absent. HELLO PEOPLE!! CAN YOU SAY JUST FRIENDS! not sure have many times you have to tell these people. perhaps next time i'll just bash a board over their heads while telling them. of course we have to play mini-soccer. this has become the norm lately. after that we did self stretching since "the master" had to entertain the new kid. he asked him several times to join us but he kept making excuses or comments like "i don't want to discourage the others by showing how flexible i am". we just got rid of "scrappy-doo" and now enters "dawn". when it was time to work on forms, "dawn" decided to sit this out too. i was having an off night. i could barely remember form 1 let alone 2-4. tonight was suppose to be test night too. i was a bit concerned about that. after we went through the forms, "h" and i went to one side to practice while "the master" helped "j" and "r" with their forms. it's coming into crunch time for them since they are taking their black belt test in april. "h" and i are practicing and as i'm trying to concentrate "the master" is sitting on the couch with "dawn" chatting away and making jokes. at one point "j" asks "the master" for some help and instead of showing "j" and "r" what to do he's explaining it to "dawn". i could tell that they were getting annoyed. finally "the master" came over to "h" and i and told us to do forms 1 -4. i messed up a bit here and there but overall i felt i did fairly well. he told us good job and walked away. when "j" asked if we were going to do testing tonight he looked over at "h" and i and said that i wasn't ready yet. this prompted "j" to ask "the master" if he was helping me or was he too busy joking with "dawn". this is when the gates of hell opened up and "j" and "r" went into "the master". it was getting so ridiculous that i went into the other room with "h" while they all hashed it out. when we came back into the room "the master" was still going off about how we're not motivated, miss class, etc. funny though he never mentioned anything about showing up drunk to class. he was on this speel about "how when i was in america…". he kept making this comment about how he had a quest here "dawn" and was his responsibilty to keep him entertained. what he didn't realize is that he had 4 paying students there who wanted to learn. if "dawn" didn't feel like participating that wasn't our fault. when horace and i tried out the class we participated in the class. we didn't sit on the sideline picking our ass. to the best of their ability "j" and "r" tried to get their point across. hopefully, "the master" heard them but its unlikely. in his eyes he does no wrong. it basically came down to the "the master" telling us to leave. it's a shame because i really do think he knows he stuff but i have no respect for the man. he just won't listen.

of course we decided to go for a drink so that "j" and "r" could unwind from their 30 minute argument. i felt bad because "h" was ready to take her test and i wasn't. and the fact that "h" and i didn't say anything and still "the master" acted like ass. as i relive this now in my head i'm getting angry. we headed to jungang station to meet "h"'s boyfriend "c". from there we heading into old ansan/jungang area for some beers. instead of going to the wa bar where we normally go "c" and "r" wanted to try this bar that was underground. there was fake rock around the entrance to the stairwell going down and even in the stairwell. when we entered the bar it was like being in a cave. and not just any old cave but the batcave. how happy was i. i've now found my new favorite spot to drink. we got 600cc of beer which came out in a mini-barrel. sausages were order which are basically hotdogs and later dried squid. i've tried dried squid twice now but i just can't do it. it tastes like ass-feet. did you know that squids have a claw? well they do. its on the uppper part of their body. at one point during the evening we started to play spin the claw. whoever the claw pointed out had to drink. oh, the fun korean games people play. around 12:30am "j" made her exit. the rest of us stayed to finish the beer. at one point going to a noraebang [singing room] was brought up but "h" said she didn't want to. the next thing i realize is that we're in 7-11 buying bottles of beer for the noraebang. so much for "h" saying no. the place we went to was a duluxe noraebang. it was a little more pricey than normal ones but well worth it. we had room that overlooked the street. which meant that you could stand in the window and sing. how cool is that. it hard hardwood floors that were heated, two couches low to the floor, and a flat screen tv. its the nicest noraebang room i've been to so far. it kind of felt like being in my apartment. i'm not even sure how many songs were song. before long it was 5am. on our way home we stopped for toasted egg sandwiches. the best thing ever at 5am. then we parted ways. they headed off in a cab and i headed off on foot.

my noraebang set list
at least what i can remember
love hurts [nazareth]
500 miles [peter, paul, and mary]
superstar [the carpentars]
celebrity skin [hole]
zombie [the cranberries]
white room [cream]
paint it black [the rolling stones]
sweet dreams [the eurthymics]
we got the beat [the go-go's]
pretty fly for a white guy [offspring]

delicious, delightful space

i like dalki

dear diary–
after four months of talking about the infamous "i like dalki" space i finally made it there. i'm so happy. since tuesday, march 1 was a holiday we decided that would be a good time to go. i had asked young teacher a couple of weeks earlier how to get there and when she expressed an interest to go i invited her along. four of us ended up going. horace, young, jenny [from taekwondo], and myself. horace, jenny and i met young at yeongdeunpo station which is on line 1 9purple0. while waiting for young in the station we watched some drunk korean guy chase a lady around the station. she looked absolutely mortified. i felt so sorry for her but i also couldn't help thinking "i'm so glad that wasn't me". usually i have a way of attracted the crazies. i also saw the cutest thing ever. a young guy perhaps maybe earlier 20s shopping with his grandmother. he was carrying her bag as the strolled through all the merchants in the station. how sweet is that. we met up with young and jumped onto a bus that would take us to another station where we were going to catch a shuttle bus. we ended up in ilsan which like ansan is another new city. this city, however, seemed to have a lot more going on. i'm definitely going to go back to check this out. it at the very lasted subway stop on line 3 [orange]. around noon the shuttle bus picked us up and off we went. "i like dalki" space is out in paju city which is where we went for the dmz tour. so very close to the border. apparently "i like dalki" is part of a whole art community that they are building there. it's called heyri art town and besides "i like dalki" there a few other museums, bookstores, and cafes open. this is definitely going to be a very cool area once finished. there's even a guesthouse one can stay at if you want to spend a weekend there. when we got to "i like dalki" my eyes lite up. i was so excited. i was hoping there would be rides but it was more like a museum. a fantasic giant kids museum. i was still happy even without the rides. when we bought our tickets we got dalki badges to wear. that's right, now i'm an official member of the dalki press club. it was being in a big playhouse. the way they had things set up reminded me of being in the ikea storeroom looking at the displays. they had this fake grass for flooring which i so want now. this is my new mission. the next apartment i have is going to be covered in it. there was a mirror room that had random costumes that you could put on. it was like halloween. the only other major room was the dongchimee dung tunnel. how great is that. a dung tunnel. you got to love that. after the dung tunnel there was a gift shop and children's playroom. it was all pretty interesting. the architecture was amazing. unfortuniately we're still in winter so the grass was all brown. i'm sure its stunning in the spring when everything is in bloom. i spent a few hours in the gift shop, made some purchases than wandered down to the cafe. after we were done exploring "i like dalki" we walked around the complex. we stopped into a few other museums, saw were they were building the movie + anime museum [can't wait], strolled through a bookstore and then went off searching for food. we ate at a tofu restaurant and left it up to young to order since the menu was in korean. we all aggreed on the seafood tofu. little did i know that when they brought it out there would be a live octopus in the pot. yes, i kid you not. it was alive. i watched as it slowly cooked like a lobster in a pot. when it was time to eat the waitress pick up the octopus with some tongs and cut the legs off. it was actually quite tastey. not as good as the octopus soup i had a few weeks ago though. around 6pm we caught the shuttle bus back to the the subway station and from there made our long journey home. it was a pretty awesome day.

strangest thing i saw besides the live octopus
• little boy squatting outside of the bathroom with pants down about to go to bathroom on sidewalk

another odd thing
• mommy laid an egg, a children's book that was quite graphic with swimming sperms and sexual positions. we saw this in the cafe at "i like dalki". definitely am going to try to locate this book

here are snaps from my visit to "i like dalki". i really do! hope you do too!
Links

• i like dalki

doll parts

postcard for exhibit

dear diary—
i'm not sure how but i managed to get up around 10am. with just moments to spare i grabbed the remote to the TV and turned on Love's Pinwheel, my favorite korean drama. can't miss that! still feeling exhausted from the previous night i forced myself out of bed and into the shower. last night i mentioned something to fumi about going to see this "2005 erotica" exhibit. from the postcard advertising the show [see above photo] it looked like the exhibit was with dolls. it sounded kind of cool and seeing that today [sunday, february 27] was the last day i didn't want to miss it. i gave fumi a ring and she was still interested in going so we decided to meet around 1pm and make our when to hondae where the exhibit was. a couple of weeks earlier i had gotten young [a teacher at ils] to tell me how to get there. although i didn't know streets names i had a general idea of which way to go. plus there was a map on the back of the postcard. all i really needed to know was the subway stop and exit #. while enroute to the gallery fumi told me that it was faster to transfer to line 1 than the way i usually go. the things you learn. now i've saved myself 20 minutes. i love learning new things. we had sort of a twilight zone moment while switching to line 2. the first time we got on the train we were heading in the wrong direction. we got off at the next time switched back and ended up where we started still heading in the whole directions. that damn line 2. i always get thrown for a loop there. once we made it to our destination finding the gallery via the map was quite easy. the gallery was called davinci gallery. we opened the door and climbed down the stairs. above the stairs was a naked doll legs spread and fully detailed. it actually looked like a doll made from a pillow. this is wehn i thought "oh, no! it's going to be bad doll art". we made our way through the black curtain and int the actual gallery space. the lights were on very low and there were candles by all the pieces. there was gothy-eerie music playing in the background. we were immediately greet and after paying we were offered some tea. the space itself was fairly small but it had a great feel to it. it was perfect for this exhibit. as i said there were several different pieces that had these hand made dolls by chong yang hee. the show was amazing. the detail that went into these dolls and the different scenarios from the placements of their hands to the way the fabric drapes over them was unbelievable. it's been a long time since art has inspired me. there were four pieces that i was drawn to:

• a bride
a woman spended from the ceiling completely naked except for some tulle that covered her thighs and was draped over a wire hoop skirt. her head hung low with her long, crimped blonde hair hanging down and her arms were out to the side. she almost looked like a fairy

• sorrow
a woman laying on a table with a red gown. her eyes half closed and her right hand hung slighlty off the table. her gown was draped around her ever so carefully. her red hair was off to the side and their were candles all around her.

• aries [the title was in korean and this is what it translates to
this piece consisted of a cage suspended in the air. inside was a naked man with gray hair pulled back in a pony tail. his hands were tied in front. around his neck was a noose, the end of the rope was in a coil on the floor. their were candles around him too.

• alice
two girls sat on a victorian settee at either end. the girl on the left had her dressed pulled up and was exposing herself. the girl on the right was much younger and completely naked. under her arm was a bunny.

the other piece were just as good but those were the ones that stuck with me. we lingered around the gallery for about an hour or so. sometimes we were talking about our own creativity and dreams and other times we both just stood in silence admiring the work of arts. we left the gallery we some free postcards, a poster, and i bought a book of the artist's work called pandora's box. if any of you are interested check out this link http://pandora.hompy.com/

after leaving the gallery we head toward hongik university to walk around and shop. i saw a different part of the area then when i was there with misty, kate, and d. there was a whole strip we missed. i also got to see where all the clubs are that participate in club night. thats the second friday of the month where its 10,000 won to see 5 bands, or something like that. i forget. thats something that i want to check out one of these days. of course i did mangae to find a few things to purchase. wouldn't be a shopping day without buying. we ate at pietra, a pasta and pizza place. i had pasta with cabbage, crab, and toasted garlic. it was actually quite good. after dinner we walked around a little more and then decided to head home. on the way home while on the subway fumi got her ass grabbed by a little old woman. these koreans…
be well…

cutest thing i saw
punk rock korean girl with pink hair

music
blonde redhead
melody of certain damaged lemons
melody of certain three

club nana

dear diary…

this past week was my friend vickie's birthday. on friday morning i got an email invite about a gathering she was planning for saturday night in itaewon. nothing like last minute planning. but hey, thats why i love her. saturday was a complete lazy day for me. i left the house once in the morning to fix my mcdonalds craving. i had drank some beers with horace friday night and my body was in need of some greasy food. the rest of the day was spent doing nothing. i called vickie at one point to get the details of that evening but wasn't sure if i was going to go or not. itaewon seemed so far and the thought of trying to get home made me a bit nervous. i have yet to be out at night in seoul. usually my nights are spent in old ansan. the thought of trying to get a cab home from there didn't appeal to me. finally around 8 pm i decided to jump in the shower and just go. afterall it was vickies birthday. i figured if people were meeting at 9:30pm i could show up then, have a few drinks and then leave by midnight to catch the subway home. or worse case i find a sauna or go to a "love" motel to spend the night. what was the big deal. taking a cab by myself was still not an option because (1). it would be very expensive to get back to ansan and (2) the communication problem. the shower was definitely a good idea. i felt much more alive and was ready to go conqueor a night in itaewon. it took almost an hour and half to finally get to itaewon. when i called vickie to ask where they her she told me that they were running late. she gave me directions to the bar and told me they'd be there in 40 minutes. seeing that i'd never been to itaewon at night i decided to walk around and check things out. before i realized it 40 minutes had passed so i made my way to find club nana. finding the bar was quite easy. i walked down the steps and entered. the bar which was small was quite crowded. i looked around and saw no one. i managed to make my way to the bar. i figured i might as well start drinking. before i could order a drink a strange girl approached me and asked if i was ethan. i said "yes" and she told me that she was vickie's friend jessie. jessie was a fellow curly hair and she's a director from south africa. we grabbed a seat at the bar and ordered some drinks. it was great that i didn't have to wait alone and had a chance to talk with her one on one. she's really cool and has a great personality. later on two other people showed up fumi and ralph. fumi is half korean and half black from hawaii and ralph was a bostonian. when fumi found out i was an american she gave me a big hug and kiss. love her. we seem to be far and few inbetween here in korea. as we sat around talking a table opened up so we grabbed it. fumi ordered some shots and by this time it was 11:30pm. so much for plan one. during our conversation i mentioned how i hadn't been out in seoul before and told them my reason why. in response they were all like "don't worry about it, we'll see to it that you make it home". that was really great to hear, especially coming from people i had jsut met. i instanstly clicked with these guys. it funny how one becomes so much more outgoing when they live aboard. it was actually great talking to other people. i actually felt like i was back in san francisco. at the club they had a dj who was playing decent music. you'd be surprised at some of the crap played here. as we were gabbing away a bigger spot opened up so we decided to take that since more people were coming. vickie finally arrived around midnight or so. they rest of the evening was spent drinking and getting to know all these people. fumi and i definitely clicked. you know how you meet someone and its almost like you've known them forever. that's how it was with her. and how could i not like her. after all she said i had "fabulous hair". the one thing about korea is that there is no last call. bars stay open until the last person leaves which can be quite dangerous. before i knew it it was 3:30 am. my options were to either go to a sauna, stay out until 5:30 am when the subway starts or cab it. fumi, ralph, and elly were getting ready to leave too so they said i should ride with them to sanbon and leave take a cab to ansan. problem solved. at sanbon i switched to a different cab since our original driver didn't want to go to ansan. fumi walked over with me and everything was sent to go. i said goodbye and jumped in. we didn't even get to the end of the block when the driver pulled over and started talking korean to me. i tried to explain that i didn't understand and kept telling him "ansan bus terminal". he continued to talk to me while the cab remained motionless. i pulled out my business card and pointed to where i wanted to go. this little non-conversation went on for awhile. finally he picked up the phone and called the station. as talked with them he mentioned homeplus which is by the bus terminal. i immediately said yes "homeplus". he got off the phone and smiled. i finally arrived at homeplus around 5 am. at one point he drove right pass it and i had to tell him to turn around. taking cabs here is definitely an experience. the walk back to my apartment was cold. all i wanted to do at this point was sleep. next time i going to have to figure out a good landmark closer to my building or at least figure out my building's name. that might be even better. it's always an adventure here. be well…