I always walk to the bus station after work. It gives me 20 minutes of exercise after a long day, and it's a nice walk. I can either walk along a stream and then cut up along a large busy street, or walk along the stream for a third, up a street for a third, and cut through the park for a third. Yesterday, I decided to do the park way.
So, I was walking through the park when a group of young boys playing in an adjoining playground saw me. They started hollering "hello, how are you, my name is blah blah blah". This isn't abnormal for my city, as westerners like myself are fairly uncommon. Usually, if a child is polite and close, I'll either smile, nod, and / or respond in English. One thing I won't do is scream across a park. So I ignored them and kept walking, bypassing an old man who was dragging a metal cane on the brick, making a wince-worthy sound.
They kept up the screaming, which turned into quite rude Korean: "Word for for a woman's genitalia that sounds like 18 in Korean", "dog-baby", "fool" and other things besides.
What does one do in a situation like that? There are various responses I considered. Eventually I decided to do the one I felt was appropriate for the situation: I walked away, ignoring the insults just as I had ignored the English, not even pretending to notice. Was it correct? I don't know. Maybe I should have responded with verbal violence, using my own set of bad words? Or thrown rocks at them, as one student advised?. (Another student told me I should have beaten them up and taken their clothes and money, lol.)
But that's not me. Maybe it should be me, but it's not. So, I walked away and hoped they would learn wisdom as they grew up. Then again, a rotten child frequently grows into a rotten adult. So who knows? Sometimes, there are no good answers.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Hmmm....
A discovery this morning...
If you get up on time, as in when the alarm goes off, or even get up early, you don't have to hurry to get to work . You even have time for breakfast while you watch CNN! Wow... Who'd have thunk it... Sleep a little less, have more time in the morning! Interesting, as my buddy Mr. Spock might say, or even "Logical." Why didn't I figure this out years ago, say in my 20s?
I'll have to try this again tomorrow. Or some time this year, at least.
If you get up on time, as in when the alarm goes off, or even get up early, you don't have to hurry to get to work . You even have time for breakfast while you watch CNN! Wow... Who'd have thunk it... Sleep a little less, have more time in the morning! Interesting, as my buddy Mr. Spock might say, or even "Logical." Why didn't I figure this out years ago, say in my 20s?
I'll have to try this again tomorrow. Or some time this year, at least.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
"Rent" in Seoul
I became acquainted with"Rent" via a music video playing in a restaurant where I was waiting for some takeout food. Cool, I though, so that's "Rent". I filed the information away, and a year later when I found the video for sale at a rental place, I snapped it up. And loved it, which I knew I would, somehow. I never thought I'd get to see it live, so when I saw the poster for it in Seoul a few months ago, I was ecstatic.
Two friends said they would go with me: Alan and Steve. The cheaper tickets were sold out, so we had to get $90 tickets. We saw the 3:00 show on Saturday.
The good? Good view from pretty much everywhere. Acoustics. Lots of energy. People excited. The two original members who played Mark and Roger, who were extremely comfortable in the roles. Great band who played without missing a beat.
The bad? The story was a little difficult to understand for people who didn't know it, and some of the lyrics were unclear. Small stage. Personally, I found myself missing some of the big scale effects of the movie. For instance, Angel in her Santa Claus suit. In the movie, she did a lot more acrobatics and drumming on pipes. Also, in the "La Vie Bohemme", I found myself looking for the things I saw in the movie that I didn't see in the play.
Don't get me wrong. It was a grand performance, and I'm glad I went. But just like usual, the reality couldn't match up with my anticipation of it.
Two friends said they would go with me: Alan and Steve. The cheaper tickets were sold out, so we had to get $90 tickets. We saw the 3:00 show on Saturday.
The good? Good view from pretty much everywhere. Acoustics. Lots of energy. People excited. The two original members who played Mark and Roger, who were extremely comfortable in the roles. Great band who played without missing a beat.
The bad? The story was a little difficult to understand for people who didn't know it, and some of the lyrics were unclear. Small stage. Personally, I found myself missing some of the big scale effects of the movie. For instance, Angel in her Santa Claus suit. In the movie, she did a lot more acrobatics and drumming on pipes. Also, in the "La Vie Bohemme", I found myself looking for the things I saw in the movie that I didn't see in the play.
Don't get me wrong. It was a grand performance, and I'm glad I went. But just like usual, the reality couldn't match up with my anticipation of it.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Weekend news
Well, here I am at work. Again. Good thing I love my job! Had a hard time getting up this morning... must be getting old, lol.
"When can I go to the store and buy what I want with my good looks?" Allen Ginsberg
Had a nice, relaxing weekend. On Saturday, I met my friend Tim for dinner at "Hungry Eyes," the Cheongju Indian restaurant. I was glad to see it open, as I had heard it was closed momentarily. One of the workers had a problem with immigration, I heard. At any rate, the quality of the food did not suffer. Service, on the other hand... one man waiting tables and one man cooking... a hour and a half to get our food. And it was packed! Every table was filled! I felt sorry for the one waiter running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Afterwards we (with Alan) saw the movie "Public Enemy" which was "ehh." A little slow, I thought, and not engaging enough to keep my interest.
On Sunday, Helen went to Eumseong with Leona, leaving me to hang around on my own. I took a long walk through the neighborhood, and took a short mountain hike with a flashlight in the dark (the path is very clear, there are no sharp drops, and I'm very familiar with the path). Helen was not happy to hear about: "Don't do that! Maybe you'll meet a bandit!" Haha, not likely. For one thing, there are graves up there, and Koreans are generally nervous about ghosts (even the ones who say they don't believe in them). Also, a bandit's job is to steal money from travelers. A small path through the forest at night would not be a good place to wait for prospective marks. This isn't the 18th century, after all.
Also played my "Elder Scrolls III: Morrowwind" game, which I enjoyed, and did a quite a bit of meditation. I'm working with a mantra I created: "Water stills, silt settles" to begin the meditation sessions.
But... Monday.... Work.... 2 classes down and three to go....
"When can I go to the store and buy what I want with my good looks?" Allen Ginsberg
Had a nice, relaxing weekend. On Saturday, I met my friend Tim for dinner at "Hungry Eyes," the Cheongju Indian restaurant. I was glad to see it open, as I had heard it was closed momentarily. One of the workers had a problem with immigration, I heard. At any rate, the quality of the food did not suffer. Service, on the other hand... one man waiting tables and one man cooking... a hour and a half to get our food. And it was packed! Every table was filled! I felt sorry for the one waiter running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Afterwards we (with Alan) saw the movie "Public Enemy" which was "ehh." A little slow, I thought, and not engaging enough to keep my interest.
On Sunday, Helen went to Eumseong with Leona, leaving me to hang around on my own. I took a long walk through the neighborhood, and took a short mountain hike with a flashlight in the dark (the path is very clear, there are no sharp drops, and I'm very familiar with the path). Helen was not happy to hear about: "Don't do that! Maybe you'll meet a bandit!" Haha, not likely. For one thing, there are graves up there, and Koreans are generally nervous about ghosts (even the ones who say they don't believe in them). Also, a bandit's job is to steal money from travelers. A small path through the forest at night would not be a good place to wait for prospective marks. This isn't the 18th century, after all.
Also played my "Elder Scrolls III: Morrowwind" game, which I enjoyed, and did a quite a bit of meditation. I'm working with a mantra I created: "Water stills, silt settles" to begin the meditation sessions.
But... Monday.... Work.... 2 classes down and three to go....
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
On the Bus
Thursday. No breakfast today as I woke up a little late. Not late enough to miss my bus, just late enough that I had no time to eat. Not that I eat much breakfast anyway, but still. It was no big deal two hours ago, but now I'm at my desk and hungry. Still an hour to lunch.
I don't even have classes to distract me. My first two classes were canceled due to festival practice, and then the third period (right now) is free.
Did mindfulness meditation on the bus today instead of reading. Mindfulness is just that: being aware of everything going on. The five senses (a ringing phone, licking my lips, the shapely legs of the woman across the aisle, the humid air of the bus flavored by a subtle perfume just for a passing moment, blinking), the breath (in and out), and mental formations (not not thinking, but paying attention to the play of thoughts flashing across my mental screens). Paying attention, being in the moment. Living.
I also did a bit of gratitude meditation, in which one gives thanks for everything and anything that you can think of or see at the moment. [Gratitude for cellphones, even when they're annoying me, gratitude for a bus to take me to work, gratitude that I have a seat, gratitude for pretty women in short skirts, etc] I also did a little metta (lovingkindness) meditation when an ambulance went by. (May all beings be healthy, happy, and strong; may all beings be free of discontent and dissatisfaction, may all beings be free of suffering).
Usually I read on the bus going to work, but I often do mindfulness for part of or all of my time. I find it flavors my day in a subtle way: I'm more apt to smile and be centered throughout my day.
What are you doing right now? What are you really doing right now?
I don't even have classes to distract me. My first two classes were canceled due to festival practice, and then the third period (right now) is free.
Did mindfulness meditation on the bus today instead of reading. Mindfulness is just that: being aware of everything going on. The five senses (a ringing phone, licking my lips, the shapely legs of the woman across the aisle, the humid air of the bus flavored by a subtle perfume just for a passing moment, blinking), the breath (in and out), and mental formations (not not thinking, but paying attention to the play of thoughts flashing across my mental screens). Paying attention, being in the moment. Living.
I also did a bit of gratitude meditation, in which one gives thanks for everything and anything that you can think of or see at the moment. [Gratitude for cellphones, even when they're annoying me, gratitude for a bus to take me to work, gratitude that I have a seat, gratitude for pretty women in short skirts, etc] I also did a little metta (lovingkindness) meditation when an ambulance went by. (May all beings be healthy, happy, and strong; may all beings be free of discontent and dissatisfaction, may all beings be free of suffering).
Usually I read on the bus going to work, but I often do mindfulness for part of or all of my time. I find it flavors my day in a subtle way: I'm more apt to smile and be centered throughout my day.
What are you doing right now? What are you really doing right now?
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
100% Swine Flu Free!
I left Michigan on the 24th, and arrived on the 25th.
Once I entered Korea, I had to do a seven-day in home quarantine. Korean people are (overly?) concerned about the spread of swine flu. Three people have died from it so far here. All the people in my program (EPIK) who went out of the country had to stay home for a week to make sure we were not sick.
Fine with me. I spent my seven days sitting around in my boxers and playing computer games. I also got a good start on the Star Trek books I picked up while in the states, meditated a good bit, and generally had a good time. Leona and Helen had to stay home too, so I got to spend quality time with my family as well. It was a little boring at times, true, but we live in a large apartment. If I had to live in a "one room", I probably would have been driven batty by the first day.
But back to work today. Everybody glad to see me. The students are having a festival this Friday, so two of my classes were canceled today to make room for rehearsals. No doubt tomorrow will be more of the same, and as for Friday, the whole day is shot.
It's quite sunny and hot today, although the lights are pleasantly cool. Hints of the coming fall on the night breeze. Michigan was much cooler: in fact, I had to wear a sweater one day.
Out the window, the late summer cicadas are buzzing their little hearts out. I wonder why they make that sound: mating, like fireflies? Hmmm.... this sounds like a job for Su... no, wait ... Google!
Once I entered Korea, I had to do a seven-day in home quarantine. Korean people are (overly?) concerned about the spread of swine flu. Three people have died from it so far here. All the people in my program (EPIK) who went out of the country had to stay home for a week to make sure we were not sick.
Fine with me. I spent my seven days sitting around in my boxers and playing computer games. I also got a good start on the Star Trek books I picked up while in the states, meditated a good bit, and generally had a good time. Leona and Helen had to stay home too, so I got to spend quality time with my family as well. It was a little boring at times, true, but we live in a large apartment. If I had to live in a "one room", I probably would have been driven batty by the first day.
But back to work today. Everybody glad to see me. The students are having a festival this Friday, so two of my classes were canceled today to make room for rehearsals. No doubt tomorrow will be more of the same, and as for Friday, the whole day is shot.
It's quite sunny and hot today, although the lights are pleasantly cool. Hints of the coming fall on the night breeze. Michigan was much cooler: in fact, I had to wear a sweater one day.
Out the window, the late summer cicadas are buzzing their little hearts out. I wonder why they make that sound: mating, like fireflies? Hmmm.... this sounds like a job for Su... no, wait ... Google!
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