(This was written on the plane back from Shanghai but the last few weeks have been nuts so I'm only typing it up now.)
This entry is coming to you from a Shanghai Airlines plane heading to Pusan. I've just had a whirlwind trip visiting my lovely friends Steph and Greg who are part of the Former Guelphites Spread to the Four Winds contingent. Twas a delightful though lightning fast weekend.
Saturday, I woke up at 5:30 am to catch the bus to Busan's Gimhae airport. One thing I really like about flying from smaller airports is that you don't have to be at the airport that much before your flight. I arrived at the airport at 8 am for my 8:50 flight. After less than two hours I was in Shanghai and ready for a full day of Chinese romping. S and G picked me up at the airport and we took the Maglev, which is the fastest train in the world, from the airport to the subway in the Pudong section of Shanghai (Shanghai is divided into two - Pudong and Puxi). S and G teach at a school in a really fancy part of Pudong. After dropping my stuff off at their sweet apartment, we ate at a nice local restaurant they go to a lot and generally caught up. Then we headed to the art museum to check out this great exhibit by this French artist who took pictures of old people and then blew them up so that they were huge on the sides of buildings. You know I love old people faces so they was right up my alley. We saw some other cool peices. I've really been impressed with the Chinese contemporary art i've seen. Then we were off down to a nice shopping / hanging out area with great old buildings and little art shops and the like. We had drinks at this little place that didn't seem to make any of the drinks in the building. THey were mysteriously brought from elsewhere. Also the (not busy) bartender had a wild hairstyle, involving shaved bits and long bits, thus marking the first of many crazy Shanghai hairstyles. After checking out some cool / entertaining shops, we headed off to the most commerciallyt successful street in all of Chine. It was big and broad and had tons of American and foreign stores as well as local ones. There were also tons of people coming up to us saying "bags, purse, iPad, iPhone" every few metres. The sheer number of people in Shanghai is totally wild. I'vebeen to several countries with fewer people. At the end of the street you reach the Bund, which is the walkway up against the river. We were on the Puxi side looking at the Pudong skyline. The Puxi side has old colonial-ish buildings with crazy columns and carved stone while the Pudong side has these super modern/futuristic skyscrapers. Really interesting contrast. We went to a delicious chinese restaurant and ate duck and broccoli and some kind of root among other things. Afterwards, we walked along the Bund looking at the beautiful sights and boats. Then we went to get Haagen Daz. Now, we had assumed that the Haagan Daz store was going to be a regular old ice cream parlor. Not so. In fact, it was basically an ice cream restuarant. We were seated, there were elaborate menus. I got this awesome chocolate ice cream and lava cake thing. It was intense. Alas, after that Steph had to head home to take care of some application biz (which i could sympathize with cuz applications are the devil). G and I wandered the streets unsuccessfully looking for a happening area but it was still fun. I needed to pee and we had some comedy of errors situations trying to find me a place to go. We finally found a surprisingly clean public squatter down a back alley (yes, a public squatter in an alley cleaner than the bathroom at work - sad). We headed home soon after and the three of us hung out til we went to sleep.
In the morning we had an incredibly delicious breakfast (I had blueberry pancakes and an absurd amount of bacon - Heavenly). Alas, the weather decided to suck sunday so we made our way around in the rain. Afrter a thwarted attempt to check out the sex museum (closed) we ended up doing a bit of shopping at a nearby mall on the Pudong side of the river. I bought some sweet stuff at H&M. Then we headed down to another area to go to a famous dumpling resto. We'd planned to just get a late lunch there and then head to this Uighur resto in another area for dinner (I'm kind of obsessed with Uighurs) but the weather made it more appealing to just have dinner at the dumpling spot. This was a good choice becuase it was so so so ood I can't even express it. Magical.
Since it was still raining like crazy when we finished eathing we opted for a quiet night in after stopping at Dairy Queen (wooooooooooo!).
I really like Shanghai. I like the sound of Chinese and I like the look of the people and I like the busyness and distinctness. Shanghai folk also love buffont bangs, which was entertaining for me.
We spent sunday night playing Street Fighter (Chun li gave me my only victory over Greg. She never did let me down) and watched Happy Gilmore which I hadn't seen in like a decade. Monday morning I slept in a bit and then met upwith S and G for a last lunch at a sweet burger and milkshake joint. I accidentally walked in on a dude in teh bathroom, thus scarring him for life.
Alas after that it was time for me to cab off to the airport. I went to Terminal 1 only to realize that my flight was at Terminal 2 but the bus ride was like 2 minutes so it wasn't a problem.
And thus here I am, on a plane that only has like 40 people on it, above the clouds. It was great seeing S and G because they are great but also cuz it was fun comparing the two different expat experiences we've had. The scene in Shanghai is quite different than Daegu in that foreigners in Shanghai arent't as friendly and "let's all know each other-ish" as the ones I'm used to. This partially because of the greater variety of foreigners I imagine. Unlike in Korea where you are most likely a teacher or in the military if you are from the West (and a migrant worker or a student if you are from elsewhere - but these groups are smaller and more isolated in Korea than in Shanghai). And life in Shanghai is quite different than life in Korea in terms of diversity (Shanghai has much more) and social control (Shanghai has more). There are lots of similarities too, even little things like opening windowns in the winter and being obsessed with bangs. Shanghai's subway is good and cheap, which I enjoyed.
In the grand scheme of things I barely just got a taste of Shanghai. I quite enjoted it and would / wil totally go back someday. And it was just wonderful seeing familiar, adorable faces and remeniscing about old days gone by (that sounds really elderly of me but whatev).
So that is my overly detailed tale of my whirlwind weekend in Shanghai. I think of it as the real kick off to the end of my time in Korea because I've now only got 4 weeks of work left and with Christmas only les than 2 weeks away, the next little while is going to fly by (future note: little did i know how fast!). Soon I will be setting off on my travels with nothing but a backpack and moxy. Should be goodtimes.
Love,
AAA
p.s. in honour of having been in China, here are two music videos of goodlooking talented pretty voiced chinese men.
Khalil Fong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrKH-OiDMRU
Wang Lee Hom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSFN63tb5GQ
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Friday, November 26, 2010
It's Been a Long Time, I Shouldn't Have Left You...
I bet you all forgot this blog even existed. Or at least I’ll tell myself that so that I feel less bad about letting it fall to the wayside so completely.
I’m sitting in a newish Angel-in-Us cafe after randomly sharing a dinner with two middle aged Uzbek men. I’d decided I would go to the Russian/Uzbek resto downtown for the second time ever. I really liked it the first time but it’s a bit hard to find. Case in point – I actually went by it and made a big circle trying to find it this time. When I went in, two men by the window motioned me to join them. I refused a couple of times but then I remembered that I need to be training myself to talk to strangers more due to my upcoming travels (more on that later) so I went over. They were quite pleasant, even though we could only communicate through my limited Korean and their even more limited English. They also ensured that I ate way too much food. I ordered kebabs (like the Pakistani kind – just big chunks of ground, spiced meat, but fatter and in a light sauce) but they also insisted I had some of their rice pilaf and an entire lamb skewer. So here I am in Angel-in-Us drinking Rooibos and trying to stave off the effects of overeating. I’ve been working on PhD apps all week and tonight is my single night off. In an hour I’ll be off to see Das Racist (a new York based hip hop act that pepper their vulgar and often hilarious lyrics with references to people like Arundhati Roy, Edward Said, and WEB DuBois) perform. I’m pretty hyped about it.
On the topic of apps – I hate doing them. I wish schools could just know how obviously suitable I am and accept me :P I’m applying to 6 schools, two in Canada and four in the States. It should be all done by December 1st assuming I get some lame GRE business worked out. I can’t wait. I’ve vowed to buy myself an ice cream fondue set (yes that exists) from Baskin Robbins in celebration. Then December will be a month of doing everything I haven’t gotten around to while I’ve been here. Also, I’ll be hitting up Shanghai to visit some lovely friends from the Guelph days of yore. Very excited.
As for post-work travel plans: they are very exciting. My plan is to spend a few days in Osaka visiting with some lovely folks from university and high school before coming back to Korea to catch my flight to Delhi. I’m in India for six weeks during which I hope to make my way down the west coast before crossing over to leave from Chennai (Madras for anyone stuck in the past). I fly to London with a short stopover in Bahrain (so I’ll be able to technically claim I’ve been in the Middle East even though I’ll only see the airport). Then I spend a month in Europe, over 10 years after I went for the first time. It’ll be cool seeing it as an adult this time. I’ll be visiting friends and fam and friends of fam, so it’ll be a nice follow up to the aloneness of travelling India solo, though I am really looking forward to my first time travelling completely solo. While I’m in Europa, I’ll be seeing Berlin for the first time as well as seeing Paris properly (since last I was there, I slept through it and was only awake long enough to see the Eiffel Tower). Then it’s time for home sweet home. I’m really excited to see everyone, eat all the food I’ve been missing, and just being back in my sweet city once again. Living in Korea has taught me that I’m not built for homogeneous living. My next post (yes, it will happen) will probably be really restospective and “what did I learn”-y so I shan’t do any more of that now.
For now, some anecdotes:
For a long time, I would walk by this one elderly fellow every morning on the way to work and I always felt like he was staring at me. But somehow, one day, I ended up smiling at him (cuz I’m just that kind of gal) and he stopped to talk. There was minimal talking due to the language barrier, but now, everyone morning, we shake hands and say anyonghaseyo. He’s very sweet. One thing I really will miss about Korea is the vast numbers of beautiful old people. Some of you know, Asha loves the old folks. A lot. Their faces especially. I’m pleased to have acquired a Korean grandfather.
This morning I woke up to find the half of my left eyebrow closest to my nose inexplicably disappeared. I look so crazy. And I have literally no idea how it happened. I don’t have a single plausible theory. It’s very bizarre. It’s also made me realize how much I use my eyebrows since I’ve been hoping my glasses will hide the missing hair but my excess of facial expressions is making it difficult.
Anyway, time for me to go get down at the show.
Love love love
AAA
I’m sitting in a newish Angel-in-Us cafe after randomly sharing a dinner with two middle aged Uzbek men. I’d decided I would go to the Russian/Uzbek resto downtown for the second time ever. I really liked it the first time but it’s a bit hard to find. Case in point – I actually went by it and made a big circle trying to find it this time. When I went in, two men by the window motioned me to join them. I refused a couple of times but then I remembered that I need to be training myself to talk to strangers more due to my upcoming travels (more on that later) so I went over. They were quite pleasant, even though we could only communicate through my limited Korean and their even more limited English. They also ensured that I ate way too much food. I ordered kebabs (like the Pakistani kind – just big chunks of ground, spiced meat, but fatter and in a light sauce) but they also insisted I had some of their rice pilaf and an entire lamb skewer. So here I am in Angel-in-Us drinking Rooibos and trying to stave off the effects of overeating. I’ve been working on PhD apps all week and tonight is my single night off. In an hour I’ll be off to see Das Racist (a new York based hip hop act that pepper their vulgar and often hilarious lyrics with references to people like Arundhati Roy, Edward Said, and WEB DuBois) perform. I’m pretty hyped about it.
On the topic of apps – I hate doing them. I wish schools could just know how obviously suitable I am and accept me :P I’m applying to 6 schools, two in Canada and four in the States. It should be all done by December 1st assuming I get some lame GRE business worked out. I can’t wait. I’ve vowed to buy myself an ice cream fondue set (yes that exists) from Baskin Robbins in celebration. Then December will be a month of doing everything I haven’t gotten around to while I’ve been here. Also, I’ll be hitting up Shanghai to visit some lovely friends from the Guelph days of yore. Very excited.
As for post-work travel plans: they are very exciting. My plan is to spend a few days in Osaka visiting with some lovely folks from university and high school before coming back to Korea to catch my flight to Delhi. I’m in India for six weeks during which I hope to make my way down the west coast before crossing over to leave from Chennai (Madras for anyone stuck in the past). I fly to London with a short stopover in Bahrain (so I’ll be able to technically claim I’ve been in the Middle East even though I’ll only see the airport). Then I spend a month in Europe, over 10 years after I went for the first time. It’ll be cool seeing it as an adult this time. I’ll be visiting friends and fam and friends of fam, so it’ll be a nice follow up to the aloneness of travelling India solo, though I am really looking forward to my first time travelling completely solo. While I’m in Europa, I’ll be seeing Berlin for the first time as well as seeing Paris properly (since last I was there, I slept through it and was only awake long enough to see the Eiffel Tower). Then it’s time for home sweet home. I’m really excited to see everyone, eat all the food I’ve been missing, and just being back in my sweet city once again. Living in Korea has taught me that I’m not built for homogeneous living. My next post (yes, it will happen) will probably be really restospective and “what did I learn”-y so I shan’t do any more of that now.
For now, some anecdotes:
For a long time, I would walk by this one elderly fellow every morning on the way to work and I always felt like he was staring at me. But somehow, one day, I ended up smiling at him (cuz I’m just that kind of gal) and he stopped to talk. There was minimal talking due to the language barrier, but now, everyone morning, we shake hands and say anyonghaseyo. He’s very sweet. One thing I really will miss about Korea is the vast numbers of beautiful old people. Some of you know, Asha loves the old folks. A lot. Their faces especially. I’m pleased to have acquired a Korean grandfather.
This morning I woke up to find the half of my left eyebrow closest to my nose inexplicably disappeared. I look so crazy. And I have literally no idea how it happened. I don’t have a single plausible theory. It’s very bizarre. It’s also made me realize how much I use my eyebrows since I’ve been hoping my glasses will hide the missing hair but my excess of facial expressions is making it difficult.
Anyway, time for me to go get down at the show.
Love love love
AAA
Friday, July 9, 2010
Woops
Dear Friends,
I have recently sucked at updating this blog. Luckily this is because I've been doing an admirable amount of living recently that has made getting the time to sit down at write long ramblings more difficult. The goings on have included a visit from my awesome Mom, a trip to Tokyo, the leaving and arriving of friends, going to see Usher perform in Seoul, trips to other Korean cities, and epic amounts of world cup watching. It's been busy. Also that whole having a job business gets in there too. So the moral of the story is I haven't had the mental space or the free time to make a good entry (similarly, I've been bombing at emailing people recently, sorry!) and while I am totally going to try to fix this (which will be easier once the world cup is over), I don't know how well this blog will be taken care of this summer. I've got wall to wall visitors in august and I really have to get my act together on the PhD apps front. So this is a mixed apology / heads up that more apologizing may be to come. In the meantime, I hope all of ye are happy and healthy and full of sweet, sweet summer goodness.
love love love
AA
I have recently sucked at updating this blog. Luckily this is because I've been doing an admirable amount of living recently that has made getting the time to sit down at write long ramblings more difficult. The goings on have included a visit from my awesome Mom, a trip to Tokyo, the leaving and arriving of friends, going to see Usher perform in Seoul, trips to other Korean cities, and epic amounts of world cup watching. It's been busy. Also that whole having a job business gets in there too. So the moral of the story is I haven't had the mental space or the free time to make a good entry (similarly, I've been bombing at emailing people recently, sorry!) and while I am totally going to try to fix this (which will be easier once the world cup is over), I don't know how well this blog will be taken care of this summer. I've got wall to wall visitors in august and I really have to get my act together on the PhD apps front. So this is a mixed apology / heads up that more apologizing may be to come. In the meantime, I hope all of ye are happy and healthy and full of sweet, sweet summer goodness.
love love love
AA
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Bam!
Well folks, I’ve been slacking. and I’m sorry about this big gap between posts but it has come from life being busy busy busy, which is a good thing I suppose. There have been theme parties to attend, friends to council and console, a play to rehearse, and, of course, a big old job taking up a good chunk of my time. The more stuff going on, the harder it is to just sit down and write it all. So I’m not even going to try writing it all. What I am going to do is hit a few key goings on and then hopefully take less time to write the next entry so I can get back to covering things.
First of all, as usual, I am in a café. I’m eating strawberry gelato to console myself after a fruitless trip to Emart in search of a good summer blanket. I’m one of those people who needs to sleep under something, even if it’s really hot. But Emart was not forthcoming – all they had were thick duvets and thin pads to sleep on rather than under. If I can’t find a good blanket elsewhere I might have to ask my mom to bring me one from home. That’s right – mama arrives in a mere two weeks! (Celebrate Goodtimes just started playing, throwing me back to my banquet server days. Oh cheesy weddings). Mom and I will be exploring Daegu as well as romping about. I have to remember to dig into a Lonely Planet guide and ask around to decide what activities we shall do.
But to the past/present rather than the future. In awesome bullet form. Bam!
- It’s election time. As a result, there are awesome campaign trucks roaming the streets blasting songs about their candidate of choice and displaying either screens showing endearing videos about the candidate (candidate in a field! candidate with baby!) or housing ahjummas holding signs and doing synchronized hand dances. Heck yeah elections in Korea are way more exciting than elections back home, and I can’t ever understand anything about these candidates. There are also big banners everywhere showing smiling pictures of the candidates. There’s one I keep seeing with a man and a woman on it and I can’t figure out which one is the candidate.
- rehearsals for the play that I am in at the end of June have begun.; indeed, I have one tonight. It’s a bit daunting to be memorizing lines and acting again but hopefully I don’t disgrace myself.
- I went to go see Korea play Ecuador in a friendly match a couple of weekends ago in Seoul. it was really fun and hyped me up for the World Cup even more. Korean fans are hardcore. This game didn’t even matter (and Ecuador isn’t even in the WC) but they cheered hard the whole way through. On all the seats were big red cards with chants printed up on them. After the game, some dudes came out and performed the Korean world cup song and then the that is going to South Africa came out and carried the flag around the perimeter of the field.
- My delightful friend from Guelph, Jen, has been hired and will be arriving in Daegu to start working right beside me in the near future. My delightful friend from Guelph, Melinda, will be leaving around the same time for more career aiding ventures. So I am trading one Guelphite for another. Four other newbies will be joining the office over the course of the summer so there will be quite a changing of the guards afoot.
- I just bought a ticket to the Jisan Valley Rock Festival that is going down in July. Yes, I will be enjoying the sweet tunes of Vampire Weekend and Belle and Sebastian in Korea! So excited I can barely stand it.
Okay, I think I shall leave it at that for now. You all know that even though I neglect you, I still love you. Hope you all are having goodtimes and getting some sun. It`s been wet and grey the last few days but soon, very soon, I will be getting a sweet tan and laying on a beach. Aw yeah.
Much Love,
AAA
First of all, as usual, I am in a café. I’m eating strawberry gelato to console myself after a fruitless trip to Emart in search of a good summer blanket. I’m one of those people who needs to sleep under something, even if it’s really hot. But Emart was not forthcoming – all they had were thick duvets and thin pads to sleep on rather than under. If I can’t find a good blanket elsewhere I might have to ask my mom to bring me one from home. That’s right – mama arrives in a mere two weeks! (Celebrate Goodtimes just started playing, throwing me back to my banquet server days. Oh cheesy weddings). Mom and I will be exploring Daegu as well as romping about. I have to remember to dig into a Lonely Planet guide and ask around to decide what activities we shall do.
But to the past/present rather than the future. In awesome bullet form. Bam!
- It’s election time. As a result, there are awesome campaign trucks roaming the streets blasting songs about their candidate of choice and displaying either screens showing endearing videos about the candidate (candidate in a field! candidate with baby!) or housing ahjummas holding signs and doing synchronized hand dances. Heck yeah elections in Korea are way more exciting than elections back home, and I can’t ever understand anything about these candidates. There are also big banners everywhere showing smiling pictures of the candidates. There’s one I keep seeing with a man and a woman on it and I can’t figure out which one is the candidate.
- rehearsals for the play that I am in at the end of June have begun.; indeed, I have one tonight. It’s a bit daunting to be memorizing lines and acting again but hopefully I don’t disgrace myself.
- I went to go see Korea play Ecuador in a friendly match a couple of weekends ago in Seoul. it was really fun and hyped me up for the World Cup even more. Korean fans are hardcore. This game didn’t even matter (and Ecuador isn’t even in the WC) but they cheered hard the whole way through. On all the seats were big red cards with chants printed up on them. After the game, some dudes came out and performed the Korean world cup song and then the that is going to South Africa came out and carried the flag around the perimeter of the field.
- My delightful friend from Guelph, Jen, has been hired and will be arriving in Daegu to start working right beside me in the near future. My delightful friend from Guelph, Melinda, will be leaving around the same time for more career aiding ventures. So I am trading one Guelphite for another. Four other newbies will be joining the office over the course of the summer so there will be quite a changing of the guards afoot.
- I just bought a ticket to the Jisan Valley Rock Festival that is going down in July. Yes, I will be enjoying the sweet tunes of Vampire Weekend and Belle and Sebastian in Korea! So excited I can barely stand it.
Okay, I think I shall leave it at that for now. You all know that even though I neglect you, I still love you. Hope you all are having goodtimes and getting some sun. It`s been wet and grey the last few days but soon, very soon, I will be getting a sweet tan and laying on a beach. Aw yeah.
Much Love,
AAA
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
It's a Celebration!
No, folks, the birthday festivities will not go unreported. Worry not. I’m sitting on the stage downtown in the glorious sun, having just finished eating some ice cream from the newly opened Cold Stones. I slept a total of two hours. Why? Because last night was epic.
To begin the story at the beginning, yesterday afternoon I had a little birthday dinner for myself. There was delicious Indian food, seven lovely ladies and myself in a cute private room with Bollywood tunes playing in the background. Perfection. Dinner was relaxed and entertaining. After dinner, Nakia, Shakara and I took a little stroll along the pond near the restaurant before heading to our respective homes to get ready for the night ahead. Now three weeks ago, a dude with whom I have mutual friends announced he was having a toga party for his b-day. Sine I’m me and just don’t plan that far in advance, I realized I would be sharing my birthday celebration night, which was actually totally fine since I wasn’t planning on making the night on the town aspect of my b0day very planned. Now some of said mutual friends decided that, rather than wearing togas, they would interpret the ancient world theme rather loosely and dress as Spartans instead. More on this later.
So I headed downtown, met up with a couple of folks and got to dancing, as I tend to do. More and more people started to arrive at GoGo Party, but no Spartans. I live in the same building as the ringleader of the group, so I had received a preview, but I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone anything beforehand. Eventually they appeared. Nine dudes, wearing the following ensemble: black boxerbriefs, red capes, shinguards, shields, and spears. People just did not know what to make of them. Especially when they chanted and brandished their spears. At this point the bar was packed and people were dancing and limboing and generally doing it up right. At some point we switched locales, to Thursday Party and did eve more getting down. At 5 am, we left Thursday and parties went a few different directions, but mostly home. It was insanely late/early and I’d just danced long and hard, but I was feeling wonderful until I realized I didn’t have my camera. At first I was sure I’d left it in a cab that me and Shakara had gotten into and gotten out of and I was worried it was lost forever . Then I thought that it was probably still at Thursday and resolved to go get in the afternoon. Luckily, I thought, people tend to return stuff around here. I slept for maybe two hours in half hour chunks before giving up and being awake. Around noon I got a glorious call from a friend informing me that they had my camera, which was a huge relief. I showered up at hip hop class but since it is run and attended by the same folks who were out til all hours last night, we all agreed to forgo dancing for the day and went to eat instead. As the always sober one, it’s always fun to tell people what they did the night before and laugh as they don’t remember.
This brings us to where I began the entry. The others had their own business to attend to and I had to kill time before the theatre meeting so I got some ice cream and enjoyed the sun. The theatre meeting was sort of a meeting-audition hybrid. We’d picked two one act plays to perform and were trying out various roles. Casting isn’t final yet but I’m definitely going to be in one of them. I’m excited about getting back on stage. the last time I acted was maybe five years ago and even though I’ve performed on stages in various other ways in the interim, being in character is something I’m really out of practice doing, This weekend I’m writing for the 24 Hour Theatre Project, which is going to be fun as well as insane. Wish me luck!
Anyway, I went to bed super early Sunday in order to recuperate from the lack of sleep and only got unlazy enough to finish this entry now so here it is.
As for the music recommendation situation, I admit that I haven’t been listening to much kpop lately. the last while I’ve been listening to a few things over and over again (If you are interested, it’s this somewhat bizarre array of music: Vampire Weekend, Robin Thicke’s “Sex Therapy,” Chromeo, Nate Dog and Warren G’s “Regulate,” and Architecture in Helsinki). This has made me pretty useless in the recommending kpop category so I’ll hold off til I find something I can get enthusiastic about ‘round here. In the meantime, I shall spend my evening kickin’ it.
Love,
AAA
To begin the story at the beginning, yesterday afternoon I had a little birthday dinner for myself. There was delicious Indian food, seven lovely ladies and myself in a cute private room with Bollywood tunes playing in the background. Perfection. Dinner was relaxed and entertaining. After dinner, Nakia, Shakara and I took a little stroll along the pond near the restaurant before heading to our respective homes to get ready for the night ahead. Now three weeks ago, a dude with whom I have mutual friends announced he was having a toga party for his b-day. Sine I’m me and just don’t plan that far in advance, I realized I would be sharing my birthday celebration night, which was actually totally fine since I wasn’t planning on making the night on the town aspect of my b0day very planned. Now some of said mutual friends decided that, rather than wearing togas, they would interpret the ancient world theme rather loosely and dress as Spartans instead. More on this later.
So I headed downtown, met up with a couple of folks and got to dancing, as I tend to do. More and more people started to arrive at GoGo Party, but no Spartans. I live in the same building as the ringleader of the group, so I had received a preview, but I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone anything beforehand. Eventually they appeared. Nine dudes, wearing the following ensemble: black boxerbriefs, red capes, shinguards, shields, and spears. People just did not know what to make of them. Especially when they chanted and brandished their spears. At this point the bar was packed and people were dancing and limboing and generally doing it up right. At some point we switched locales, to Thursday Party and did eve more getting down. At 5 am, we left Thursday and parties went a few different directions, but mostly home. It was insanely late/early and I’d just danced long and hard, but I was feeling wonderful until I realized I didn’t have my camera. At first I was sure I’d left it in a cab that me and Shakara had gotten into and gotten out of and I was worried it was lost forever . Then I thought that it was probably still at Thursday and resolved to go get in the afternoon. Luckily, I thought, people tend to return stuff around here. I slept for maybe two hours in half hour chunks before giving up and being awake. Around noon I got a glorious call from a friend informing me that they had my camera, which was a huge relief. I showered up at hip hop class but since it is run and attended by the same folks who were out til all hours last night, we all agreed to forgo dancing for the day and went to eat instead. As the always sober one, it’s always fun to tell people what they did the night before and laugh as they don’t remember.
This brings us to where I began the entry. The others had their own business to attend to and I had to kill time before the theatre meeting so I got some ice cream and enjoyed the sun. The theatre meeting was sort of a meeting-audition hybrid. We’d picked two one act plays to perform and were trying out various roles. Casting isn’t final yet but I’m definitely going to be in one of them. I’m excited about getting back on stage. the last time I acted was maybe five years ago and even though I’ve performed on stages in various other ways in the interim, being in character is something I’m really out of practice doing, This weekend I’m writing for the 24 Hour Theatre Project, which is going to be fun as well as insane. Wish me luck!
Anyway, I went to bed super early Sunday in order to recuperate from the lack of sleep and only got unlazy enough to finish this entry now so here it is.
As for the music recommendation situation, I admit that I haven’t been listening to much kpop lately. the last while I’ve been listening to a few things over and over again (If you are interested, it’s this somewhat bizarre array of music: Vampire Weekend, Robin Thicke’s “Sex Therapy,” Chromeo, Nate Dog and Warren G’s “Regulate,” and Architecture in Helsinki). This has made me pretty useless in the recommending kpop category so I’ll hold off til I find something I can get enthusiastic about ‘round here. In the meantime, I shall spend my evening kickin’ it.
Love,
AAA
Thursday, April 22, 2010
It's true, I was born.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my birthday entry. I don’t have a ton to say but I thought it would be nice to commemorate the day by writing. I turned 24 today, which is a number I like because it is the number of hours in the day. I’m one of those people that loves getting older for whatever reason so I’m pretty cool with the whole birthday business. I celebrated today by taking myself out and about post-work. I liked the idea of a solitary birthday of self indulgence and self focus. I was going to go to a movie but there wasn’t anything showing that I really wanted to see so I didn’t. Instead I loitered in a bookstore that has a little English section. You all know I can’t be in a bookstore and leave empty handed so I treated myself to a few books and then spent some time wandering the streets. Street wandering is basically the Asha equivalent of meditation in that it’s when I both think and don’t think best. One of the sweet things about doing stuff alone is that you can be totally indecisive and not feel bad about it at all. So I couldn’t decide for a long time where to sit down and write this and the place I finally picked is actually closing soon so it wasn’t the best choice but whatever. It’s my birthday :D
To back track (doing stuff in order? Pah!) I started out my day getting up early so that I could wash my hair , which I took out last night (which took long enough that I had enough time to watch the Bourne Ultimatum, Milk, which are both great movies, and a couple of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is a show I have just started to get into, more than a decade after it started air, because I always like things way after they are popular). I wanted to start a new age feeling very clean (any my hair had been twisted for six weeks, so, not so clean). It was lucky because I caught my dear brothers online and got to chat with them for a bit. Work was pretty normal. The only notable event was when one of my Korean coworkers came over with a piece of paper and said “Your childhood.” On the paper was a picture that someone had used in one of the writing books of a little black girl with an afro and a head band holding it back. It was both hilarious and random. Also, I got invited to one of the managers’ wedding. That’ll be interesting. Korean weddings are apparently really short and don’t have a reception in the sense that I am familiar with. After the wedding, everyone eats in the sort of cafeteria place in the wedding hall with all the guest s from all of the other weddings happening in the hall. Pretty different, eh?
So there you have it. My quiet, reflective birthday. I’m having a dinner followed by dancing on Saturday, so don’t worry – there will definitely be a proper celebration as well. Going to be hitting up an Indian restaurant I’ve heard good things about. I’m also going to get an ice cream cake. Mmmmm.
So I’ve arrived home and on my way I discovered that Thursday night must be official pee on the street time because I saw three dudes doing it, two of whom decided to relieve themselves right on the main road as if it was the most normal thing in the world. It’s not even midnight!
Anyway, as I sit in my first ever bachelorette pad, I look back on the last twenty four years and think, Not bad. Not bad at all.
Love,
AAA
To back track (doing stuff in order? Pah!) I started out my day getting up early so that I could wash my hair , which I took out last night (which took long enough that I had enough time to watch the Bourne Ultimatum, Milk, which are both great movies, and a couple of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is a show I have just started to get into, more than a decade after it started air, because I always like things way after they are popular). I wanted to start a new age feeling very clean (any my hair had been twisted for six weeks, so, not so clean). It was lucky because I caught my dear brothers online and got to chat with them for a bit. Work was pretty normal. The only notable event was when one of my Korean coworkers came over with a piece of paper and said “Your childhood.” On the paper was a picture that someone had used in one of the writing books of a little black girl with an afro and a head band holding it back. It was both hilarious and random. Also, I got invited to one of the managers’ wedding. That’ll be interesting. Korean weddings are apparently really short and don’t have a reception in the sense that I am familiar with. After the wedding, everyone eats in the sort of cafeteria place in the wedding hall with all the guest s from all of the other weddings happening in the hall. Pretty different, eh?
So there you have it. My quiet, reflective birthday. I’m having a dinner followed by dancing on Saturday, so don’t worry – there will definitely be a proper celebration as well. Going to be hitting up an Indian restaurant I’ve heard good things about. I’m also going to get an ice cream cake. Mmmmm.
So I’ve arrived home and on my way I discovered that Thursday night must be official pee on the street time because I saw three dudes doing it, two of whom decided to relieve themselves right on the main road as if it was the most normal thing in the world. It’s not even midnight!
Anyway, as I sit in my first ever bachelorette pad, I look back on the last twenty four years and think, Not bad. Not bad at all.
Love,
AAA
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Something Old
It’s Easter Sunday afternoon, and I am taking in the beautiful weather from the patio of Ahn’s Coffee, a little place not far from my house. Holidays are a little sad without family around, and my family is strewn across the globe. However, life is good so it’s only a little sad, rather than really sad.
And life is indeed good, for the most part. Weather is finally looking up, job has gotten less stressful, social activities are lovely. The only ungood thing afoot is that it’s yellow dust season, which means that dust (along with pollution) from China is blowing into Korea like crazy. Thanks for that, China. As a result, me and half the people I know have sore throats or are getting sick. Despite this unfortunate matter, last night I went to Charanga for Chile which was a salsa party / fundraiser thrown by some of my friends. Twas delightful. There were performances, including a hip hop dance by the folks in the class I’ve been going to. The people I’ve net here are some talented folks, which I like to see.
So for lack of a good segue, I’ll just jump into an interesting bit of Korea trivia for you all. Korean law works on the blood money system. If you don’t know what that is (and I only knew because it was used during the medieval period in Europe and you know I love me some Middle Ages) it’s when the perpetrator of a crime against someone is able to make restitution by giving the victim money instead of going to jail or paying a fine to the state. So if I punched someone in the face, I could give the person I punched however many million won and I wouldn’t get charged. I’m not sure how many crimes this applies to – like if you can pay the family of a person you killed, medieval style. I think it’s just such an interesting legal difference. Apparently, here and in Japan, entrapment is totally okay, and that’s how a lot of people get caught for drug use. Korea is super hardcore about drugs. If you get caught using anything, including marijuana, you get in serious trouble, and if you are a foreigner you will likely get deported.
In other news, last weekend I went to a meeting for the Daegu Theatre group and there is a plan for a 24 hour theatre project in the works, which will be fun. Also, the article I wrote for Daegu Pockets is in teh current issue, thus launching my career as a restaurant reviewer :P
I paused writing for a bit to have a pleasant conversation with the enthusiastic barista who wanted to practice her English. I have come to appreciate people like that because even though they are, in a sense, using you, they are a far better set of people to come into contact with than folks who are afraid of foreigners. And “afraid” is not an exaggeration here. There are people who will seriously go out of their way to avoid interacting with you and will be noticeably uncomfortable when they can’t avoid it. It’s very foreign (haha) to me that anyone over the age of about 10 could be afraid of people just based on their foreignness. I guess it’s a product of growing up around people of various backgrounds, but I just can’t imagine reacting to ethnic difference with fear. Part of it is the power dynamics that come with English speaking. English is major social capital so speaking it badly or not speaking it at all looks bad on a person (I know, it’s messed up) so people will avoid speaking to a foreigner so as to avoid revealing their lack of English skill. (When I am using foreigner here, I’m talking about “Westerner” because the dynamics with other non-Korean communities vary widely. A whole other issue is the terrible attitude many Koreans have to Chinese people. They repeat certain stereotypes about Chinese people that are straight up racist and I think it’s disgusting and ridiculous. Especially because the stuff they diss Chinese people about are the same stereotypes that other people have about Koreans. Anyway, I don’t expect everyone in the world to want to talk to me, but it’s pretty uncomfortable when someone does their best to not talk to you. This past week me and M went to Costco and I brought my good old Metro reusable grocery bags from home. So after checking out, I was standing near the ramp waiting for M to get us some water and this couple walks by and then stops as the woman starts to exclaim in Korean how beautiful my bags are. Note: she was not talking to me. She was talking to her boyfriend who also examined my bags. Neither looked at me or addressed me at all. That sort of scenario is so common here that the rudeness sort of wears off slowly.
From where I’m sitting, I can see a big apartment building with water, lily pads and fish painted on the side.
So it’s officially my birth month, which means I should start figuring out what I’m going to do to celebrate. I’m not sure yet but I’m thinking some brunch is in order. French toast is a very ideal birthday food. Hopefully by then the dust has subsided and the weather is delicious. Word is that Korea gets crazy humid in the summer. I’ll keep you abreast of the situation.
Well I should head home and type this up before I head to a temporary goodbye dinner for Susy, who is going home for a few weeks before she starts her next contract. We’ll be going to Maya which is rumoured to be the best Indian place in Daegu. They even have chai. Mmmmmm.
Love,
AAA
And life is indeed good, for the most part. Weather is finally looking up, job has gotten less stressful, social activities are lovely. The only ungood thing afoot is that it’s yellow dust season, which means that dust (along with pollution) from China is blowing into Korea like crazy. Thanks for that, China. As a result, me and half the people I know have sore throats or are getting sick. Despite this unfortunate matter, last night I went to Charanga for Chile which was a salsa party / fundraiser thrown by some of my friends. Twas delightful. There were performances, including a hip hop dance by the folks in the class I’ve been going to. The people I’ve net here are some talented folks, which I like to see.
So for lack of a good segue, I’ll just jump into an interesting bit of Korea trivia for you all. Korean law works on the blood money system. If you don’t know what that is (and I only knew because it was used during the medieval period in Europe and you know I love me some Middle Ages) it’s when the perpetrator of a crime against someone is able to make restitution by giving the victim money instead of going to jail or paying a fine to the state. So if I punched someone in the face, I could give the person I punched however many million won and I wouldn’t get charged. I’m not sure how many crimes this applies to – like if you can pay the family of a person you killed, medieval style. I think it’s just such an interesting legal difference. Apparently, here and in Japan, entrapment is totally okay, and that’s how a lot of people get caught for drug use. Korea is super hardcore about drugs. If you get caught using anything, including marijuana, you get in serious trouble, and if you are a foreigner you will likely get deported.
In other news, last weekend I went to a meeting for the Daegu Theatre group and there is a plan for a 24 hour theatre project in the works, which will be fun. Also, the article I wrote for Daegu Pockets is in teh current issue, thus launching my career as a restaurant reviewer :P
I paused writing for a bit to have a pleasant conversation with the enthusiastic barista who wanted to practice her English. I have come to appreciate people like that because even though they are, in a sense, using you, they are a far better set of people to come into contact with than folks who are afraid of foreigners. And “afraid” is not an exaggeration here. There are people who will seriously go out of their way to avoid interacting with you and will be noticeably uncomfortable when they can’t avoid it. It’s very foreign (haha) to me that anyone over the age of about 10 could be afraid of people just based on their foreignness. I guess it’s a product of growing up around people of various backgrounds, but I just can’t imagine reacting to ethnic difference with fear. Part of it is the power dynamics that come with English speaking. English is major social capital so speaking it badly or not speaking it at all looks bad on a person (I know, it’s messed up) so people will avoid speaking to a foreigner so as to avoid revealing their lack of English skill. (When I am using foreigner here, I’m talking about “Westerner” because the dynamics with other non-Korean communities vary widely. A whole other issue is the terrible attitude many Koreans have to Chinese people. They repeat certain stereotypes about Chinese people that are straight up racist and I think it’s disgusting and ridiculous. Especially because the stuff they diss Chinese people about are the same stereotypes that other people have about Koreans. Anyway, I don’t expect everyone in the world to want to talk to me, but it’s pretty uncomfortable when someone does their best to not talk to you. This past week me and M went to Costco and I brought my good old Metro reusable grocery bags from home. So after checking out, I was standing near the ramp waiting for M to get us some water and this couple walks by and then stops as the woman starts to exclaim in Korean how beautiful my bags are. Note: she was not talking to me. She was talking to her boyfriend who also examined my bags. Neither looked at me or addressed me at all. That sort of scenario is so common here that the rudeness sort of wears off slowly.
From where I’m sitting, I can see a big apartment building with water, lily pads and fish painted on the side.
So it’s officially my birth month, which means I should start figuring out what I’m going to do to celebrate. I’m not sure yet but I’m thinking some brunch is in order. French toast is a very ideal birthday food. Hopefully by then the dust has subsided and the weather is delicious. Word is that Korea gets crazy humid in the summer. I’ll keep you abreast of the situation.
Well I should head home and type this up before I head to a temporary goodbye dinner for Susy, who is going home for a few weeks before she starts her next contract. We’ll be going to Maya which is rumoured to be the best Indian place in Daegu. They even have chai. Mmmmmm.
Love,
AAA
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