One down; eleven to go...

10:01 PM Jmo 2 Comments

Well, it's official. I've been here a month. I've made it over my September 20th hill without even looking back down the pass to see if I should turn back.


Nothing too exciting has happened I guess...
I haven't met anyone new. I haven't made any incredible friends. I haven't traveled anywhere new. I haven't eaten anything new. I haven't lived in or navigated about a large city. I haven't learned about myself. It's not like I was waved to by a monk or anything...
-Strike that; reverse it. :)

This past month has been incredible! Yes, this past month has been trying at times but overall it has been one of the most important of my life. Even though every day I'm a little weary of the unknown, every day has also brought with it a new confidence. If I can do this I can go anywhere and do anything right? Why not. What's stopping me?

Speaking of eating new things... on Thursday, I believe, I had quite the culinary experience. Every day when I walk into the lunch room with my teachers I try to peak down the line to see what will be placed onto my tray. On that day I had to catch myself because I'm pretty sure I let out an audible: "Ohh shit, here we go..." (No one heard me, nor would they of understood but still...haha, oops!) My eyes widened and I had to laugh because on the counter ready to be put onto my plate was a gigantic bowl of tiny, dried up, salted, boney, little black bug-eyed, fish. Some even had their little mouths open. Yikes. They were a little hard to get down even though they we're half the size of a common minnow. I felt like a whale eating krill. All in all not bad...but if one got stuck in my teeth I felt like gagging. haha
Here we are:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cq9-SoeW9lw/Tzk2mh9YM4I/AAAAAAAAACw/Zd9DJONfFe8/s1600/anchovies.jpg

This past weekend was a time to recoup. I finally think my late nights and "can't-say-no" approach to living here caught up with me. Friday night after training I was sick. (Turns out Hyo is sick today too. I guess something is going around.) Blehh. I'm pretty sure I had a fever or some type of 24 hour bug. My throat was not happenin' and my body didn't know whether to be hot or cold. Saturday morning was more of the same but around 2:00 I had a friend ask me to go to the Daejeon Art Museum. "Can't-say-no" remember? And I'm glad I didn't. It was so amazing.
The art museum is just a short walk from my apartment. Literally, two streets over. It's housed inside the Arts & Cultural Center complex which also holds the theatre (currently showing Peter Pan), the expo center, science museum, and sculpture park amoung other things I'm sure. The current exhibition at the art museum was right up my alley. Though completely differing from my media and overall approach to making art, the central themes were relatively similar. Man, nature, science, energy consumption. The work was beautiful and interactive. Every piece encouraged the viewer to engage using different senses. There was a piece in which the viewer was invited to touch hanging plants to make music. Seriously. If you pet a leaf it would chime. So beautiful. There was another piece that you could take your shoes off and walk on. It recorded your steps and vibrations as you moved across the piece depicting our displaced energy. So cool. Another piece, which truely blew me away, required the viewer to make a connection with another person. One person would touch this metal ball, then after exhaling, another person would touch you to make sound. I don't know how it worked...but it was incredible. If you didn't exhale it didn't work. Each person sounded different and each spot touched made a different sound. Some notes sounded like you were in a horror movie while others made it seem like you were travelling through space. The classic "ET" finger poke was the best.
After the museum my friend Eleanor and I headed out to lunch. I had tofu stew and kimbap and she had bibimbap. She is a vegetarien so it was nice not to feel picky for once. "Aneyo-gogi! Aneyo-gogi!" (No meat! No meat!) Lunch lasted a long time because we talked about everything from international politics to British tv shows. (She's a Brit.) It was refreshing to hear an outside opinion on American politics. She definitely knows her stuff... I think it's safe to say that I know about .5% about British politics compared to her knowledge of the US. But after walking too much and eating too much I was tired and needed to head back home to my sickly lair....and gear up for the night time festivities of course. My body hates me...

Saturday night is always happenin' on my side of town. Dunsan is the "new downtown" and I am extremely proud and thankful to call it home. Every weekend seems to house a birthday party or two and this past Saturday was no exception. Great people, great fun.

Aside for the fight I had to break up... haha, what? Another one!? Yes.
Koreans need to chill out...

2 comments:

  1. Oh wow, Clicked on that link expecting something a little more friendly looking! :/ yikes!
    That metal ball piece sounds really cool!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The ones I ate were more clear-looking that that actually...sooo that photo is friendlier! haha

    ReplyDelete

All views expressed are that of the author. All rights reserved. Powered by Blogger.