Loose Feet

Just about to finish Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. Here's the shocking thing about that book. I got about 3/4 of the way through the book and suddenly realized that it's nonfiction. It's a true story but it's like a fairytale almost. Hard to believe, at least for me. I'm going to spend a better part of the next hour looking up some of the main characters in the novel as well. Oh how exciting my life is.

As for suggested reading...browsing through the newspaper, here are some of the eyepoppers, mindthunders, whatever you choose to call them (as you can see, some of my students have come up with some really good names for articles that can grab your attention :) )

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/us/24amigos.html?em

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/opinion/24iht-edcohen.html?em

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/opinion/22friedman.html

I'm going to China 2 weeks from today. Flying from here to Beijing to begin an adventure around the East coast of the country for nearly a month. The great part about it is that I get to see Penny in Hangzhou and celebrate Christmas with her. The bad part about it. Well, in reality, there is no bad part. I'm going to China. It's just that I keep reading all this bad news about China...

China, China, China....you keep getting bigger and with it comes all the unrealities: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/world/asia/25china.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

This is one of my favorite pictures to look at when I think of my travelling in Asia. It's nothing really. Just a menu from a Japanese restaurant I went to with my brother one night late at night in Kyoto. But still...it's that feeling, when you look at the menu and your stomach is rumbling and you just think....wow, I have no idea what this says....Shit.

It's exciting. Makes you even hungrier. But at times, a little frightening. And then, if you get what you want, it's complete satisfaction. I quite enjoy that whole adventure of it now.

If you know him, chances are maybe you love him. If you don't know him, well...he's pretty hot.

This is Rain...Infamous for his album Rainism whose complete destruction of all forms of music I am not ashamed to admit. He is also well-known, however, for being that really beautiful Korean star who turned down Meghan Fox, the star of Transformers. No biggie, you know.



I know him better as the star of the notoriously overemotionally driven Korean drama Full House, which my dear friend Lisa got into in her pre-Korea departure phase, and which I fell in love with during the 3 week vacation (where I still had to be at work) while the students took final exams.



But most importantly, he should be known for defining what we today can proudly refer to as 'the washboard abs', and creating a fever amongst women of a diverse range of ages.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful 비. Enjoy.

A great discovery has just been made and published in the New York Times, and it's enlightening, and yet even exciting news for the growing population of foreigners that lives day to day here in Korea. One step at a time...afterall, that ishow we got to the moon, isn't it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/asia/02race.html?_r=2

After a wonderful time in Japan with my brother -- which I should explain later, but probably won't due to pure and utter laziness -- I came back to Korea and was a little disappointed with all the monotony of the people around me. I know it happens everywhere, but for some reason it seemed a lot more in my face after my visit.

BUT THEN.

Today, I was walking back to the subway in Gangnam after a morning of classes and right before walking down the stairs, I looked to my left and saw this old Korean guy. He had really long grey hair and was wearing a a wide brimmed hat with a pirate bandana wrapped around it and a wicked brown suit. Looked so out of place amongst all the richie richs running around him, but so awesome. I couldn't stop staring at him. He was smoking Marlboro Red's. And he knew I was staring at me. So he looked up and gave me this big toothy grin (but missing a few of the teeth). And I couldn't stop smiling -- he made my day.

So good. Doubt I'll ever see that guy again, but I hope he's having a great day.

Watching the Daily Show and was hard-pressed to stop laughing when they showed the Republicans cheering on Chicago's loss of the 2016 Olympics bid. Now I'm not one to care about the Olympics -- really, I had no idea who was even up for the Olympics until I was in a small Ryoken in Kyoto where the woman was dishing out free 'Tokyo 2016 Olympics' pins. But still, what Jon Stewart had to say was all too true. Man...the Republicans love America. But they love to hate Obama more than they love to love America. It's quite sad, when you get right down to it.

And the line between love and hate gets a little bit smaller with every passing American day...