It's been a topsy turvy week, kids. The long break meant I got to jaunt up to Busan and meet a friend of a friend who I am happy to call a Friend now. No degrees of separation anymore. One degree? Either way, we slept in past noon, drank beers on the streets, wandered around some ancient temples and ate Mexican food in the afternoon. All in all, that's a pretty rad way to spend the first few days of eternity. Almost fairytalelike, no? On the train there and back, I wrote letters and tried to sleep in what is now a growing catalogue of Uncomfortable Body Positions in Which I've Slept in the Last 2 Weeks. What a demented catalogue that would be: you could purchase my discomfort. Eerie. I think that's a Phil Dick novel. I call him Phil.
I'm unsatisfied with my wardrobe, especially when I see 7 year old boys and 99 year old women with some of the sickest outfits ever. I used to think hipsters had it going on, but now its the polarity of the Korean population. I want to wear it all and ditch the button up shirts that fit better before I started wearing my championship belt all day every day. That's what I think about my wardrobe.
Monday starts my official start to teaching classes all by myself. I think it's safe to say that I am grossly unprepared. Not through complete fault of my own or those around me, but a real group effort for sure. I have a pile of folders in my bag next to me right now, and to be honest I'm not sure if I was supposed to take those out of the school or not. I'm operating on the same instinct level that a newborn puppy may: walk toward the street into traffic until someone tells me not to. Not knowing what I've done wrong, I'm equally likely to walk in the sidewalk or turn heel and walk to the other road. I'm going to rely on the good students to inform me if I can in fact smoke pipe tobacco in the classroom or pick at my forearm scabs. If I pay enough attention, I'm sure I'll start to notice a pattern.
Speaking of things, some of these stories I'm reading to the li'l muppets are downright bleeding with adult-themes. To me it's quite heavy-handed, but see for yourself...
-Magic Marker - Cat named Maxi and parrot named Taco use their magic marker to make drawings come to life, save the day and trick Mrs. Black (the witch).
--More like two acid-heavy hoodlums with delusions of grandeur create chaos at their leisure while terrorizing an old woman. Mrs. Black claims that the marker is hers, but our young "protagonists" just fuck with her. What right do they have?! They just happened upon the fuckin' thing in the forest! The power of The Marker is no more theirs than anyone else's, and they're not making the world any better by drawing balloons or alligators. If anything, this teaches children that you can hallucinate your problems away, which I only half-advocate.
-The Land of Ginormous - Big fat monster named Hopian comes to Danny to beg for help as Tristay has stolen all the color from The Land of Ginormous.
--Hopian has been given a thick Native American accent and is powerless to stop the perpetual and catastrophic rape of his land. To make matters worse, he has been relegated to imploring the help of an apathetic white child with no real incentive to risk his life. If these kids can't see the message being conveyed, I will help them.
-Little Envelope's Big Trip - A hopeful young envelope details her trip from a little girl's room to an elderly woman's nicer, comfier home.
--The young envelope is clearly a naive girl being sold into the sex trade. Comments like "Open up my flap and put it inside me..." or "Open me up--OUCH! Be careful," are only the tip of the iceberg as this poor girl has been promised a life of servitude to the wealthy and seemingly gentle. The harrowing honesty in which she details being herded through careless customs in the company of hundreds of equally powerless, paper-thin parcels breaks my heart. Boggles my mind, it all does.
In the meantime, I'm going to have some drinks tonight to celebrate my trainer's last day, probably have more than I meant to, most likely talk louder than I need to, walk home later than I want to, sleep better than I deserve to and wake up that much closer to my imminent demise.
Take Care!
-LS^2
Trying out our new faces at the Andong Mask Festival.
Maskdance. Dude's sniffin' her pee. No joke.
Bear Hands and burritos. Korean tradition.
Creepy as all fuckout.
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