Then and Now: A Quick Analysis

Recently, I got an email telling me that my old blog, ‘Your Daily Shot of Soju’ was being made a featured blog on wordpress. This, despite the fact that I haven’t updated it in over a year and haven’t written a post regarding Korea on it in over three. Anyways, it got me back over there to check it out.

I haven’t really read it that much in the past 8 months or so, but it was nice to see that it could really remind me what that year was like. I went through some of the posts and read some of the comments, mostly positive. Then I came here and read some of the comments, again mostly positive.

People I’ve never met, wishing me well.

Four years ago I had never encountered anything like Korea. Everything was new and fresh and there were so many things that I didn’t understand that I could talk about.

Now, I have a decent understanding of the culture, the people, and my place in it. There’s just less to confuse and therefore inspire me.

Then I had time and a naive perspective.

Now, between work, grad studies, and a new found love of boxing I have much less time…but I’m probably still naive, I always am.

Then it was about experiencing culture…Now it’s about living life.

A little more mundane, a little more predictable. What’s done is done.

I wrote a series of posts called ‘Looking Past Korea’ on my previous blog. At the end of that series I wrote something to the effect of ‘Now that I have talked about the differences, I can start focusing on the similarities.’ And although I didn’t intentionally set out to do that this second time around, that is what I have done.

Not quite as interesting, but much more realistic. I love my life…

January

Fresh Start,

Fresh Year,

No other January before has wiped away the previous 6 months the way 2011′s has. No other January before has left me with so little.

Well played January

A fresh start?

I can get behind that

Excitement

My Korean students wanted to “buzz” with excitement

but they can’t pronounce Z

so instead

they just “bujjed” with excitement

1000 Years

In the 5th century B.C. Herodotus compiled a series of histories that is generally regarded as one of the, if not the, first written historical records that resembles actual history and not just a series of myths and legends.

Since then we have kept more and more records, chronicling the exploits of man.

The internet has dawned a never before seen stream of information that will more accurately show what life was like during our time than at any other point in history.

It’s weird to think that my blogs, something I did just for fun, will be around long after I am gone.

I went to the national museum this past weekend in Korea and saw things that are thousands of years old. These may have had significance at the time they were made, but many probably didn’t. Like my blog, they may have been made just for the hell of it.

Even weirder to me, and something that indicts all of us, is in 1000 years, after we are all dead and gone and future societies are studying us, things like 2 girls 1 cup will still be around.

Excuses

Dear “Guy I work with who I didn’t really want to get a drink with today after work”

I’m sorry

Not because I wouldn’t drink with you

That would have been boring

But I was so caught off guard I didn’t know what to say…my mind raced…my pulse…um, pulsed quicker

It’s so rare that I’m at a loss for words

But no man, no matter how boring, dull, and lifeless he is should ever have to hear the words “sorry, I need to go home and take a shower” when he asks another guy out for a drink

my apologies, I’ll have a better excuse prepared next time

Sincerely,

“Guy you work with who was totally caught off guard by your sudden, unexpected invitation to get a drink after work”

p.s. I think your girlfriend is hot

5 Months

March 12ish

unmountable boot volume

laptop is dead

probably my fault

pc rooms

that hot starcraft girl

more freestyle basketball than i care to admit

new computer

happy days

new posts…starting…whenever I feel like it…soon

The Grimus Effect

On Kim Yuna (김 연아):

A friend recently wrote about her

This is the difference between watching a sports game and appreciating art.

A little cliche, yes.
Incorrect, no.

The power of cliche is that which connects

two, seemingly unrelated, events

through the power of words

3 degrees of separation

My bond with her is fragile

Yet, as I contemplate my new Doodle Jump high score

lightning bottled

I can’t help but feel the symmetry

Promotion

I appreciate a free mini-Coke or Mountain Dew.
Who wouldn’t?

However, the caffeinated milks serve as a reminder
that we still might not be completely on the same page.

The Rebirth of Seoul

This is my second stint living in Seoul. I lived here two years ago and had arguably one of the greatest experiences of my life.

After my first year here I moved to Mexico and had less of an amazing experience, but as time has past I have begun to grow nostalgic for the country and am only now appreciating it. This is not the point.

I am back in Seoul now, and I have been for around 6 months. My life this time around is drastically different from my previous experience when I had a steady girlfriend and a ready-to-go source of friends who lived close by.

It is impossible for me to not compare then and now, the same way it was impossible last year for me to not compare Mexico and South Korea.

The gods provide for us amazing insights that have absolutely no bearing on real life if we choose to ignore them. So, it is that I am reminded how trapped I had begun to feel two years ago when I had a girlfriend hinting at marriage before I was ready, and a group of friends I spent every weekend with. Trapped might be too harsh a word, because if it was a prison, it was the nicest prison I could possibly imagine.

This year I have no such walls to keep me in. This year is about alienation and resentment on what I feel I could accomplish but have not. This is the price of my unconditional freedom. If I wanted to discover who I would be when left to my own devices then I have discovered that, and it terrifies me.

It is 6 in the morning here in Seoul and I have yet to sleep. This is a common occurrence for me this year. I have my theories as to why, I will spare you them. But my time laying in bed, staring at the ceiling leaves me time to think. I know that if I want to move forward I have to return to basics, do what I know I can do well, and let the rest come to me as it will; a lesson I knew very well a few years ago, but forgot somewhere along my path.

This is the rebirth of Seoul…