Davey J's second year in South Korea - and beyond...
I needed a place to keep the English in my head from slowing leaking out of my nose and onto a recycled tissue that can barely be flushed down my sub-par Korean toilet. So here is my attempt at fighting Alzheimer’s. The name "Alzheimer’s" escaped me for so long that the irony kept me giggling for at least a couple of seconds - until I forgot what I was laughing about.
I woke up today a little after 1pm with the insane realization that I am almost completely broke. I had 2,100 in my account last night, and now I have about 5 bucks. Here's how it all started. I was having a nice meal with a bunch of new people I don't know, eating great food, and drinking a lot of booze. We went from there to some bar I don't think I could find again, and hung out there for a couple of hours - I think. I don't know what happened there, but the next time I remember things is being at the casino - alone. I remember putting fistfuls of money on the table, not even thinking about if I won or lost, and it only took seconds to lose the money. I didn't even remember caring at all. The cash was gone, and I was wandering around the streets. It was about 5am if I remember right, judging by the time I tried to call Lisa on my cellphone several times. I ended up on a bus, the bus I thought would take me home, but I ended up waking up on the bus empty. There was a guy outside washing it with a soft brush and soap, and there was sunlight, but I wasn't sure what time, or where I was. I went up to the guy and said Busan University in Korean, and he pointed me to a bus stop, and pointed at a bus. I waited, and got on a bus that I thought I should. I was on there for what seemed like an hour, and ended up back where the tour started, at Haeundae station. So, I transferred off the bus and onto the subway. I was on there for a bit, on track, then I fell asleep again. I woke up two stops too late, confused, and unsure about what to do. I gathered my body, and my thoughts and got off that track, and paid another fare to get back on track home. This was fare 3. So I was able to stay awake long enough to transfer and start heading back home. It was 4 stops until another transfer, and I was able to stay awake that long. So, in the final leg, I was finally able to relax! I of course fell asleep, and when I came to, I noticed I was 1 stop too far. So, cursing, I got off and beeped out, and crossed the tracks to the other side, thinking I was on my way home. Fare 4. But, the awful thing was that I ended up heading even farther away now that I crossed the tracks! It turns out that I was on my previous subway for so long that it had reached the end of the line, and came back and when I woke up, I was only 1 stop away from dropping me off. When the realization hit me, I crossed back over again, fare 5. I got home more than 4 hours after my epic gambling retardedness ended, unsure of what I am going to do with myself, wishing I had never walked into a casino at the age of 28 for the first time.
Friday night. Out with the people in the west end of the city, as I do from time to time. The night started off in great fashion! We had some Chinese food, 통수유 is the Korean name for it I do believe. We got some dumplings and some beers as well, and it was a great start to the night. I decided with Paul to get some Whiskey and coke for when we went to the bowling alley instead of getting my usual beer, which in hindsight, was the stupidest thing I could have done. That said, I had an unusually good game, in which I bowled a pretty sweet 201! I got 6 strikes in a row to start the game! I think two games later, I bowled a 37 or something? I guess I need to work on my consistency a bit. From that point, things got a little hazy...
With the bowling finished, I looked into my wallet to find it nearly void of cash. I was outside, I think I was by myself, and I knew I just had to get home. It's a bit of a taxi ride away, so I went to the ATM to get some money. I got out the last 150,000 in there, and I thought I must have put it in my wallet. So, I get to the apartment, after surely sleeping the entire way home, and open my wallet to pay the man. There wasn't any cash in there! I think there may have been a couple of 1's, but not the 150 I took out. I was frantic. I looked in my pockets, all over the seat, in my bag.. everywhere. I told the guy in my broken Korean that I was going to be a minute going upstairs to get money. I didn't think I had any money, so I just curled up in bed and went to sleep.
This is where the story gets interesting. I was awakened by knocking at the door, then the door bell. I saw on the screen for the doorbell that it was the taxi driver that I hadn't paid yet. SHIT! I didn't have money for the guy. I tried to ignore it, but then he just started kicking, and kicking the door. He couldn't kick it in, because it opened the other way, and it's metal, so I was just hoping he would get tired and eventually stop. How did he know where I lived? It was bizarre. So, it eventually stopped, and I was able to go to bed.
It didn't end there though. A while later, I couldn't tell you how long it was, there was another kick on the door, and this time I hear the word "POLICE!" outside my door. Surely the guy was just trying another tactic to get me to open the door. He rang the bell again though so I could see outside my door, and sure enough, there were two policemen with him at my door. What the hell??
I open the door, drunk as shit, in boxers, and show them my empty wallet. They told me how much I owed the guy in Korean, and it amounted to 6 dollars and something. I suddenly remembered my closet stash of change, and I quickly snagged it and gave the bag to the police officers. They calmly took it from me, counted it out, and gave my my change back! They said goodbye, and that was that.
It wasn't until I recounted the story to some friends the next day that I realized the seriousness of what occurred the night before. I could have easily been arrested, or at least brought to the station in the middle of the night, and it could have been really bad. The other part of this story that strikes me a really odd, is that the cabbie could have easily made 60 bucks in the amount of time it took him to fetch his 6. If the cops were willing to come to his rescue for 6 dollars, I am definitely super lucky that something worse didn't happen to me, and they went on with their evening. I apologized about 40 times to the police and the old cabbie throughout the ordeal, and combined with my drunkenness, must have just barely saved me.
So, even though the night turned terrible at the end, it could have been waaaaaay worse.
I am writing fiction today, though this sentence is true. I am letting my mind wander down a road filled with calm, inviting smells, and deep, rich colors and people. I am looking for something. I don't know what it is, I just know I can't find it on my own. This particular street seems unfamiliar. It's small, yet resourceful. I think I have come to the right place.
It doesn't take long before I am approached by an old wiry woman, who must have been in her 80's, toothless, with shaky hands, but a kind demeanor. She was probably a foot shorter than my 5'7" frame, so I took a step back so as to not tower over her. She said she was a fortune teller, and asked for my hand. She caressed it with her dry old hands, and asked if I was in need of direction. I sullenly nodded.
She brought me into a small, cramped, dark room with ambient light, and books scattered about. Like a smart ass I said "Hey lady, where's the crystal ball?" She laughed and started laying out cards on the table in front of her. She told me that I must like gambling, I guess she saw my eyes trying to calculate what she was up to. She told me to put a 10 dollar bill on three of the cards, so I chose 4, 7, and a cow.
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my sides, running up to my head, and then, I was out. I woke up lying in the grass of an unfamiliar place, but everything seemed unmistakeably in order, and I felt strangely acquiescent. There was the figure of a man, or a woman, approaching from the south, and they looked determined, bold. I guessed they knew why I was there, and it wasn't long before I was squirming around trying to figure out how to move again. I felt like a defenceless toddler that stands up briefly, then plops it's padded ass on the ground and giggles. I couldn't get up the nerve to laugh, and my tail bone felt broken under the rocky, grassy earth as I plopped down, watching the gap between the stranger and I closing to 30 meters.
So here I ask people to continue this story, as I don't really have a real direction on where I want to take it, and I thought it might be fun to have people add parts to the comments section to keep it going for a bit. So, let's see what happens.
So I am not inspired to write a whole lot about Chuseok, other than to say it was a pretty nice time. For those who don't know, it was a 4 day holiday from school, so it was nice to have my first longer vacation since switching schools.
Day 1 - Saturday Willy and I decided that we were going to camp for a day or two with Julio coming to meet us someplace in the middle of the country. We pondered over the spot for a while, and decided on a place that starts with a ch, but it didn't matter because we didn't get to go!
Friday night, Will and I went to a few places seeking out camping equipment. I bought a medium-sized backpack, and a sleeping bag, but we were in dire need of a tent. We searched all over the place for one. The best price I could get on one was about 120 bucks, which was definitely disappointing! I figured I could find one close to the camping location, so we packed up with a 1 1/2-man tent with 3 dudes possibly meeting up.
We got to the bus station, but the only bus we could catch to our destination was 140pm, and we weren't going to get there until nearly dark, so we gave up pretty fast on that plan. We went back to my place, dropped off the camping gear, and headed back to the bus station with pre-bought tickets to Gyeongju. We really didn't know what we were going to do there, but we heard it was cool, so we decided to give it a go.
As soon as we got there, we saw a bike man outside renting bikes for 7 thousand won each for the day. We decided to find some coffee first, and then went back to the guy and talked him down to 6 bucks each. We looked on our cheesy map, and followed a river for a while:
So, we didn't see a lot of the sites, but it just leaves me more to discover for next time! The other day of activity was Monday, where I almost died! It isn't that serious, but, I was a little frightened when going across a small ledge and almost falling backwards to my death. Anyways, the place is call 'Taejongdae' and it's a park on the tip of an island in south-central Busan. We didn't see much of it either, because we were too cheap to pay for the ride around the park. Anyways, here are some pictures from that day:
I wanted to scratch an itch I had for a big casino mission. The casinos in Korea, for the most part, are very, very tiny. I got a couple of 'no's' back from people, but most people don't respond back to my texts these days. You know who you are! :P Anyways, I did get one bite on the line, and it was the biggest fish in the sea.
It all begins on an early Saturday morning. I had to finish reformatting the iMac computer I had taking up most of my desk, and pack it up nicely to meet a buyer at the Nopo-dong bus station to make the deal. All went well. I had a pocket full of 10's burning a huge hole. Time to catch the bus.
I got to Seoul at about 3pm, to meet up with Sam, who had graciously accepted to take the tour with me. I wouldn't have made the tour alone, or even been able to get there, so I was secretly counting on Sam to come through for me. Thanks man!
We wandered around for a bit, looking for a bank, as I didn't want to bring 1.1 million won with me to a very dangerous place, but we didn't have any luck. Ah well, time to get on the bus.
The bus tour was pretty intense near the end, as it went through some serious twists and turns through the mountains, and a couple of 270 degree turns that looked impossible for our bus to handle. But our bus driver was a seasoned pro, and was doing about 55 - making it look easy.
We ended up in the wrong town by mistake, but we were really close by, so we just hopped in a cab and got there in no time flat. Sam took care of the pleasantries at the door to get our stuff stowed away. They warned us that if we had cash in our bags, that we should take it in the casino with it. Damn. I didn't want to do it!
We got in, and the place was just a MESS. People were lined up for tables, people were placing 'back bets' on hands that didn't even have a place to do it. It was balls to the wall mayhem. I couldn't believe it. We were finally at a real casino though, so lets get our gamble on!
I still had 1.1 million won in my pocket however, and I didn't like it. We were very lucky though, in that a Shinhan bank branch was located right inside the casino! And wouldn't you know it that it was open, all night. The Korean bank machines are awesome. They take your cash, count it in the machine, and put no hold or any other strange thing on it, so it was available any time. I got rid of the bulk of my money, and we wandered around for a long, long time. We took a break, and thought about a strategy:
We then decided to find some food, and walk around the town of Sabuk. Sam's 4-ball skills were on full display that night, soundly beating me by a 6-1 margin in points (it sounds better than 40-6). We had some goooood dinner though, and it seemed to lift my spirits a little bit. We then headed back to Monsterland, in search of any place to play at all.
See, even the slot machines were all used, and in the WORST way. If someone was on a machine, they could leave 12 cents in it, and stuff some paper in the coin slot, and just head off for hours if they felt like it. The machine usage was built on the honor system, but I wonder how many people just left the machines for the night, not being able to find them again or some other similar scenario.
The strategy of waiting for a machine finally worked, at about 2am, where we finally got to use the Cleopatra machines. They turned out to be pretty cool machines, and Sam and I both won money on them. But we came here to gamble. Not play slots! The search continued.
And continued. Sam and I debated, around 330 am, whether we should stay until morning, and hope to get a table, or go sleep, and come back in the morning. In hindsight, the latter probably would have been the better choice - I will explain shortly.
So it's 330am, and after looking at a small menu at an extremely over-priced bar in the casino, and watching Sam briefly contemplate ordering a 75,000 won bowl of shark fin soup, we decided to try and slug it out upstairs again, in search of an elusive table.
Impossible. Ridiculous. Unflappable. These Koreans were pushing, shoving, running, yelling, doing anything they could to get what they wanted. At 430, 5, 515, the casino was so packed still that people were three-deep waiting to place a single bet on a table.
At about 530 however, everything changed. We could see the light! People were going home, and tables were starting to clear. Sam and I were so unbelievably surprised, that we jumped on the first two roulette spots we could, and camped out. We discussed betting strategies, life, and how we were geniuses for deciding to stay all night so that we could finally gamble. In 20 minutes, it all came to a screeching halt.
As our luck would have it, the casino closed at 6am for 4 hours!!! Unreal. I swear, 10,000 people were in there at any one point, and the place didn't take a single break. So, if we would have went back to sleep for a few hours, and came back, we probably would have been able to get in some serious gambling on the $1 blackjack tables.
We happened to be the ONLY white people in there all night too. An interesting footnote to mention was when we went to the 'foreigners' room. There weren't any foreigners in there at all, except us, and that drew chuckles and stares from the Koreans in the room.
The next day was a write-off. We took a 4 hour train to Seoul, and I had to get back to Busan too. In the middle, while in Seoul, I received a sweet deal on a laptop from Sam. I was computer-less, and he had an older Samsung laying around that he was happy to part with, for 100 bucks!! I have since formatted it, and it seems to be doing a-ok. The trip back to Busan was short and sweet, thanks to the KTX, and I definitely have no regrets about our tour.
I have been in Busan for 3 months already! It's a strange feeling actually. I have been thinking lately about how I kind of regret coming down here, with so many friends up there in Seoul. I have decided that I will move up there for year 3, if I stay in Korea that long. The way things are going with my saving plan, I might be here forever! :P
I have been introduced to some good people in Hwamyeong though through my old friend Will, and I have a funny story about Friday night.
So, it was about 1am, and there was a group of 4 of us talking about Bush and politics etc... I was pissing off an American journalist about something or other, when these 2 Koreans in their mid-40's happen upon our table outside a GS mart.
They sit down with us, and the one goes in and buys a round of beers for the boys. We eventually find out it is one of their birthdays, he turned 44 or something. Anyways, so we are sitting for a bit, and the dudes offer to take us to a karaoke room. I was a little hesitant, but we all eventually decided to go along. So the place that they took us to was in a basement and it was called "마라탄노래방" or something close to that which translates to "marathon karaoke", so it looked like we were in for a long night.
We get down there, and right off the bat the dudes buy a case of 500ml beer bottles. We get drinking, singing real bad, and it was actually a whole ton of fun. Then, out of nowhere, 3 Korean ladies in their mid to late 30's come in. They are dressed up, and it was then that I was like "what are we getting ourselves into?" I have this video I took from the night:
Here is the quote of the night, from the infamous Will Hill, also caught on tape:
So the girls turned out not to be prostitutes, and they just wanted to serve us beer and fruit to our mouths, and they eventually left. When the birthday boy eventually passed out, we decided to leave too. All in all, it was a pretty friggin hilarious night in Hwamyeong!
Shannon told me that when you google 'gangdong boston campus' my picture apparently shows up with a link to an article I wrote in April this year.
I didn't write the title, or the subtitle, as it was done by the publication, however, the article was surprisingly unedited. Have a look if you are bored:
Ok. So I might be a little drunk. Granted, a bottle of wine might be the culprit. That said, I am going to admit a fault of the unacademic kind. I watch movies because I like to laugh. So be it. I wanted to do my best, in my drunken state, to retell a scene from a movie that kept me laughing predictably throughout. In the scene, there is Harold, our favorite Korean political right-winger. Straight as an arrow. There is Kumar. He has been oppressed for a thousand years, and he lets us know this. Then, there is George W. The two heroes of the story happen upon George's house on an ill-fated parachute mission. When introduced to George's guest house, the dialogue goes something like this.
Kumar: Mr. President, this is weed, do you like to get high? George W: Of course I do. I am George W! Kumar: But isn't putting people in jail for smoking weed a little hypocritical? George W.: Look son, do you like to jack a guy off? Kumar: Well... no sir. George W.: Well, do you like to get jacked off? Kumar: Well.. of course I do, Mr. President! George W.: Well don't be such a hypo-critisizer! And pass me that weed!
I was laughing so hard I nearly cried. If you want to watch the most predictable comedy of all time, but laugh at the same time, check it out.
So I love my new job, as most of you may know. However, after some reading, it has come to my attention that my school is not bearing all of its fruits.
http://www.npc.or.kr/jsppage/english/main.jsp
Says that I should be contributing pension at 4.5%, and so should my employer, if I work more than 90 hours a month. On ESLcafe, there have been people in my situation, who have went to the pension board themselves and found out that the school has lied and said that they work 89 hours or less per month. I presented my findings to the school, and a few days later, I have received mixed messages.
A little background. I don't pay for the national health care coverage, but I have been provided with private care through my school that has a 'pay first, get money back later' policy. Most of you already know I can't save a dime for the life of me, so this policy could prove to be detrimental if I had a serious accident. When I brought up the pension deal, my boss laid it out to me like this.
"David, why do you want to take the national health coverage? 99% of Koreans believe it is terrible, and it's not worth it for you. Also, why do you want to pay into the pension fund? If you pay for the fund, and pay for the health, and we pay for our contribution, you are almost getting the same amount." Let me explain.
Her justification does have an ounce of merit. My situation now doesn't require me to pay anything. Which means, I take home 2,137. If I pay into the national health fund, and into the pension, I will be deducted about 167 a month. Sure I get 100 of it back, but she was trying to say that their contribution to the pension fund is negated by the fact that I would be paying into the national health care fund. Meaning she doesn't understand how I can think I will be ahead of the game that much by the end of a year.
How do I make these people understand that a) They are breaking the law by excluding me from these services. b) I can't save a dime, and the pension contributions are a guaranteed way to save some cash. c) That a Canadian that is used to the peace of mind of a National Health Care package doesn't see a problem paying a mere 4 percent of his salary to get it.
And the biggest question of all for me is: "Why are they going out of their way to lie to at least 2 government agencies about my hours of work at their school?" It doesn't seem to make any sense to risk it while saving a mere 99,000 a month. What are they really hiding?
This summer intensive session is wearing me down. I am tired. I work too much. I have 7 days left of it, and I can hardly wait. Bring on Independence Day!
So Will Hill and I headed into the Pusan National University neighborhood which is really close to my house, in search of some cheap eats. We came across a 'street meat' vendor a while back, who resembles the sausage vendors of Canada/Toronto. So, on our way there, I suggest hitting up that guy, and seeing what it's all about.
We arrive, and there is a full grill of sausages that all look pretty much exactly the same in every way. I ask him 'ol-my-a-yo'? which is terrible pronunciation for 'how much is that'? He says 'sausage-E or hot-dog-euh?' So of course Will and I want sausages, and say 2 sausages. "e-chun-won" - 2 bucks each, not bad!
So, he cooks our two, and just after he lathers them in mustard and just before he was going to hand them to us, he jabs a stick down the center of each of them and goes to hand them to us. Will and I look at ourselves in confusion and point at the buns and say 'doo-gae jus-a-yo' which roughly means 'two of those please'. There are two guys cooking the meat and they say to us "oh! hot-dog-euh!" and I shook my head yes, hoping he didn't have to dispose of the sausages he had already prepared so succulently, and replace them with hot dogs that didn't even appear to be on the grill yet, cause we were hungry! It's so typical of Korea that if they serve something one way, they can't mix it up EVER! I got to thinking 'this guy serves sausages on a stick, but only hot dogs get the priviledge of the bun!' That scenario wouldn't have surprised me in the least. Luckily, the insides of a hot-dog-euh and a sausage-E were exactly the same. So after the typical Korean exhange, "where are you from, America?" "no no, Canada saram!" "aaaaaah OK!" he toasted our buns, got us some mixed salad on there, and plopped the sausage into our bun, and even wrapped it in tin-foil for good measure.
The 'upgrade' to the hot-dog-euh from the sausage-E cost a mere 500 won, for a total of 2500 for each dog. The backwards part is that in Korea, a hot dog is actually an UPgrade to a sausage. Go figure.
I listen to two American radio talk shows, almost religiously. One is the Howard Stern Show. Most people, when the name is brought up, can conger up an idea in their head of what they think of the guy, and be very descriptive about it. I too, was judgemental about what he provided to the world. He seemed to me, before I listened to him, to be a trashy talk show radio host that has the occasional stripper on the show, and talks about some raunchy topics most of the time. He seems like that to me now, even after a couple of years of listening to him every week. I am not giving him enough credit however, I mean, he does have the occasional political guest, or comedian, or other showbiz figure. His musical guests are interesting once in a while as well.
The other show I listen to religiously is called Bubba The Love Sponge. The name is shocking enough, and these hillbillies do some crazy shit on the radio. Take what Howard does, and add a little disregard for human life. Like last week, they had 'baby crocodile dunk tank'. They put 5 crocs in a dunk tank, each between 3 and 5 feet long, and put one of their staff on the board of the dunk tank, and proceeded to dunk him no less than 3 times. The fiasco culminated with him getting one latched onto his leg, almost at his balls. This was all done on the radio, much to my delight.
So why does a quasi-educated ESL instructor listen to this seemingly mindless dribble day after day? Because life is too serious dammit. I listen to it for the same reason people watch a comedy. People need a release. People need an outlet. When I get home to my empty apartment, I like to fill it with the sounds of a few people talking about shit that doesn't even matter. It might even be a way to practice English in my aforementioned almost exclusively Korean surroundings here in Busan. It's like the continuing saga to a book that never ends. There is character development, a plot, and sometimes even a climax here and there (cue some trashy stripper on Howard's pummel horse vibrator he likes to call the Sibian) So without sounding too preachy about the subject, I just wanted to explain why it is someone working in a foreign land can appreciate some audio white trash every once in a while. We all have our guilty pleasures.
So I am listening to some Howard Stern on the subway ride home, and I see a guy stumble by me and lunge for the nearest rail as the train came to a screeching halt at the next station. He sees a group of people before I do, and I quickly do a double-take to realize that the group of people were speaking to each other in sign. That wasn't the strange part.
So the guy, who seemed to have some sort of a disability, (or was extremely drunk) warmly greeted one of the members with some incoherent moans and a firm handshake. The visitor seemed genuinely nice, he was smiling, and tried his best to communicate.
After the handshake, the man who was just signing showed the other guy an exaggerated motion to tell him to leave them alone. The man then started to groan louder, and looked visibly upset. The rest of the group of four then made the same motions to the man, each person making them a little more violent looking then the last. Just their facial expressions alone would have made me run and hide.
Not their new friend however. He decided to take another approach. He was determined to befriend these people, and he had a new strategy. See a short time after he realized that the 4 signing people weren't going to yell or raise their voice at him, a soothing calm seemingly came over him. He sat down quietly two seats away and studied their movements for about a minute or so. He seemed fascinated. He then started making his own signs. He had just 1 or 2, but the one I remember is one where he seemed to be making the movement of a snake or a worm with his index finger. As he made the motion in the air, he couldn't help but giggle to himself. The four others ignored him completely, but I can't say I blame him.
When the stop came for the 4 deaf people to get off came, their new friend eagerly followed them off the train. I just wish it was my stop.
I teach at a hagwon that has a single foreign teacher. Teachers talk to each other in Korean. Meetings are held in Korean. My schedule and my class lists are written in Korean. For those who don't know me, I am a white, Northern Canadian with near zero Korean skill. You'd think that I would hate this job instantly - It's the easiest thing I have ever done.
I have a license to be as irresponsible, as lazy, and as unprepared as I want. I am the 'token' white guy, the one the parents pay the big bucks for. I am not walking around with a walker, but my bosses are all younger than me. I haven't heard a single bad thing come out of their mouths about me, or my teaching. I remember a time, that wasn't that long ago, that being pushed around by your Korean boss was the norm. They do it because it is their firm belief that by doing so, they are maximizing profit. They are really maximizing hatred, and dissension.
Without a whip being cracked across my face every day, I actually do more than is expected of me. It's the weirdest thing about respect. You actually want to go out of your way to help out your school, and your students. Being immersed in Korean hasn't helped my speaking any, but I can finally almost read the language. I shouldn't be even mentioning this, but for those outside of Korea, it sounds like kind of a big deal.
The one thing that is a little strange is the pace at which I must communicate for the whole work week. I have to talk R-E-A-L-L-Y slowly, to EVERYone. I almost feel dumb, my mouth gaping, forming exaggerated syllables to help enunciate every word so that I don't have to repeat myself that fourth time.
So I picked Sam's brain as to why someone writes a blog, or weblog as I like to call it (blog sounds to close to the sound of projectile fluid coming from one's mouth if you ask me). I decided to start this thing not as an online diary, or a way to avoid mass emails, but to simply practice English. It sounds weird coming from an ESL teacher I am sure, but, if you have ever been fully immersed in a new language, you find yourself communicating in broken sentences with more body gestures than words sometimes. I want to use this space to write, read, edit, and just think about English in a more creative way - Very Easy Reading 3 can only stretch my imagination so far.
So, I decided after thinking that even the word 'blog' sucks, I would dive in and see what it's all about. I might let this thing float around empty, but it might be a nice way to cope.
Curry Time
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Off to India in a few hours. The plan - eat loads of curry. Will try to
post, but not sure if there'll be time or energy. Will definitely blog about
it o...
A Place Somebody Calls Home
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Still jet lagged, I found myself surreally surrounded by dark, viscous
puddles and the disassembled brains of machines. My friend C___ balanced a
clove ...
Interesting Title
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Big news, avid listeners. I have finally made some sort of decision, not
quite a career or location choice though, in fact quite the opposite. I have
decid...
