Monday, August 08, 2005
the grind: it hungers for you
it’s been beyond awesome spending the past two weeks on a trip to get the most fabulous little guy ever, and then having day after day just to get to know him a little. it’s at the point now that we’re friends; we can hang out and just laugh and shmooze and the time simply flies. it flies so fast that already it’s monday and soon I’ll have to go back to the office. i like my office and my work and my colleagues; but none of that makes me any more eager to spurn zach for any of it.
but anyway, i will be back at my desk tomorrow and that means i’m in the mood for a bit more koreana - the weird odds and ends that made the whole trip so damned real and interesting. so here they are, for no better reason than that i can look at this and remember what has happened:
* in our bathroom at the guest house: “Dr. Sedoc” toothpaste. no other words on the tube were in english.
*- Dead people are gonna have to cut me some slack.
-- Dead people don’t have to do shit for you.
* Street names all seemed to feature the word “dong.” My actual favorite: Donggyo-dong. My imaginary favorites: The Dongwang District and the Donkeykong Palace.
* Zach, finally asleep, his chickenhair silhouetted against a pane of frosted glass, behind which sparkling neon signs cast novas and prominences of everchanging color and intensity like the northern lights.
* At the guest house, as at most all houses and restaurants in Korea, you take off your shoes upon entering; at the guest house, they gave us guest slippers to wear indoors. The shoes and slippers were stored in cupboards by the front door. In the heat of late afternoon, these lockers develop a powerful aroma. Some things are universal, even when everything else is foreign.
* At the guest house, we used a gas oven for which the first instruction was to turn on the gas with a cock on the wall. Maybe that’s how most of the world does it, but it was a first for me. wallcock. heh.
* An adbill on a wall with a saluting woman, many flags, and the word “cashbag.” Plazas full of dragonflies. Everyone on the subway using cellphones far superior to the ones we’ve got over here.
* Actual names of some huge malls in the busy Dongdaemun district: Multi Funny Mall; Clothing Subsidiary Material Special Shopping Mall. Actual messages on t-shirts I saw in one of the malls in this district: “FUCK give it away stickybean”; “Gracious Existence of Yearning”. Actual message on the menu of a restaurant where we ate in this district: “Come and taste original hand made man doo.” Actual messages on patches sewn onto girls’ hightop sneakers at a boutique near the pricy and fashionable Ewha Women’s College district: “FUCK”; “doggy style”.
* Actual message on parfait glass I was using from our kitchen in the guesthouse: (pictured) a teddybear in bib overalls with a fruitbasket and some flowers. (written) “Destiny / you’re my destiny” (and on the other side) “You call it love They are things / I need to say About the way / I feel when your arms are ... “ (and I swear that’s a verbatim quote)
now it’s time for me to go to bed. tomorrow I wake up and it’s back to work again. I hope I never forget any of what has happened over the past two weeks. meantime I’m doing my best not to turn this site into a slathering homage to young Zach, but for those of you following his saga, he’s doing great and adjusting phenomenally. I have not taken too many photos of him, but here’s a nice one to tide you over. enjoy your week and chew carefully.
