December Excitement

I got paid last week, and quickly made three impulse purchases/or acquisitions that I hope and think will make for an interesting December.

Impulse Purchase 1:
Sunday set the tone for this week with me doing absolutely nothing. The day before I went for a bike ride, while on Sunday I didn't do anything. I got out of bed, around 11:30, walked to my living room and watched a movie. After that movie I ordered chicken and drank some beer and wine. Then after that movie I made some coffee and watched another movie. One of the movies I saw was "Julie and Julia," which encouraged me to order the Julia Child cook book.

Impulse Purchase 2:
A friend of mine is leaving town. Said friend has a Weber Charcoal Grill, that he needs to get rid of. Two weeks ago, he and I burned up some cheeseburgers and baby back ribs on that grill. I found the grill to be a fantastic tool that I want to give as a gift to the in laws for Christmas. Perhaps this gift is a projection of my own desires, but I want to use it to bring the holiday of Christmas to some well deserving in laws who probably wouldn't celebrate it. (They are Buddhists.) I'll use the thing to burn up some beer can chickens for them.

Impulse Purchase or Acquisition 3:
I'm not sure if I am going to have to pay for these, but the principal of my school has some land in the countryside where he grows Bonsai(Banseong) trees. (바성나무) My school had been doing some landscaping adding about ten to twenty pine trees to the school's grounds. One day I was walking and saw the principal. In the past he had told me about his land and how he liked to grow various shrubs, so on that day I asked him if the new trees at the school came from his land. I think he answered yes, but I'm not sure if he understood the question. At that point I thought to ask if he would sell me some trees from his land. I wanted one tree for myself to turn into a Christmas tree, and one to give to my in-laws as a kind of Christmas gift, and because my father in-law has a garden and seems to like to grow things.

Yesterday, I got out of school a bit early and went to the farm to pick out some trees. I'm not sure if I have to pay for them, but I chose two cute little things that I think will help make the holiday season a bit more festive. I realized that this is actually a pretty good idea, an idea that might be able to be exported.

Every year, around Christmas time, many Americans make the journey to a Christmas tree farm, or a parking lot that sells live Christmas trees. They do this because they want to have the authentic Christmas and pine smell experience, as opposed to the experience of having a fake plastic Christmas tree. Christmas trees can cost anywhere between twenty and two-hundred dollars, and can cause domestic squabbles in the set up, and take down.

This is why I am proposing the idea of having a bonsai Christmas tree farm. Most people think of Bonsai trees as being tiny trees that are purely decorations, but that isn't necessarily always the case. In Korea Bonsai trees are frequently up to twenty feet tall. Now I may be confusing my nomenclature in calling tall ornamental trees, "Bonsai trees," but yesterday at my Principal's tree farm I saw many trees that he called banseong, that were about as tall as I was, They were also trimmed in a triangular shape that would make a good Christmas tree.

Now, if one were to buy a moderately sized potted pine tree, and put it in their house during the Christmas season, and then keep it on a porch, or as part of a hanging garden during other months, it would defiantly save the hassle of trying to put a tree in one's car. Also, if one were to put down about $300 for a tree one year (or in the spring when they don't have to save money Christmas presents.) They could recoup their investment in a few years.

*Note I'll add pictures of my impulse acquisitions when I finally get the items.

A Big Bike Ride

I've been bored all week since my wife has been away. I was so bored that I was compelled to take a bike ride. I wanted to see how far the Jinju bicycle path was so I decided to follow it to were it ended. Along the way there were some rather interesting sites. First were these weird ass huge birds in the river:I tried to go down into the river bed to get a better picture but they decided to fly away.
I got back on my bike. The a few minutes later I saw a guy standing off of his bike and looking towards the road. I looked too and saw a car accident. There was a red matiz up on the side walk and there was a guy on the phone. I looked closer and saw smoke coming from the matiz and didn't see anyone inside, and then I saw a lady laying in the street. I didn't stick around because there were already other people there on phones helping out, and there wasn't anything I could do, but on the way back I saw that pretty much everything was cleaned up. The lady in the street looked like she was in pain, but she was moving around a bit. Once again nothing I could do so I just left.

With that in the back of my mind I pressed on and the pink concrete turned to grey gravel beneath me, and about a half hour later I reached the end and took a picture of the Nam river.

My best Friend this Week

He was really there for me.

섬 마을

Right in downtown Geumsan. There is a place in front of the bus station called Sum maeul. The place's specialty is fish shell noodle soup, but they also have other dishes as well.

I forwent the noodles, and had some Dol Seot Bibimbab. For 5000 won I was treated to a bowl of dwenjjang soup, two pieces of tofu, some seaweed stuff, some fried tofu stuff, and two brown pots of Kimchi, and oh yeah a piping hot stone bowl of bibimbab. It was all very surprisingly delicious.

The location of 섬 village is right nearby the main Geumsan bus stop across the street from G.S. 25. Perhaps due to it's location, I probably overlooked it for the past two years, but I am happy to have found it. Who knows, I might stop by for some seashell noodles some time (해물 칼국수, not my favorite meal.) All in all, a successful lunch.

Kimbab house redeux (Or if this Post doesn't force my Institutionalization then Damn)

Through the clear haze of Beaujolais neuvou thoughts, I'm confronted with thoughts of past times. The song of autumn wind and smell of fallen leaves narrated the feeling of life that welled in the heart that powered the legs that pumped the bicycle petals that propelled me to the theater.

It was some time in October or November in the year 2002. I worked as a clerk in a news stand to subsidize the beers that helped my state subsidized studies. We all got the tickets to the State theatre that week. Barbarito Tores the Cuban lute player from the Beuna Vista Social club was giving a free concert with a band that he brought up from Havana to Kalamazoo.

Three guitars strummed with two drummers, a striking Cubano on Bass accompanied, the female vocalist who salsa'd and wailed that "This was a night for lovers and if you are person who is in love then you are a special person and this is a special night." I wasn't in love but I wanted to be.

I lived with seven other people in a house that was at one time a sorority house and under archaic Michigan laws, could be considered a bordello, since there were three single women living there at the time, but they couldn't understand, how could they? They thought that Robin Williams first said Chris Rock's Joke about Micheal Jackson being a poor black man from Indiana growing up to be a rich white woman. Lovely people but culturally not on the same page, or chapter or book as I was.

Up on my feet I tried to salsa to catch the eye of anyone watching the sad solo college student who had come to a free Afro Cuban Jazz concert all by himself, and just wanted a pretty face an sympathetic ear to hear the running monologue he had by himself in his car or when people weren't looking.

This was a hunger. A hunger for wanting to share these moments of extreme beauty. To sit silently and know that the other was enjoying the moment as he was. A hunger I miss, but fill during my lunch breaks from my job of trying to get middle school students to speak my native tongue.

I cherish solitude, but in moments of solitude I crave company. This makes me a frequenter of places. Places like coffee shops, or the Kimbab house. After every meal at the Kimbab house I feel grateful for having chosen to have had lunch at the kimbab house. It doesn't matter what I eat. I exit the door heading north and always say to myself, "Damn that was good."

Sunday my wife took a business trip for a week. She is a Guns and Rose's fan, and thinking of November rain, I think back to my serenade at the Kalamazoo State theater. The night I wanted to feel special by being in love. I remember the hunger that I had then and the hunger I feel now in missing her. I remember my bike's tires hissing the gentle shh, crushing wet leaves beneath them. The wind chilled my back through the wool of my pea coat. I wanted to put into words my feelings about what I had just seen. But no ears in my house could know the meaning of what I would say if given the chance, and no one could care.

But next Sunday when she returns I know my life long hunger will once again be quenched as if I had a million Kimbab house lunches.

Vegetable soup

New Blog!!!

I have created a new blog that explores martial arts training. This blog is pretty much specified to people who are interested in my philosophical develepment of various martial arts. (Very, very specified audience, I expect 1-2 readers) Check it out.