Hagwon Boy in Seoul

:: Sunday, June 22, 2003 ::

Do I want to continue this spot? I've begun a new blog to replace Fundie Agnostic. But I still like the idea of having two seperate blogs. What do I want to do?

I dunno. But in the meantime this blog has changed its name.
:: Twistre 4:56 AM [+] ::
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Check it out.
:: Twistre 8:33 PM [+] ::
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I haven't been posting lately. Part of it is that my parents are in town, and I'm spending most of my time with them. And part of it is that I've moved my Fundie Agnostic blog to another blogging service, and I think I may do the same here.

But I'm not dead or anything. Yet.
:: Twistre 5:04 AM [+] ::
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Some things I have realized lately (hell, as lately as this weekend):

1. I'm really not studying Korean effectively. I'm not retaining vocabulary - even if I know a word, I have to think about it for a moment to bring it to my lips. It's laborious for me to form coherent (to say nothing of correct) sentences. As a friend advised me this weekend, the only way for me to do anything about that is to speak Korean with real, actual people instead of just playing with sentences by myself. And since taking a class is not feasible for me, what I need to do is hang out more with Korean friends and speak as much Korean as possible around them. Which I gather might be rather annoying for them.

2. I'm not reading effectively. I'm reading this book on recent Korean political history, and I'm not retaining it. I just read all about how the ROK embraced China and the USSR during Roh Dae-Woo's presidency. But right now I can't say why that happened, except that Deng and Gorbachev wanted Korean aid money (and Deng wanted to get the ROK to cut its ties to Taiwan). Similarly, I'm reading Bertrand Russell's classic history of Western Philosophy, and having read past Socrates and Plato I can't coherently summarize what it is that I've read about them. Maybe I am lazy because I know I'm not going to be tested on this stuff. But what's the point of reading nonfiction if I gain nothing from it?
:: Twistre 8:04 PM [+] ::
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I've been rather lax in updating lately. I think it's a combination of not wanting to descend into posting long essays on my personal life (not that my personal life has been all that interesting lately), and just not being inspired.

But I've been up to stuff. Unfortunately, my burst of inspiration that's been fueling my not-yet-half-completed great surrealist novel has basically run out - but that's really just a problem of getting myself back into a good and creative frame of mind. No big deal. And I'm trying to improve my Korean vocabulary.

My parents have decided to come to visit me this week. They will stay in the President Hotel downtown, directly across from City Hall. My one concern will be that two days after they arrive will be June 13 - the first anniversary of the deaths of two Korean girls in an American military accident. Which would be no problem if they were staying in Gangseo-gu, but they'll be right in the middle of whatever anti-American demonstrations will be going on downtown. I tell myself that there will be no problems

Yesterday I went to the National War Memorial. Today I saw the National Museum (pretty interesting - though I was more fascinated by the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla period artifiacts than the prehistoric stuff) and the Seoul History Museum (not quite as interesting).

I kind of wish I had lingered longer. Maybe it's because I'm working a full-time job, but I've gotten this idea in my head that time is precious, and as such I am anxious that I wring the most out of every minute. This is not healthy. If I go back to the National Museum alone, I will linger. I always loved to go to the Sackler Gallery in D.C. during my unemployed period, and [i]linger[/i]. I need to get back into that habit.
:: Twistre 5:01 AM [+] ::
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My canker sore is gone. Yipee! For now.
:: Twistre 5:20 PM [+] ::
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It seems that bcody@gwu.edu no longer exists. I must change all links to hfowas at hotmail dot com.
:: Twistre 6:51 PM [+] ::
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