I am, more than likely, going to be teaching English in South Korea for a full year.
It's a bit of a scary thought.
My only experience with Asia, thus far, has been a three-week trip to China. I remember getting lost with my friend, Kim, in....oh, God, I can't even remember where....some "small" city north of Shanghai. I committed the name of the bar street to memory and repeated it to the cab driver, who nodded and drove off with the two of us. Every other time we'd been in a cab, it had been day, and the cabs were lucky to be moving at all. Not so this time-- the driver careened through the small, twisty streets-- and finally stopped, abruptly, in a dark, residential area. Kim and I looked at each other nervously, and stepped out of the cab. Several of the neighbors came out, and one woman motioned with her hands if we needed a place to sleep. The cab driver, figuring this wasn't where we wanted to be, hadn't moved. I tried to explain, in Chinese, what we wanted, and he said something, to which I nodded, just grateful we were getting out of there. He took us to the train station. At this point, we gave up and handed him the hotel card. Back at the hotel, we copied down the street name and just gave him that. Success! We stepped into a techno bar and ordered a grasshopper and a beer and proceeded to get hit on by a couple of Koreans who we abandoned to go dancing in the upper level of the club. And came back, and crashed.
Another time, we visited the town of Dali. My Chinese professor, who turns into a five year old boy when he comes home, ran around to all of us, nearly flinging us with a plate of watermelon. None of us really trusted it, having been warned by our professor (of all people), not to eat from the vendors. Poor Kim got attacked by a dog and had to be taken to a Chinese hospital. Despite her insistence that she'd just been vaccinated and her fear of needles, the doctor administered a rabies shot anyway. Meanwhile, a boy sat in the room, his leg bleeding, and another man came into the waiting room and vomited. Kim wanted to go home.
I think I might recall some more memories from past travels at a later time.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A New President
I have officially survived DC on the day of the Inauguration. A million plus sheep (a.k.a. people), half the Metro stops shut down, rumors of a woman killed by a train, snipers on the rooftops waving to the crowds below.
Having said that, Oh. My. GOD! I am still trying to absorb what happened. We have a new President!!! One I can respect and admire...and...and...(attempts to calm self down.)
The moment Obama formally accepted the presidency, I got so excited (despite the fumbling of the oath by the Chief Justice) that I literally jumped up and wrapped myself around my friend and squeezed for a full minute before I could make myself let go.
And immediately ran back to the Smithsonian to defrost my toes and pee.
The other highlight was half-walking, half-sliding across the half-frozen reflecting pool in front of the Capitol building. I was terrified that the ice would break. I did get some amazing pictures. Blonde hair and all.
Now I just want to curl up on a couch and watch Wall-E.
Having said that, Oh. My. GOD! I am still trying to absorb what happened. We have a new President!!! One I can respect and admire...and...and...(attempts to calm self down.)
The moment Obama formally accepted the presidency, I got so excited (despite the fumbling of the oath by the Chief Justice) that I literally jumped up and wrapped myself around my friend and squeezed for a full minute before I could make myself let go.
And immediately ran back to the Smithsonian to defrost my toes and pee.
The other highlight was half-walking, half-sliding across the half-frozen reflecting pool in front of the Capitol building. I was terrified that the ice would break. I did get some amazing pictures. Blonde hair and all.
Now I just want to curl up on a couch and watch Wall-E.
Monday, January 19, 2009
A Change
If I do not record my thoughts here, I will have only myself to blame when I find myself with no memories. Tomorrow history will be made, and I will be a part of it. Our country will inaugurate its first black President, the first black leader in a non predominantly black county. How crazy is that. I will be there, probably miserably cold, with literally millions of people, while history is made.
In honor of this momentous occasion, I dyed my hair blond yesterday. I wished it to be ala Jessica Alba, although who knows what the color will actually turn out to be. (it was no one's fault, least of all Melissa's, when we ran short on bleach and my hair came out darker than I intended.)
Melissa is the girl I am staying with, I should mention. I flew in on Thursday and her boyfriend, Oliver picked me up. I met them while I was dating a friend of theirs during my internship in DC two summers ago. She is absolutely fabulous, and he's not half bad ;)
Here I am going to break to remind myself of my brief trip to New York
On Friday, I got up early and Melissa drove me to the bus stop. Or at least tried to. We got to the right street, but for the life of us could not find the bus. I mean, it should have been obvious. You can't miss a bus, right? I called up the New York office, since the DC line wasn't picking up, and the woman on the other end informed me in a bored, irritated voice that she didn't know how to tell me where the bus was. So I called the 1-800 number-- and got the SAME lady. Who screamed at me that she was in New York and she had no idea where the bus was in Baltimore. Melissa and I affectionately termed her "the crazy bitch lady." We found the bus by sheer luck, driving away, saw a white bus with a Chinese guy next to it, yelled out, "Are you going to New York?", he nodded, I jumped onboard.
The first thing I did, after I showered of course, was what I always do when I first get into the city. I wandered through Central Park, people-watching. I stopped at a soup place and got a bowl of curried chicken tomato soup with basmati rice (after failing to find a hot dog vendor).
Then I walked down Broadway, checking out the shows. At 44th, I saw a Sephora and, almost impulsively, decided I needed a makeover so that I looked nice for the theater that evening. It was practically evening by then. A woman applied different looks to my eyes, dramatic purple, cat's eye, smudged black, and settled on a mix between the cat's eye and the smudged black shadow. It looked fantastic.
I practically had to run back to the apartment in order to get back before Bill and Dave got home from work. I just barely had time to stop for feminine supplies and eye makeup remover.
I dressed into my black, embroidered dress, black suede boots, and rabbit fur coat. I looked pretty good, and Bill said so. The performance was Speed-the-Plow and the cast was William H. Macy (Pleasantville), Raul Esperaza, and Elisabeth Moss (Zoey from West Wing). Raul Esperaza had a perfect deadpan delivery of the best lines.
The next day, I visited the Whitney Museum. The best exhibit was a wire sculpter/engineer named Alexander Caldera. His work I can best describe as "balanced imbalanced motion." People in poses just at the most awkward moment of the motion. Pigs fucking. A mobile with two balls, one swinging ever so slightly, and objects placed carefully around. A gong, a glass bottle, tins, objects obviously meant to be hit to produce a sound. The ball got closer and closer, and people stood mesmorized--but it was all a big joke and the ball never hit anything.
That evening we weren't able to get tickets to a play, but we did have dinner with Bill and Dave's friends, William and Hillary. They were awesome, and William kept asking me about Nevada politics and Hillary and I had girl talk. I gave her my card, so hopefully she gets in touch.
I booked it the next morning, under the philosophy that if I got on the bus and sat their firmly enough, they wouldn't kick me out. It worked.
End New York City trip
Fast forward to Monday. My sole task of the day was acquiring a ticket to the Inauguration. I relied on my insider knowledge of the Capitol to get inside the Senate Hart building using the entrance NOT on the main street. As I walked around, a crowd of people started following me, however.....by the time I tried to get into the building later the line was just as terrible as the rest.
I managed to lose my gloves, too.
But I did get tickets. And ran into friends, and the State Senate Majority Leader...and Senator Reid coming out of the elevators when I was half-wake and irritable and looking like shit.
I also attended a luncheon that consisted of all the Who's Who in the Nevada Democratic Party, plus a scattering of Congressmen and Senators, including the future Secretary of the Interior, Sen. Ken Salazar.
Still, I was happy to get out that night. Josh's sister picked me up from the Metro and was pleasantly surprised at my new lighter shade of hair. I recounted to her the various reactions of my friends at the lunch. Ruben said it looked "natural." I just raised my eyes.
Oh, and Don King's manager(?) came up to me and insisted he was going to introduce me. Don't know what was up with that, but I now have his phone number. Although nothing came of it.
In honor of this momentous occasion, I dyed my hair blond yesterday. I wished it to be ala Jessica Alba, although who knows what the color will actually turn out to be. (it was no one's fault, least of all Melissa's, when we ran short on bleach and my hair came out darker than I intended.)
Melissa is the girl I am staying with, I should mention. I flew in on Thursday and her boyfriend, Oliver picked me up. I met them while I was dating a friend of theirs during my internship in DC two summers ago. She is absolutely fabulous, and he's not half bad ;)
Here I am going to break to remind myself of my brief trip to New York
On Friday, I got up early and Melissa drove me to the bus stop. Or at least tried to. We got to the right street, but for the life of us could not find the bus. I mean, it should have been obvious. You can't miss a bus, right? I called up the New York office, since the DC line wasn't picking up, and the woman on the other end informed me in a bored, irritated voice that she didn't know how to tell me where the bus was. So I called the 1-800 number-- and got the SAME lady. Who screamed at me that she was in New York and she had no idea where the bus was in Baltimore. Melissa and I affectionately termed her "the crazy bitch lady." We found the bus by sheer luck, driving away, saw a white bus with a Chinese guy next to it, yelled out, "Are you going to New York?", he nodded, I jumped onboard.
The first thing I did, after I showered of course, was what I always do when I first get into the city. I wandered through Central Park, people-watching. I stopped at a soup place and got a bowl of curried chicken tomato soup with basmati rice (after failing to find a hot dog vendor).
Then I walked down Broadway, checking out the shows. At 44th, I saw a Sephora and, almost impulsively, decided I needed a makeover so that I looked nice for the theater that evening. It was practically evening by then. A woman applied different looks to my eyes, dramatic purple, cat's eye, smudged black, and settled on a mix between the cat's eye and the smudged black shadow. It looked fantastic.
I practically had to run back to the apartment in order to get back before Bill and Dave got home from work. I just barely had time to stop for feminine supplies and eye makeup remover.
I dressed into my black, embroidered dress, black suede boots, and rabbit fur coat. I looked pretty good, and Bill said so. The performance was Speed-the-Plow and the cast was William H. Macy (Pleasantville), Raul Esperaza, and Elisabeth Moss (Zoey from West Wing). Raul Esperaza had a perfect deadpan delivery of the best lines.
The next day, I visited the Whitney Museum. The best exhibit was a wire sculpter/engineer named Alexander Caldera. His work I can best describe as "balanced imbalanced motion." People in poses just at the most awkward moment of the motion. Pigs fucking. A mobile with two balls, one swinging ever so slightly, and objects placed carefully around. A gong, a glass bottle, tins, objects obviously meant to be hit to produce a sound. The ball got closer and closer, and people stood mesmorized--but it was all a big joke and the ball never hit anything.
That evening we weren't able to get tickets to a play, but we did have dinner with Bill and Dave's friends, William and Hillary. They were awesome, and William kept asking me about Nevada politics and Hillary and I had girl talk. I gave her my card, so hopefully she gets in touch.
I booked it the next morning, under the philosophy that if I got on the bus and sat their firmly enough, they wouldn't kick me out. It worked.
End New York City trip
Fast forward to Monday. My sole task of the day was acquiring a ticket to the Inauguration. I relied on my insider knowledge of the Capitol to get inside the Senate Hart building using the entrance NOT on the main street. As I walked around, a crowd of people started following me, however.....by the time I tried to get into the building later the line was just as terrible as the rest.
I managed to lose my gloves, too.
But I did get tickets. And ran into friends, and the State Senate Majority Leader...and Senator Reid coming out of the elevators when I was half-wake and irritable and looking like shit.
I also attended a luncheon that consisted of all the Who's Who in the Nevada Democratic Party, plus a scattering of Congressmen and Senators, including the future Secretary of the Interior, Sen. Ken Salazar.
Still, I was happy to get out that night. Josh's sister picked me up from the Metro and was pleasantly surprised at my new lighter shade of hair. I recounted to her the various reactions of my friends at the lunch. Ruben said it looked "natural." I just raised my eyes.
Oh, and Don King's manager(?) came up to me and insisted he was going to introduce me. Don't know what was up with that, but I now have his phone number. Although nothing came of it.
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