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Published: August 6th 2005
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Caution: May wake your ass up too early in the morning. This picture was taken from my apartment window, with no zoom. Power Outage
So I finally broke down and turned on the A/C (which the Koreans call "AirCon") on Thursday. It has been brutally hot and humid the past few days. Like my father before me, I am of the opinion that air conditioning should only be used in the extremest of conditions. Anyone in Seattle, for instance, who has air conditioning in their house, will not get it. We can all live together in this world in peace, but only if everyone agrees that I am right about air conditioning. Anyway, I am further convinced of the evil of AC by what happened.
I left for work on Thursday with the air conditioner running (maybe I've become soft, but it's not comfortable to wake up drenched in sweat when the fan is on high and all the windows are open), came home and, much to my dismay, tried to turn on the lights. I say "tried", because generally there isn't any effort involved beyond flipping the switch. But I tried it, several times. I believe I uttered an expletive (
editor's note: I have recently been informed that younger viewers ARE actually reading this blog, and my grandparents, too (who Portrait
I wasn't as bored as I look in this picture. are not known for their pristine speech, but still), so I will try to clean up the potty-mouth. Plus I'm reading Oliver Twist, and trying to emulate Dickens as much as can be expected from a much less talented writer. I seek not to offend the ear of my dearest reader, a thousand pardons begged for my earlier forays into the basest vulgarity). I tried various electrical appliances, but none were willing to cooperate with my entreaties, again, peppered with expletives. "Please, , why don't you work, you light-switch?" To no avail.
So I took up the instruments of my study in Korean up to that point, a dictionary and a workbook, and marched down to the front desk to enquire as to the efficacy of my recent payment of a utility bill. (
I should try to write like Dickens more often, this is fun.) The younger of the two security guards was there, not quite an affable man as the older, who attempts to converse with me in Korean on a fairly regular basis, though I am ill-equipped to meet his friendliness with more than a shrug, a smile, and a "Hangul-mal chokum issayo."
Not the Death Star
There are a ton of apartments in the cities here, with new towers going up all the time. Here are some. ("I speak little Korean.") This guard, however, smiles as much, but perhaps only knows too well the American's reply. After a short dialogue ("Electricity not there. Room 1414. Why?"), I came to the conclusion that this situation was not going to be remedied at so late an hour, as it was approaching 8:30. I had an appointment to meet at nine in another area of town, so I bade the gentlemen farewell and made haste to the clatter and bustle of the green line of the subway.
I met with my new friend Hye-Young (Midory, she is called in English) and we discussed plans for our language exchange. She speaks nearly perfect English, so I can rarely tell what she expects me to teach her. Evidently, she wants to have more variety of vocabulary and, perhaps more than anything else, to keep her current, which is to say excellent, level of spoken English. I hope only to be able to hold a conversation in Korean about the weather. I am confident in Midory's ability to teach, but less than confident in my own willingness to study.
I went home with a glimmer of hope that my electricity would
Also Not the Death Star
You can't do justice to the beauty of the clouds draping the mountains in the background with my camera. Well, I can't. have been miraculously restored, but I was disabused of that notion rather quickly. Deciding to make the best of it, I popped down to the grocery on my building's ground floor and bought some candles. After returning to the apartment, and some wrangling with various pop bottles for a makeshift candle-holder, and seeing that there would be no such jerry-rig that didn't present more, rather than less, of a fire hazard, I set the candle up on my refrigerator (which contained, and still contains, an egg that I am not certain whether to eat or not) and set to taking pictures in the candlelight. I produced some interesting photos with an exposure time of fifteen seconds, none of which work very well blown up to normal size. I played upon my guitar and decided to call it a night. (
Okay, no more Dickensian-ness. It's getting long winded and less and less of an accurate parody. But I'll still keep the swearing out.)
Next morning I woke up in sweat, again. My window faces East and my bed is under the window. Even with the AC on, this happens, but at least with AC I can get out of the
Double Barber-Shop Pole
This is one of the infamous "massage parlors." There was a strong scent of incense coming from the place, which may or may not have been opium. sunlight and stop perspiring. On my way to work I stopped at the front desk again, left the key to my place, and by the time I got home, the power was back on. I still don't know why my power was cut off, whether it was an electrical problem or a mix-up with the utility payment, but as long as I have power, I don't really care.
When I was at work, I set up a pen-pal program for one of my classes with some of my friends and family. Thanks to all of the people who are helping with it.
One of the things I am finding is that despite Westernization, Korea
is a different culture. I hope that some of my recent pictures will show this.
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Lauren
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I'm so glad that you got a digital camera finally. Whoot for you.