When?!?

When did I get this tired?

Is it that my weekends are full of hashing? Is it that I can't handle working mornings when I'm such a night owl?

All I know is that my plans for when I get home tonight involve one episode of TV, hopefully 100 pages of 2061 (to finish it off) and then bed, preferably before 10 p.m.

I guess I'm finally not just in my 30s, but acting like I'm in my 30s. Or something.

Zombies Are Awesome

I finally got around to watching Shaun of the Dead. Hilarious.

I can't believe how many good movies I've missed out on, having lived overseas so long and hence had little opportunity to hear about, or see in the theater, western movies. I seldom even get around to watching things I do have.

Perhaps now that it's getting cold...

Goin' Hashing

I have a 10K race in a week. Argh! However, I walked the hash trail yesterday (all stairs) and did a 14k one today, so I think it should be fine.

Fingers crossed. I haven't been training as I should.

Rediscovered Photos

From the Spanish Civil War.

Quantity not Quality

I have a lot of stuff going on right now, but it's not really blog fodder. And I've been feeling rather anti-social of late, which is translating to not really wanted to type out what's going on.

So, instead, an update. (Summary: I read. I sleep. I run.)

6. Fail Part Two. One more time. Maintain the book ban (no books without trade-in credit) with 5 slips. (15/5) (5/5) (2/5)

2. Read 101 books. (124/101) (46/101)
Slaughterhouse Five, Fun Home, King of the Vagabonds, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey Two, Odalisque.

57. Eat at 25 new restaurants. (29/25)(5/25) Loving Hut, Navy Club, Chef Meili, OKKitchen

77. Walk into Itaewon to get coffee at least 15 times. (10/15)

91. Start and stick to an exercise routine.

Huh

Interestingly, I broke up with my 7th grade "boyfriend" on Valentine's Day and told my ex-husband that I was leaving him the day before.


Facebook knows when you'll break up

(CNN) -- Worried about when you might get dumped? Facebook knows.
That's according to a graphic making the rounds online that uses Facebook status updates to chart what time of year people are splitting up.

British journalist and graphic designer David McCandless, who specializes in showcasing data in visual ways, compiled the chart. He showed off the graphic at a TED conference last July in Oxford, England.

In the talk, McCandless said he and a colleague scraped 10,000 Facebook status updates for the phrases "breakup" and "broken up."

They found two big spikes on the calendar for breakups. The first was after Valentine's Day -- that holiday has a way of defining relationships, for better or worse -- and in the weeks leading up to spring break. Maybe spring fever makes people restless, or maybe college students just don't want to be tied down when they're partying in Cancun.

And let's hear it for cheapskates. The other big romantically treacherous time, according to the graph, is about two weeks before Christmas -- presumably as people begin pricing gifts for their significant others.

Mondays, as if they weren't bad enough, are the most likely day to break up. Summer and fall look like the safest seasons.

And, possibly showing that some people's sense of humor is more twisted than others, there's a spike in breakups on April Fool's Day.

What single day are you least likely to get a "Dear John (or Jane)" letter?

"Christmas Day," McCandless said. "Who would do that?"

Oddly... Productive

Yesterday I went running, bought toilet paper and dish soap, did a load of laundry, made dinner, and managed to make it to quiz. Tonight I dropped off my happi coat, paid for an order at What the Book, bought a new blender and some bananas, showered, had dinner with a friend, tidied up the apartment, did dishes, hung up three loads of laundry, and ordered a sports kilt.

Oddly, I still can't find my blue Southside shirt.

Brrrr

This picture is actually from the days when I felt like I was melting as I ran.

Five months ago I started running. A month and a half ago, I ran my first 10K. And today I had my first cold run - the internet tells me that it's 3C out there and it's windy. I suppose it's going to take some practice to properly match the clothes to the cold.

Time to Get Back on the Daily Blogging Horse

Well, I Read A Lot Anyway

I keep taking on new challenges and forgetting the old ones - not entirely, they niggle at the back of my head, but I let them slide. I started off blogging everyday, then I moved to doing 101 in 1001, then I started Project 365, and then I started the Couch to 5K and ran my first race.

Reinstated
6. Fail Part Two. One more time. Maintain the book ban (no books without trade-in credit) with 5 slips. (15/5) (5/5) (0/5)

3. Read 50 children's books. (57/50)(32/25)(0/25)

The Giraffe The Pelly and Me, Suddenly!, Esio Trot, The Magic Finger, A Wrinkle in Time, Beezus and Ramona, Ramona and her Father, The Giver, What Mommies Do Best What Daddies Do Best, Play Ball Amelia Bedelia, John Patrick Norman McHennessey, The First Woman Doctor, The Reptile Room, Jacob's Rescue, Flat Stanley, Stanley Flat Again, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes, Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger, If I Ran the School, The Enormous Crocodile, Miami Makes the Play, Fairest, The Journey of Peter and Anna, My Name is Not Angelica, Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School, More Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School, A Girl Named Disaster, Horrid Henry's Underpants, If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, The Gunpowder Plot

Done!
5. Spend 30 days reading out of the house for at least one hour. (36/30)
7. Go to a book club meeting.
12. Complete a month of posts each year (NaBloPoMo or other month.) (7/3)
15. Complete Postcrossings.
19. Be able to label a map of Africa.
23. Win at any of the quiz nights.
24. Participate in a scavenger hunt.
26. Learn to play a new game (Backgammon, Bridge, etc.)
27. Play 5 board games. (5/5)
28. Learn how to do Suduku. And how to spell it.
32. Do something creative - paint a picture, throw a pot, etc.
34. Take a photo every day for a month. (31/31)
35. Take the good camera out once a month. (30/30)
51. Try a new kind of alcohol. chuck and sodja in Togo (spellings are complete guesses!
53. Eat chicken wings in a bar for the first time.
58. Make that chocolate/whip cream dessert from when I was a kid.
59. Make popcorn on the stove.
60. Visit a new continent (South America, Australia, Antarctica, Africa.)
62. Dip my toes into two oceans/seas. (2/2) The Atlantic!
64. Visit a country from the Axis of Evil.
68. Go to a sporting event, a play/opera/ballet, a museum, and an art gallery. (4/4)
69. Take an odd form of trasportation (dog sledding, etc.) Trou-trous are odd.
76. Take the subway to or from work once a week. (44/38) Should add to this one, since I renewed the contrac for a year.
78. Buy a round for the bar.
79. Let Shawn talk me into Hashing once.
82. Go to the dentist.
83. Buy a frickin' toothbrush.
84. Finish all my multivitamins.
87. Buy new glasses.
88. And sunglasses.
90. Go to bed by midnight thirty times. (30/30)
89. Buy a bathing suit.
92. Buy purple underwear.
97. Buy a new iPod.
99. Find a charity I believe in and donate/join a protest for a cause I believe in.
100. Get my damn hair straightened already.
101. Wash Martha's dishes.

To Do!

2. Read 101 books. (124/101) (40/101)
Tall Dark and Hungry, The Year of Living Biblically, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Me and My Shadow, The Last Summer (OF You And Me), Guilty Pleasures, The Sunflower, Fantasy Lover, Night Pleasures, Jitterbug Perfume, The Color of Water, Slam, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Elbow Room, Body Wars, Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, The Family Way, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Model World and Other Stories, World War Z, A Hundred Bullshit Jobs, Good in Bed, A Mercy, Timbuktu, Nightlight, Dead and Gone, The World Without Us, 206 Bones, Love in the Time of Dragons, Good Omens, The Year of the Flood, The Penelopiad, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, 2001: A Space Odyssey, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Master Pip, Push: A Novel, Quicksilver

4. Finish reading War and Peace.
8. Read all the magazines in my place. This is impossible, as I keep buying more.
9. Read Man Booker Prize and Pulizter Prize winning book from the year of my birth. (1/2)



10. Write a haiku.
11. Finish up all draft blog posts.
13. Learn to write my name in 5 scripts. (0/5)
14. Send 60 handwritten letters or postcards. (24/60)
16. Send Christmas cards. (1/2)
17. Send flowers at random.
18. Do something to put knowledge in, rather than spouting it out.
20. Be able to name 20 foreign leaders and their countries. (0/20)
21. Memorize a poem.
22. Stop saying THAT word (the one Martha doesn't like.)
25. Play croquet or bocce.
29. Complete a jigsaw puzzle.
30. Watch Gone With the Wind.
31. Only use candlelight for one full evening.
33. Take pictures at one of those weird photo places in Hongdae.
36. Complete 26 Things.
37. Send a postcard to Postsecret.
38. Color an entire coloring book.
39. Climb a tree.
40. Play with PlayDoh.
41. Rewatch the Princess Bride and reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. (0/2)
42. Do a cartwheel in the sun.
43. Make a snowman.
44. Go on a picnic.
45. Try making lasagna in a toaster oven.
46. Try 10 new foods. (7/10) plantains, fufu, Togolese cheese, soja (Togolese tofu)
47. Make pancakes with my nieces twice. (0/2) Not doing this when I was home was a big mistake. But then, I hope I'm home again in the next 600 days...
48. Bake a cake from scratch.
49. Make a curry dish from scratch.
50. Learn to make good cream sauce.
52. And a new kind of tea.
54. Make and decorate cupcakes.
55. Make banana bread and once again make my poor mother mail me the recipe.
56. Have a banana split party.
57. Eat at 25 new restaurants. (29/25)(4/25) Indian with Jas, Mill Street Brewery, Thai with Samarra, Sydney Fish Shop
61. Visit 5 countries I've never been to. (2/5)
63. Visit 5 UNESCO Heritage Sites. (2/5) Cape Coast Castle, Elmina Castle
65. Go canoeing or kayaking again.
66. Participate in a winter sport that is not sledding.
67. Go zorbing/hot air ballooning/skydive or something along those lines.
70. Control one vehicle.
71. Encounter an interesting animal in its natural habitat.
72. Sleep in a tent.
73. Watch the sun set and rise. (1/2) Nearly had camera confiscated for taking a photo of a sunset in Lome.
74. Take a series of pictures of the neighbourhood I live in.
75. Finally go to the National Museum, which I pass every day, and Seoul Tower, which I can see from my window. (0/2)
77. Walk into Itaewon to get coffee at least 15 times. (8/15)
80. Explore 12 new places in Seoul - one for each month. (3/12)
81. Get a tattoo or a piercing.
85. Be a vegetarian for a month.
86. Be a vegan for a week.
91. Start and stick to an exercise routine.
93. Pay off half my credit card.
94. Then pay off the rest.
96. Clean up iTunes.
95. Make one day a month internet and TV free. (37/30)(0/18)
98. Buy another external harddrive and have old harddrive fixed.

Walt Whitman:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

OBH3 Full Moon Run

Once again, to my complete surprise, not the LRB.

I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!
~Dr. Seuss

The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. ~Mignon McLaughlin

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.
It's about learning to dance in the rain.
Anonymous

It takes courage to grow up
and turn out to be who you really are.
E. E. Cummings

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
Voltaire

My Virgin Hare - 38th Parallel H3

First I spent an hour and a half dead-haring the walking trail. Then I ran around 11 km on the best running trail I've ever done in Korea - shiggy, beer and soju stops, TUNNELS!!!, and good running buddies. Good circle, good on after. Just all round great day.

My Crunchy Vagina

Crunchy as in granola. As in hippie.



I've gone environmental. While I was home I picked up a Diva Cup and a Lunapads pantyliner and a mini-pad. I love the Lunapads and now wish I'd bought a few more. The Diva Cup I'm still adjusting too, though it's already come in handy in a pinch, when I ended up not going back home as expected one night. If I'd been using a conventional tampon, I would have had to resort to buying Korean ones and they are not nice at all. I've sort of been toying with doing this since university and I'm glad I've finally gotten around to it.

10K Finsher, Fuck Yeah!

1:09 without walking A SINGLE STEP.



Best bling I'll ever get. The 10K race at the DMZ International Peace Marathon was incredible. First we had the hilarity of being sober in Itaewon at 5:30 in the morning. Drunks hailing cabs are very amusing. A two hour bus ride later and we were there - there being some very rain-soaked fields with tables, bag checking, food, a stage, and other assorted bits and pieces. Within seconds my feet (still in sandals) were muddy and wet. Though it was a nice, relatively cool day with no rain, that field ensured that I ran the race with wet feet.



It was an amazing thing, doing my first ever race. I was nervous, since most start with 5K. This particular race wasn't offering 5 and I had been told all about how beautiful the scenery was, so I let myself get swept up in the excitement and registered. It turned out surprisingly fine: though I'd only run 10K once the week before, I didn't struggle in the slightest. There were fireworks and a band to send us off and it was an experience to run with that many people. Matt and Moniqa quickly left me in their dust and the runners thinned out. I kept my pace slow and steady and spent the whole race being leapfrogged by runners who were faster but stopped to walk a lot. Since I was carrying my own bottle of Poweraid, I didn't even stop at the water stops.



I first noticed a kilometer marker at 5K - turns out that there were markers every kilometer and I just didn't see them. Nor do I remember any of the slight inclines that others mentioned post-race or the giant clock above the finish line.

What I do remember is how surprised I was to hit 8K (I was listening to music by then, but not any of my usual running playlists, so I had no idea how far it was at any time) and still feeling good, with no need to walk. I remember passing a purple house and thinking I'd quite like to live in a purple house. I remember hitting the clappers around 9K and absolutely loving that experience. And I admit to crying a bit when I hit the finish line and saw Shira on the sidelines, cheering us in.

After that there were several hours of waiting for the half and full marathon runners to finish. Once our little group was done and had eaten some bibimbap, we headed over to the bus to try and rest in a dry location. The race swag involved a 3 kilo bag of rice which most of us donated to PLUR, a charity which runs a soup kitchen, some nasty herbal tea drinks, and a bag with bananas and stuff. It was a 3 hour trip home with all the Seoul traffic, dreaming of dinner with the Southsiders once we hit home.

And there's the medal, of course. Which I am insanely proud of.

Next race: 5K night run on October 2nd. I suppose I should start training for a half now...

I Don't Get It

This is going to be a random post. I keep telling myself I'm going to write an entry about what I got up to in Canada or finish off all my half-completed drafts or something, but this is what I feel like talking about on a Tuesday afternoon at work, while I'm desk warming and half asleep.

A friend of mine deleted another friend on Facebook. I know this because she asked me in chat how to do it. I was quite startled, as when the person in question was here in Korea, they seemed close, so I asked why.

It turns out, she doesn't agree with his political beliefs and doesn't want to have to be exposed to them.

It's not like I agree with the guy either. But if he is someone she gets along socially with and she can't handle exposure to a belief set that is shared by many people, how are we all ever going to have the kinds of mature conversations that might move things forward in the world?

Family Feuds

When you live far from home, your friends quickly become your family. And as awesome as that is, when friends fight, it really sucks.

I seem to be caught up in the middle of more drama right now than I have ever experienced before and the weird thing is that none of it has anything to do with me.
Sh. isn't talking to S. because of a boy. Sh. isn't talking to A. because of.. well, about fifty inconsequential annoyances. T. isn't talking to A. either because of one incident plus what I have armchair-psychologized as a reminder of his ex.

All of this would be fine if they weren't all people who do a lot of the same activities and have a ton of mutual friends in what often feels like the biggest tiny village in the world. Now every time I hash, go to a quiz, or invite people anywhere I have to mentally figure out how to see each of them in a combination that won't be explosive.

I'm hosting a hummus party in a couple of days and decided that I just give up. I invited the four of them, two of them peaced out. I'm cool with that but I do have to wonder why in a group of 15 or so, they can't all just act like adults and behave around each other.

I'm in Canadia!

After an eventful Mudfest weekend (and not the right kind of eventful, broke a rib), I made it through two days of work and a day of travelling (through the States, what a pain in the arse) and am in Toronto. Plans to get up and head into the city tomorrow, for shopping and hashing. Woot!

Can't wait to see everyone around here - if you are in the area and reading this, give me a call or shoot me an email. As always, I have few solid plans.

Running the Hash

So, I need to make it to 25 mins to get through Week 7 of the C25K and on Wednesday I didn't. Granted, I was exhausted after a long day at a water park with 60 kindie kids, but I didn't. I made about 20 minutes instead. A bit discouraging and so when I heard there'd be a Seoul Full Moon Hash Friday night, I decided to skip my run and hash instead. After all, I told myself, it's my last chance to hash in Seoul before vacation, since Mudfest was this weekend. And if I run it, it's almost as good as keeping to the schedule, in terms of being a good workout and lots of running, just not requiring that I run 25 mins non-stop.



And it was a good decision, because not only did I only walk for the odd portion here and there until the last ten minutes, I also realized that I'm not as slow as I had thought. I actually kept up with the pack fairly decently, though I have to admit that I didn't run any checks and only ran a few false trails. Still, it was encouraging.

I also ran the Saturday run at Mudfest and again, was doing fairly decently. Didn't get to the back of the pack until Sheena and I ran a loooooong false trail and had to go back up a stream - which we walked rather than ran and hence got far behind. Still, I'm not too bad a hasher.

And in spite of a bit of a mental setback with fucking up that first 25 minute run, I think I can be not too bad a runner. In time.

Bring on the Monsoon!

I had far too much fun today. Running in the monsoon is fantastic - not only did I splash through every puddle, since I had the park to myself I also didn't so much walk the walking intervals as karaoke them. There was also some quasi-dancing. And since it wasn't so damn hot, I went quite fast (for me) for the first two runs - so much so that I had to extend the loop a lot.

It's funny how quickly you can get decent at running. My legs no longer hurt very much. I used to find running down hills a bit nerve-wracking (I have been known to fall over whilst standing still, after all), but today I was disappointed that I didn't hit the biggest of the ramps on a running interval. And I no longer have to chant in my head that if Suz did it, I can too. I just sort of run. I do sometimes think of stuff, but it's not motivational stuff much at all.

Hilariously, just as I started my second run the podcast played It's Raining Men. It was even funnier when Walking on Sunshine started during my last run.

Now to eat and CLEAN ALL THE THINGS.

Assa!

I did my last run of Week 5 - 20 minutes of non-interrupted running. I'm not going to say it was a cakewalk, but I was surprised that to find that my legs didn't particularly bother me and it was only the last couple of minutes that were difficult to get through - I think in a lot of ways, adding distance from here on in is all going to be mental, all about learning to stick it out. Damn was it hot though - when I took my ponytail off on the subway, it was dripping with sweat. I guess I'm good to start Week 6 on Friday!

Yay!

Fuck Yeah!

Week 5, Part 1 done!

I was slow as fuck, but I finished it.

This Is My Life

This is why I'll never be an adult.


http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html

Head for the Border

The first time I've had Taco Bell off base here in Korea - which was the first time I'd ever had Taco Bell ever. Can't say I like it that much but it certainly is cheap.

Taken by Breanna.

The Thief of Time, Steinunn Sigurdardottir

In Paris I'm just another person on the street, standing out in the crowd just enough to be able to blend with it completely; I'm every bit as chic as the French women, whom I also resemble in wearing a lot of make-up and in being a little drunk.

I really wanted to like this book, but I didn't. I wasn't so fond of the random capitalization (okay, I know, it's a ridiculous pet peeve, but there you are) and I didn't love the poetry (some of which I blame on the fact that it's a translated novel - word choice is so important in poetry), nor the way the character kept referring to herself in the third person and then back to the first. The style was a bit distracting.

The main character was incredibly annoying - sure we've all perhaps behaved like this after a break up, or at least had a friend who did. And yet, an entire novel of a woman whining about how she was so perfect and he obviously loved her, but maybe he wasn't worth it, except that he was - it was, well, long. I liked the main point, which I assume is that we shouldn't waste our lives on ended love affairs.

I assume I missed some of the implications on class, not really being familiar with Icelandic history and culture - perhaps I might not have found Alda so annoying had I understood better what she represented.

However, if a point of literature is to invoke a strong emotional reaction and cause you to analyze your own behaviour as it pertains to the theme, and I do think you can argue that it is at least a significant driving force behind the writing of novels, then it certainly worked. I haven't been this irritated and thoughtful about a book in some time.

Dammit

I'm going to have to redo Week 5. I thought maybe, as I headed out today, that it was going to work. I was on a bit of a Neocitron high, though I did my usual near-napping on the subway. I felt okay for the first 8-minute run but totally bombed the second. My plan is to redo Week 5 part 1 on Friday and hope I get better enough by then to actually complete it.

I'm bummed about it, if I have to be honest. But to look on the good side, I did manage 8 minutes of continuous running and that's my longest run so far. I'm a bit worried I've bitten off more than I can chew with this 10K in September and have to keep reminding myself that I can finish before the time limit just walking it. And finishing, that's my goal. I suppose also on the good side is the fact that I wasn't feeling great and I didn't let that become my excuse. I still put on those running shoes and got out there. It may not have been a good running day, but it was a running day nonetheless.

Tomorrow's another day. A rest day at that.

Plastic Surgery?

I don't find this advert compelling.

Since Eclipse is Out...

Buffy vs. Edward

Scary?

Look at Kevin's facial expression there. Who knew that an octopus craft could be scary?

Roadblock

Last week was up and down. Monday I got a vicious stitch in my side and didn't finish the last run, maybe by about 2 minutes. Stitch aside though, I think a lot of the problem was mental - when I listened to Suz describe the run, I thought she said that there were two 3-minute runs followed by 90 seconds of walking and ONE five minute run, but there was a second 5-minute one right at the end. On top of that, I think I was running faster - at one point I passed a couple on one of those two-seater bikes. I slowed it down on Wednesday and Friday and finished without any problems. I also ran the entire week without a bandage on my right ankle and it didn't so much as twinge.

Then there was yesterday. I was quite confident that it would be fine - I can totally do three 5-minute runs. I hadn't hashed all weekend (Saturday hangover, Sunday by design) and so I figured I'd be well rested. I wasn't feeling too great at work though, enough to pop some Advil Cold & Sinus. I only finished the first 5-minute run and barely did the last at all.

So now I am stuck deciding what to do about running while I have a cold. I don't want to take the time off entirely - beyond the fact that it totally breaks the pattern of strapping on those shoes and just getting out there every day, I also worry that even a week would put me back. I figure I'll go out there tomorrow and try the scheduled run. If that doesn't work, well, I guess I'm not attempting 20-minutes non-stop on Friday. I'll just do the Week 5, Part 1 run again and try to maintain where I am. I can always start Week 5 all over again next week.

But if I'm honest with myself, I really want tomorrow to be a success so that I can tackle that 20 mintues on Friday. I don't like the idea of fucking up the program at all - in spite of the fact that I originally never thought I'd get through it in just 9 weeks.

Sigh.

The Results of Being a Lip Slut

This is what happens when you kiss more than one person in a bar on a Friday night - you have a cold by Monday.

Lantern

Taken simply so that I didn't miss a day of the project, since all I did was sit around chatting with Courtnie and then buy pizza in my pjs.

Itaewon Mural

What a drunken, drunken Friday night. First, I went running in the rain - I wasn't looking forward to it, but it was fun to stomp through puddles like a kid. Then I came home and got changed as quickly as possible to go to Itaewon for Samantha's birthday dinner. I could not, for the life of me, get a damn cab and it was pouring rain. I ended up having to go to the main road, over the overpass to the wrong side of the street in order to grab a cab and then talk him into doing a U-turn. Dinner at Villa Sortino's was delicious and the three glasses of wine there were followed up by another three at Bless U. Then we headed to Helios, which is where the madness began - much lip slut behaviour, lots of dancing, and coming home in the early hours of the morning. Didn't make it to Yongsan, not unsurprisingly, since I hadn't actually slept at that point. I did get about a two hour nap and then Courtnie and I went down to Osan for Turkey Baster's On Out. Though I had fun at the down down (where we named Connor "Count Crankyoula") and dinner at a Thai place, I knew there was no way I could handle another night out, so Courtnie and I headed back to Seoul and were in bed by midnight.

Perm-uh

Nothing like a little boy with a perm.

That's An Important W

I find it hilarious that no one else sees what's wrong with this...

Ummmm, huh?

Why did my classroom turn into a laundryroom?

Pencilcases

Korea has some of the coolest pencilcases I've ever seen. In spite of that, my students have been going through some odd trends. It started with used Pringles containers and now it's Ziploc bags boxes taped shut.

Magic Paper

I'm not sure what is so magical about paper that is the same colour on both sides...

I'm Stinking Up the Simpson Name

I sent this email to my parents:

Because I only own one sports bra and I've recently started a training program (I'm on week one, so far I run for 60 seconds at a time and nearly fall over dead) that requires that I run three times a week, then I hash 2-3 times a week and my friend Abigail is doing long, fast walks to prepare for a trek in Cambodia and I join her once a week.

Thing is, it's really hot here and I'm a sweaty person. I can't do enough laundry to keep up with all this with the one bra. I was hoping you might send me one asap, since I'm still not home for almost 2 months.

I wear a 38 F. The bra is called Shock Absorber and I need the support level 4 one. Color is not an issue. This is it here:

http://www.shockabsorber.co.uk/home/products/sportsbras/index.htm

I got it at the The Bay downtown, but they might have it at Yorkdale too?

Thanks,
Amanda

And this is the response I got:

Running Insanity

I keep meaning to post an update, but between the 365 project and hashing and C25K, I've just not really had the stamina to keep up with anything else.

I've signed up for a 10K in September, and no one is more surprised with this than I am. How did it come to this???

Week 2 was crap. I didn't enjoy a single run and I thought I was developing shin splints. ButI stuck with it and for me, that's something. I've never been much good at sticking to an exercise program. In Scotland I did this weird combo of Step class and Spanish dancing pretty regularly and even worked out on the elliptical. Here in Korea in my first year, I was a pretty regular gym goer, but since I've moved to HBC I was a regular for all of one month.

One of the things that has kept me going is where I run. I go down to the Han River at Yeouinaru and it's lovely. Each day I'd see something that would make me appreciate at least that I was outside in the sun. The poppies blooming, a guy with a parrot on his shoulder, the old man who does tai chi most days, and tiny little white butterflies flying across my path. It makes up for the bad days and the fact that at best I'm jogging along in enough of an uncoordinated way that I suspect the watching Koreans think I'm practicing to audition for a part in a zombie movie!

However, Week 3 has been incredible. Monday's run had me back to the euphoric feeling I had after the first two runs and I suspect it's the longer runs that is responsible - for all that I'm still only doing 3 minutes, it's enough to sort of hit my stride. I love small inclines, as my shins feel better, and dread running down (I'm convinced I'll fall on my face.) I've got my last Week 3 run tonight and yesterday I was even jonesing for a run - resenting the hell out of a rest day is a huge step forward for me.

I didn't understand why my friend Candace spent so much time talking abour running when I visited her in Hong Kong back in the day. I get it now. I LOVE talking about running with just about anyone who will listen - and that's how I got talked into this 10K run. It's stupid in so many ways - I'll only have done 5K by the beginning of August, leaving me only 5 weeks to double the distance of my runs. Plus, all the 10K training plans suggest that you're a beginner runner, who's been running at least 6 months, and doing 16-20 miles per week already. By August, I'll be doing 15 km a week - half that!

So, I'm looking around for a 5K to do in Toronto and might do yet another here in Seoul leading up to the 10K. As Tim pointed out, I don't have to run the entire thing - if I can only run 5K non-stop, I can finish it off in intervals of walking and running. And the cut-off time is 3 hours - I can walk 10K in less than that and do at the hashes most weekends. So, I'll finish, which at this point is my only goal. I'd love to say I'll run it all, but I think it's too early in the training to even go that far.

But I intend to finish. For someone who used to say she only ran if chased, that's still one hell of a goal to be aiming towards.

Perhaps you've played this game. Your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse lets you have one free pass -- one special man or woman who is so attractive and out of reach that if circumstances allowed it, your partner would allow you to sleep with that person. Most monogamous couples feel safe with the free pass rule as it's more theoretical than practical. Sill, if your partner gave you a free pass, would you use it? On who? (Single people can use this prompt however they please.)

Alison Janney, maybe. Or Mary Louise Parker. Or Katee Sackhoff. This game is impossible!

I'm wracking my mind for a male choice, but no one is really jumping to mind. Maybe the kid that plays Jacob in the Twilight movies - but I'm not quite ready to be a Cougar just yet.

Do you think it's ever permissible to cheat?

In a relationship, I think it's sometimes understandable, possibly forgiveable, but not permissible. At school, well, let's be honest. I did for a couple of years on math tests, until I could be bothered to learn my times tables. I'm sure I've accidentally plagarized at least once - I did attempt not too, but it must have happened. However, it drives me crazy when my students do it, so no, I don't think it should be permissible. Tests are about more than just determining how any one child can do, they are also important feedback for teachers as to which lessons have been understood and which haven't. If students cheat, they screw up the chance for a teacher to realise that a concept needs to be retaught.

What was the worst job you ever had?

Sometimes I'd be tempted to say this one. I'm definitely not cut out to teach kindergarten. In terms of asshole bosses, it would be my second year of teaching in Korea at Heritage Institute. I sincerely hope someone googles that and I can talk them out of working for the biggest jerk I've ever met. When you make teachers (not me) cry during a staff meeting, you are going too fucking far. We did make him up his own hilarious Myspace Profile.

In terms of job satisfaction, the worst has got to have been my years at RBS. That job was mind-numbing in a way I've not experienced before or since. It was a good group of coworkers that made that job tolerable. Most office temp jobs follow right behind it.

I do love teaching, but I'm not sure I enjoy teaching ESL anymore. It's just too repetitive and I've been at it too long. The things I've liked teaching best so far were social studies and grade 11 lit.

What's the one food you feel like you could't live without? What's the one food you'd rather die than put in your mouth?

Travelling and living abroad has pretty much made both of these questions irrelevant - I've learned I can cope without just about anything and I've eaten some disgusting shit (bondegi being the worst).

If you could take a train journey through any part of the world, where would you go?

Where wouldn't I go? I love trains - they are absolutely the best form of transportation EVER. On my hit list is the Transsiberian because, well, it's awesome. I'd also like to crisscross as much of the US as you could by train. I'd like to go back to BC and do the northern train route and I'd like to take the train from Toronto as far east as you can go (because then I'd really be able to say I'd ridden the train all across Canada.) I'd like to take a train across the Australian Outback, in India, across parts of Africa. I'd love to go back to Cambodia with the time to take the train from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville and ride on the top of it so that I could see the hill stations.

Basically, if there's a train there, I'd like to ride it.

What's your greatest fear?

Being left out of things/behind or being broke - not a hard question in the slightest!

What's your superpower?

I read really quickly. It has been known to come in handy.

What are the five best bands you've seen play live?

One of the best shows I've seen live was definitely The Flaming Lips at T in the Park. That man knows how to put on a show and I love "Thank You Jack White" so damn much. For pure Canadiana, it'd have to be seeing the Barenaked Ladies at the Canadian Scout Jamboree in Thunder Bay. Ani Difranco, with Hamell on Trial opening, was pretty amazing. And seeing Radiohead in Toronto right in front of the stage was incredible. Plus, there were the Lilith Fairs - I went to two of them, one where it rained until we were soaked through and once with my sister, and loved them both.

Tell us about your first kiss.

It was with a boy named Kevin and I don't recall liking it. Things have improved a lot since then. Plus, I started kissing girls too.

Rock On!

Abigail and I just walked for two hours around Namsan at a fairly quick pace, talking the whole way. There wasn't a lot of elevation, but some. I'm pleased to say that while I could feel my leg muscles, they didn't hurt and the shin pain I get when running wasn't a problem walking. That seems like a good sign. I'm now wide awake, in spite of a paltry amount of sleep last night and full of energy - I figure I'm likely going to crash soon, but I could get in some more cleaning/furniture rearranging before that happens, while chugging water. It's HOT here and my hands swell rather badly. I wonder if there is something I can do about that.

Last run of week one is tomorrow, post field trip, which may be rather tiring. Then hashing all weekend.

I've looked up the Toronto hashes for vacation and I'd like to get in some canoeing as well.

This summer is shaping up nicely!

Subway Stories

Good in Bed, Jennifer Weiner

"The truth is this-I'm all right the way I am. I was all right, all along. I will never be thin, but I will be happy. I will love myself, and my body, for what it can do-because it is strong enough to lift, to walk, to ride a bicycle up a hill, to embrace the people i love and hold them fully, and to nurture new life. I will love myself because I am sturdy. Because I did not-will not-break."

The first time I read this book was my first year in Korea. I had discovered Abby's Book Nook in Itaewon for the first time and Abby herself recommended it. It is pure chick lit - implausible happy ending and all. That said, I loved the storyline about having a premie and I found the narrator easy to relate to. The point of rereading it was to read the sequel, though I'm going to need a chick lit break first.

From the author interview: "... but, of course, there's no new or original way to have your heart broken."

A Mercy, Toni Morrison

My first experiece with Morrison wasn't good - I disliked Beloved and then ended up feeling quite guilty that I didn't like it, so I went into A Mercy very tentatively. Perhaps it was my lower expectations, perhaps it's this time in my life, or perhaps it's just, for me, a better book, but I really enjoyed A Mercy. It explored the numerous ways it really sucked to be a woman in the 1690s, mostly in America, but England is touched on as well, and the numerous kinds of slavery found in the new colonies.


100 Bullshit Jobs, Stanley Bing

Unsurprisingly, it's a fairly bullshit book. In its favour, it's also a very quick read. And some good quotes:

"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little, base, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking, nauseous puddle water." The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1694.

"Times are bad. Children no longer listen to their parents, and everyone is writing a book." Cicero, circa 66 B.C.

"Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering." Paulo Coelho

"Before forty eting is beneficial. After forty, drinking." The Talmud

Our New Hareraiser Is Effective!

Sunday, June 13, 2010 @ 11AM
Sadang Station -- Line 2/226 and Line 4/433; Exit 14

Please pack light and leave bags in the subway lockers in case there is no bag sitter!!!

Your Hares for this Sunday:

G.I. Hoe (A Real American Zero) and NN Riley

According to G.I. Hoe this will be the first trail in the history of hashing that will be 100% downhill.

So don't miss out on being part of history.

It's summer!!! Cum out and Hash More! 5,000 won. Bring virgins, the last ones tasted great!

If you could go back in time and meet your 16-year-old self, what three things would you tell yourself?

1. Don't marry Alan.

2. You aren't fat. You might want to exercise regularly though.

3. It's all going to turn out okay.

No Vodka Makes This Tolerable

Yesterday was good. W1D2 didn't leave me quite as euphoric as that first run did, but that could be partly due to the fact that I am supposed to be doing these on non-consecutive days and I didn't. I'm not sure if a 2 hour hike around Namsan was the logical choice of activities for my day off either, but so far I'm feeling fine.

Except the exhaustion. Tim showed up unexpectedly at quiz last night and we won! Woot! However, only he and Gus (with a bit of help from Gaby) were drinking the free bottle of vodka, so we were at Phillies until about 2 a.m. and then I just could. not. get. to. sleep.

I'm more than a little tired and when you teach kindergarten, that's fairly fatal. However, of the four classes I have left, only one is really annoying and then I can make up the homework while futzing around on the Internet. Granted, as soon as I get home I need to clean and rearrange the furniture to accomodate the new elliptical and all before 8 p.m. (walking time with Abigail) as well as arrange a ticket home...

I'm already looking forward to going to bed.

Japanese lore suggests that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. What would your wish be, and what would you be willing to do 1,000 times to get it?

My main goal has always been to work on 6 continents and visit Antarctica and for that, I'm willing to teach 1,000 kindergarten classes. Don't get me wrong, the kids are cute and all, but I definitely prefer teaching older students.

Hahahaha.

I wrote last night's post struggling to keep my eyes open and it wasn't even very late! I guess that's what happens when you run.

I packed my backpack full of running stuff this morning. I'm supposed to be doing this every other day, but the way I've organized my week, that's not really possible. I'm supposed to be walking around Namsan with Abigail tomorrow and then the weekend is full of hashing, so it has to be today and Friday for the C25K runs. I didn't get up 20 mins early to do some elliptical before work, but I'm not going to sweat that.

I can't recall the last time I was this excited for 4 p.m. to come round and have it not be because I wanted the work day to end, but because I can't wait to do what I have planned right after.

This time, I aim not to get lost and to shower before I meet up with people.

On on!

Secrets Can't Be Kept in Haebangchon

So, I had this plan. It was a good plan, in that it gave me an out in case my plan didn't work out as planned. But I live in the smallest giant city in the world, and in one walk home from the subway, my secret was out.

I've decided to do the Couch to 5K running plan. Last summer I was just starting to run hashes rather than walk them and then I went on vacation and came back and winter hit and... Excuses abound, but basically I got lazy again. It's time to stop being lazy, but usually it just sort of organically happens and I don't plan it - also the only way I've ever lost weight. Since I'd like to be more in shape in time to hash in Toronto, organically-happens didn't seem like such a good idea. I need structure.

But I almost wimped out. I live in hill central and I decided it would be much nicer (read less likely to kill me) to run alongside the Han River and I wasn't sure how long it'd take to get there and if I'd have time before meeting Gus and Gaby for steak night at Phillies and I was tired and... Excuses yet again. And then I saw my package from home - coffee, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and three super cute letters from my cousin Alannah and I was in such a damn good mood, how could I not follow through on a promise to myself?

So, I ate a handful of almonds, grabbed a half bottle of water, threw on some running clothes, shoved my iPod down my pants and my subway card and money into my bra and off I went to Yeoinarou.

Couch to 5K seems a well known training program and there is a dude out there, Robert, who made a bunch of podcasts to tell you the times to switch between running and walking. Then Sue made some with much better music, so Sue's my girl for the next 9 weeks. After 2 subways and a transfer, I was down by the Han feeling mighty fat and out of place. However, I hit play on that podcast and did exactly as it told me the entire time, no cheating. I can't claim I was going as fast the last time as the first.

It was a good run, 60 seconds of actual running followed by 90s of walking. Most times, I got very close to 60, but Sue's reassuring, confirting voice just kept telling me to walk again and so it was great. The weather was sunny and lovely but not too warm and it wasn't too busy on the paths.

The problem was that I somehow ended up in the Yeoido nature preserve at the end, that lovely moment when Sue said my cool down walk was finished, which not only means I did extra walking but also prevented me from having a shower before meeting up for steak. Gross.

All in all, I've been feeling incredibly rock-star ever since. The runner's high kicks ass and though I feel a bit of an idiot reporting my progress with 60 second runs to Tim, who is doing a 10-mile run on Saturday with two other of our friends, i am quite proud of myself.

Just 26 runs left to go.

Happiness is a hound dog in the sun. We are not here to be happy but to experience great and wonderful things. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

You've just been given a million dollars. You are not allowed to keep it or give it to anyone you know personally. What do you do with it and why?

I'd go back to Togo and build schools/fund schools/pay for school uniforms. I remember when I was visiting Togo, an old man was taking to a little girl, reminding her that school was starting up again soon and that she had to make sure she went. It was a poignant moment considering her gender and the poverty of the area we were in.

Do you owe an apology to anyone? Why?

Probably - I've been rather self-absorbed lately. A fair number to myself, but I'm working on that too.

What's the first thing that pops into your head when you think of your father?

Intelligence. Stealing his books and liking them - especially all the Russians. A time he taught me math when I was home sick. That he looked like Buddy Holly in his wedding pictures. That he tells a good story.

H3 ESL TRAIL RUN - HASH HELL WEEK RUN # 8

What's your favorite poem? (And if you don't have one, why?)

My favourite, and I know I get no points for originality here, is The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost because I feel that I've very much taken that untrodden path. The only poem I've got memorized is In Flanders Field by John McCrae.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Writing Prompt for Tuesday, June 1, 2010

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Once Lindsay was born, an Occupational Therapist. I don't think I was really all that interested, it was just a good answer to give. In French class once I did a report on being an archaeologist, which is interesting given that I ended up doing a Classics degree. I always swore I wouldn't become a teacher and yet, here I am.

H3 S2H3 TRAIL RUN - HASH HELL WEEK RUN # 5

H3 YKH3 TRAIL RUN - HASH HELL WEEK RUN # 3

YK does both a running and a walking trail - the video is the running trail, so is a lot different than the one I did.

H3 DELTA - HASH HELL WEEK RUN # 2

H3 SEOUL FULL mOOn H3 100527 DODIC HASH HELL WEEK RUN # 1

Recent Reads

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

Phenomenal. I read this back in 8th grade and do not remember even enjoying it, particularly. I'm not sure whether it's just because I'm a bit of a jerk and don't enjoy reading things that I'm told to or whether it takes adulthood and seeing injustices around the world over the past years of travelling, but this book moved me far beyond what I expected.

"I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them." ... "We're so rarely called upon to be Christians, but when we are, we've got men like Atticus to go for us."

I was almost in tears reading parts of it on the subway. I was also highly impressed with the nine chapter lead up to the main event - not only does it foreshadow the action at the end, it slowly eases you into the life of a young child of the 30s in the South. It's such a materfully written novel.

"Well then, how do you explain why the Cunninghams are different? Mr. Walter can hardly sign his name, I've seen him. we've just been readin' and writin' longer'n they have."



"But his parents stayed together and it made you believe in the sanctity of divorce."

The Family Way, Tony Parsons

This was a reread - I didn't realise by the title, but I have read it before. When I first got into Tony Parsons as an author, I was with my ex and living in Scotland. I was pretty sure I was on my way to marriage and living there permanently.

This quote is about Hong Kong, but sort of expresses how I feel about Seoul - "There was something magical about this place, but what it was felt just beyond her reach. It was a city that was constantly being reinvented, where new dreams pushed aside the old dreams, and everywhere you looked there was land being reclaimed from the harbour, and shining skyscrapers being raised upon it while the soil was still wet."

Maybe that's why I recall liking all of his books quite a bit but I was so unimpressed with this book today. I found the characterization of all women as either baby crazy or cold really bloody annoying. And I wasn't very impressed with a lot of the male characters at all - I don't know that mnay assholes in life, but the book was fairly packed with them. This book really illustrated for me just how much the reader brings to the story, I suppose. but I wish I'd used my subway reading time on better material.

"I bet those Communists can't make a decent cappuccino." ... "A day should be enough, shouldn't it? I mean, how long does it take to see China?" ..."This country, thought Paulo. China. They have got cities of ten million people that we have never even heard of.

A Model World, Michael Chabon

"If you can still see how you could once have loved a person, you are still in love; an extinct love is always wholly incredible."

"Billiard ball trysts with models and waitresses, knocking into them and then spinning off into some other corner of the city."

"Friendship is different in another language; a foreign friend doesn't have to understand what you feel, and I don't expect it. It's enough if he understands what you just said."

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

"To live a life dictated by the size of a paycheck is not really a life."

It's a different way to think about money, I suppose, but I can't say that I thought it was incredible. It was so obvious: that the fear of not having money controls you, that more money doesn't solve problems, intelligence does, that you will resent a luxury because of the debt it causes, or that laziness can involve staying busy to avoid something you don't want to do.

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Melissa Banks

"Sometimes you're loved because of your weaknesses. What you can't do is sometimes more compelling than what you can."

This is a reread, though it's been absolutely ages since I read it first. I recall when it first came out that it was billed as an American Bridget Jones and how startled I was last time that it wasn't chick lit.

"I tried to understand what Henry had told me. But I worried about that, too. Other people mght not try as hard as I did to understand him. I was always on his side, no matter what. My parents were, too. All he really had to do with us was show up. More had been expected of him as Julia's boyfriend and at that party. More would be expected of him everywhere."

I think it's a really good read - sure, it's mostly about relationships, but not just romantic ones. I liked the blunt narrative voice and the interplay between the narrator and her brother.

"Your mortality is at optimal distance, not up so close that it obscures everything else, but close enough to give you depth perception. Previously, it has taken you weeks, months, or years to discover the meaning of an experience. Now it's instantaneous."

While not a collection of short stories, it's also not exactly a novel, with one story in the middle only loosely related to the others. Worth a read.

"He will say that a modified radical sounds like a Black Panther who has moved to the suburbs and belongs to a food co-op."

"The only relationships I haven't wrecked right away were the ones that wrecked me later."

re buying self help novel "I take my copy up to the counter as furtitively as I would a girdle or vibrator."

"But advertising made my IQ go down; every night I had to work just to get it back up to regular."

Reading, Slowly

Elbow Room, James Alan McPherson

"A black mama birthed you, let you suck her titty, cleaned your dirty drawers, and you still look at us through paper and movie plots."

I started reading this at the same time as The Color of Water and completely preferred it. I loved many of the narrative voices, the title story in particular. The long read time was simply a result of how easy it is to be distracted from any short story collection (for me, anyway.) I had to order it over the Internet from a used book dealer, as it was the Pulitzer Prize winner in the year of my birth and apparently not much read anymore, which I think is a real shame.

"I saw Virginia Frost losing control of her stories. As her belly grew, her recollections began to lose their structure. The richness was still there, but her accounts became more anecdotal than like stores. They lacked clarity and order. She still knew the names, the accents, the personal quirks of individual Indians, Asians, Israelis, but more and more they fragmented into pieces of memory. There was no longer the sense of a personal epic. She no longer existed inside her own stories. They began bordering dangerously on the exotic and nostalgic. At times, telling them, she almost became a performer - one capable of brilliant flashes of recollection that stunned briefly, lived and then were gone. She had inside her an epic adventure, multinational in scope, but the passion needed to give it permanent shape was obviously fading."

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer

"The walls of the shed collapsed one autumn afternoon - "a leaf too many," her father joked - and the next day he made new walls of shelves, so that the books themselves would separate inside from outside. (The new, overhanging roof protected the books from rain, but during the winter the page would freeze together, come spring they let out a sigh.) He made a little salon of the space, carpets, two small couches, eh loved to go out there in the evenings with a glass of whiskey and a pipe, and take down books and look through the wall at the center of the city."

While I liked the book well enough, I was in no rush to finish it and in fact, stopped 40 pages from the end for over a week. The narrative voice reminded me strongly of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

"It's easy to be emotional. You can always make a scene. Remember me eight months ago? That was easy." "It didn't sound easy." "It was simple. Highs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they're nothing." "So what's something?" "Being reliable is something. Being good."

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon was greatly influenced by The Great Gatsby and Goodbye Columbus - in terms of using the outline of a single summer. Gatsby is better and I've yet to read Goodbye Columbus, but I assume it is too.

"I admit I have an ugly fondness for generalizations, so perhaps I may be forgiven when I declare that there is always something weird about a girl who majors in French. She has entered into her course of study, first of all, knowing full well that it can only lead to her becoming a French teacher, a very grim affair, the least of whose evils is poor pay, and the prospect of which should have been sufficient to sent her straight into business or public relations. She has been betrayed into the study of French, heedless of the terrible consequences, by her enchantment with this language, which has ruined more young American women than any other foreign tongue. Second, if her studies were confined simply to grammar and vocabulary, then perhaps the French major would develop no differently from those who study Spanish or German, but the unlucky girl who pursues her studies past the second year comes inevitably and headlong into contact with French literature, potentially one of the most destructive forces known to mankind."

It took me forever to finish this - it's never a good sign when you find the author interview at the end more interesting than the novel itself. I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it ten years ago.



Body Wars: Making Peace with Women's Bodies, Margo Maine, Ph.D.

While the book was interesting enough to keep me amused on the subway, it didn't introduce anything I hadn't read before. Go read The Beauty Myth instead. Also - don't bloody capitalize things you shouldn't. It's annoying. It talked a lot about how these days the self isn't viewed as a life force or a process, but a product to which we can add value. Most interesting new fact: the Barbie Liberation Organization switched GI Joe and Barbie voice boxes, "Vengeance is mine." "Let's go shopping."

The distorted Barbie

Go Read it Yourself!

Reading books that draw comments from those around you if often strange. I think the two I've gotten the most comments about are Cunt and Why I Hate Canadians. Cunt could not have been less subtle - yellow book, giant pink flower. And Canadians don't take too well to seeing a title about why you hate them. Lately I had an odd experience on a subway. I was reading Model World by Chabon and the oddest man starting talking to me. At first it was just about the book and where he could find "a book that will make me laugh." Then he oddly asked me why Americans drink such large coffees. Weird.

So Mom...

... maybe you should just look at the pretty pictures and not read the post below, or frankly, most of the weekend ones from April.

I'm just saying, read at your own risk.

I Need to Get Out of the House

Me
i'm watching house right now
or would be, but megavideo has been on a break

Ray
yeah, u can only get 72 minutes at a time.

Me
indeed
bloody annoying

Ray
INDEED.
u could pay for it.

Me
indeed, i could not
that's like paying for sex ;)

****************************************************************************

Me
did you meet Jefe?

Wacey
yeah..
we made out once...

Me
HAHAHAHAHA
he did share his habit of making out with guys with me
which i find rather hot
which is odd, since in general, i prefer making out with girls myself

Wacey
hahahahahaha

Me
apparently he's also made out with WHAM
and who would have thought i'd have one degree of making out separation with WHAM

Wacey
so how did you and jefe end up sleeping together?

Me
i'm really bad at beer pong

Wacey
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
best. answer. ever.

*****************************************************************************

Dave
Two months of not being drunk. I still have a few drinks from time to time

Amanda
Post-Korea cleansing?

Dave
Yep!!

Amanda
By the time I finally leave, I'm going to need a month long stay in one of those places in Thailand where you get daily enemas and eat clay to clean out my system.

Words of Wisdom

Become an Expat By Bob Shacochis

When are you going to get out of school?

And I don’t mean finish the degree, get a job, a life. I mean turn your life upside down, expose it, raw, to the muddle. “Put out,” as the New Testament (Luke 5:4) would have it, “into deep water.” A headline in the New York Times on gardening delivers the same marching orders: IF A PLANT’S ROOTS ARE TOO TIGHT, REPOT. Go amongst strangers in strange lands. Learn to say clearly in an unpronounceable language, “Please, I very much need a toilet. A doctor. Change for a 500,000 note. I very much need a friend.”

If you want to know a man, the proverb goes, travel with him. If you want to know yourself, travel alone. If you want to know your own home, your own country, go make a home in another country (not Canada, England, or most of Western Europe). Stop at a crossroads where the light is surreal, nothing is familiar, the air smells like a nameless spice, and the vibes are just plain alien, and stay long enough to truly be there. Become an expat, a victim of self-inflicted exile for a year or two. Sink into an otherness that reflects a reverse image of yourself, wherein lies your identity or lack of one. Teach English is Japan, aquaculture in the South Pacific, accounting in Brazil. Join the Peace Corps, work in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, set up a fishing camp on the beach of Uruguay, become a foreign correspondent, study architecture in Istanbul.

And here’s the point: Amid the fun, the risk, the discomfort, the seduction in a fog of miscommunication, the servants and thieves, the food, the disease, your new friends and enemies, the grand dance between romance and disillusionment, you’ll find out a few things you thought you knew but didn’t.

You’ll learn to engage the world, not fear it, or at least not to be paralyzed by your fear of it. You’ll find out to your surprise, how American you are – 100 percent, and you can never be anything but – and that is worth knowing. You’ll discover that going native is self-deluding, a type of perversion. Whatever gender or race you are, you’ll find out how much you are eternally hated and conditionally loved and thoroughly envied, based on the evidence of your passport.

You’ll find out what you need to know to be an honest citizen of your own country, patriotic or not, partisan or non-partisan, active or passive. And you’ll understand in your survivor’s heart that it’s best not to worry too much about making the world better. Worry about not making it worse.

When you come back home, it’s never quite all the way, and only your dog will recognize you.

Bad Blogger!

I was a really, really bad blogger last month. I posted on the first of April and then I had two pre-done posts that went up and that was it. I'd love to blame it on my one week houseguest, but he visited the week of my birthday. I'd love to blame it on Project 365m but I was just as crappy at updating my pictures (though I did keep on taking them.) In all honesty, I can blame it only on one thing and that's my obsession with the West Wing. I somehow stumbled across West Wing fan fiction and read. Quite a bit. I had never even heard of fan fiction before, really, and it's interesting to see what exactly it entails (I wasn't going to admit to this on the Internet and there I've gone and done it). Anyway, I'm over the obsession (mostly because I seem to have exhausted CJ-centric stories) and back to blogging - I hope, anyway. Since I have all those photos of what happened every single day of April, I am going back and adding them into my blog, some with fairly long write-ups on what I've been up to. Feel free to scroll down if you're interested.

I've been at home all day recouperating, so the sum total of my day was as follows: wake up, read. Make some hot chocolate. Read some more. Watch 27 Dresses (meh). Watch a bunch of TV online. Periodically check Facebook for entertainment. Convince Sharlene to come over to amuse me. Have drunken conversation with TOT and Jefe, who were down in Songtan at a hash that was actually a pub crawl. Make toast and tea. Taste test the Easy Cheese Samantha dropped off for me (along with wheat thins, really good cheese and dill pickle chips, because she is a rockstar!). Salty. Sharlene leaves, I start blogging while watching more TV. I had this idea that I could catch up on an entire month, but I'm sleepy and so I'll have to finish the rest of April tomorrow.