Saturday, September 8, 2012

Routine vs Interaction vs Experimentation


       As of one month in, I can't help but to reflect on the time spent here and assess this new life that I live. Things have become routine now as far as physical activities go. Wake up, listen to music (often genres and bands that I took for granted back home because they were always playing the background – The Subdudes, Tommy Malone, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Pat Green), put on a pot of tea, cook breakfast, play guitar, break a sweat while walking to school, teach, eat, teach, eat, teach, eat, walk to the gym, workout, walk home, repeat the morning's activities of music, tea, cooking, and guitar, then lay down only to repeat them all each subsequent day. The weekends offer reprieve from the monotonous weekdays but the fear of stimulation beginning to fade is no concern of mine. I still haven't even begun to dissect all of the culinary possibilities restaurants offer, late night jogs clear my mind, and live music offers aural pleasure in the company of others.
      The companionship of other foreigners also provides rousing opportunities of education and entertainment. I'm still curious as to what one's reasoning could be for moving to the other side of the globe. To leave everything and everyone behind is no easy feat. But we all did it, so why? Was it financial reasons? To run away from something? To delay the office job in a cubicle after college? I know my reasoning but there must be some common denominator between us.
      It merely took one month for communications from back home to slow to a near halt leaving me looking at these foreigners in almost a sociological experiment kind of way. I'm interested in continuing my education of Korean culture but that will require perpetual efforts; with foreigners however, I am infinitely entertained learning how different we are. Not only on a macro scale as in the cities, states, and regions of America we hail from but on a micro level as well (religious affiliation, personal mantras, behavior, habits, beliefs). It's extremely fascinating to say the least, and I'm appreciative of it. Sometimes it feels almost a little too experimental as if setting out to discover what it is that makes us 'human' but then I think about “Dark City,” an absolutely brilliant noir masterpiece of epic cinematic failure, and I'm OK with it (this move was "Inception" before "Inception" was "Inception"). Where the movie failed though, I will try to make sense of it all. Maybe my two month anniversary post will reveal some answers.

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