Stream of Consciousness Part II

      So I apologize for the delay in writing. Sometimes I feel compelled to write and ideas flow freely. Other times, interesting events happen and stories beg to be told. And then there are times when school is cancelled on a Monday because of a typhoon and you're excited about your 4 day week only to realize it has been the longest week of your life. There was no particular reason why; it wasn't overly chaotic (at least no more than the usual standard set by Korean life) or overly difficult. Time just apparently slowed to an almost complete halt.

     While looking for anything positive, I discovered that if I survive the current week, next week the Republic of Korea will celebrate the holiday known as Chuseok. It's basically the "great middle of autumn" festival that takes place over 3 days. Much more on this later but I am looking forward to a 5 day weekend and only 2 work days in the upcoming week. I can't foresee any way that it'd be possible to draw this week out as long as the last. My only obstacle will be Monday morning when I have my first Parent/Teacher Meeting with the mothers of my two three four five students (my class has grown by 250%). This minor hurdle is of no concern to me and will be done by the time you read this.

     With nothing else of noteworthy importance to report, I'll leave you with my second stream of consciousness writing. Enjoy.

     Back home I was a terrible sleeper. I've never been able to fall asleep when I wanted or needed to and I've never entirely slept through a night. Upon arriving in Korea, I was actually sleeping great for the first time that I can remember. That has stopped now. I'm back to staying up way too late and waking up way too early. And if that isn't tough enough, I probably wake up 5 to 10 times each night. The only interesting thing to this affliction is that I have and can remember all of my dreams in an incredibly lucid fashion. So here's the interesting part – my dreams have now incorporated Korean life in them. The people and places are slowly become part of my subconscious. I'd imagine it's due to the constant exposure to it and the lack of exposure to anyone and anything from the life I once knew. I'm sure Freud would be able to offer insight to the current state of my ego, super-ego, and id through this new dreaming pattern.

     As for my ever-growing list of things that I miss that I've been compiling (of which I'm sure I'll eventually write out on here), I'd like to add the (good) local art and artists of southern Louisiana. The young, dirty, contemporary artists that struggle each day; those who you'd never know unless you knew them. One who I'm genuinely intrigued by is Adam Montegut. I highly suggest you keep up with him via his blog and you'd be insane to live anywhere in the realm of New Orleans and let anyone else tattoo you. For some reason, I'm particularly fond of this blog post of his.

     Finally, I enjoy random late night jogs through an arboretum near my apartment. It's the closest place to run my toes through grass, sit under a tree, and listen to the trickle of flowing water.