things

i'm going to do this before i forget.

Things i want to write about include:

-the veiled women in a royal procession, depicted in a ceramic painting i saw along the cheonggyecheon river.
-Korean food, potentially as an analogy for Korean people/ relationships in Korea. Also about how my relationship with food is so different here than at home.
-Korean television and its complete lack of subtlety.
-a dance off I witnessed outside of the Doota shopping center in dongdaemun, between a hot shot Korean boy, a shy mushroom-haircut sporting middle school girl who turned out to be Beyonce in disguise, and a Korean version of Little Miss Sunshine
-my host family in Jeonju
-the way that duty appeals to me, and how thats part of the appeal of Korea
-digital records as a replacement for actual experience
-masculinity, about my friends Zac and Tyler, an old man I met on the subway, two brothers i met on new years eve, and a night in Itaewon.
-an entry to go with the masculinity entry, about femininity specifically regarding myself, high heels, fabric in the 이대 clothing stalls, and Misdua.
-trepidation and preliminary justifications for my involvement in Misuda

Unfortunately I've been preposterously busy and I haven't had time to write anything but diary-esque journal entries in my paper journal. hopefully i can get through a few of those this week, before a million more ideas arise and i have even less time to write them.

Korea is like that, 빨리빨리... blink twice and everything changes.

I guess the best I have to offer is an anecdote from today. I was getting home from Youido around 7, with Vickie (another Misuda girl.) We stopped in 이대역 to watch some random zongo clown performing an act with balloons. He wasn't begging, just performing. He said "hello" to us in English when we walked up - we were the only foreigners in the crowd and it made everyone laugh. He embarrassed the crap out of these middle school girls, making them hats and swords and forcing them to dance, before he turned his attention to me.

he was making this double helix balloon with two little balloon balls in it and i had a feeling i would end up with it if i waited around for a minute. Sure enough, within 30 seconds of that thought he asks me to come over and be part of the act.

Eventually, I ended up in a gorilla mask, doing a sexy dance and confirming that yes, i actually already appear on Misuda, thank you for suggesting that I do that, you advice-giving clown.

And Vickie said, "That's Korea."

She's pretty right.