i have been getting lots of gifts. drinking too much every other night, i am taking tonight off and making tea with the ginseng. i decided to buy the strangest noodles i could find today in the grocery store. they were 'italian spaghetti'. it came with corn. the tomato sauce was soy based. i may make an artists book with this absurd amount of seaweed.



today i spent alot of time talking with some friends back home (thanks, skype). and have been having difficulties sleeping, so i had a video chat a few days ago with my mom. and have been having difficulties sleeping, so i had a video chat a few days ago with my mom at 515am. it was nice to talk to people that i know well. i miss them. there are alot of good people here too. friday i met park again for dinner, then we went to his house to study. first i met him at his office. i walked out of the subway station and took guesses at who looked nice. then i would walk up to them. then i would say hello (in korean). then i would hold out park's business card. 'we're chinese, sorry.' then i would walk up to them. then i would say hello (in korean). 'are you looking for this man?' it sounded sinister. i am glad i dont carry weapons. 'yes' 'he is in that building over there, on the 11th floor' 'thanks'


view from park jin-woo's office

at his home his wife was kind, but knew no english, so i just kept saying thank you (in korean) over. and over. and over. i felt like a foreigner. his children, after 15 minutes, came out to look at me. they just looked at me. after 15 minutes. they didn't have an expression on their face. i think i sounded like a hairy fool mis-pronouncing basic korean.

i am the kind foreigner. i know. i have been told. teachers at school say this to each other in korean. i get a report from one of my co-teachers. i thought of my friend iwan who had some limited english when i first met him. everyone thought he was very nice. he would smile and be kind. i am the same way. i am also polite to women. there is a small walkway in the teacher's office that two people cannot go use at the same time. i deferred to one of the teachers. she and one of my co-teachers looked at each other and laughed after.

'should i have barreled her over?'
'no, you are just very polite. it was nice of you'

i have a project that i started when i was in the united states of america. it is not finished. it was put on hold when i had to get a new computer and the software i use wouldnt transfer. i dont like the linux programs, largely because i am not comfortable with them. im already learning a foreign, very foreign language. that is enough. however i will eventually get paid. these are some of the signs i will use.







i brought the following books to read:
diderot 'jacques the fatalist'
beckett 'the complete short prose'
wittgenstein 'philosophical investigations'
douglas 'purity and danger'
williams 'pictures from brueghel'
derrida 'glas'
lendler 'crisis and political beliefs'
dostoyevsky 'the idiot'
dostoyevsky 'the devils'
sachs 'the man who mistook his wife for a hat'
acker 'great expectations'
brathwaite 'trench town rock'
fitterman 'metropolis 16-29'

help me decided what to read first