I, find that I, a somewhat shy American, am a bit of a paradox here.

Well Anyways, I think it important to assimilate as much as possible when adventuring in a cultural experience. For me, simply put, this has become something like a desire for “walking in another man’s shoes”.

Well anyways, …If a fork finds my hand, I find it’s usefulness lacking. It seems chopsticks are much more a natural extension of my hands. Much more; handy. There is no “cleaning” my plate, -no, Finish your food!... because, well,… I have no plate. All plates of food are communal. I find myself struggling to come terms to with the idea that my appetite has somehow become more communal. That, in fact, my desires themselves should or are becoming much more collective just as my plate has..

Ironically, here, cooking fried green tomatoes.

...It is quite tacky to try and split of a bill when eating out(at least in the deep countryside..be reminded there is a difference in Seoul and a town without a grocery store). During summer camp-, we cook for each other or we buy each other dinner. And so, I find myself frying green tomatoes and assembling bacon lettuce and tomato between pieces of bread. Not the best. But they are blown away that a young single male would even attempt to a cook. Males, can be quite useless other than the work place, until they get kicked out. But, well, they don’t get kicked out, and that’s just dandy. Only,…… the allure of a woman would take them from their mother’s care. (p.s. American men are just as useless) seems to be a global problem…:)

There is a lot I could say, there is a while since I’ve written. I can say things like …. I Experienced new things, I rode an ostrich, I went on to a snowboarding resort for Christmas, I experienced acupuncture, ate larvae’s and king crabs, sipped mudfish soup and congealed cow blood brews, I lived quite alone and peacefully, I experienced the big city, I rode trains, subways, and buses; I learned to travel communally.., I sang karaoke with complete strangers, and got naked at the public bathhouse, I gave my seat up to an elder always, and experienced their kindness and smiles,…. I gazed at the mountains.


I laughed with doctors, drank with teachers, lived life with foreigners, taught children, rode next to train conductors, and sang with businessman.

…I learned that occupations mean everything and yet nothing.

Little did I know, I hadn’t quite learned either in the u.s…

….And it can seem quite impressive or that ive accomplished quite a bit. But, honestly; surely, the biggest changes and accomplishments, has been me, almost daily, in a classroom full of children, interacting, trying to find a way to give them what I can, always…. And them, surprisingly enough, them teaching me how to grow out of my own childishness.


It’s January now. The last time I had this much time off work, I was a teenager,… I am reminded that people are capable of things other than work.
.. It is the coldest winter I have ever experienced. Unlike the southern U.S. it is consistently cold. Even being surrounded by mountains whose grace shows best in the snow…I’m longing for the spring and warmth.

..Yep…,

i said it before, and i'll say it again, life moves by pretty fast; you don't stop and look around every once in a while- you could miss it- Ferris Bueller