Flashback 2003. When I made the decision to move to the South Pacific to do some development work on an archipelagan paradise, and decompress from the madness of life in Southern California I thought that things would be the same when I returned. Because I was from Southern California I thought I would be able just drop back into my scene, my life as I knew it, just two years later. I never expected to experience all that I did and be able to sort things out to the point of having life make sense. Seeing the world has been mind blowing, and living in another is culture a real trip. It has been four years now since I left the US and in the last 4 years I have only existed in the US for 7 months for short periods on four separate occasions. 9 October 2007 was the anniversary of my departure from the normal, the routine, the glib, and all other things I took for granted. If my travels broaden my perspective anymore there will be a canyon where my head once was. I do know one thing and that is that I do not cherish the good memories enough and I let the head splitting ones get into the way...Not anymore...
I am gonna let go of the notion that my life is anything but normal and routine. I kind of do mis that little place where I had goals, thought about what was next, knew the path I was on, where I was going, and what I was doing. Life abroad has had some of those moments, but they have been all to brief. The Pacific Islands were everything I expected and more. When I arrived the first time it scared the hell out of me, when I arrived the second time it was like I never left. I recall saying on many occasions that I was privileged to say "I get to call this work." There were difficult times and times it seemed like the sweetest dream that I did not want to wake up from--I guess adaptation to ones environment is possible. When I went back the second time to my idyllic world in the Pacific I was on a two week holiday that turned into a one year adventure I will never forget.
Now I find myself in Korea and another environment to adjust to and everything is just dandy... Sorry, old habits are hard to break. ;-) Seriously, I have good days and bad ones and the last 24 hours have been a kind of hellish. I am not a good sick person, I live on rushes of adrenaline that come from experiences and when something robs me of my fix of it, like a stomach ache (or the pit in ones stomach that one gets when they just did something stupid), then I just need down time, then the down time turns into an introspective acid trip (Not that I have ever tried acid mom, Honest.) that makes me want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head and turn the world around me off.
The sun is rising and in about an hour I'll get to get my morning cup of goodness from Dunkin Donuts. It is other ritual in my life that I fear the day will come when I will arrive in a foreign country only to find that I forgot to pack emergency rations and Juan Valdez is nowhere to be found. About two minutes ago a thought hit me, things can change in a day. I am a writer, but I usually write my updates in email form and force them on unsuspecting readers whose address was in my contact database, but blogging is different. It's is my world, my oyster, my sushi and you have a choice as to when and if you peek into the window of my world so excuse me if I say what's on my mind, this is my world after all. ;-) Just be gentle with me if you respond cause I am not in my comfort zone yet here.
Thank you for reading though, no seriously, thanks for reading. Tonight is Thursday and I am gonna go out with some of my Korean friends and have some fun that might include increasing my collection of random things that come out of the yellow machine. Seriously, I am not so sure it is the yellow machine as much as it is the fun of loitering outside a seven eleven while playing the yellow machine that is the bigger rush. I think it takes me back to a nostalgic place in high school in a bygone era where one could loiter outside a seven eleven in Southern California, up until the cops came. In Korea loitering anywheres but at home is a national pastime, houses are for sleeping and ones dong is for loitering. I know if I stay any longer in here without some good loitering time I am gonna go ballistic or is it postal? No, that is not it... It's, "I am gonna get cabin fever."
Over the weekend I will be all over Seoul like a bad habit. It has become a scene that I am liking more and more. I need to take more pictures of all the stuff that happens when I am there, but in this too I try to capture moments in some sort of facade and need to get to the brass tacks, and just be bold and take pictures with reckless abandonment.
I am gonna let go of the notion that my life is anything but normal and routine. I kind of do mis that little place where I had goals, thought about what was next, knew the path I was on, where I was going, and what I was doing. Life abroad has had some of those moments, but they have been all to brief. The Pacific Islands were everything I expected and more. When I arrived the first time it scared the hell out of me, when I arrived the second time it was like I never left. I recall saying on many occasions that I was privileged to say "I get to call this work." There were difficult times and times it seemed like the sweetest dream that I did not want to wake up from--I guess adaptation to ones environment is possible. When I went back the second time to my idyllic world in the Pacific I was on a two week holiday that turned into a one year adventure I will never forget.
Now I find myself in Korea and another environment to adjust to and everything is just dandy... Sorry, old habits are hard to break. ;-) Seriously, I have good days and bad ones and the last 24 hours have been a kind of hellish. I am not a good sick person, I live on rushes of adrenaline that come from experiences and when something robs me of my fix of it, like a stomach ache (or the pit in ones stomach that one gets when they just did something stupid), then I just need down time, then the down time turns into an introspective acid trip (Not that I have ever tried acid mom, Honest.) that makes me want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head and turn the world around me off.
The sun is rising and in about an hour I'll get to get my morning cup of goodness from Dunkin Donuts. It is other ritual in my life that I fear the day will come when I will arrive in a foreign country only to find that I forgot to pack emergency rations and Juan Valdez is nowhere to be found. About two minutes ago a thought hit me, things can change in a day. I am a writer, but I usually write my updates in email form and force them on unsuspecting readers whose address was in my contact database, but blogging is different. It's is my world, my oyster, my sushi and you have a choice as to when and if you peek into the window of my world so excuse me if I say what's on my mind, this is my world after all. ;-) Just be gentle with me if you respond cause I am not in my comfort zone yet here.
Thank you for reading though, no seriously, thanks for reading. Tonight is Thursday and I am gonna go out with some of my Korean friends and have some fun that might include increasing my collection of random things that come out of the yellow machine. Seriously, I am not so sure it is the yellow machine as much as it is the fun of loitering outside a seven eleven while playing the yellow machine that is the bigger rush. I think it takes me back to a nostalgic place in high school in a bygone era where one could loiter outside a seven eleven in Southern California, up until the cops came. In Korea loitering anywheres but at home is a national pastime, houses are for sleeping and ones dong is for loitering. I know if I stay any longer in here without some good loitering time I am gonna go ballistic or is it postal? No, that is not it... It's, "I am gonna get cabin fever."
Over the weekend I will be all over Seoul like a bad habit. It has become a scene that I am liking more and more. I need to take more pictures of all the stuff that happens when I am there, but in this too I try to capture moments in some sort of facade and need to get to the brass tacks, and just be bold and take pictures with reckless abandonment.
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