Guilt Refusal

I have to admit that I often feel a sense of obligation to this thing and a weird lingering guilt because I don't update it very often. Of course I then remember that no one else is writing anything for me to read and I instantly feel better. And of course, come on, how many people are actually reading this thing. It 's much easier to be someone's friend when you are around them and I'm not around too many people at the moment.

Today is Sunday and I had big plans going into this weekend (I'm sure when Geisler makes my blog required reading in his English class he'll point out this is an example of foreshadowing or something). By the way, Matt, thanks for keeping in touch with me,... Jackass (he can also point out this example of sarcasm). Anyways I haven't done too much exploring of town yet and had decided that Saturday would be the day. Unfortunately it rained and instead I sat around the hotel, but you have to take your excitement where you can get it, so on Saturday I made the big move from the hotel off base to the hotel on base. So far I have to admit I liked the one off base a little better. It was dumpy and it gave my life that "I'm somewhere weird" quality, the new one is typical of any American hotel right down to the too-much-bleach-in-the-linen smell.



Rain can stop you from doing the good things but it can't stop you from doing the dumb things, so instead of going into town I went to the "mall" otherwise known as the base exchange. Sometimes there is a really weird juxtaposition living on a military facility. I'm walking through the mall and seemingly out of nowhere I end up walking next to these Army guys absolutely fully loaded for combat; body armour, gas masks, machine guns, and every type of ammunition belt you can think of at the ready. Being new and not wanting to be a smartass prevented me from speaking but I really wanted to say "shouldn't you take a break from playing war, I mean come on, you're in the mall". Worlds seem to be colliding and it just doesn't seem right.

One thing I've come to discover about Korea is that it is obnoxiously air conditioned. We're just getting out of "monsoon" season, and I say this guardedly not wanting to offend any South Asian or Southeast Asian reader who would scoff at calling what happens here a monsoon. Anyways it's a bit hot and somewhat humid, ... outside; step into a building and OH MY! it's like stepping into a meat locker. The other day I went with a Korean house inspector out to my future apartment and quite against the norm, it was a beautiful day; warm and dry with a nice breeze. I get into the passenger's side of the truck, sit down, roll down the window and begin to feel free. He gets into the driver's side, flips the a/c to max and turns the blower to hell-hast-no-fury mode. Within seconds my eyes were drying up and my skin was cracking, but what was I going to do? it's his country. Suddenly.... I notice the vent controls and deceptively try to close the vent; deception of course was futile. He whipped into action and asked if it was too cold, let me tell you I was on those words like a car on dirt. I gave the straight honest answer of yes. Some kind of compromise was come to with the a/c reduced but without the open windows I craved. My feelings on the subject are this. Evidently Korea was a pretty ripped apart place after the Korean War and Koreans have done an amazing amount of work in the last 60 years. They've worked hard and now want to enjoy the good things that come along with it, like air conditioning. Therefore they use it, ... a lot, probably too much. It's probably just human nature. The same with driving, there are cars flying around here everywhere (sorry Joey, Hyundai is king; Daewoo not so much). They haven't gotten to the point of too much being a bad thing yet. When I got home from PNG a wanted a video game system, so I brought one. I then spent a whole summer playing the thing. Eventually I asked myself why do I keep playing this damn thing. There was no good answer.

Much like the way a piece of music can instantly bring you back to a different time and place, a good story can bring back memories of another story. I have two classic a/c stories from my days in PNG, unfortunately you are about to get the lesser of the two. The other involves two air conditioners, three ceiling fans, a conference room and one Joey Rios. My feelings now are that there will undoubtedly be a better time for that story. I consider it one of my greatest moments, a sublime moment of quiet rebellion, a quality I feel amongst the most important to possess. Your story concerns Peace Corps PNG group 29's first midservice conference at the Kohai lodge in Port Moresby, one of the most nasty hot/humid places on earth. Not being on one of the more remote less transportationally gifted islands, meant I arrived later than most. There was huge excitement in the air as we had finally broken away from each other and spent the last 3 months scattered about at our respective schools. Finding out what had happened to whom, who was still around, who had cut ship back to the states and just seeing the faces of your friends again created a moment of intensity. It's hard for me to accurately describe it especially in today's world of cell phones, instant messaging, and the crappidy-crap that is sure to come. Believe me it was HUGE. Rumors of people leaving were everywhere and we had a pool going as to who would be the first to go (of course I picked the guy who is probably still there).

I really should farm out some work to my Peace Corps friends and have them describe to you some of the characters we had in our group, "The Murph" stories are worth an entire blog themselves. Anyways I get to the Kohai (wait first a description of the Kohai). It was like a big house someone added on to, fixed up and made into a hotel of sorts. It was actually pretty scuzzy, in fact they at first didn't want the girls to stay there. If you wanted to be awakened in the night by the sexual overtures of random New Guineans it was your place. It was mostly oppressively hot with unbelievably uncomfortable mattresses, but we still loved it. We loved it because it was run by a bunch of young guys who let us do whatever we wanted. [As an aside, I saw one of the greatest ever science fiction movies during this stay, it had some guy running around with a forever loading, weapon of death shotgun (chik-chik)]. After getting there I learned I was assigned to one of the crappy rooms which didn't sit well until I learned it didn't really matter because there was a huge sleep over in the super big "luxury" sweet at the end of the hall, this place had a TV AND an a/c! Man we had the greatest time telling our stories and laughing away amidst the intense sugar rush one impugns on one's self in such a circumstance. And if that wasn't enough, one of the defining moments of my TV viewing life was about to envelop me; a true love was born and it's name was MTV Asia. It all may sound like too much to you, but go spend some time where we spent some time; the truth will then be upon you. To be around females wearing what is in essence maternity dresses month after month somewhat warps the brain. When a warped brain encounters "Living La Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin, once again, WORLDS COLLIDE. You don't know what to do, you're transfixed and the best you can do verbally is "Oh My!"

Eventually all good things must end and sleep is all that's left. The a/c is set to maximum blast and we all strove off to sleep. Soon the difficulties of our decisions surrounded us and there was no way the substandard sheets we were using could cope. It became unbelievable cold and unbelievable dry. The answer was simple, but this was a time we were all trapped between a state of hopefulness and reality. We all hoped we could just lay there half asleep and somehow mentally warm ourselves when reality called for someone to actually get up and turn the thing off. It was so bad I think even Joey Rios woke up miserable (this is saying something, Joey claims to be naturally warmer than everyone. There seems to be some truth in this claim, mosquitoes tend to ignore everyone else nearby and attack only him. Check the comments section below, he will surely have something to say).


Today was the first day of class here in Korea; quite a day in it's own way. It's been a loooong time since I really taught, I don't count subbing and I really can't count my last weary days at St. Cat's (some of you know this to be true). First day of school sounds like a great blog posting, but I don't have anything left so I'll wait a couple of days and go for the First Week of School posting.


Note: the making of this entry was spread over two days. A cheap shot was taken at Geisler early in the post. I'm happy to report I received an email from him today and thus my words ring a bit hollow. It has been left as written in the name of honesty.