Lazy Saturdays, and a correction

I'm sure my thousands of readers were in a panic when they loyally read over that last post and realized that I had linked to the wrong article. Here's an article on yellow dust:

Click me!

One of the things I like most about living in Korea is the fact that I have an actual weekend. For the past 5 years or so I was usually working on the weekends and going to school during the week (or sometimes working during the week and on the weekends). I had days off of course...too many...but it was really rare that I had a Saturday and a Sunday off sequentially. It's a refreshing taste of normality here in the land of perverse calm.

I went to the Goose Goose last night, like most Fridays. It was slow and kinda boring, and most of my crew ducked out after a coupla hours to look for a dance club. I stayed a little longer because I was sitting with this group of Koreans that Joe knew somehow. I was 'invited' to sit down when one of them came over to where I was sitting and grabbed my arm, and then dragged me over to his table. This is something Korean men do a lot, especially when they can't speak English. Strangers have poked, jabbed, prodded, grabbed, caressed and stabbed me more in the past 6/7 weeks here than in a lifetime back home. There just aren't the same restrictions about physical contact here that we have America...there's no real 'bubble' space. It can be frustrating sometimes, especially when people bump into you on the street and keep walking, oblivious, or when drunken Korean men want to communicate with you through their milfish wife who keeps caressing your leg, but...you get used to it.

About the caressing, or, petting, if you will. I've been 'petted' a lot here, usually by children but maybe once or twice by an adult. It's the arm hair. Koreans are absolutely fascinated by it. Even by western standards I'm a pretty hairy guy, and out here I'm a fucking freak. My preschool kids love to pet my arm when they think I won't notice. I'll be standing in an elevator amid a dozen or so young'uns, minding my own business, when suddenly I'll feel a gentle touch on my arm and I'll look down and Min-Ji or Hyun-Ah will be stroking my arm hair like I'm a frikkin cat.

The leg hair is even more interesting. I haven't worn shorts yet b/c it's been cold and I can't wear them to work, anyway. But one time at work while the kids were eating, I think, I had to scratch my knee or something so I pulled up my pant leg to do it. The room, which had been filled with quiet Korean chatter, fell silent. There was a gasp or two. I looked up. Mouths agape. Eyes wide. After a few moments of contemplation the kids started to whisper to each other. This is how I came to be known as 'King Kong' teacher.

At a dinner one time I was talking on this exact same subject, and pulled my pant leg up again to demonstrate. The Korean adults had the same response, only without the impolite whispering.

In other news, I read Bob Dylan's Chronicles. I brought it with me, and started it on the plane ride over here, actually, but I couldn't really get into it. I guess I had other things on my mind then. But it's an amazing book. The other night I picked it up and I was finished the next day. I'm a complete Dylan homer, I think he's a genius, so you can't really trust me to be bias-less, here, but...it was really good. I'm still trying to finish The Brothers Karamazov. I'm about 3/4 through, but it's not exactly a light read.

Life continues.