這亡兵紀念日是下大雨的。現在的天氣適於我現在的感情。外家家人不來到BBQ。 因此，今天纔是另一個不活潑天。每一四天前之來，天氣很好。。。都終於是比如夏天。冬天鬱生春天欣！ 我感情每一年如此變呀！
起床及此刻，只寫到通布拉龢這裡。 我也做完了二、三戲算獨（數字方塊）。還找不到數獨書啦！ e.e
呵！ 天氣霽了。 881
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
The high that I had mentioned in my blog post of yesterweek more than just dissipated. It was arrested in its dissipation and completely destroyed. Terminated.
At least some people's lives are gaining momentum. North Koreans who defected to the South are taking a bold, albeit very risky, approach to the quagmiric conundrum that is North Korea's elite. This comes especially after fresh allegations that the inimical North torpedoed South Korean naval craft.
I mean, how far will the North's pride go? Will they want these newly out-and-relatively-proud defectors to return to Dear Leader? If so, what will he brazenly do in attempts to "reherd" these "lost sheep" for either their sentencing to eternal labor or their immediate slaughter at the abattoir. (That is not to deny that North Korea in itself is an existential abattoir.)
Ms. Choi's brother-in-law is already imprisoned, and her father and sister have already been followed. Has this audacity to come out at such an inopportune time cost their cross-border family members? Will they be branded on the forehead with the word "leverage"?
Disclaimer's Note: Despite the allusions to farm life and the animal metaphors, my intent is in no way to suggest that the North Korean people are any more animals than we are.
At least some people's lives are gaining momentum. North Koreans who defected to the South are taking a bold, albeit very risky, approach to the quagmiric conundrum that is North Korea's elite. This comes especially after fresh allegations that the inimical North torpedoed South Korean naval craft.
I mean, how far will the North's pride go? Will they want these newly out-and-relatively-proud defectors to return to Dear Leader? If so, what will he brazenly do in attempts to "reherd" these "lost sheep" for either their sentencing to eternal labor or their immediate slaughter at the abattoir. (That is not to deny that North Korea in itself is an existential abattoir.)
Ms. Choi's brother-in-law is already imprisoned, and her father and sister have already been followed. Has this audacity to come out at such an inopportune time cost their cross-border family members? Will they be branded on the forehead with the word "leverage"?
Disclaimer's Note: Despite the allusions to farm life and the animal metaphors, my intent is in no way to suggest that the North Korean people are any more animals than we are.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Even though Assbook is the cause of my abysmal decline in the fluxion rate of visitors stumbling upon my blog, many from around the world still seem to be stumbling upon it. Though bereaved of memories of much of my past I may have been, I still have my random, anonymous visitors. Kept down I was not; got back up again I did. /clausal inversions
Combo-breaking the kiiiing combo of obnoxiously cold weather is today's gorgeous weather, which was just de-gorgeoused a little by these clouds that are pregnant with rain. 6:45 p.m. now looks like 6:45 a.m. This high is rapidly dissipating, and I'm still left dithering among this smorgasbord of potential opportunities.
Combo-breaking the kiiiing combo of obnoxiously cold weather is today's gorgeous weather, which was just de-gorgeoused a little by these clouds that are pregnant with rain. 6:45 p.m. now looks like 6:45 a.m. This high is rapidly dissipating, and I'm still left dithering among this smorgasbord of potential opportunities.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Every year, I provide a synopsis of the year that preceded the current one. I am nearly three-and-a-half months tardy in doing this for the year of 2009. Here goes an attempt at completing this during my all-nighter #238429847329483279328 in Rock 'N Roll McDonald's, accompanied by Sarah Brightman, different renditions of Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, my favorite YouTube videos, and the occasional good song from the overhead speakers.
January
Being seemingly the only Hagwon open up through the hour that marked the beginning of the New Year, the official countdown and the convivial exchange of greetings. Evan, Robert, and I met together to go to Hongdae and make a night of the rest of the arctic night which brought us into the New Year. After eventually connecting with other friends and their companies that they kept, all was well...until two days afterward, which consisted of a night of gyration, false-courting, and not least, imbibition--mainly in Hyehwa, but not without a brief appearance in Shitaewon. That night, post- {KFC, beer, heterosexual toe-dipping in the Red Sea of bi-curiosity via douchebaggery, the alluded to douchebag threatening violence against my female friend and his due propulsion from the bar, verbal and physical fights brewing which resulted in someone having been Zsa-Zsaed by me, and rather vituperative words for one among our group of friends}, there was multilateral tension which lasted for what seemed like quite a while.
January was also the month to absquatulate. Having been in Korea for 10 months meant that it was time to utilize theten seven five paid days of which we teachers were actually able to take advantage on days of our choices. Iran having turned out to be a fail the first time around...was no closer to being a success the second time. Other names dropped included Pakistan (too cold in January), Taiwan (too proximal to Korea; there was a need for traveling a great distance away from Korea), Cuba (the travel alone would have taken two of the days), and a day or two prior to the date at which I was supposed to depart to Destination X: Egypt. After frequent visitation to the travel agent's office, meeting his world-renown sexy dancer of a brother, dining with him and his family in his home, and going out clubbing/wallflowering with him and his friends, Egypt was the agreed upon place to visit. This was decided on the same day that the ticket was purchased--the day before departure. My friend Evan was awesome enough to care for my bunny, since the veterinarian's office turned her away on the grounds of cheesy feces. I was escorted to the airport in one of the sweet fruits of his labor.
Let me state that there is a word that begins with a 'c' that I associate with some of the helminths(?) who give trip advice online. The trip to Egypt was neither the best nor worst journey on which I've embarked, but I do wish that the little cajoler Amro (unfortunately not Amro Diab) would have at least hit it before having been quit for his rather chicanerous ways. Despite the problems, I was seconds away from unleashing a dam of...a tear or four as the plane was about to take off in the Caironian skies; touching Seoul land was even more affecting and had me feel the vacuity.
February
The aforesaid vacuity was filled by a social spurt during this month. This month was marked by a birthday party in Wangsimni, a ski/snowboarding trip which put on display my lack of any coordinate precocity whatsoever, a no-cost Valentine's Day outing --being a single lady, I merely had to put my hands up in song (i.e.karaoke 노래방)--of sorts, a nocturnal retreat to the fish market, and a farewell party which coincided with mah barthday. Then again, so too was it marked by a highly vexing move across the street (for a fortnight at the longest!) into a claustrophobic-friendly, discommodious room devoid of internet access and full of hydraulic fail, and what others classified as a "panic attack", which peaked after having taught my last class--and left me rather debilitated, averse to aliment of any sort, that night and for a great part of my coming-of-age day that followed. Fortunately, this transpired in the presence of others (as opposed to happening in said discommodious temporary box in Seoul)...at the cost of there being too many of those others. Thank you nonetheless to those who helped me through the still unexplainable "panic attack".
Come to think of it, it must have come from the last-minute stress that came from not knowing how I'd economically ship the sixty billion or so boxes that I had...back to America (without squandering money at FedEx).
March
The first of this month would have been the more a propos time for a panic attack, for my box of a temporary living arrangement had still been laden with books, boxes (packed and unpacked), and plenteous tidbits which I knew would not be accompanying me back to my dreaded "home"land. Having been debilitated the day (Saturday) before, and having a 7:30-or-so departure time for a company-paid trans-Pacific flight the next morning, FedEx was the pis aller on a Sunday night (and day). Auf Wiedersehen @ $800, nfp--and that was after having left behind quite a few not-quite-cherishables-but-not-dispensables. A cherishable that did come with me was my bunny ویژه , and she made it safely back to the United States (being approximately three months old).
No comment on the rather rude graveyard-shift Korean workers at FedEx who, I believe, lost one of my boxes.
After (and much before, to be frank) the aerial view of snow-sheathed Chicagoland--and after the pre-landing airline weather report, I knew that nothing good would come out of setting foot on Chicago turf. Setting foot on Chicago turf verily did no good; it catalyzed a string of complications. The wad of uselessness that were the Korean bank checks left me to rely on the relatively scant amount of Korean won cash to fund my not inexpensive ride from the airport to the suburbs, after which I had a rather measly amount to use on the necessities at Target. Consequently, a rather domesticated life ensued, which in turn catalyzed my delve into Chinese grammar. I also was introduced to Plurk during this month.
April
Most of this month comprised my continuance of learning Chinese grammar and marathoning against time to catch up and move on with the ABC soaps--mind you, this was catching up on three months' worth of episodes for two shows. Parallel especially with my seemingly intense Chinese training and conditioning was my fluffing the social plexus I had already established on Plurk, more facilely done by the fact that I was one of the one Chinese-"comprehending" foreigners flapping my neophyticarms plurks around in a pool of and amongst (+ab- too)fab Taiwanese boys and men. Not very much else is recalled in regard to this month...other than soaring and dipping temperatures (but a steady dose of domestication).
May
With some of the Korean money having been remitted (much thanks to one of my true friends, Evan), May certainly was more positively charged. With the gradual incalescence came fiscally-derived enablement and an impetus to leap into the rather novel, including time investment in new shows such as The Tudors and Flight of the Conchords, and baking a chocolate cake for Mother's Day. Also featured in this month was the high school graduation of the youngest in this immediate family, and a visitation from--and outing with--one of my friends from Korea and his friend, which did not end on the best of notes...or on the most sober. What a slump for the beginning of a Chicago spring. At least my e-social standing on Plurk was on the rise?
June
2009 had a June? What a blackout. Based on my seemingly endless clicks on "Older Posts" on Facebook just now, June 2009 consisted mostly of playing Typing Maniac...on Facebook. Next. (Oh, I believe I started watching True Blood during this month, but that's nothing major, though not surprisingly memorable as my memory does tend to contain fragments of the most insignificant things ever.)
July
July was laden with setbacks. Ecstatic I was to introduce the family to the Mojito (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), which surely makes for a refreshing drinkin the summer anytime. Unfortunately, everyone shared this oh-so-brilliant idea and had already stocked up accordingly on mint leaves. I had apparently missed out on the Mint Leave Consumption War, thus resorting to Smirnoff Ice and remnants of libations in the house. The Fourth of July was intempestively cool (a high of 72 degrees) and rainy. I didn't imbibe too much, because I still fared decently on my telephone interview the next morning (of course it had to be the next morning; the call was from Taiwan, so it was midnight there). A few days afterward, I was offered a position, which came attached with a five-day deadline to accept. Ready to spring the shit out of Chicago, I accepted on day two, and the all-too-familiar barrage of PDF files stormed my otherwise rather empty inbox.
Countering this recent PDF dump, I cannonballed the regional recruiter's and recruitment supervisor's inboxes with detailed emails packed with (necessary) questions and concerns. I was to arrive in Formosa (Taiwan) at the very beginning of August =D! Did this happen? No. D=
Remember my money basically being sequestered in Korea? Despite numerous attempts up to the last week prior to my departure date, this didn't change. Providentially, there was a friend still living in Korea, to whom I was able to resort to mailing my bank card. With a not-minuscule sum at risk via that plastic card in a FedEx envelope, waiting for its safe trans-Pacific transport seemed as if it had been one of the longest waits. Ever.
Just because the card arrived safely, that doesn't mean that the day--the departure day--was saved. Fortunately I was able to move my arrival date back by three weeks because of the need of an emergency training group (supposedly many from the previous training group were to be sent down the 'bad egg' chute). As such, July came to an end.
August
Vexatious times eventually took a turn for the amazing during this month. Succinctly put, I had quite the...first-hand experience with Citibank-more-like-Shittybank's logistics and outsourced staff. My money in Korea never was wired to my Shittybank account, which I totally should terminate. I still owe my friend Evan so much for enduring the setbacks Shittybank had only prolonged. Thanks to my mother, I purchased a plane ticket--with a mental promissory note to repay her.
I made it to Taiwan! The immigration lines were rather full for six-o-clock in the morning. Fortunately I had arrived safely; both my luggages did as well (one was not found on the conveyor belt until 20 minutes later). The airport chauffeur hadn't left yet, and I had been the second of three people to meet him. After the third (Kelly) arrived, we were driven to the hotel, but there were six hours to be squandered between then and our check-in time. With mid-August Taipei City's weather giving the Sahara Desert a run for its calefactory and dessicating reputation, one of those six hours was spent walking halfway up 吉林路 (Ji-lin Road); the other five were spent in the coffee shop attached to the hotel, marveling at being in Taiwan and being hit with the reality of the toilet paper-phobic toilets (Becca had known that it was indeed no myth, though).
Day One certainly wasn't bad at all, though it was rather inconveniencing that absolutely nothing seemed to be open within a four-block radius from the hotel...at least, it seemed this way for a hungry fatass like me at two-o-clock in the morning, wholly unfamiliar with the surroundings. I at least had a double room and private internet access-awesome!
Day Two's post-breakfast good morning consisted of me finding out that I do have a roommate; he had just arrived before the initial meeting. What was disheartening about this was the fact that we'd have to share a bathroom, which went much less than ideally at times. He was, however, a nice but inopportunely garrulous guy (I mean, he was British). We weren't as polar of opposites as Ozzy Osbourne and, say, Elizabeth Dole, but we related only in the way that we were to-be employees of the company--and that we shared a hotel room (for which there was only one shared key).
There were nine days of training, and each day was great, even though I was placed in Taipei County, while some of those who didn't mind their locations were placed in Taipei City. (I received my money via Western Union, thanks to Evan, on Day Three or Four!) It really was the most commendable training experience I had had though--of the three I've had. There were twenty of us, one of whomQuislinged was awesomely resourceful enough to take flight to another opportunity in Taiwan; there were many South Africans, a couple of British, and an adequate number of cutes ("studs" might be a little hyperbolic). After those nine days of caffeine addiction, 7:00 a.m.-or-earlier wake-up times (which ended up being near the time at which I had to wake up each morning when actually teaching), comforting health checks, arousing our bellicose natures, team planning, elucubration, mass maturational regression by a decade (or sometimes two), collecting little candies, quizzes, and gormandizing @ box lunches...we met our regional directors and celebrated our survival through nine days of training (and our last night in the same area of Taiwan until the follow-up training) through the most popular (and apparently traditional) way possible: karaoke (a.k.a. KTV in Taiwan).
My. I've already gone into
September
August did not end up being very succinct, but September certainly will be. September 3rd was the date when we parted for our respective branches; many stayed in different areas of Taipei, while some went to 高雄 (there are 2.38 x 102342 different orthographic ways to romanize this name) in the south, and 淡水 in the north (more northerly than Taipei). I moved into an nicely-located central apartment that was a block down from the hotel in which my training group had stayed. My co-workers were all nice, but I was very much missing those with whom I had trained. I taught kindergarten kids in the mornings (I loved them so much), and junior-to-middle-school students in the evenings...with an honors class on Saturday mornings. The students were great, but I was slowly growing accustomed to the one-and-a-half-day weekends, the relative lack of other foreign teachers (my branch was a rather small branch; I didn't very much relate to the part-time foreign teachers at my branch), and the relatively little amount of time I had outside from work. Becca came once a week, and I was grateful for at least having the opportunity to see her those times. (We saw Up with her friend during this month!)
Oh yes, there was also a trip to Yilan at the end of this month. Supposedly there was an amazing beach in Yilan, but the plans apparently had been changed before we arrived. We didn't know about this 45+-minute taxi ride we would have to take to the new location (an 'industrial beach' saturated with hot locals, but still, 45+-minutes), but we ended up having fun at the beach--and a near-débâcle getting back to Taipei for work the next morning. Fortunately everything turned out favorably.
October
Problems within the company were ebulliating for most of those with whom I had trained. This month was apparently Exodus back to America Month, for many had endured more than their shares of disillusionment, which unfortunately tainted their impressions of the entire country. (Actually, Exodus Month leaked into the beginning of November.) Fortunately, Becca introduced me to Jenna and her friends, which galvanized my previously waning social life and expanded my shrinking set of friends in Taipei. Work-wise, I officially was pulled out of the closet in which I had been placed only by my Taiwanese co-workers, but that contributed only an infinitesimal amount--if even--to the already (relatively latent), escalating-in-Richter scale earthquake that had been causing the ever-growing schism between the 補習班 (bǔxíbān; "cram school"/after-school "school") coworkers and me--everything at the kindergarten branch was going as amazingly as it could.
An added pressure was my having agreed to substitute teach a class at yet another branch for an entire month. Nine-to-nine 10:30 or even up to 11:30-days, yay awesome. D=== During the degradation of my already little life outside of work, my comforts lied within hopes for an eventful weekend (eventful= someone wanting to do something), food (Taiwan has great food, even though I nocturnally lived for Yoshinoya --and it for me, as I would be its only patron at midnight, one, or two in the morning), and Pine Vallley and Llanview via YouTube.
Also most definitely worth mentioning are my purchase of the Blackberry (with a trial contract that I canceled after a week) and the Halloween celebration. Halloween was on a Saturday, so it was celebrated on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 補習班; it was celebrated on Friday at kindergarten. The children's costumes at kindergarten were soso cuuuute! However, this holiday is very much child-oriented, for I had to purchase a random witch hat, a mask made for a masquerade, Halloween garland to snake around my frame, a pitchfork, and those string balloons for some sort of a devil's tail. Cheap fabulous monster? I don't know, but the kids' costumes looked amazing, and there was an eye shadow palette used for one of the students' costumes (a geisha) that I could find nowhere, despite the numerous cosmetic stores (they are numerous inTaiwan Asia) I ransacked in pursuit of it. The trick-or-treat event around the block was fun and entirely cute, and I was able to do it twice because of the class (last day!) for which I was a substitute. Good thing safety was a serious factor in this event, since children whose hats are blown off their heads--and toward traffic--tend to try and run toward the traffic to retrieve the hat, despite 238492749314731208 previous safety warnings and the teachers' human shield formed between the queue of students and the traffic. That was something for which we could anticipate and prepare, but the Halloween Grinchette totally surprise-attacked us. The children little saccharine fruits of the holiday festivities were being pilfered little by little by the Halloween Grinchette, a not-so-equilibrated geriatric who was nearly as short as the students. I would not have put it past the Taiwanese teacher to box the Grinchette's ears, but she didn't. The candy probably wasn't returned to the students, who wouldn't have taken them back anyway after having been in her "greasy paw", as many classic novels would oftimes put it.
That all transpired on Halloween Eve. Halloween Day, a Saturday, was also Gay Pride Day and the (second-to-)last day of my apartment contract, since I had opted not to renew the two-month contract whose length I deliberately set. Determined was I to go to the parade. The day started with me having assified myself by being in Halloween attire for my Halloween spiritless honor students. After that, I packed some more and was to meet my friend Ria near one of the areas by which the masses were going to pass. I did just that...after having canceled my contract and buying the$$$ 元元元 phone.
The rest of the day consisted of being acquainted with some of Ria's gay friends, passing the time with them in the designated finish line area for the parade (there was a purported output of 25,000 participants, maybe the totaled number of spectators and marchers), and meeting Jenna and her friends for dinner and imbibition in a familiar bar, where we of course had a great time.
November
November 1st was All Saints' Day, but Where-the-Shit-in-Taipei-am-I-to-Sojourn-Starting-Tomorrow Day for me. I was not to commit to staying for another several months in any place, because I was ready to leave my current employer but dithering with the dilemma of staying in Formosa or leaving and returning in the future. The next day, my boss had recommended a rental place to me, in which I was thankfully able to move that day: there were no windows, ventilation came through the opening in the small fan above the door, and there was only a pair of staircases flanked by an iron-gate security door. Never mind my having to transport my suitcases and bags of other accumulated goods up to the fourth floor by myself, because I appreciated that there was a vacancy period; it was also relatively (relatively) inexpensive to stay there.
Fortunately, I found a hostel in its nascency in Ximending, a rather popular area in Taipei City. What was amazing: I was the first and only guest during my sojourn there (up to the last day), which gave me unlimited access to the communal shower rooms; I had a choice amongst the three-to-six-bed rooms to share with only me; it was only 7000元 (about $200) for two weeks; it was very conveniently located in relation to my workplace; and it was always quiet (as was the apartment in which I had stayed). What was not-so-amazing: I was often too busy or exhausted to socialize with the owner for an extended amount of time; the rooms were not grand in size; the hot water was sporadic or there for literally a minute, which was sinking every benefit of the place.
Work-wise, I had decided to let myself be let go by my employer, rather than leave. I also agreed to work for them until the end of the month, so as to forgo the rather purse-lightening $600 contract termination fee. If only I could have continued teaching kindergarten whilst shedding the 補習班. I at least was fortunate enough to have worked with my kindergarten class on their upcoming Christmas play that I was not going to be able to see.
As Thanksgiving was coming up, I decided to return to America and return to Taiwan in the future. I said goodbye to my students, many of whom said that they would miss me. I nearly shed a tear with one of my 補習班 classes; I'm surprised that I didn't with my kindergarten class, especially after having been told "I love you", which was the cutest thing everrrrr.
After a Thanksgiving-like tree-decorating celebration and KTV with Jenna, Brendan, Joseph, Emily, Sasha, Lillian, Joseph's girlfriend, and the cat whose name I remember as much as Joseph's girlfriend's :/, a Thai dinner with Jenna, Brendan, and Emily, a gay bar run/visit to Jump, G-Star, and Café Dalida during my last weekend, a fail at finding another place to work and maintain my ARC status, a preparatory accumulation of cheap contact lenses, and a hectic day to the airport (FedEx Taiwan is awesome, by the way), I felt pangs of an immature farewell on my way to the airport in the taxi; they were especially coming from the sunny, 75-degree, latter-November weather. Why?
Well, it was 35-degrees at 11 p.m. in Chicago. Thankfully, my return from Taiwan wasn't as pecuniarily depressing as that from Korea. Salaries were distributed in cash (with reason), which were naturally exchangeable at the airport. However, the trillions of coins I had also carried with me were not exchangeable (thank you, God, for the coins only being a small portion of the money I had carried with me).
Thanksgiving also wasn't that great, and Black Friday found me inside--doing nothing. Wasting away into
December
December was a pretty vacuous month. I mostly e-mingled , but there was the Aqua Scare to my laptop, which a fellow online socializer so generously helped me fix. During this same weekend, I attended a band reunion party downtown, for which I had bought a new polka-dot top. It was great; my old band compeers were able to see how much I had changed for the good? bad? alcoholic? in the past several years. Staying downtown afterwardy , I apparently ventured in the characteristically wintry frigidity of the city to Subway before having ventured into the (wrong) 24-hour McDonald's with the attitudinal, stereotypical rotund black security guard. There should probably be a comma or two in there.
I returned the next day to my place of stay, to find that my laptop had indeed been saved by the isopropyl alcohol bath to which it had been subjected two days prior.
Christmas Eve was pleasantly busy. Iwas introduced introduced myself to the amazing store called Lush (with international stores, even in Kazakhstan!), an amazing handmade toiletries/cosmetics store whose aromatic dissipation could be nauseous at times and cathartic at other times. I bought some aromatic bath stones for my mother, and I bought gift cards for my brothers. Fortunately Christmas is not the time for mojitos, so I was finally able to purchase mint leaves (Dear Trader Joe's, you're awesome by the way), on which I ended up overstocking. White rum, however, was not as plenteous, to my distress. One bottle happened to suffice, and the price apparently hadn't been inflated. Loaded with shopping bags with gifts and supplies for my Mojito Christmas, and being overly unenthused to return back to my place of stay, I journeyed north. Several 7-11s and liquor stores (just to compare alcohol prices) later, I settled on El Souk, a Mediterranean restaurant, to quell my hunger pangs. Quell them its $11 shawarma meal did. The rest of the night was a wet, snowy/sleety night.
Christmas Day was less than ideal. My help in preparation, which was not considered help ended up being help after all. However, my introduction of mojitos (alcoholic and non-alcoholic, of course) to the family went rather splendidly, and they very much appreciated my cheesecake brownies. For the win.
After Christmas Day, I was able to spend time with my best friend from high school and his wife, for they were in town for the holidays. This definitely neutralized --even positivized--my December 26th, which was needed because of my having missed Lush's retail-shattering year-end sale downtown. ): The 26th was spent visiting an high school band friend at her house; the 27th consisted of some of us meeting at a bar, somewhat barhopping, and colliding with another band friend in the bar. Unfortunately those two days flew by, and the days after that--including New Year's Eve and New Year's Day--were as vacuous as those of the beginning of December. Festive they were not, and the new decade was brought in rather depressingly.
It apparently was a great indicator of how the rest of the year was to be, because it has thus far been as such.
-------------------------------------------------
It is April 22nd, and I'm just finishing this volume of procrastination.
Being seemingly the only Hagwon open up through the hour that marked the beginning of the New Year, the official countdown and the convivial exchange of greetings. Evan, Robert, and I met together to go to Hongdae and make a night of the rest of the arctic night which brought us into the New Year. After eventually connecting with other friends and their companies that they kept, all was well...until two days afterward, which consisted of a night of gyration, false-courting, and not least, imbibition--mainly in Hyehwa, but not without a brief appearance in Shitaewon. That night, post- {KFC, beer, heterosexual toe-dipping in the Red Sea of bi-curiosity via douchebaggery, the alluded to douchebag threatening violence against my female friend and his due propulsion from the bar, verbal and physical fights brewing which resulted in someone having been Zsa-Zsaed by me, and rather vituperative words for one among our group of friends}, there was multilateral tension which lasted for what seemed like quite a while.
January was also the month to absquatulate. Having been in Korea for 10 months meant that it was time to utilize the
Let me state that there is a word that begins with a 'c' that I associate with some of the helminths(?) who give trip advice online. The trip to Egypt was neither the best nor worst journey on which I've embarked, but I do wish that the little cajoler Amro (unfortunately not Amro Diab) would have at least hit it before having been quit for his rather chicanerous ways. Despite the problems, I was seconds away from unleashing a dam of...a tear or four as the plane was about to take off in the Caironian skies; touching Seoul land was even more affecting and had me feel the vacuity.
The aforesaid vacuity was filled by a social spurt during this month. This month was marked by a birthday party in Wangsimni, a ski/snowboarding trip which put on display my lack of any coordinate precocity whatsoever, a no-cost Valentine's Day outing --being a single lady, I merely had to put my hands up in song (i.e.
Come to think of it, it must have come from the last-minute stress that came from not knowing how I'd economically ship the sixty billion or so boxes that I had...back to America (without squandering money at FedEx).
The first of this month would have been the more a propos time for a panic attack, for my box of a temporary living arrangement had still been laden with books, boxes (packed and unpacked), and plenteous tidbits which I knew would not be accompanying me back to my dreaded "home"land. Having been debilitated the day (Saturday) before, and having a 7:30-or-so departure time for a company-paid trans-Pacific flight the next morning, FedEx was the pis aller on a Sunday night (and day). Auf Wiedersehen @ $800, nfp--and that was after having left behind quite a few not-quite-cherishables-but-not-dispensables. A cherishable that did come with me was my bunny ویژه , and she made it safely back to the United States (being approximately three months old).
After (and much before, to be frank) the aerial view of snow-sheathed Chicagoland--and after the pre-landing airline weather report, I knew that nothing good would come out of setting foot on Chicago turf. Setting foot on Chicago turf verily did no good; it catalyzed a string of complications. The wad of uselessness that were the Korean bank checks left me to rely on the relatively scant amount of Korean won cash to fund my not inexpensive ride from the airport to the suburbs, after which I had a rather measly amount to use on the necessities at Target. Consequently, a rather domesticated life ensued, which in turn catalyzed my delve into Chinese grammar. I also was introduced to Plurk during this month.
Most of this month comprised my continuance of learning Chinese grammar and marathoning against time to catch up and move on with the ABC soaps--mind you, this was catching up on three months' worth of episodes for two shows. Parallel especially with my seemingly intense Chinese training and conditioning was my fluffing the social plexus I had already established on Plurk, more facilely done by the fact that I was one of the one Chinese-"comprehending" foreigners flapping my neophytic
With some of the Korean money having been remitted (much thanks to one of my true friends, Evan), May certainly was more positively charged. With the gradual incalescence came fiscally-derived enablement and an impetus to leap into the rather novel, including time investment in new shows such as The Tudors and Flight of the Conchords, and baking a chocolate cake for Mother's Day. Also featured in this month was the high school graduation of the youngest in this immediate family, and a visitation from--and outing with--one of my friends from Korea and his friend, which did not end on the best of notes...or on the most sober. What a slump for the beginning of a Chicago spring. At least my e-social standing on Plurk was on the rise?
2009 had a June? What a blackout. Based on my seemingly endless clicks on "Older Posts" on Facebook just now, June 2009 consisted mostly of playing Typing Maniac...on Facebook. Next. (Oh, I believe I started watching True Blood during this month, but that's nothing major, though not surprisingly memorable as my memory does tend to contain fragments of the most insignificant things ever.)
July was laden with setbacks. Ecstatic I was to introduce the family to the Mojito (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), which surely makes for a refreshing drink
Countering this recent PDF dump, I cannonballed the regional recruiter's and recruitment supervisor's inboxes with detailed emails packed with (necessary) questions and concerns. I was to arrive in Formosa (Taiwan) at the very beginning of August =D! Did this happen? No. D=
Remember my money basically being sequestered in Korea? Despite numerous attempts up to the last week prior to my departure date, this didn't change. Providentially, there was a friend still living in Korea, to whom I was able to resort to mailing my bank card. With a not-minuscule sum at risk via that plastic card in a FedEx envelope, waiting for its safe trans-Pacific transport seemed as if it had been one of the longest waits. Ever.
Just because the card arrived safely, that doesn't mean that the day--the departure day--was saved. Fortunately I was able to move my arrival date back by three weeks because of the need of an emergency training group (supposedly many from the previous training group were to be sent down the 'bad egg' chute). As such, July came to an end.
Vexatious times eventually took a turn for the amazing during this month. Succinctly put, I had quite the...first-hand experience with Citibank-more-like-Shittybank's logistics and outsourced staff. My money in Korea never was wired to my Shittybank account, which I totally should terminate. I still owe my friend Evan so much for enduring the setbacks Shittybank had only prolonged. Thanks to my mother, I purchased a plane ticket--with a mental promissory note to repay her.
I made it to Taiwan! The immigration lines were rather full for six-o-clock in the morning. Fortunately I had arrived safely; both my luggages did as well (one was not found on the conveyor belt until 20 minutes later). The airport chauffeur hadn't left yet, and I had been the second of three people to meet him. After the third (Kelly) arrived, we were driven to the hotel, but there were six hours to be squandered between then and our check-in time. With mid-August Taipei City's weather giving the Sahara Desert a run for its calefactory and dessicating reputation, one of those six hours was spent walking halfway up 吉林路 (Ji-lin Road); the other five were spent in the coffee shop attached to the hotel, marveling at being in Taiwan and being hit with the reality of the toilet paper-phobic toilets (Becca had known that it was indeed no myth, though).
Day One certainly wasn't bad at all, though it was rather inconveniencing that absolutely nothing seemed to be open within a four-block radius from the hotel...at least, it seemed this way for a hungry fatass like me at two-o-clock in the morning, wholly unfamiliar with the surroundings. I at least had a double room and private internet access-awesome!
Day Two's post-breakfast good morning consisted of me finding out that I do have a roommate; he had just arrived before the initial meeting. What was disheartening about this was the fact that we'd have to share a bathroom, which went much less than ideally at times. He was, however, a nice but inopportunely garrulous guy (I mean, he was British). We weren't as polar of opposites as Ozzy Osbourne and, say, Elizabeth Dole, but we related only in the way that we were to-be employees of the company--and that we shared a hotel room (for which there was only one shared key).
There were nine days of training, and each day was great, even though I was placed in Taipei County, while some of those who didn't mind their locations were placed in Taipei City. (I received my money via Western Union, thanks to Evan, on Day Three or Four!) It really was the most commendable training experience I had had though--of the three I've had. There were twenty of us, one of whom
My. I've already gone into
August did not end up being very succinct, but September certainly will be. September 3rd was the date when we parted for our respective branches; many stayed in different areas of Taipei, while some went to 高雄 (there are 2.38 x 102342 different orthographic ways to romanize this name) in the south, and 淡水 in the north (more northerly than Taipei). I moved into an nicely-located central apartment that was a block down from the hotel in which my training group had stayed. My co-workers were all nice, but I was very much missing those with whom I had trained. I taught kindergarten kids in the mornings (I loved them so much), and junior-to-middle-school students in the evenings...with an honors class on Saturday mornings. The students were great, but I was slowly growing accustomed to the one-and-a-half-day weekends, the relative lack of other foreign teachers (my branch was a rather small branch; I didn't very much relate to the part-time foreign teachers at my branch), and the relatively little amount of time I had outside from work. Becca came once a week, and I was grateful for at least having the opportunity to see her those times. (We saw Up with her friend during this month!)
Oh yes, there was also a trip to Yilan at the end of this month. Supposedly there was an amazing beach in Yilan, but the plans apparently had been changed before we arrived. We didn't know about this 45+-minute taxi ride we would have to take to the new location (an 'industrial beach' saturated with hot locals, but still, 45+-minutes), but we ended up having fun at the beach--and a near-débâcle getting back to Taipei for work the next morning. Fortunately everything turned out favorably.
Problems within the company were ebulliating for most of those with whom I had trained. This month was apparently Exodus back to America Month, for many had endured more than their shares of disillusionment, which unfortunately tainted their impressions of the entire country. (Actually, Exodus Month leaked into the beginning of November.) Fortunately, Becca introduced me to Jenna and her friends, which galvanized my previously waning social life and expanded my shrinking set of friends in Taipei. Work-wise, I officially was pulled out of the closet in which I had been placed only by my Taiwanese co-workers, but that contributed only an infinitesimal amount--if even--to the already (relatively latent), escalating-in-Richter scale earthquake that had been causing the ever-growing schism between the 補習班 (bǔxíbān; "cram school"/after-school "school") coworkers and me--everything at the kindergarten branch was going as amazingly as it could.
An added pressure was my having agreed to substitute teach a class at yet another branch for an entire month. Nine-to-
Also most definitely worth mentioning are my purchase of the Blackberry (with a trial contract that I canceled after a week) and the Halloween celebration. Halloween was on a Saturday, so it was celebrated on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 補習班; it was celebrated on Friday at kindergarten. The children's costumes at kindergarten were soso cuuuute! However, this holiday is very much child-oriented, for I had to purchase a random witch hat, a mask made for a masquerade, Halloween garland to snake around my frame, a pitchfork, and those string balloons for some sort of a devil's tail. Cheap fabulous monster? I don't know, but the kids' costumes looked amazing, and there was an eye shadow palette used for one of the students' costumes (a geisha) that I could find nowhere, despite the numerous cosmetic stores (they are numerous in
That all transpired on Halloween Eve. Halloween Day, a Saturday, was also Gay Pride Day and the (second-to-)last day of my apartment contract, since I had opted not to renew the two-month contract whose length I deliberately set. Determined was I to go to the parade. The day started with me having assified myself by being in Halloween attire for my Halloween spiritless honor students. After that, I packed some more and was to meet my friend Ria near one of the areas by which the masses were going to pass. I did just that...after having canceled my contract and buying the
The rest of the day consisted of being acquainted with some of Ria's gay friends, passing the time with them in the designated finish line area for the parade (there was a purported output of 25,000 participants, maybe the totaled number of spectators and marchers), and meeting Jenna and her friends for dinner and imbibition in a familiar bar, where we of course had a great time.
November 1st was All Saints' Day, but Where-the-Shit-in-Taipei-am-I-to-Sojourn-Starting-Tomorrow Day for me. I was not to commit to staying for another several months in any place, because I was ready to leave my current employer but dithering with the dilemma of staying in Formosa or leaving and returning in the future. The next day, my boss had recommended a rental place to me, in which I was thankfully able to move that day: there were no windows, ventilation came through the opening in the small fan above the door, and there was only a pair of staircases flanked by an iron-gate security door. Never mind my having to transport my suitcases and bags of other accumulated goods up to the fourth floor by myself, because I appreciated that there was a vacancy period; it was also relatively (relatively) inexpensive to stay there.
Fortunately, I found a hostel in its nascency in Ximending, a rather popular area in Taipei City. What was amazing: I was the first and only guest during my sojourn there (up to the last day), which gave me unlimited access to the communal shower rooms; I had a choice amongst the three-to-six-bed rooms to share with only me; it was only 7000元 (about $200) for two weeks; it was very conveniently located in relation to my workplace; and it was always quiet (as was the apartment in which I had stayed). What was not-so-amazing: I was often too busy or exhausted to socialize with the owner for an extended amount of time; the rooms were not grand in size; the hot water was sporadic or there for literally a minute, which was sinking every benefit of the place.
Work-wise, I had decided to let myself be let go by my employer, rather than leave. I also agreed to work for them until the end of the month, so as to forgo the rather purse-lightening $600 contract termination fee. If only I could have continued teaching kindergarten whilst shedding the 補習班. I at least was fortunate enough to have worked with my kindergarten class on their upcoming Christmas play that I was not going to be able to see.
As Thanksgiving was coming up, I decided to return to America and return to Taiwan in the future. I said goodbye to my students, many of whom said that they would miss me. I nearly shed a tear with one of my 補習班 classes; I'm surprised that I didn't with my kindergarten class, especially after having been told "I love you", which was the cutest thing everrrrr.
After a Thanksgiving-like tree-decorating celebration and KTV with Jenna, Brendan, Joseph, Emily, Sasha, Lillian, Joseph's girlfriend, and the cat whose name I remember as much as Joseph's girlfriend's :/, a Thai dinner with Jenna, Brendan, and Emily, a gay bar run/visit to Jump, G-Star, and Café Dalida during my last weekend, a fail at finding another place to work and maintain my ARC status, a preparatory accumulation of cheap contact lenses, and a hectic day to the airport (FedEx Taiwan is awesome, by the way), I felt pangs of an immature farewell on my way to the airport in the taxi; they were especially coming from the sunny, 75-degree, latter-November weather. Why?
Well, it was 35-degrees at 11 p.m. in Chicago. Thankfully, my return from Taiwan wasn't as pecuniarily depressing as that from Korea. Salaries were distributed in cash (with reason), which were naturally exchangeable at the airport. However, the trillions of coins I had also carried with me were not exchangeable (thank you, God, for the coins only being a small portion of the money I had carried with me).
Thanksgiving also wasn't that great, and Black Friday found me inside--doing nothing. Wasting away into
December was a pretty vacuous month. I mostly e-mingled , but there was the Aqua Scare to my laptop, which a fellow online socializer so generously helped me fix. During this same weekend, I attended a band reunion party downtown, for which I had bought a new polka-dot top. It was great; my old band compeers were able to see how much I had changed for the good? bad? alcoholic? in the past several years. Staying downtown afterwardy , I apparently ventured in the characteristically wintry frigidity of the city to Subway before having ventured into the (wrong) 24-hour McDonald's with the attitudinal, stereotypical rotund black security guard. There should probably be a comma or two in there.
I returned the next day to my place of stay, to find that my laptop had indeed been saved by the isopropyl alcohol bath to which it had been subjected two days prior.
Christmas Eve was pleasantly busy. I
Christmas Day was less than ideal. My help in preparation, which was not considered help ended up being help after all. However, my introduction of mojitos (alcoholic and non-alcoholic, of course) to the family went rather splendidly, and they very much appreciated my cheesecake brownies. For the win.
After Christmas Day, I was able to spend time with my best friend from high school and his wife, for they were in town for the holidays. This definitely neutralized --even positivized--my December 26th, which was needed because of my having missed Lush's retail-shattering year-end sale downtown. ): The 26th was spent visiting an high school band friend at her house; the 27th consisted of some of us meeting at a bar, somewhat barhopping, and colliding with another band friend in the bar. Unfortunately those two days flew by, and the days after that--including New Year's Eve and New Year's Day--were as vacuous as those of the beginning of December. Festive they were not, and the new decade was brought in rather depressingly.
It apparently was a great indicator of how the rest of the year was to be, because it has thus far been as such.
-------------------------------------------------
It is April 22nd, and I'm just finishing this volume of procrastination.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Friday, June 05, 2009
一切贊頌, 全歸真主，真世界的主，
報應日的主。
我們怚崇拜你，只求你祐助。
求你引導我們怳正路，
你所祐助者的路，不是受譴者的路， 不是迷誤者的路。
真主：第一翻譯者, 由阿拉伯的الله 對“真主”翻譯了。但第二的，الله 對“安啦”翻譯了。 這兩篇翻譯，後者是語音的翻譯。 好吧！
們； 就在這裡，沒用複數形式。有沒有特別的原因嗎？
怳： 怳正路是甚麼？ 第二翻譯，“上正路”用了。“上”比“怳”有意義。 然而“上”是後置詞呢？ 有困惑呢？
這是古蘭的第一章。 只有七句詩。 在第二的有兩百八十六句詩。0.0 加油！
Friday, May 29, 2009
Last weekend one of my Korean friends, who is now studying in New York, came to pay Chicago a visit with his friend.
This is a friend whom I had met once upon his hungover time in the McDonald's in Seocho's Express Bus Terminal. He took an interest in me--so much so that he even insisted on introducing me to his sister and his girlfriend--and we had met a few more times before he re-embarked on a second educational journey to and in America. I was appreciative of the fact that this had happened, especially since he was a Korean man who not only intuited (so he says, and without subsequent denial) my attraction to men but also was comfortable and unfettered enough to have had no problems with said attraction. Albeit he had previously been sufficiently exposed to this taboo-at-best (if not outright denied) mutant-type in America, the two of us had met in Korea--so I was appreciative of this.
He and I were to meet later in the day--namely, in the evening--so there was some meandering downtown prior to this reunion. Having been quite conscious of my imploding budget line, nothing was purchased save the Chipotle lunch that reestablished good relations between the chain and me, and the prepaid cellphone from AT&T, which was the pre-iPhone purchase (the iPhone will be purchased immediately before returning overseas). Mere meandering and an iota of curiosity brought about a landing in ex-part-time fling Abercrombie & Fitch and its newer brother Hollister across from it. While the former hardly had anything worth viewing twice homo sapiens- or attire-wise, the latter verily had a few tempting tops in it (no, not those tops; there was an 8:1 female:male ratio, anyway). The Apple store was also paid a visit for its gratis internet service and answers about the iPhone.
This mini-journey downtown did not go without pictures. Behold.
You have upon you the Trump Tower Chicago...in grayscale...making the adjacent buildings appear askew.
There was some street corner entertainment, which I didn't get to appreciate due to the statute of stature limitations. Well, there appears to have been space to the left, but not only were some of the people to the left not captured in this free-click aerial photo but seeing the stunt was not worth painstaking trying to see.
On the way to meet my friend, the big white "Tokyo" caught these eyes. Although this photograph of Asian Expression on Ohio St. would have presented just as well in grayscale, still turned out pretty well. The Ginza (銀座) Restaurant to the left will be mentioned later in this post.
Lagniappe! That's part of my author name on here! ^ ^
One may have a glimpse at Trump Tower Chicago nearly camouflaging in the background.
The Macro setting without the programmed flash would have been nice. :/
Sans flash. Quality forgone. These flowers on Clark St. were seen on the way to the rendezvous anyway.
After this point, I met up with my friend, who had brought along a friend of his. Like my friend, he is a student in America. A cute, rather sweet (alarms a-bewailing) one, too.
The plan was to go to Vision (a downtown club), but the club was not to open until 10 p.m. In the three-and-a-half hours to squander, I take my touring friend and newly-made acquaintance to Millennium Park. Picture time (!):
He would be the friend, who is standing beside Fat-Looking, Geriatric-Looking Me. = =
I detest that orange bag provided by AT&T and/or I wish I had been wearing white whilst in possession of it. Anyway, this is a picture of us under the concave underbelly of The Bean (properly called Cloud Gate).
No, this pose actually was not my idea.
With time still left until the anticipated opening of the club, we decided to have dinner at the Ginza Restaurant, of which I had made mention earlier. It was rather undeservedly demanding of our wallets not only because of the quantity but also the quality of the food. If you're going to try to Tokyo in Chicago by being expensive, then you ought to Tokyo by offering the same quality of a good/service.
After the slightly-but-still-noticeably pocket-slimming dinner, I found out that my best friend from college is going to be joining the three of us. Nearly an hour's worth of time remained until the club was to open, and pre-gaming seemed to be a good idea because of the anticipated inflation in alcohol prices of a downtown club. There was a liquor store just a few paces down from Ginza Restaurant and Tokyo Hotel, a very smart strategic move on the shopowner's part. They bought soju and beer to make a rather deadly, somewhat ubiquitous concoction from Korea: maekju. Passing by reflex (thanks to aversion conditioning to clear alcohols--thanks to soju and the collateral damage it caused--in Korea), I looked for a rather small bottle of wine because I didn't want to be pixilated before clubbing. None of the bottles were too small or just right, nor did any of them have a price tag that was too good to refuse. Consciousness of that (still) gradually imploding budget line had worked to my financial favor. ^^/= = I could have bought something else, but I preferred to wait until the arrival of my other friend.
(Spoiler: My friend ended up wanting nothing from the liquor store. What was saved from not having bought anything from that store was just spent at the club.)
After the liquor store, there was a problem: Where were they to consume this alcohol?
Answer: Rock 'N Roll McDonald's. Had this been Korea, refuge wouldn't need to be taken in McDonald's. Anyway, they had to clandestinely consume (using two McDonald's cups attained from the counter downstairs) inside the Rock 'N Roll McDonald's (this Rock 'N Roll McDonalds has two floors), so it wasn't necessarily a safe haven. Our purpose was accomplished though, and there was even a picture or two:
This will be the only one shared on here for now.
My friend arrived and I introduced her to the other two friends of mine. After just a few minutes of small talk, however, some of us were more ready to be on our way to the club...which was only a block away from Rock 'N Roll.
The $20 cover charge gained us entry into a three-floor club barren of the vivacious (well, as vivacious as Chicago has potential to be) Saturday nightlife. Rather disillusioned, simply leaving was an option, but then we were allowed into the more exclusive (curtained off) part of the club...in the basement..for an extra $10, which pays for the negligible amount of space that one's cock occupies in this exclusive space. My, what a liability having a phallus has become!
My friend had told me that this was to be an all-Asian event, and he was quite accurate. Interestingly more lively than its upstairs counterpart, I was the only non-Asian amongst all the clubbers in the basement...other than another group of four. Although Asian-Americans and Asians in America differ greatly from de-/un-Americanized Asians, the fact that I have had experience living in Asia made me even more comfortable being the only Other in the matrix...other than that...group of four, none of whose members I knew anyway.
The night didn't turn out how any of us had been expecting.
So, an attempt by my Korean friend to have the four of us split a $150 bottle, gin-n-tonics and Jägerbombs, taking the party to the dancefloor, some hybridization of the crowd, misunderstandings of whereabouts which led to misunderstandings of extents of friendships, my best friend from college returning home, awkwardly trail-stalking my visiting friend (and neutralizing him against a potential rival) to ensure his staying in one piece, and an allowance of the previously consumed alcohol to have its soporific effects on me-- later,
...refuge was once again taken at the Rock 'N Roll McDonald's. Deciding to make this a frugal visit by planning to spend the night a-dancing and a-drinking, they hadn't reserved a hotel room. My visiting friend's stomach was very much rejecting the alcohol he had so quickly consumed, and I was still under the soporific influence (well, I had also been awake since nine o'clock or so). My newly-made acquaintance, however, seemed to be just fine. Being unable to focus my attention or keep my eyes open, I apologized for being unable to keep him company during his wait for the first train bound to Wisconsin (where he is studying). I know that I was failing in his eyes, even if he did say that it was ok; he was left sitting in front of me with his iPod with fifty billion after-partiers around him in a city with which he was not familiar. = =
Approximately forty five minutes later, he woke me from me from my alcohol sleep-off because it was time for him and my visiting friend to go to Union Station to catch the Wisconsin-bound train. It was a simple ending, really: After my new acquaintance shaking hands with me, he had to tell the still disequilibrated friend of mine to say goodbye to me. He. Had. To. Tell. Him. Either he was that far gone from partying--Koreans know how to party hardy--or the turn of the good day affected our friendship that much. I didn't really analyze this for a very long time, though, because it was noticeably cooler outside at 6:00 a.m.
Briskly pacing to the Metra Station in said cold weather, I tried to capture "6:15 a.m. Chicago". There was no exposure at which this scene would have presented perfectly in the photograph (but different exposures were attempted). = =
The Christian Science building would of course be the better picture. Great quality; too bad it's compressed here.
The 6:30 train was caught...and with it, massive bloating &c. An attempt to read the Onion, followed by falling asleep on the train (as I am wont to do), successfully delayed any urges. Thank goodness I was to be back in a short time at that place at which I'm staying, right?
WRONG.
The new cell phone had been used to call and apprise of my returning back to the area. Neither of the times that I had called was there a response. Passing my destination in hopes that one of the stations further along the line would have a bathroom that wasn't constantly locked...only resulted in the gained knowledge that such stations offer nothing more than my destination.
Returning to the station that was my destination, I called again to no avail (and the number to a local taxi service wasn't available at the time). Since being on my feet was much better, I started exercising. I started walking. There was quite a long walk ahead...
...which actually turned out being refreshing. On Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m., the only people on the road are churchgoers and the city-bound (which are few in number on a Sunday morning). It took a long while, and the 62 degrees made it comfortable to be walking with a black camera bag while garbed in black clothing...and I was able to stop at a Speedway to micturate some of the alcohol away (or what seemed to be the 1 pL of it that had remained)!
Some time later (just exactly how much time will remain undisclosed ^ ^), your little intron Barbie was nearing the Target that is near the Place of Temporary Stay. It was open, and the cleanliness of their "facilities" was nearly comparable to that of the ones at Singapore Changi Airport! Near-emergencies (and at a specific point during my Sunday morning Target shopping, it was an emergency) make one utilize public facilities even if they are generally avoided. It was aah-mazing.
A purchase of more sunscreen and canned cherries for a to-be-made cobbler later, I walked the rest of the way to my destination. It was a solid exercise...unintentional, but solid. Much of the day was spent napping, and that's really where this story ends. How symbolic, given that this place is also where my life (temporarily) ends.
This is a friend whom I had met once upon his hungover time in the McDonald's in Seocho's Express Bus Terminal. He took an interest in me--so much so that he even insisted on introducing me to his sister and his girlfriend--and we had met a few more times before he re-embarked on a second educational journey to and in America. I was appreciative of the fact that this had happened, especially since he was a Korean man who not only intuited (so he says, and without subsequent denial) my attraction to men but also was comfortable and unfettered enough to have had no problems with said attraction. Albeit he had previously been sufficiently exposed to this taboo-at-best (if not outright denied) mutant-type in America, the two of us had met in Korea--so I was appreciative of this.
He and I were to meet later in the day--namely, in the evening--so there was some meandering downtown prior to this reunion. Having been quite conscious of my imploding budget line, nothing was purchased save the Chipotle lunch that reestablished good relations between the chain and me, and the prepaid cellphone from AT&T, which was the pre-iPhone purchase (the iPhone will be purchased immediately before returning overseas). Mere meandering and an iota of curiosity brought about a landing in ex-part-time fling Abercrombie & Fitch and its newer brother Hollister across from it. While the former hardly had anything worth viewing twice homo sapiens- or attire-wise, the latter verily had a few tempting tops in it (no, not those tops; there was an 8:1 female:male ratio, anyway). The Apple store was also paid a visit for its gratis internet service and answers about the iPhone.
This mini-journey downtown did not go without pictures. Behold.
You have upon you the Trump Tower Chicago...in grayscale...making the adjacent buildings appear askew.
There was some street corner entertainment, which I didn't get to appreciate due to the statute of stature limitations. Well, there appears to have been space to the left, but not only were some of the people to the left not captured in this free-click aerial photo but seeing the stunt was not worth painstaking trying to see.
On the way to meet my friend, the big white "Tokyo" caught these eyes. Although this photograph of Asian Expression on Ohio St. would have presented just as well in grayscale, still turned out pretty well. The Ginza (銀座) Restaurant to the left will be mentioned later in this post.
Lagniappe! That's part of my author name on here! ^ ^
One may have a glimpse at Trump Tower Chicago nearly camouflaging in the background.
The Macro setting without the programmed flash would have been nice. :/
Sans flash. Quality forgone. These flowers on Clark St. were seen on the way to the rendezvous anyway.
After this point, I met up with my friend, who had brought along a friend of his. Like my friend, he is a student in America. A cute, rather sweet (alarms a-bewailing) one, too.
The plan was to go to Vision (a downtown club), but the club was not to open until 10 p.m. In the three-and-a-half hours to squander, I take my touring friend and newly-made acquaintance to Millennium Park. Picture time (!):
He would be the friend, who is standing beside Fat-Looking, Geriatric-Looking Me. = =
I detest that orange bag provided by AT&T and/or I wish I had been wearing white whilst in possession of it. Anyway, this is a picture of us under the concave underbelly of The Bean (properly called Cloud Gate).
No, this pose actually was not my idea.
With time still left until the anticipated opening of the club, we decided to have dinner at the Ginza Restaurant, of which I had made mention earlier. It was rather undeservedly demanding of our wallets not only because of the quantity but also the quality of the food. If you're going to try to Tokyo in Chicago by being expensive, then you ought to Tokyo by offering the same quality of a good/service.
After the slightly-but-still-noticeably pocket-slimming dinner, I found out that my best friend from college is going to be joining the three of us. Nearly an hour's worth of time remained until the club was to open, and pre-gaming seemed to be a good idea because of the anticipated inflation in alcohol prices of a downtown club. There was a liquor store just a few paces down from Ginza Restaurant and Tokyo Hotel, a very smart strategic move on the shopowner's part. They bought soju and beer to make a rather deadly, somewhat ubiquitous concoction from Korea: maekju. Passing by reflex (thanks to aversion conditioning to clear alcohols--thanks to soju and the collateral damage it caused--in Korea), I looked for a rather small bottle of wine because I didn't want to be pixilated before clubbing. None of the bottles were too small or just right, nor did any of them have a price tag that was too good to refuse. Consciousness of that (still) gradually imploding budget line had worked to my financial favor. ^^/= = I could have bought something else, but I preferred to wait until the arrival of my other friend.
(Spoiler: My friend ended up wanting nothing from the liquor store. What was saved from not having bought anything from that store was just spent at the club.)
After the liquor store, there was a problem: Where were they to consume this alcohol?
Answer: Rock 'N Roll McDonald's. Had this been Korea, refuge wouldn't need to be taken in McDonald's. Anyway, they had to clandestinely consume (using two McDonald's cups attained from the counter downstairs) inside the Rock 'N Roll McDonald's (this Rock 'N Roll McDonalds has two floors), so it wasn't necessarily a safe haven. Our purpose was accomplished though, and there was even a picture or two:
This will be the only one shared on here for now.
My friend arrived and I introduced her to the other two friends of mine. After just a few minutes of small talk, however, some of us were more ready to be on our way to the club...which was only a block away from Rock 'N Roll.
The $20 cover charge gained us entry into a three-floor club barren of the vivacious (well, as vivacious as Chicago has potential to be) Saturday nightlife. Rather disillusioned, simply leaving was an option, but then we were allowed into the more exclusive (curtained off) part of the club...in the basement..for an extra $10, which pays for the negligible amount of space that one's cock occupies in this exclusive space. My, what a liability having a phallus has become!
My friend had told me that this was to be an all-Asian event, and he was quite accurate. Interestingly more lively than its upstairs counterpart, I was the only non-Asian amongst all the clubbers in the basement...other than another group of four. Although Asian-Americans and Asians in America differ greatly from de-/un-Americanized Asians, the fact that I have had experience living in Asia made me even more comfortable being the only Other in the matrix...other than that...group of four, none of whose members I knew anyway.
The night didn't turn out how any of us had been expecting.
So, an attempt by my Korean friend to have the four of us split a $150 bottle, gin-n-tonics and Jägerbombs, taking the party to the dancefloor, some hybridization of the crowd, misunderstandings of whereabouts which led to misunderstandings of extents of friendships, my best friend from college returning home, awkwardly trail-stalking my visiting friend (and neutralizing him against a potential rival) to ensure his staying in one piece, and an allowance of the previously consumed alcohol to have its soporific effects on me-- later,
...refuge was once again taken at the Rock 'N Roll McDonald's. Deciding to make this a frugal visit by planning to spend the night a-dancing and a-drinking, they hadn't reserved a hotel room. My visiting friend's stomach was very much rejecting the alcohol he had so quickly consumed, and I was still under the soporific influence (well, I had also been awake since nine o'clock or so). My newly-made acquaintance, however, seemed to be just fine. Being unable to focus my attention or keep my eyes open, I apologized for being unable to keep him company during his wait for the first train bound to Wisconsin (where he is studying). I know that I was failing in his eyes, even if he did say that it was ok; he was left sitting in front of me with his iPod with fifty billion after-partiers around him in a city with which he was not familiar. = =
Approximately forty five minutes later, he woke me from me from my alcohol sleep-off because it was time for him and my visiting friend to go to Union Station to catch the Wisconsin-bound train. It was a simple ending, really: After my new acquaintance shaking hands with me, he had to tell the still disequilibrated friend of mine to say goodbye to me. He. Had. To. Tell. Him. Either he was that far gone from partying--Koreans know how to party hardy--or the turn of the good day affected our friendship that much. I didn't really analyze this for a very long time, though, because it was noticeably cooler outside at 6:00 a.m.
Briskly pacing to the Metra Station in said cold weather, I tried to capture "6:15 a.m. Chicago". There was no exposure at which this scene would have presented perfectly in the photograph (but different exposures were attempted). = =
The Christian Science building would of course be the better picture. Great quality; too bad it's compressed here.
The 6:30 train was caught...and with it, massive bloating &c. An attempt to read the Onion, followed by falling asleep on the train (as I am wont to do), successfully delayed any urges. Thank goodness I was to be back in a short time at that place at which I'm staying, right?
The new cell phone had been used to call and apprise of my returning back to the area. Neither of the times that I had called was there a response. Passing my destination in hopes that one of the stations further along the line would have a bathroom that wasn't constantly locked...only resulted in the gained knowledge that such stations offer nothing more than my destination.
Returning to the station that was my destination, I called again to no avail (and the number to a local taxi service wasn't available at the time). Since being on my feet was much better, I started exercising. I started walking. There was quite a long walk ahead...
...which actually turned out being refreshing. On Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m., the only people on the road are churchgoers and the city-bound (which are few in number on a Sunday morning). It took a long while, and the 62 degrees made it comfortable to be walking with a black camera bag while garbed in black clothing...and I was able to stop at a Speedway to micturate some of the alcohol away (or what seemed to be the 1 pL of it that had remained)!
Some time later (just exactly how much time will remain undisclosed ^ ^), your little intron Barbie was nearing the Target that is near the Place of Temporary Stay. It was open, and the cleanliness of their "facilities" was nearly comparable to that of the ones at Singapore Changi Airport! Near-emergencies (and at a specific point during my Sunday morning Target shopping, it was an emergency) make one utilize public facilities even if they are generally avoided. It was aah-mazing.
A purchase of more sunscreen and canned cherries for a to-be-made cobbler later, I walked the rest of the way to my destination. It was a solid exercise...unintentional, but solid. Much of the day was spent napping, and that's really where this story ends. How symbolic, given that this place is also where my life (temporarily) ends.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)