the road less traveled - a story i'd read
On other notes, I've been accepted to Yonsei's Korean Language Institutes, Intensive Language program which consists of four hour classes five days a week! Pretty crazy times. I also spoke with my friend in Hong Kong the other day, he's doing well, adapting and beating jet lag! I'm planning to visit both he and our mutual friend in Japan in early November. I feel like there are so many things to write about and not enough time to write them all.
On a personal note, the first several days here in Seoul, have been quite dissimilar than that of DC. I recall feeling a total lack of time and always hurried during the first several weeks of DC. Speaking with Tracey one day, I told her that one of the greatest challenges I had in DC was the lack of time to reflect and be contemplative. Seoul seems to be a late starting city, well at least it is if you don't have a job, don't have school, and stay out till 3 or 4 in the morning at the noh-reh-bongs (korean karaoke places).
Seeing as I tend to be an early riser anyways, I feel like I'm going to have plenty of time read and do my usual "thinking" in the mornings.
Something I haven't seen yet: joggers?
Air 747 headed to Seoul. It seems that Korean air provides not only
free water, blankets, and pillows, but also has free interactive in
demand movies. (all the way nice!) Based on the recommendation of a
friend I picked up a few Tylenol Pms, should help the 14 hour nonstop
pass a bit smoother. Well its time to taxi, the next update should be
from Yonsei University!
passenger that I am I arrived almost three hours early. Checkin took
about 8 mins from luggage to my gate so now I'll be sitting here for
two and a half hours before the first flight leaves... I just talked
to rockstar on the phone, he asked if I felt anxious or nervous yet.
Can't say that I do. I stopped by Dennys and picked up a cup of
coffee, time to catch up on some Atlas Shrugged!
Tonight several of my best friends came over to wish me off. It was a good night filled with memories, laughing, a bit of Buck’s Pizza (of course!) poker, cigars and adult beverages. As always rockstar let me win during poker but hey, I’ll take all the freebees he gives me. Lord knows I’ve lost enough money to him over the months.
After poker several of us went outside and chatted it up while smoking some of the best cigars on the planet. (The Edge ~Patel) It wasn’t until everyone was leaving that I finally started to feel a bit anxious about leaving later today. I thought back to earlier today when rockstar and I were talking about a mutual friend of ours, and how she moved across the country without a support system and now can’t wait to come home. I guess I’ve never thought about not having a support system in k-town. Hmmm, I suppose I figured I could always call, that there’d always be an open ear if I needed anything.
It’s been almost a month since I left DC, feels like yesterday. I still keep in touch with several of the friends and I can’t wait to see them all for New Years. And yet I can’t help but think that so much can change over the coming months. I notice that I hold on to moments. Perhaps we all do? But when I look back at DC and even tonight my mind captures freeze frames, I can see the picture, hear the sounds, feel the emotions of the moment. I suppose my biggest concern (if any) about going away is that those snapshots will not be an accurate representation of how things will be when I get back…
All in all, I’m glad to travel, I embrace the opportunity to become an “international man of mystery” ☺ or as Steph put it: “secret asian man!” And while I know there’s a chance that my snapshots will not be true to me, the optimist whispers of the greater memories that will be forged when we are able to go our separate ways for a season and come back to each other, cultured, developed, tested, and triumphant in our individual battles and can celebrate our victories together…
from the new iPhone. It really is amazing when you think about it
that from wherever you are with a couple taps you can post thoughts
and pictures to the Internet.
So as I'm eating breakfast I'm reminded of an old post made about
three years ago... "last week while at one of my many jobs I started
thinking about it. I had a desire. So simple, so heart felt. I want
someone I can cook breakfast for. Grits, eggs, maybe a couple of
pancakes" - march 8, 2004
I leave for Korea this Saturday... haven’t really thought much about it as law school applications have consumed the majority of my time. I’m glad that much of the prep work is finally over and come September 1st, the application process should be over. (at least my part of it).
I woke up this morning in a somber mood; I was to experience one of histories greatest marked atrocities, The Holocaust. As the time drew near to begin our trip, I felt nauseous and overwhelmed, I still feel that way now. It is difficult to describe with any clarity. Only two hours after leaving the museum there is not much I can tell you about it, there are flashes, pictures in my mind, and emotions stirring in me, but I cannot seem to express them.
The first thing that struck me in the museum is a quote from General Eisenhower:
"The things I saw beggar description...The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were...overpowering...I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'"
In a day where the details of the Holocaust are in dispute by the radical hate filled, I found this first quote appropriate.
In the museum, there was a rail car, of the exact make and model that was used to haul thousands of Jews to various concentration camps. I learned that up to half of the people being transported in these cars would not make it alive to their destination; most of these were children and the elderly. The exhibit was designed so that you could walk through the rail car. As I approached the car, I was taken back by eerie sense of horror that emanated from the car. In no way was there anything about the car that specifically told the gruesome story, yet this replica still screamed of the atrocities that had been committed. With a deep breath I forced myself to walk through. Standing in the box car, the silence was deafening. On either side of the car there were small barred openings, images of literally hundreds of people who had been crammed and forced into these cars flashed across my mind…
In our brown bag, Andy, or the closet as he's known by the EPA interns, asked a question that lured my thoughts down an interesting path I had visited before.
"Perhaps this question is more existential then we want to address in this environment but, why do you think we ignore such evil? Do we just deny that evil exists?"
One of the fellow interns responded by appealing to the argument of desensitization. "It's because we see so much killing, it's not a big deal anymore. I mean my friends and I even play this video game where there are four of us trying to shoot each other…"
Maybe this was a suitable answer? My thought went in a slightly different direction.
I referenced a few articles, one by the New York Times which stated "…it is not the sick eroticism or the unspeakable brutality that is important in the Nazi saga; it is the mind-set that drove supposedly average people to commit and condone such atrocities." What are the implications that "supposedly average people" committed these evil acts? I don't know that we as individuals want to develop that question for it seemingly would force the acknowledgement of such evil in all average people, namely ourselves. It would necessitate that we examine ourselves daily if not moment to moment to check our motivations and ambitions, the purpose for which we work and live. Imagine if everyone was willing to concede that such a strain of evil existed in all of us? It would shortly become our main priority to place checks on ourselves to ensure that this beast not be given a foothold…
I do not process emotional substance very quickly, I am positive in the ensuing days and weeks I will have a plethora of things to consider and contemplate… Perhaps I will put finger to keyboard again lest I forget these emotions that bombard me…
Hall of Remembrance.
Elie Wiesel
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.
Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.