the road less traveled - a story i'd read

i figure in a day and time saturated with crappy reality shows, my life is as good as any... here goes.
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Where do I start? Well after posting the last six or so blogs in a span of 20 hours or so, it feels like I’m behind the curve. So quite a bit has happened since Monday when I arrived. I’ve met quite a few new friends through the i-House (Yonsei’s International Dorm) and feel like I’ve completed half first mission: meet enough foreign friends that I have a support system, the other half being to not have so many foreign friends or not hang out with them so much that I use them as a crutch or excuse not to fully immerse myself in Korea. The second part of this goal came swiftly and with what I can only describe as divine intervention! :D To make a crazy long story short, this afternoon I moved into a boarding house in the middle of shin-chon. It ca be best described as "in the action" I'm on the fourth floor and have my own room. (see pics below)



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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?

 

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Well I've made it to Korea, I'm in the taxi headed to Yonsei and I have to say the feeling is quite strange.  As I walked out of the airport and looked around it feels more like some city in th eUS that I have yet to visit than it does another country on the other side of the globe.  Maybe it's because the freeways and sunrise look so familiar?  Or could it be the golfers who are teeing off already this morning?   Whatever the case I'm sure the feeling will soon change.  As for the flight, I slept better tan expected through most of it and it really didn't seem much longer than a regular transcontinental... By the way, it's raining


 

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Well it's 1:43am Seoul time, which translate to 9:43am phoenix time.  The greatest part of the journey is over, we should be landing in about 3 hours.  Here comes breakfast!  The choices are scrambled eggs and something else the flight attendant can't seem to pronounce... (I'm sticking with scrambled eggs) well I'm hoping I'll be able to fall back asleep for the next 3 hours, hopefully a hot cup of tea will help...

 

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So i decided to check out the restrooms and I've been waiting for about 10 mins or so.  And while long waits outside the restroom aren't necessarily bad, not often is it good sign. (especially when the dinner was beebeem bap).
 

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So I've been flipping through a variety of movies in order to stay awake. It's 6:20pm Korea time, which makes it 2:20am Phoenix time. I figure if I can stay awake for another couple of hours then it should be pretty easy to avoid any real jet lag. So, the movies are pretty lame but korean air pulled through. The savior? Beebeem bap, for you non-k-folk its a mixture of a bunch of veggies and meat mixed with rice topped off with some hot sauce. Well dinner over and I might have found a movie that isn't totally worthless. 



 

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This is not a plane its a flying hotel! So I'm on board the Korean
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!
 

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So I'm here at Sky Harbor intl airport and being the responsible
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!
 

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So it’s 1:36am right now, Phoenix time (5:36pm Seoul time). It’s weird that I have to clarify that. I’ll be on a plane in 18 hours beginning the first leg of my journey to Korea. I’ve been slightly concerned over the past couple of days that I haven’t felt nervous or even anxious about going to Korea. Looking back, I can’t say that I’ve felt much of anything regarding Korea.

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…

 

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So I'm sitting here at breakfast and decided to try posting a blog
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

 

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I had breakfast with a good friend of mine today, Scholar Jon. He asked if I planned on keeping a blog about my experiences while in Korea and over the next year. While I already have a website for more of my “scholarly” activities (which I do not fully open up on, as it is on my bus. cards) I think I’ll use this blog more as my personal online journal.
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).
 

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I received my first considerable letter from a law school today: Duke School of Law. It's interesting because up until this point I've received several letters from law schools I'd never heard of and although the first few made me feel pretty accomplished, that feeling faded pretty quickly once I examined the incoming class profile. Duke on the other hand, was ranked 10th in US News and World Report last year and seems to have a great emphasis toward the public sector. Did I mention, they even sent me an application waiver! :D Although I've never really considered attending Duke, I suppose I'm up for applying to see how things work out. Worst case scenario, I get in and file the acceptance letter away to show the grandkids...
 

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It's not often I have to press for words, today however, is one of those days. I just returned from The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, followed by a hosted brown bag discussion on our initial reactions…

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.
 

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