The Past 6 Weeks January 15, 2009

wow, i’ve discovered that i really suck as a blogger.  you’ll notice that as i’ve developed more and more of a life here in seoul, i am too busy with my life to blog!  my blog posts are becoming more and more sporadic and pretty soon will probably disappear altogether.  i do not know how “real” bloggers find time to always post something witty and profound.  

speaking of being witty and profound, an organization back home is launching a blog and was looking for guest bloggers.  well, tried to write something witty and profound for them tonight and utterly, utterly failed.  i started, stopped, started again, and then stopped, realizing i really don’t have anything new to say that hasn’t already been said.  i will try again with a different topic in the future.  yeah, that’s right, i just blamed the topic for my writer’s block.

i am excited though about a short story idea that i’m working on.  yep, you heard that right.  having found out i’m an inadequate blogger, i’m going to next find out i’m an inadequate short story writer as well.  sigh.  my friend steven has somehow convinced me to participate in a creative writing project.  i was under the impression that a group of us would write, share our work, and then provide helpful comments (not even reaching the level of constructive criticism – i have very thin skin).    after tricking me into this endeavor, i find out that there is a public reading at the end of this process, with PEOPLE in the audience (as opposed to a much friendlier audience of furniture and/or pets).  the only redeeming quality about this whole thing is the flowing red wine.  steven makes the good point that we need an audience to put pressure on ourselves to write better, but for somebody who has had the creativity sucked out of my life since winning my school’s creative writing contest in fifth grade, it sounds TERRIFYING.  

you’re probably wondering what the hell i’ve been doing the past six weeks.  well, it’s been quite a whirlwind, primarily because it involves a LOT of dancing.  forget the gym membership, i have found a much better cardio workout dancing the night away to hip hop and Kpop music.  unfortunately, with all the second hand smoke i’m breathing though, the health impact is probably a wash.  

There are three women friends here who are like my sisters, and seoul would not be the same without them.   My homegirl from NYC, Uni, is kyopo and  got to seoul around the same time as me.  we have just connected in so many ways whether it’s about art, politics, or life.   I also made two friends from dance class (Jinny and Keum). Jinny actually doesn’t speak that much English so we have these great Chinconglish (mixture of Chinese, Corean, and English) conversations…and charades.  my Korean has expanded dramatically hanging out with them.  of course, it’s nothing useful (let’s go eat cupcakes, i love food, crazy girl), but it’s a start.  

I go out with these three a LOT.  there was a three-week stretch where i went out practically every night, and usually one of these three were with me.  the great thing about clubbing is that everyone there is a decade younger than me and they are a lot of fun.  not burdened yet with failing marriages, mortgage payments, really important jobs, or human beings completely dependent on them, they are just having fun.  and then, there’s me, also having somehow escaped these “grown-up” things, having fun with them.  

okay, it’s very, very late (or very, very early depending on your perspective) and i will continue the updates, hopefully, soon.