Strange things

Ok, so it's strange to be posting again today, but I have a few things to write down that I'm finding pretty fascinating and ought to capture in words while the sensations are still fresh.
First, I've discovered one thing that's pretty amazing. I know a ton more French than I thought. I think trying so desperately to learn Korean has activated the language center of my brain, causing my ears and my brain to reach so hard for meaning everywhere that today when I watched Gouttes D'Eau Sur Pierres Brulantes, a film from one of my favorite directors, I was able to understand almost all of it without subtitles. I know to some of you this seems like no big deal, but my ability to understand native-speaker speed French is a new development–a development that came about in an environment completely devoid of spoken French. The human brain is fascinating. This discovery has brought about a resurgence of my interest in the French language, and I'm listening to Carla Bruni as I write this. I'll admit, music is a little tougher than film, because context is lacking and the language is more tightly poetic.
I'm picking up little bits of Korean again, but it's very slow progress. The problem isn't that I don't understand--it's that my brain has somehow been set to dump anything that's not immediately useful. It takes days of recognition to pick up and start using each new phrase, because I have to make it functional, not merely present it to my consciousness. I've finally figured out Hello, Goodbye, Thank you, Do you speak English?, I speak a little Korean, Excuse me, and a few other phrases. I'm picking up some basic grammar points as well, but very little of what I've attained so far is there on the tip of my tongue when I need it. I can hear far more of it than I can produce verbally. The two things I need to work on in earnest are the numbers and alphabet. Once I can start reading the language, I'll be able to think in it a little better and I'm sure I'll pick it up much more quickly. Again, though, it's been impossible to learn the alphabet without making it functional. I've got to come up with some new study tactics.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm having far fewer "not in Kansas anymore, Toto" moments. For the first week, I kept wondering if I was dreaming that I'd come here, and reeling each time I tried to wrap my mind around the distance between here and there. Now, I feel myself adapting and settling in. My mind's starting to wrap itself around how far you all are from me (and it is far––one very long day's travel). When I went to karaoke (or whatever it's called here, maybe noribang?) it was so interesting to see the types of artists that have made it here. There was Keane and Keren Ann, but no Fiona Apple. For some reason, I stupidly thought that Korea was on the other side of some American filter, and that everything they got here was trickled down from us. That's not how it is though. Korea is its own filter, and its own market, even for the English language stuff. I'm slowly breaking my western thought habits––at least those I'm able to break, because I know that I'm fundamentally incapable of understanding their context here. I'm tied to my past and my culture, and everything I see here is filtered through the life I was born into. It is wonderful, however, to question the things I've taken for granted for so long, and to try to figure out why we do it the way we do it.
It's now occurring to me that I might've written all of this yesterday, but as there's no way to check while I'm at work, I'm going to keep writing and again tell you how immensely proud of myself I am for eating chocolate cake with chopsticks. It was one of those moments when I'm reminded that I'm in Oz or down the rabbit hole or something.

I went to the grocery store alone last night after I finished teaching. I was way too hungry to be there, and knowing as little Korean as I do, it was a really silly thing to do. I wound up buying a whole chicken (it was pretty cheap) because I didn't know how to ask the butcher to cut the breasts. I then proceeded to cook it pretty wretchedly and eating very little of it. Oh well, that's life, and it made me laugh at myself. I did, however, get some Korean spices that I'm very eager to experiment with, and some basic Korean food that I know I like.

Since I'm all about tangents today, I've also been having some really random dreams as my body adjusts to a completely different world. They run the gamut from waking up in America to this wonderfully Kafka-esque dream I had Sunday night, which woke me up at 5 AM Monday to write it down. It might or might not become a novel. I'm letting the images stew in my mind before I go back to it. Typically, I wake up a few times a night, but on the whole have found sleeping here, with all of its peculiarities, far more interesting than sleeping back at home.

For now, I'm kinda cruising through the day, wonderfully pleased with the knowledge that I don't have to work tomorrow, because it's Independence Day here. That means tonight can be another night of exploring and hopefully a good night for a run if it quits raining.

I'm going to run downstairs for some candy and maybe to take a few pictures because Dave's been harassing me.