Book Recommendations

Since I get the chance for a lot of reading in Korea (and since I bought a bunch of super cheap, illegally photocopied books in Vietnam), here are, briefly, my recommendations.


Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

Man, this is some throwback to the 1970's, when tofu was still a novel "food." But in a rather awesome way. As the cover flap claims, it "deals with the problem of redheads."

My favorite quote:
"Who knows how to make love stay?

1. Tell love you are going to Junior's Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if loves stays, it can have half. It will stay.

2. Tell love you want a momento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a moustache on your face. Find love. Tell it you are someone new. It will stay.

3. Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning." 



Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

A month after finishing this, I am still puzzling over what this book was about. I think that says something about both its engagingness and it's amount of making me really effing confused. Awesome.

"The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory."





The Quiet American by Graham Greene

I read this while traveling through Vietnam. Graham Greene's writing is amazing, as is his take on the situation in Vietnam leading up to the Vietnam War.

"If only it were possible to love without injury – fidelity isn’t enough: I had been faithful to Anne and yet I had injured her. The hurt is in the act of possession: we are too small in mind and body to possess another person without pride or to be possessed without humiliation."

"I wish sometimes you had a few bad motives, you might understand a little more about human beings."  





Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I feel I should strive to read at least 1 in 2 classics. Truth be told, I generally stay away from contemporary fiction. This book was amazing.

On a side note, as my friend pointed out, Marquez seems to have a fixation with erotic enemas - they're mentioned in almost all of his novels. Please don't let this dissuade you from reading this book.



And that is all for now.

A Brief Love Note

Dear Korea,

For the past few months, our relationship has felt a little rocky. I never stopped loving you (you're awesome! I feel like we get along so well) but, well, you really let yourself go over winter.

I have to tell you, though, that whatever you have been doing recently is working for you. Cause daaaamn, Korea, you are looking so fine.

XOXO,

Brooke

Gangnam (where I occasionally drink and carouse and am merry.)

It's been getting so warm here that I feel the urge to walk everywhere. Today, I woke up with a random craving for rice cakes, and decided I would stroll northward to find some.

I walked for a very long time until I came to the freeway. So, I walked over the freeway. 

The bike path over the freeway is pretty.

I ended up walking to Hangang Park. It is just now becoming spring. How beautiful.

In the background in the National Assembly building.

I climbed up some stairs.

 Hey, ajosshi, get out of my picture!

Then I walked along the raised path that runs around Yeouido. Yeouido is an "island" by my house where rich people live. They also broadcast TV shows.

Cherry blossoms!

The cherry blossoms were beautiful and so I was happy.

Yeouido park

Then I bought some egg bread and ate it in the park. It was delicious. This took about two and a half hours. The walking, not the eating an egg biscuit. I never did find any rice cakes, though. Man, I get up to random things when I'm hungover.

Mmmm, egg bread

Ballet Classes in Seoul

As I mentioned previously, I've started taking ballet classes here in Seoul. So far, it has been a great experience. I'm in the 기초반 (beginners) class twice a week.

It's a strange development for me. I always hated dance when I was younger. It was so embarrassing and I was so awkward. Perhaps getting older has given me more poise. More likely, living in Korea this long has forced me to get comfortable with getting stared at and feeling awkward. I've become much harder to embarrass.

Most of these places do require you to buy dance attire but it's available for pretty cheap. Jongno 3-ga station exit 15 has tons of dance stores. A leotard, shoes, tights and a skirt or shorts will probably cost around 45,000 won.

Although ballet is becoming very popular with Koreans, it's still pretty difficult to find information in English about classes. For anyone who lives near Hongdae, here's what I know if you want to jump on the boat too.


Genie Ballet Academy
www.genieballet.com
This is where I go. I'm told they follow the Vaganova style. Classes are 120,000 won for twice a week classes and 150,00 won for three times a week classes.

Schedule of Classes for Genie Ballet

Directions to Genie Ballet: Go to Hongik University station exit 2. Turn left at the gas station and walk to the end of the street. Genie Ballet is in the building next to the bakery on the 4th floor.


Na Seonyeong Ballet Academy
http://www.balletstudio.net/

From their website, their schedule is as follows:
MWF 7:30 - 8:30 am
        10:30 - 12:00 pm
        6:00 - 7:30 pm
        7:30 - 9:00 pm
TTh   6:00 - 7:30 pm
        8:00 - 9:30 pm
Sat   1:30 - 3:00 pm
Sun  11:30 - 1:00 pm

Directions to Na Seonyeong Ballet Academy: Go to Hongik University station exit 2. Go straight past the gas station and walk for about 100 meters. It is on the second floor.



Hongdae Dance Academy
This place offers two and three-times a week classes. There's also a drop-in class on Saturdays, though I've never been myself.

Directions to Hongdae Dance Academy: Go to Sangsu station exit 1.  Turn around out of the exit and walk toward the park. Hongdae Dance Academy will be about two blocks down on the second floor.

Good Advice

"Ok, Class, let's practice giving suggestions. So, I don't have any money. What should I do?"

"Teacha, why don't you get a job?"

"Thanks, Jinsol, you sound just like my father."


"Alright, I'm in love with someone but he doesn't know it. What should I do?"

"Why don't you forget him?"
"Why don't you attract him?"
"Teacha, why don't you get some plastic surgery?"

Thanks, kids.

Gmarket, You Are Evil But Glorious

I am a tall girl. When I told my students my height during a lesson, they actually pointed and shouted “really? 177??? REALLY??!!!” I love living here, but being the same height as many Korean men can sometimes be rough, mostly when it comes to shopping.

Point being, it is hard to find clothes and shoes sometimes. Here comes in Gmarket (www.gmarket.com). This site is basically the ebay of Korea - individuals buy and sell stuff online. It works perfectly with the Korean style of having a thousand small businesses that all sell basically the same thing. It further embodies everything Koreans seems to love by being incredibly cheap and massively overstimulating.

It can be a little challenging to navigate for foreigners, even with its “English” website, since most of the information provided by the seller is still in Korean. However, don’t let this deter you! They ship the the US too! OMFG!

With my small range of Korea skills, I've become fairly efficient at shopping. For anything larger than a medium in clothes or a size 8 in shoes, you search for "빅사이즈" - "Big Size" in Hangul. Or, you can just use the helpful tabs at the top of the screen (to anyone reading this who actually knows Korean, please don't laugh too much at my pathetic-ness).

Look! I bought this cool blazer!

And these shoes (only $20)!

And a wig!!

And so, so much other crap I don't need.

I'll leave you with this photo.

Don't I look Korean? ^_^