September 11th, 2001

Was it really seven years ago?

I woke up early that morning, to feed the landlord's horses. I came upstairs to collect the dogfood the landlady set out for me every Tuesday morning, and she had the TV on. I'm pretty sure she was crying.

I listened to the radio most of the morning, and then biked limpidly to my university to be around other people. Most people were in the student lounge, watching the widescreen TV, and I remember being upset that they kept repeating the footage of those damn buildings going down. I was outraged that by the evening of the SAME DAY, I was already getting desensitized to a set of images that should NEVER cease to shock anyone, fucking ever. I watched President Bush's address in the evening, and felt apprehensive when he said he would also consider any country harbouring terrorists as an enemy: I remember saying to somebody that day, "I hope they go after Bin Laden with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer."

By sheer coincidence, the next day the Red Cross had been scheduled to have a blood donation clinic in one of the residence lounges, and students from my school packed the station out all day long: we had to reserve times.

It was a bit later before I saw this: satire website The Onion's greatest moment, their 9/11 issue, which somehow, magically, managed to capture the equal parts fury and fear that everyone felt those first two weeks, while making us laugh all the harder for feeling so sad together.

The 9/11 Onion: the headline at the time was "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" and that pretty much summed up what everybody thought when they found out.

What I Love about Korean Middle-Aged People:

They not only do stuff like this. . .
they put together a temporary stage, and do it in public!
(note especially the old lady haircuts, which are EXACTLY like old lady haircuts in Canada.)


Ajummas play a funny role in Korean society. . . they're a much maligned group known for elbowing people to get empty subway seats and bawling out vendors in harpy voices for refusing to cut another bit off the haggled-price, but then, they can be hilarious and charming sometimes, too.

(Ajumma at her worst:)


(at 2:35 in this video, Halmoni -- the older, meaner version of ajumma, shows up and basically terrorizes everybody for the rest of the song)


However, sometimes Ajumma can just be wonderfully fun. Here's another story about a delightful encounter with the Korean Ajumma.

For you Expats in Korea who like to get worked up about things. . .

Here.  Go have fun with this. The comment board is actually a howl to read (linked from The Marmot Hole's sponsors) -- especially when, uh, Gerry gets involved.

It's like putting two bees in a jar and shaking the jar.

What to do for Chusok?

As we all know, it's either impossible, or hella frustrating to travel during Chusok.

If you're stuck in Seoul, and all your Korean friends are out of town, I feel for ya.

Here is my list of things to do:

Wander around the abandoned (or nearly abandoned) downtown areas. It's absolutely eerie.

Don't go to Lotte World or Everland: families go there, in lieu of leaving town and getting stuck in traffic. You'll never see it so crowded.

photo from here. Yes, I KNOW this one's actually Tokyo, but you get the point about crowding, yah?

Go to the palaces: almost every palace has something going on at Chusok, events, demonstrations, cultural whatchamacallits.
And, Roboseyo Recommends: Namsangol Folk Village, by Chungmuro Station always puts on a show at Chusok, with tons of traditional performances to see on the main stage.
More to do here.
Or, Roboseyo REALLY recommends:
Because everybody's out of town, and it's September, Chusok is the best time to get out and hit the mountains around Seoul. Here are directions to a few (I like Inwang Mountain myself), but personally, I recommend heading to the north end of the light blue subway line, getting out at Sanggye Station, looking around, and heading for high ground. (Bukhansan is popular, too.)More on mountains in Seoul from Galbijim.

and who knows: maybe I'll see you up on the hills.

Yeh.  The mountains.

Move Over, Paul McCartney, there's a new King (Jong-Il) in Town

As you know, back in the '60s, there was a rumor that Paul McCartney had died, and been replaced by a lookalike name William Campbell, who could be distinguished from the original Paul by a scar on his upper lip. The link above catalogues the clues supposedly left in album art and lyrics on the Beatles' albums recorded after that. (The Wikipedia entry.)

Now, a Japanese Professor is claiming that Kim Jong-Il, too, died, way back in 2003, and was replaced by a lookalike. They claim voice and height discrepancies to support the theory. . . hard to confirm when the guy's the most well-protected recluse in the world. More here.

While I'm pretty sure Paul's death was a hoax, it's also pretty likely North Korea would crumble within the week if word leaked that the Dear Leader was actually the Dearly Departed Leader. . . there's also news that old Kimmy collapsed last month, though as always, this kind of stuff is impossible to confirm, when the national North Korean press agency releases announcements that their dear leader completed a round of golf at 38 under par, while wrestling off man-eating tigers, learning Arabic in a week, and impregnating North Korea's fair virgins with his sheer charisma and a special Baby Gaze he perfected during a week of meditation three feet above the peak of Geumgang Mountain.

Still. . . watch carefully, ladies and gentlemen. Things might get really interesting around here.