the upper hand

i am relcutant to admit it, but i had been a bit down on korea lately. perhaps it was the persistent rain that was supposed to stop in the beginning of august but hadnt; perhaps it was the lifecycle of an english teacher in korea, where friends are continually finishing their contracts and leaving the country, as one of mine did friday; perhaps it was the fact that i still have the korean whooping cough which, for the past 4 days, has rendered me entirely unable to speak. for whatever reason, korea and i had been duking it out in my mind for the past few days. the debate was not in a "will i make it here?" sort of way, that i will goes without saying. no, the grappling was more in a "how will i make it here?" manner, that is, how will i take the way of life here and adapt myself to fit into it.

i went on a couple of long runs in the past few days, despite the obvious handicap of the aforementioned bronchitis/pneumonia. these runs took me over to the river where it was possible to see the great variation of korean life. on the weekdays, the fields between the highways and the water are vast wastelands with patchy grass. on saturday, however, they were transformed into cultural hotbeds of activity. beneath one overpass sat 12 older women practicing korean music with bongos and gongs. moving forward, a man was testing out his parachute in the strong wind. cranes were everywhere, a feature i hadnt noticed before. and, once i crossed over the river to return on the other side, i got caught up in a strip of tot bumblebee soccer games. for some reason, the combination of all of these things made me feel as though i do have some connection to korea after all. i finished the run feeling as though korea had redeemed herself.

today, on a similar run, i was crossing a busy street via an underpass. as i began to descend the stairs, i was bombarded by people going the other direction. little people. 4 year old people. 45 of them. 45 little 4 year old people screaming hello. wearing gold lame' cowboy suits. well played, korea, well played.