Coming back from Taejon yesterday morning it amazed me how green the mountains have become in the two weeks since I had last seen them in daylight.
During that time winter was signalled officially over by the massive erruption of magnolia blossoms which happenned countrywide within a couple of days. Over the next few days the cherry blossoms started to peek out in a much more subtle manner so that one day I was
walking down the street and amazed by the sheer brilliance of delicacy. This was a phenomenon intrinsic to my planning and I'm really glad I got to see it. The cherry blossoms are beautiful and so transient i believe if it was the first or fiftieth time you had seen them come out, never could this be taken for granted. Sitting in the park a week ago I rejoiced in the rain of blossoms departing the trees and sleeting across my head. This morning in the same
space I note that they have all disappeared, the countryside and the cities alike now covered in a myriad of green, so much more refreshing than the uniform brown that covered everything in winter.
The last month or so has been really challenging, in new and expected ways. Korea is a highly urbanised culture. My apartment is nice but looks out upon another and gets no direct light, in fact gets very little light full stop. Korean is a culture of workaholics and people always seems to be rushing somewhere, thinking about the next thig they have to be doing. Watching an ajama jogging laps of the park this morning, she seems impatient to be finished, there is no natural flow or pace to her running; somehow stilted i conclude after watching her for a
while. I spend a lot of time trying to fathom Korean culture, something I have never done before when o/s. A country caught between an ancient history and a rush to modernise, ruthlessly efficient with bizarre gaping holes in the infrastructure.
I find myself picking up on the tangible stress in the air and magniying it into old redundant behaviours. Even the plants seem to be able to survive on fluroesccent lighting here, something that has always made me feel slightly schizophrenic. Looking after my mental health has become a top priority and I wonder how long I can survive here without going past some as
yet undetermined boundary of compromise.
Last week I bought a cheap bike and have been seeking out park space so i can feed my vitamin D addiction and stay somewhat grounded. Its totally wicked having a bike again. A cheap form of prostitution when I think of cheating on my bike back home but it fills a need and leaves me feeling more like me again. Korean bike culture is quite cool. Noone rides on the roads, even the motorbikes ride on the footpaths here. And unlike Australia where I wouldn't leave my bike unlocked for two seconds, people leave their bikes locked up to nothing all day, a locked wrapped around a frame to imobilise the wheel. I went to the supermarket last night and left my bike freestanding outside for half an hour with no worries.
On the weekend I went to an island called Sapsido, off the west coast of Korea. The island is astonishingly rural after mainland life. Subsistence farmers and fisherman unashamedly overchange tourists and foreigners so they can feed their children. Small prefabricated shacks line the coastline and the community smells of hard work, hard living and poverty. A truth hung around the island that seems to have been obliterated by computer game warfare on the
mainland.
After a beautiful hot week it rained most of the weekend which was initially disappionting but calmness seeped into my consciousness as fog enveloped the island. I scavenged for seashells and peered into rockpools and remembered about nature and wondered for the two hundred and twenty third time what I'm doing living in the 4th biggest city in the world.
So there's a small chance next time you hear from me i may have thrown my fortune to the winds and be looking for new existence opportunities; on the other hand I really want to stick it out until september and treat the next few months as a big growing and learning experience. Life has been unnaturally easy since bailing oz.