Warning: Not for Children or Anyone Sensitive

While Sheryl Crow and Etta James rock me to sleep, memories of the day float in tiny bubbles above my head...

So, I get up to write...
Here's what got splashed onto the page this time...

We found a Costco today! I couldn't, for the life of me, tell you where exactly it was; I blindly followed my pack of friends while being amazed, still, at how much people push and shove without remoarse, and also at the array of condoms and breath mints packed tightly in vending machines in the subway terminal. How appropriate to have all of this stowed neatly in one little box, right? ... Merely a few thousand won away from a breath-freshening, immoral time, huh?! ;)

Since we had goodies spewing from our arms due to our first CostCo experience, we took a taxi back. Wow. I don't think any other word could quite describe it better than that: WOW. I'm pretty certain I gained a handful of pre-mature wrinkles on my face due to all the expressions I made on that life-threatening ride "home." I'll just have to consider my part of the cab fare to have been a short, cheap visit to Six Flags, to justify the experience.

So far, at school, I'm basically either a zoo animal or a celebrity; it's difficult to decipher which exactly, at this point, since I don't know what actual words are lashing from their tongues.

I've become quite accustomed to saying, "Mian amnida, hongu gauder chall buteo." (I'm sorry, I don't speak Korean well.") I realized, recently, that for the longest time, I'd been asking people on the street if they speak Korean, instead of English. ("Excuse me, do you speak Korean?" LOL!) Although the two words, in Korean, sound similar, they truly are NOT interchangeable! ;) How funny is that...?! 'Cracks me up when I think about it. :)

Although I miss everyone dearly, I haven't really experienced what I thought I would be experiencing at this moment in time as "culture shock". A few of us had a discussion regarding the topic yesterday, and someone's two cents were spent on, "I think we're just still in the 'honeymoon' stage." Money well spent, if you ask me... I think that must be it; I'm sure it will hit me soon enough. I'm not quite sure which phase comes next, but as quickly as this sojourn has been going so far, it could quite possibly nail me in the next minute or two.

Today, I went to Dongdaemun Stadium with Katie and Candice. It used to be used for athletic events, but now is being utilized as a giant flea market. (My brother, Kyle, would be ecstatic. ;) ) Like everything else I have experienced in this country, it is just too much. This is a country of extremes, indeed. However, if you need anything from shoes & belts to XXX S&M Japanese flicks, to cooking pots and tea makers or dildoes with rubbery spurs portruding from them (?? not sure what purpose those serve, but whatever... I'll happily live in ignorance on that bit ;), to brass knuckles and ninja stars, this is the place for you. The most disturbing item was a silicone fetus at one of the "sexier" booths - with a HOLE in it, even, according to Katie. (I'd refused to look that long to be able to tell whether that was the case.)

(*If ignorance truly is bliss, then I'm BLISSFUL that I'm ignorant because I really don't even want to know about most of what goes on in this world...)

Of course, tons of people have been inquiring about that rumor of dog-eating. Yes, my friends, it is true that they do, in fact, devour man's best friend. If that isn't enough to bother you (I mean, hey, it bothers people in India that we would smash a hamburger, right?), then I invite you to my efficiency apartment late at night, when all is dark except for a few city lights gleaming through the window; when the city is mostly quiet, except for high-pitched wails from a dog being beaten to death, in the distance.

Yes, beaten.

Why did your jaw just drop to the floor? Come on, what's wrong with that? It tenderizes it better when they beat the dog-meat while it's still alive, you know. Plus, the adrenaline that is excreted during the beating is good for male virility.

Totally justifiable, right??

It makes me want to quit teaching people how to speak English and teach them how to be humane, instead.

Seriously.

My God.

Yes, I'm very disturbed by the dog thing.
I've heard different stories; some have said that at one time, meat was not readily available so that is why they had to eat dog in the first place (which, personally, I have to understand, in a way, being a Libra and all), and that nowadays, it's typically older males (who are accustomed to eating it) that consume it.
Either way, it's still going on.
The weirdest part is that they also have dogs as household pets.
??!!

Well, I can't very well leave on such a note, so I will have you know that all in all, today was a good day, as I was able to score all kinds of hot bargains at the 1000-won shop (basically, the dollar store).

Maybe it's the small things in life that make us want to keep living (selfishly).