Concerning my view

That's right my trusty captive audience, it's the first mid-week post since...oh...September. You caught me in a writing mood, or well I caught you in my writing mood I suppose. I'm a little restless and can't sleep so I resorted to what has become a little habit of watching cars driving by in my dark apartment. I swear this is not the mad axe-murderer practice that it seems. I've mentioned before that my apartment is on the 10th floor, and it's almost on the corner of one of the behemoth Matrix-style-growing-field complexes. And, it's on the busiest street in Daejeon. So, it almost feels like I have my little isolated perch from which to keep tabs on the city. I frequently imagine that the road is a giant vein and I'm watching the pulse of cars passing through. If I get up at 4 AM for a drink of water, I kind of "check the city"- a little glimpse at what has, in my mind, become "my road" to check that everything's still running as it should and briefly speculate about what they're doing driving through the city at 4 AM.

I see this side of Daejeon every day and it has become a familiar face, so in many ways I'm surprised I haven't really mentioned it before. So, a portrait. Well, the most interesting thing is the road which I said before. It kind of became a game to me where I like to "catch it" unawares when it's empty but this is rare- even at those 4 AM checkups the pavement is never void for long. It's kind of this same silly satisfaction that you get when someone you're close to trusts you with an unflattering secret or something when there aren't any cars. And yes, I realize I just personified the road as a thing that I have a relationship with...maybe I've been living alone for a liiiitttle too long. Ahem. I will say in it's defense that it is a very well behaved road, though, I hear maybe 4 honks a week tops, I so love polite Korean drivers. (Although being in a taxi here feels unnervingly like the Indiana Jones ride in Disney World) Well, to continue the aerial tour, then there's the opposite apartment building because mine is one of a million cookie cutters that dot the entire country. I do a surprisingly little amount of people watching- mainly because the planners were smart and made the buildings face the same way so that my big window faces the opposite's little window side. I haven't really seen anything worthwhile whilst washing my dishes or anything so that's the unexpectedly boring right side to the view. The other huge part of it, on the left side, is the biggest church in Daejeon, complete with a dome, tower, and subtle fifty foot floodlit cross with another mini cross on top of it juuuuusst to be on the safe side. I will say that I very much appreciated the floodlights when it was snowing though, it lit the whole air up with flurries and it was totally magic. It has a delightful coffee shop that I go to now and again. And...beyond the church there's a crane that's been there the entire five months. They're constructing a new high rise building just up the road and luckily they haven't gotten very far because beyond that, I can see a tiny bit of Government Complex park and beyond that, more high rises. It is surprisingly non-Asian until I crane my neck to the very left and see the sparkling neon blue lights flashing the "POP" and "JAZZ" signs. I've always meant to check out that bar. There is also the S-Oil gas station with its own understated shade of blinding neon. This particular station has a hidden talent though. It's only a dinky, squat little station but it's light has managed to defy gravity, crane up ten floors and sneak inside my balcony windows, in through my double paned bedroom windows directly to my bed. We are not talking an aura or a corona, this is a yellow laser beam. It overturns the laws of physics. But, we've made our peace and I sleep fine now. Except when I stay up writing of course.

This whole thing is symptomatic of my whole time in Korea. I'm 10 levels up and similarly, I can't escape that I am always and irrevocably foreign. I am on the outside looking in or down or through the fishbowl. I'm not as frustrated by this as I was maybe two months ago because it does give me perspectives completely denied to Koreans. I have the luxury of comparison and distance and it's taken me quite a long time to see this as a potential tool and not a hindrance. In England, let's be honest, I was practically more English than the English so this is new like everything else here. But, it's not without merit. One more little cultural snippet I recently came upon was during a conversation with some of my Korean friends about cultural branding and how projecting a defined national identity is very much related to business prospects. These are like cultural buzz words developed as a particular national image is projected over time. For example, say US and people may think of burgers, movies, freedom, individuality, greed, any number of things. But, as I've said before, Korea has practically zero cultural branding. They have not had the resources or leisure to be entirely self-conscious. As Korea continues to economically develop which it most certainly will, this will both be a cause and effect of it's future trajectory. We talked a little bit about what that national brand identity may pan out to be- anything from K-Pop mega-stars to the boiling stew of emotion known as Korean dramas to kimchi. My favorite candidate is this concept known as "cheong". I just learned about it- or rather I knew about it but I learned the term to describe it. It's nearly impossible to translate into English but it encompasses concepts like solicitousness and hospitality and tact all into one. It really bottom-lines into this pervasive concern for others. I have really felt this during my time here- people calling taxis, paying for meals, polite and courteous texts. Everything and anything is done to maintain the exalted social fabric of Korea. This is one of my favorite things here and I am satisfied to have a better word than "nice" with which to elaborate.

So, that was my late(ish) might musing. I do hope, as I've said before, that people leave a comment or two. I've read this in other people's blogs and totally agree that writing on the internet feels completely one sided like I'm mainly writing to myself, so it's really validating to have that contradicted with replies. So, hit that button. You know you want to.