I have many interesting pictures I want to share with you, but they are not really connected in any way. Just like my thoughts that I record on this blog--I find them all fascinating kernels of thought, yet they aren't really connected and end up sounding like well you know, diarrehea of the mouth.

Hopefully the photos will load tonite, as it is primetime to load in the states. It is almost feeling too cold for me to ride my bike home. Yesterday (Monday) we had a cold front move through after the drizzle turned hard rain on Sunday, October 22, 2006. So yesterday I rode the subway turned soju-express. On the way to work it is fine and I usually enjoy some music or a few pages of my current novel (now it is The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan). But after I have gotten used to the fresh air of my bike ride home every night, it is difficult to get used to the soju fumes coming off all the salarymen. It is akin to going into a bar that is riddled with smoke and then feeling like you've smoked a pack of ciggies. Except, you have just drunk a bottle of soju! Well, maybe it's not like that exactly.

One of the photos that I hope loads is of my trading card collection. Since I have moved to Bundang, usually bi-nightly you can find these little cards stuck in every car parked on the street outside of my apartment. This is one reason I like riding my bike home because you see, I am collecting these cards. So it is like Christmas when I see there is a new line out. Tonite was one such night. I scored four new cards to add to my collection. Perhaps in 50 years these will be retro cards like pin-up women from the 50s in America. They are double sided cards usually with two different photos, if not two different girls in different poses, wearing different outfits. Sometimes there is just one photo with an advertisement with the phone number on the reverse. They vary from slutty to sexy to prudish and obviously there are all types (sizes) of girls. I am not clear on if this is just a phone sex operating service or if it is essentially call-a-prostitute. How did these girls get in that line of work or did they just pose for the pictures and then they have other jobs? Maybe it was just a one time modeling opportunity to make some extra cash. Maybe I can do that along side working at the academy! Wouldn't that be fantastic!--the kid's parents come out of a restaurant and see a picture of their kid's teacher is a school girl outfit with a short skirt. (Looks like these photos will not load tonite)

Another of these pictures is of a cathedral printed on a skrim that hangs over construction. It is very strange and I can't really figure it out. Can you figure it out from the picture?

Additionally here is a photo of a mask I bought this weekend in Namdaemun Market. My school branch is 'requiring' us to dress up for halloween for two days, so both sets of classes can have some spookey fun. I figure rather than dress up as a bouquet of flowers (paste fake flowers to a hat, wear all green and wrap myself with a piece of newspaper and a ribbon) or Kim Jong Il, I'll save the utter embarassment of a terrible costume with a hideous can't lose mask. I will definately load more photos of myself and Sam masked (I will keep mis mask a secret until the photos are unveiled). But I put my mask on in the subway and I received some snickers from young and old alike. THEN, an older Korean fella started essentially yelling at me. I didn't really know what to do as my voice was muffled in the mask PLUS I can't really speak Korean. So then Sam tells him, "She's American," in Korean. He keeps going on and then I feel like an idiot like perhaps Korea is like parts of America.... Maybe there are laws against wearing masks in public places like that for fear you are going to rob someone or that you are a terrorist. And then I thought maybe there was some obscure Korean custom that I never read about and maybe I was offending everyone. Hence, I took the mask off and then another old man said, "Rude. That's better. More polite."

I asked my Korean counterpart coworkers to which they responded that maybe the older Korean folks are just of another generation and cannot understand anything new, hip, or different. They said that I didn't do anything wrong (just so I can set the record straight for any of you that plan to come to Korea to wear a mask on the subway) and it should be fine.

The other photo is of an undergarmets vendor watching t.v. at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night.