where the wild things are

My last couple walks up Namsan have revealed a mountain waking up: I saw a large spider crawling across the road on a cold evening, and yesterday I saw squirrels (no relation to the weasel pictured below).

The other night I was walking downhill, and a gaggle of young, 20-something Japanese tourists began walking down with me. Four of them-- three girls and a guy. They were loud. Maybe it's an East Asian thing, or maybe it's a tourist thing, or maybe it's a city-person thing, but these folks had no appreciation for quiet. It's actually nice to be walking down Namsan at night, with the trees filing by and the city's glowing sprawl below you. So I slowed down and let the group pass. Jabber, jabber, jabber.

Lots of illegally parked cars last night. None of them was bouncing, though; no Korean signs saying, "If this Grandeur's rockin', don't come a-knockin'." I found those cars obnoxious, too-- first, they were illegally parked; second, their owners weren't doing jack shit. Just sitting there and smoking or listening to loud music.

Oh, yeah-- as I neared the top last night, I had the chance to see the end of an altercation: a taxi driver had thrown out a passenger (I think that's what happened), and it sounded like the passenger, some drunk asshole, had refused to pay the driver. The driver said his share of "i kae-saekgi-ya!"s, got back in his car, and screeched off.

Sweat, sweat, and more sweat-- the story of my new life. I sweat just taking the elevator; I'm a sweaty guy. Part of that is overweight, but part is just a natural follicular exuberance. Not much I can do about it. I've had to increase the rate at which I do my laundry: I run out of clean tees and sweatshirts too quickly now.

No word from Smoo yet. I assume they didn't accept me, since they'd said we'd be informed on Wednesday. I'll email their office later today to be sure. It'd suck not to make it in, but such is life.

Gotta go look for armpit deodorant now. It's for your own safety.


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