Kim Jong-il died. I know that is about the least important thing that I could discuss here, and obviously old news as it pertains to the world, but it did have an impact that I won't soon forget. Soon after that news broke, I was sleeping when I was awoken by the loudest bang I had heard in recent memory. I sat up and listened as a rumble lingered. It kept lingering for a long time. In that long time, I rationalized that North Korea had nuked Daegu because of its high U.S. military presence and the mushroom cloud was coming for me and I was surely going to die. It turned out to just be thunder from a lightning bolt that landed nearby.
Look at that glowing face over the Kimjongilias and Mt. Baekdu where he was born under a double rainbow and brought forth on the back of a unicorn. You will be missed, Dear Leader.
There are two linking events to Kim Jong-il's death. First, Whitney Houston also died since last we met. Let's get a picture of her up here so we can honor the hell out of her, too.
Sorry, I'm still really broken up about Dear Leader. It's always the good ones that are stolen from us before we're ready.
I can't say I was surprised when I heard, but, you know, the world exploded and now we're going to hear her songs everywhere and see a new documentary and her doctor might go to jail for giving her drugs. I've been singing "I Wanna Run To You" all week.
The second linking event is that, on a fine winter afternoon soon before I was to depart for the motherland, I stepped into my favorite hair dresser (barber? I don't think so) to get my ears lowered. There was a very old woman in there getting a perm. I sat down next to her, and to my surprise, she spoke English remarkably well. We got to talking, and it turns out she was born in North Korea. When the war broke out, she defected to Seoul and then was forced to move again when the early Northern invasion swept over the peninsula. She ended up going to the University of Maryland and became a doctor, meeting her future husband (from Daegu). Her son lives in Fairfax. Small world. I really wish I could have talked to her for longer about her experience because I'll probably never see her again. It's rare to meet a Korean with such an interesting story who speaks English well enough to tell it to me.
Let's see. I found my new apartment. Let me see if I can find a picture of it to show you.
Apartment specs: It's approximately the same size as the old one, slightly nicer, and above ground level (only by one floor). This means that there hopefully will not be any mold, bugs, or intruding landlords. It's further away from my school, which means a longer walk in the morning and actively remembering where I live when stumbling home on Saturday night.
I visited Amurrica. I'm going to keep the details of that trip locked away in my memory for centuries to come, except for one small part. And I will cover that in another post to give myself something to write about and to keep you coming back. Next time on World Class Flaneur: Gettysburg.
