what are some ways to relieve stress?

that was the question on my students homework and i just love one of his answers. i can't remember anything else he wrote but this (not verbatim):

"sports are a good way to relieve stress because you get sweaty and then take a shower and feel like you're flying"

i'm sure i made a few grammatical corrections for the boy, but he the point is he did shed light on something new and interesting to me.

please excuse me now, i'm heading to the gym.

the chungking express

i don't usually watch movies twice; i have a strict rule about that. or three or four times. but the chungking express isn't a movie that you quickly tire of. written and directed by my favorite, wong-kar wai, is a film in which there is not one line that is not memorable. the characters have flaws and quirks that make you fall in love with them, with the featured couple, tony leung and faye wong positively exuding energy on screen. if you love movies that are quiety sublime and tell a story far deeper than superficiality, i highly recommend this film.

and you can stream it here for free if you just download veoh, which is quick and painless (and not some spam software).
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/entertainment/watch/v6243282XcwtTpSs

the knowledge

prejudice NO
ignorance NO
bigotry NO
illiteracy NO

get the knowledge

get the point?
good, let's dance.

rain

yesterday i had a very strange experience "meeting" rain. i put "meeting" in quotation marks because it was more along the lines of stalking.

i met my old classmate yesterday after not seeing her for about ten months. shiho, said classmate, is a rabid kpop fan and even revealed to me yesterday that the reason she stopped studying korean after nine months is because she wanted to chase the kpop idols around seoul while they carried out their various activities. she even showed me a picture of rain who she coincidentally bumped into last month in seoul.

this prompted a very long conversation about rain's recent comeback activities and how much more handsome he has gotten. we wondered if had bones in his body because he recently made famous a dance that certainly can't be performed with a spine.

fast-forward to us leaving the cafe and there he was. i saw him first and made eye contact and there was nothing nonchalant about my shocked and confused facial expression, i'm sure. then shiho saw him, the superstar with poreless, glowing skin, walking along friends/security on the streets of fukuoka. how is it that we see him here, of all places? well, probably because he has a concert here tonight that neither of us "fans" knew about.

so after doubled over a little, my rabid fan friend shiho grabbed me and made me follow him to starbucks where we waited outside for about fifteen minutes wondering how we should approach him. the entire time i was starting to get stick to my stomach, just wanting to leave him in peace. soon enough, he came out and shiho then stalked him into a store where we waited outside for thirty minutes for him. she managed to get a handshake out of him but he wasn't being so friendly.

meanwhile, i was completely doubled over in embarrassment at this point. while he was shopping, his friends/security were outside and told shiho to please just leave him alone. and since i just wanted to get the hell out of there i went up to them and pleaded with them to convince him to take a picture with her quickly so it could be over. no such thing would happen. only more toture awaited me as i constantly had to argue with shiho about what to do. i felt like i was stuck between a rock and a hard place: it's my friend's dream to meet these people and i hadn't seen her for 10 months but i felt so uncomfortable stalking him.

the entire ordeal had a very anti-climatic ending. i spent most of the time sitting down with the security guard shooting the shit while shiho called every rain fan in her phonebook while positioning herself to cut him off at the shop's entrance. well, he left with his entourage and shiho pleaded with me to continue to follow them and after all of the fuss was over, they had disappeared.

the morale to this story however is you can do, or in this case, see, anything two obsessed fans put their mind to.

things i didn't miss about korea / things i don't miss about nyc

things i didn't miss about korea:

absolutely no enforcement of smoking laws and regulations make it impossible to escape clouds of toxicity.

the smelly fart odor that lingers on the street, seemingly in bubbles.

having to re-enter the closet of repression.

trying to have relationships with gays that have never left the closet of repression.

things i don't miss about nyc:

tipping!

the complete lack of any structured subway schedule.

loud, disgusting, obnoxious, rude, inconsiderate, unaware people that abounded in the mass transit areas.

having to worry about where i was going to find my next bathroom and how much i would have to pay for it.

rants

is it just me or does it seem like every person in the city of seoul goes out of their way to obstruct my walking path? traveling on foot here is just as annoying as traveling by car, where pedestrians forgo any and all traffic laws and where you can reach a brisk pace one minute and then the next stopped in a stand-still. i really need to move out of sinchon, a.k.a. the gateway to me losing my sanity-land.

also, while it relatively pain-free to open a bank account here, restrictions still apply. restrictions that prevent me from ever using my card as debit or taking out money from the same banking institution after working hours without paying a fee! that is absolutely ludicrous.

many problems for foreigners in korea after they arrive arise from trying to procure a mobile telephone or anything of semblance to it. if you don't have an immigration, which often takes weeks to get, you can just as well forget about telecommunication. that is, unless you go to the back alley in itaewon where pakistani vendors will sell you a cellular phone you swore you saw on full house. well, they're not that bad but they are incredibly user-unfriendly. simple tasks like writing and sending a text message can take up to !five minutes and there are no "page twos" force you to convey what you want in 80 characters or less or else send it mid sentence and then start an entirely new message. on top of this, switching between letters, numbers, and languages can be up to five keystrokes and simply turning the phone on silent requires searching and paging through a series of menus. is the inconvenience of using a cell phone worth the convenience of having one?

missing II

bluetooth stereo headphones

indestructible, non-odor absorbing nalgene water bottle

cropped lambskin leather jacket

my mind

IF FOUND PLEASE CALL 123-456-7898.
REWARD OFFERED.

missing

navy blue cotton shorts with a foldover waist detail and cuff

beige boat shorts with wide waistband

navy blue sheen pleated shorts with black button details

tuxedo shorts with pocket flap details

black samsung cell phone that slides open

IF FOUND PLEASE CALL 567-869-6463 (LOST MY MIND)

the kochenash family

as i mature, the more i don't know what to think about my family. i love them, but i really resent all of those things that are out of my control. for example, being raised in such a non-nuclear family. i absolutely regret the fact that my entire family doesn't live close together but moreover, i get upset by some member's complete lack of interest in each other. it's a really hard thing when you carve out a chunk of your life to dedicate to spend time with your family and they don't care. we travel miles to be together and one spends the entire night watching baseball while at the dinner table and the other won't stop flirting with his constant appendages.

most of all though, i'd like to know when family stops being family. when they do you favors but expect something in return? when they continually hold non-issues over your head? when during times of trouble, they prefer to blame you for each and every wrong instead of taking your side?

for these reasons, i don't think i'll ever be close to my family. they certainly don't make it worth it.

my real family is my friends, make no bones about it.

my regularly scheduled programming

well, i'm back in gurnee and there's not much to say about it. so instead of bore you with a recap of my mother's bootcamp, i'll bore you instead with my daily viewing pleasures.

9-10: Oprah
10-11: The View
11-12: The Wendy Williams Show
12-2: Wife Swap
2-3: misc.
3-4: Ellen
4-5: sometimes Tyra, sometimes misc.
5-8: nothing scheduled
8-10: whatever the shows of the night are
Monday: nothing
Tuesday: Idol or Glee
Wednesday: ANTM or Idol
Thursday: Real Housewives
and if I make it until 10.....
10-11: Repeat of The O'Reilly Factor

literally, i have nothing to do here. my biggest acccomplishment has been adjusting to this new television schedule after having eastern pacific airtimes ingrained in my brain. sometimes i work out, depending on how many different gyms i can fool into thinking i'm actually going to join. i cook healthy meals for my mother. i drive places to go exercise and then reflect on the fact that i spend more time actually driving to the place than actually exercising. such is life in the suburbs and boy, i'm really took seemingly unimportant things for granted. like walking. i genuinely miss walking. and not browsing at a store, but straight-up hustlin'.

another thing i miss is old friends but gina will be here soon and so we will be reunited after two years. there's something to look forward to. sometthing.