I think I may have just had the best weekend I've had yet in Korea. Saturday in particular was such a well-rounded day full of great stuff. Normally I try to have some kind of "angle" on these posts, but there's just no way I can pull that off this time. Too. Much. Stuff.
So here goes!
The main event on Saturday was an outdoor pillow fight in downtown Seoul. We left my apartment each with a pillow in tow and boarded crowded subways full of confused looks. Foreigners carrying pillows onto the subway. Koreans wondering if their country should rethink this whole “teach our kids English” thing. Anthony trying to ignore stares as he caught some sleep standing up, pillow propped against a pole.
The pillow fight was at 6 PM at the plaza square near Seoul City Hall. The green man from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia showed up. There was a Korean dude who brought a helmet into the fracas. He faced stiff opposition from folks allied against the use of hard armor to defend against pillows. I whumped the shit out of him. Sometimes a feather pillow would break open and feathers would fly through the air like pink sparks from a roman candle.
A great outdoor pillow fight is a lot like a mosh pit. There’s a loosely defined circle on the outside, and chaos and insanity in the middle. When you’ve enjoyed your fair share, you can go for a stand along the outside and just sit back and watch. It’s almost as much fun to watch as it is to fight.
About thirty minutes into the thumping and shouting, I took another break. Pillow fighting is surprsingly tiring work. More than five minutes at a time and you start to feel like you’ve run a mile. I pull my glasses out and settle in to spectate for a while.
Suddenly, a mysterious stranger approaches.
“Hey,” he says, referring to the melee, “do you know what this is for?”
Do you know. What this is for.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS FOR??
Something stopped that man’s heart in his chest years ago. I had no idea what to say. How do you explain the purpose of a pillow fight? Where do you begin? What I should have done is, I should have said, “This!” and hit him with my pillow. Or maybe I could have said that we were all jazz musicians, and we were warming up for a show in half an hour. Or maybe I should have answered his question really seriously and said that we had all been hired to test the durability of different kinds of pillows under the most extreme conditions that pillows are likely to see. One more. I should have said “To raise money to impeach the Pope. Donate here” and then held out my hand.
Anyway, the answer I actually gave was “There was a thing on Facebook”. He seemed satisfied with that answer. Kinda scary, isn’t it? Any behavior can now be explained with a one word answer. “Facebook”. “Ah, I see”. Strange.
Also in the history books from Saturday: Arts and crafts jam session. Over the last couple of weeks I have been stocking up on art supplies. Water color paints, poster paints, colored pencils, markers, construction paper, enormous sheets of white paper, 9 paint brushes, a pencil sharpener and a glue stick. Fuck yeah.
Early afternoon Saturday, the door was open for any passersby who wanted to do some painting, drawing, or cutting and pasting of any kind. Proceeds went to the aesthetic betterment of my bedroom. The catering was handled by Domino’s. The music was Sgt. Pepper’s. A pleasant time was guaranteed for all. Fuck yeah.
I’ve noticed something about my spending habits. I try to buy experiences rather than acquire possessions. The purpose of paint is to use it. When it’s been put to good use, it is gone. It’s not like a nice jacket, or a fancy TV. I’ve also spent a lot on travel since I’ve been here. My trip to Japan cost about $1000. Hikes and ostriches are experiential purposes too.
I feel great about this. Ideally, when I leave Korea, I’ll have almost nothing to show for it except a huge list of experiences (and some decent savings besides). This is totally the best way to spend your money. I must’ve dropped $80 on art day, and I couldn’t feel any better about it. It was memorable. It was fulfilling. It was a great experience to share with the folks who showed up and took part. And there are a ton of supplies left over for future painting and playing. I can’t even think of a better bang for my buck.
The thing is, that’s not some revelation. I’m not surprised to discover this or anything. I think we all know instinctually that, looking back years down the line, spending two grand on a vacation touring southeast Asia is a much more worthwhile expense than spending the same money on a sleek new TV, or as down payment on a car, or whatever. We all know that our time on earth is short, and that we’d better do all we can to fill our lives with adventures and memories. The trouble is, sometimes money is short. And when you’re short on cash, you want all your big purchases to be tangible things. If you have to save up for a year to have the two grand to spend, it’s much easier to make the decision to buy the TV, because it’ll be around for years. The vacation will be done in a few weeks and you’ll be back to square one.
That’s why I’m so grateful for what I have here. I have a job that pays me pretty well and let’s me see the world at the same time. I have the freedom to spend whatever I think it will take to put together a solid afternoon of arts and crafts. I’ve never had this before. I’m free to do whatever sounds like a good time without having to stress about it. It doesn’t get old. In fact, as my list of lifetime “firsts” grows, it gets sweeter and sweeter. People say that money can’t buy happiness, and it’s true. But it does enable you to do things that you think will make you happy.
Now, all that said, something else “they” say is that the best things in life are free. And let me tell you what: I got to sit in VIP seats for a soccer match featuring FC Seoul and rival club Suwon for free, and it was pretty damn sweet. So
I guess “they” really know what they’re talking about.
A cold bug is making the rounds in Seoul right now (actually, I’m a little sick myself) and it has unfortunately taken my co-teacher Emma out of commission. She spent the weekend in bed, resting up. You gotta be rested come Monday. Kindergarteners can smell tiredness on an adult, and they respond like ravenous wolves presented with blood-dripping fresh steaks. They even snarl at each other as they fight for the biggest pieces of your flesh. It’s horrifying.
Anyhoo.
So, Emma’s fiance Mark called me up and asked me if I felt like taking her ticket for the match Sunday. Emma and Mark are season ticket holders, so they have good seats. And I’d never been to a soccer game before. And did I mention the price tag? (FREE!) Woo! Count me in!
The game was great, mostly because our team, FC Seoul, managed to score 3 goals in the space of about 8 minutes. Suwon had a pretty huge contingent of fans show up—about 10,000 altogether, but they were a little more subdued after the 3rd goal. They even slowed down on waving their giant Che Guevara flag around (Seriously.).
Also, soccer is better in person because it’s the sport where you need to see the largest area simultaneously in order to enjoy what’s happening. It’s routine for a player to kick a ball up field 50 yards, and on TV they have to follow it through the air where you can’t see much of what’s going on down on the field. In person, you can see everything that is relevant to see at a glance. It is not, as American football is so often labeled, a game of inches. It is a game of hundreds of feet. That, in a nutshell, is why the NFL is awesome on TV but not very good in person, and soccer is good in person but not great on TV. Educational.
Well, there ya go. That was some of what happened this weekend. I left out a story about a Korean woman who we met in a bar on Saturday night where the soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United was being broadcast. She was about 24 years old and had been abroad for one month, where she stayed in London, and somehow picked up a cockney accent during that time. I also left out the Indian food place that was called “Durga” which somehow seemed like a racial slur of a name.
Apologies for the lack of focus/quality writing this week. But, actually, I feel pretty good about that. It’s like what happened when I went to Japan. Too much stuff happened to write something cohesive about it. Feels good!
Much love to the world, especially the human parts of it.
Randy
...ostriches are experiential purposes too
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