The window to our 15th floor apt in Guang Hwa Moon is open and we can hear more protests from outside. The streets in our hood are lined with policemen and soldiers in training, most of them just sitting around waiting for something to happen...and I just got home from an 8pm showing of the Sex and The City movie! Awesome! Somehow this situation seems quintessentially Korea: soldiers, protests that have nothing concrete to do with the problem at hand, and designer clothing...!
Yesterday marked the 6th anniversary of two Korean girls' tragic but accidental deaths by a US army tank in South Korea and thus triggered more anti-US beef and general anti-US and anti-new US-friendly prez demonstrations in Guang Hwa Moon. Yesterday also was the day momma choi threw down in a cab ride on the way to the duty free shops about the ridiculousness of the protests and the tendency of Korean leftist anti-US young people to get carried away with emotional and dramatic shows of nationalism simply for the sake of getting their angst out. It was odd but also nice to see her all riled up and energetic (she's usually really tired).
It's strange to be around all this commotion and not have any say because in the end, I don't feel like I have any right to Korea as my country. I've never lived here aside from short trips to visit my folks since they moved back last year, so as tempting as it is to pass judgment on the young people who over-romanticize nationalism and volatile anti-US sentiment (one farmer martyred himself by burning himself alive in protest of importing of US beef!), it's really not my place, and that is frustrating. Somehow I have a feeling that a "kyopo" (a korean word for non-korea born korean) marching through throngs of candle wielding aggros telling them to get a grip would not bode so well...don't know what it is...
The sympathies of these protests from the older generation seem pretty non-existent. We had a nice lunch with my dad's mom today and she also started getting all riled up about these "good for nothing punks that have nothing better to do than shut the city down every night protesting beef". Wow, grandma, what do you really think?
Back to the mom front, we leave for China tomorrow morning where we will visit a few hospitals and try to find a donor. Mom's visa finally went through yesterday afternoon with one day to spare. Very in keeping with the Choi custom, hustle hustle.
It was nice to get away for 2 hours and just put everything on pause and watch a flighty movie. The foreign cinema house is 5 blocks from our apt, I guess SATC: the movie counts as a foreign film out here. But to just be able to veg for a sec and not think or worry...good. As for now, the chanting is still going on outside, it's midnight, it will probably end around 2 or 3am.
Signing off for now :), I heart you Lee Myung Bak,
Minna
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