The Cut Between the Chapters

If it’s not romanticizing it to say so (or maybe even if it is) I shall deem this post a document of the moment where the Iksan chapter(s) of my life ended (though not the presence of Iksan and her children in my story), and where the chapter(s) of my life began.

Woo Jin

My last night in Iksan, I visited with a couple of old friends. First, I met with Woo Jin, as I mentioned before. I found we could actually be friends, which made me happy. She and I talked about some very important things and once again I learned from her, things I should have already known myself. I walked away feeling respected and cared about, and that was something maybe I needed, and certainly something that felt good. But it simply wasn’t in the character of the talk we had to take pictures, though, so there are none to post here. Maybe next time.

And then, fittingly, I met with another dear friend…

Hadden

Hadden’s one of my favorite Iksan people, someone who’s absolutely unique and absolutely genuine. He’s leaving on Friday and I won’t see him before then. I was happy when we shared a bottle of Bok Bun Ja Ju (sweet raspberry wine) and talked over many things, including Dharamsala. It looks like the plan as it stands now is to meet up with him just before New Year’s Eve in the town, and spend a couple of days before he moves on and I take over residence of the house I’ll be renting there, and which he will have been renting previously. But happy as I am about this trip, the best part about that talk we had was just seeing his vivid facial expressions and beautiful gesticulations once more. Here are a few pictures that do him very little justice…

Young Suk

I was showering on the Saturday that I moved to Jeonju, and in fact thinking about how to entice a taxi to my apartment complex so that I could load it with my last boxes and with my swivel chair for the move, when my friend Young Suk called. She asked what I was doing, and when I told her she offered to help me move. So after lunch with Young Ja, then Young Suk and I met and hauled my crap to Jeonju. Then, I took her out for some tea. Later we went to a goodbye dinner for one of the foreigners well-known to Jeonju, a Scotswoman named Glenys. Young Suk hates these pictures but anyway I think she likes to know she is thought of, so here they are anyway… and I did delete the worst of them…

From The Backseat

After the party for Glenys people retreated to the popular “foreigner” bar in Jeonju, which is called the Deep-In. I was too busy talking to friends and having a couple of drinks to get any pictures, but I did have enough of my wits about me to snap a few from the back of the taxi home, and the effects of the lights blaring into a speeding taxi were astonishing. Looking at these pictures I marveled at how our brains manage to make a coherent picture of the world from the shaky, crazy input that these poor astonishing organs receive.

My New Place…

… is still somewhat of a ramshackle mess, needing a wardrobe and a bookcase and a screwdriver with which to assemble my desk. So there is only one silly shot of the interior; however, I will post a few nice shots of the view. The pinkish building in the foreground is a church where, if you listen closely at night, you can hear Korean worshipers speaking in tongues. Sometimes the night here in Korea is a landscape of red crosses, red being the color of choice for the illumination of crosses adorning the apex of church steeples. I can’t say I am used to the sight of blood-red crosses in the sky, not yet. But, anyway, I think the view is alright from my window, mountains off in the distance and all.

If my computer were in better shape I’d simply redo these shots and come up with a nice composite photo giving you the full veiw from my window, but for now this is the best I can do. Ah well!

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