The Horrors´ second album is excellent; I prefer it far much more to the first one which I thought was pretty mediocre, to be honest.
the video for the single Sea Within A Sea is visually stunning in its seizure inducing glory! haha. It reminds me of the footages of The Exploding Plastic Inevitable and trippy abstract art exhibitions.
Enjoy:
I´ve been away to the Amazon Basin where it was hot and humid,
Internet was super expensive,
hence the lack of update,
but I´ve arrived to La Paz where the Internet is abundant, relatively fast and cheap.
before I start writing about my repulsive travel,
let me get to this South Korean news that my parents informed me…
but before I go on,
let me remind you about my background:
I was born near Philadelphia, PA USA to Korean parents. Three of my grandparents were from North Korea originally and my aunt was born in North Korea as well and she remembers fleeing during the Korean War. My aunt had been an U.S. citizen for several years before my birth and had invited my mother so my mother had been a legal resident(she´d appreciate me pointing this out as many pregnant Korean women stay illegally to give birth in order to obtain the citizenship for their kids) long before she gave birth to my older brother.
My father was still living in Korea at the time, supporting my grandparents. Thinking that we would be moving to the U.S. permanently in a few years time, my mother went back to Korea a few months after my birth. Our stay turned out longer than we had expected:a few years to several and before we knew it, we were celebrating my 12th birthday in the midst of IMF/Asian financial crisis. Soon after that, my aunt suggested that my brother and I move back to the U.S.A. for better opportunities in terms of education as my parents were starting to struggle. That was 1998.
Ever since the final return, I went back to Korea every summer and sometimes during winter breaks, realizing its rapid change. My last trip(and the longest stay since my departure) was in spring 2007 to study at Yonsei University as an exchange student. My parents finally moved to the U.S. March 2008. Except for my dad´s younger sister, all the other closely-related family members have been living outside of Korea, either in China or in the U.S.A.
I speak, read and write fluent Korean and I imagine that my academic level of Korean would be that of a freshman in college.
so having said that,
I want to clarify that I identify myself as an American because I think the term embraces multi-ethnic backgrounds. I am close to my Korean roots, as my family is still very much Korean.
one thing I hate about Korea´s collectivisitic culture is that people can be irrational about certain issues: Trends spread insanely fast and if you are with us, you are the enemy. The popular opinion is the only one that matters.
I tend to forget that Korea hasn´t achieved the ¨1st world¨status…(when I was little, I learned that it was 1.5 or something like that ¨developed country in process¨..whatever that means) somethings are far more advanced than their western counterparts: I often felt that I was coming back to the past whenever I came back from Korea. Then the Korean politics remind me how far behind they still are: since the 90´s, 3 of the ex-presidents have been involved in (mostly bribery) scandals, 2 of them having served jail sentences.
The last president committed suicide in the midst of a bribery scandal involving his wife and son last Saturday. Even if he didn´t directly receive the money, it´s obviously hard to believe that he was completely unaware of his wife and sons´involvement.
Some of the English articles involving this can be read here: 1, 2
Now,
while I feel bad for the guy for committing suicide,
I don´t support Korean media(giving into public´s pressure) making a martyr figure out of him. I´ve been reading several articles regarding the news in Korean and none of them said anything negative about him. They are digging up his campaign pictures showing how he was the ¨people´s president¨ from a humble background. In fact, the investigation regarding the bribery is closed.
People are pouring into the streets, mourning for his death(in fact the media is using the formal, noble term for the death, instead of calling it what it was: a suicide) demanding respects to be paid, pointing fingers at the current goverment. A news anchor cried during the report, celebrities are tearing up while delivering the news. An eulogy read that we live in a time where a president has to die, and along with his broken body, went away the dreams of democracy. Oh and the entire funeral process was paid with the government fund.
……….
………………
…………………………..
god…
…….
please tell me that my family and I are not the only people who think this whole ordeal is absolutely ridiculous and irrational.
hopefully I have enough will to vent about disgusting repulsive people I´ve been meeting on the road and my experience of accidentally kicking a river dolphin in the head. sorry.
I´ve arrived to Potosi, Bolivia the highest city in the world this morning.
Thankfully, I haven´t projectile-vomited as I did last time around in Peruvian highlands.
Including last night,
I had spent 3 out of last 4 nights on the road(including camping outside 4 ft away from the Ruta 40)
so I took a brief nap when I got to the residencia,
only to be awaken with a bad headache as if someone has put me into a headlock across my temples gahh.
last night´s busride was by far the worst one I´ve taken in South America(it still didn´t beat Indian ones HAHA) where the genius engineer built the door RIGHT IN FRONT of the seat so everytime the bus stopped, I had to pull my legs in real tight to let people pass by,
I´ve just came out a few hours ago,
eating really questionable food from street vendors-unknown liquid for one Boliviano and a small tea-cup plate of potato and roasted meat(I didn´t dare ask what kind of meat it was, I just pray that it was beef)
This has got to be the most questionable food I´ve eaten haha
the ¨washing compartment¨ was a bucket filled with a soapy water from which the lady forked out a plate, wiped it with a towel and served me (really good) meat and potato with hot sauce(omg I love you Bolivia for having something properly hot) then the fellow snackers snickered when they heard me request a fork
sorry, I didn´t realize I was suppose to eat it with my fingers.
it´s been about 2 hours since the consumption and I feel fine so I guess my stomach is tolerating it.
If I feel better tomorrow, I´m heading to one of the silver mines here and after that, who knows.
As some of you already know,
I´ve arrived to Sucre, the constitutional capital of Bolivia yesterday.
The altitude induced headache-from-hell is gone thanks to the relatively low elevation of Sucre-2,750 m (9,022 ft)-and there are tons of things to do, such as trekking through an Inca Trail, rock paintings AND apparently, there´s a dinosaur track nearby which is apparently, the biggest in the world. (Dinosaurs and mummies are two of my favorite dead things haha)
so what am I doing inside, instead??
although Sucre has tons of internet cafes all over the center,
apparently, none has the equipment to burn the DVDs!
my memory cards(4GBs each) had long been full so I needed to find a place to burn the pictures to a DVD before I could do anything and after hours of searching, I succumbed to a photo center where they charged me about 7 hours´ worth of computer time to burn a stupid DVD.
then it took me another hour to find a place with dvd readers on their computers.
it´s taking me forever to upload pics and although some of them need to be edited,
I can´t be bothered because my patience is running low.
these pics are the latest ones I´ve taken from Potosi, during the anniversary march of the schools.
so last 10 days or so of my absence from the Internet was spent,
canoodling with two adorable cats(who kept on headbutting into my face),
coughing up some blood(usual for me), not because I have a lung disease but because it was so dry and my violent coughs broke up some capillaries,
shivering from fever,
aching from fever,
gagging excessively due to swollen glands(I got no tonsils),
wondering if I have caught the swine flue.
but I´m well now,
thanks to some mysterious pills I took that cleared up my throat almost instantaneously(too bad I was reluctant to try some new medicine sooner)
I had been hitchhiking for the last 2 days (and yesterday´s ride was hell AND ended up costing me sooo much more than taking the bus)
and now I´m in Salta,
heading directly to the Bolivian border via a night bus tonight.
I was suffering from the high altitude sickness last night while crossing (about 5,000m above sea level)
so I´m a bit worried about Bolivia(I was projectile vomiting the first time I entered high altitude in Peru HAHA)
but hopefully my body will adjust to it….
but what´s this about Dengue??? I´ve never heard of it but it´s posted everywhere here!
and you know you should use the protection when the LOCALS are spraying themselves with the repellants every 10 secs like lunatics.
oh and why is the international brand softdrinks SO CHEAP up here in North? it´s like 1.75-2 Argentine pesos(about 50-60 US cents?) per 500ml bottle of Coke or Sprite.
I mean, not just at big supermarkets but also at small kiosks! it´s about 2/3 of the BsAs price!
can anyone explain this to me?
it puzzles me as I am downing bottles of Coke zero and Sprite alternatively(I can be severely patriotic sometimes).
anyways,
wish me luck,
and mother and father, if you read this,
why are you avoiding my calls lol
I need money to feed myself, honestly.(and yes, I count Coke and Sprite as food in this hot desert climate)
gahhh I´ll see if I can post pics later tonight while I wait for the bus….I highly doubt I can post some though.
cuando yo te vuelva a ver, no habrás más pena ni olvido
I left the much beloved BsAs last night,
I’m now spending the 1st of May in Cordoba, quite the opposite of my original plan: tranquilly and…alone?
I was hoping to spend the day in Buenos Aires like last year, attending many protests around the city(although I saw a lot yesterday too)
Here, everything is closed,
so although there seems to be a lot of “cultural” things to do,
they are all closed!
so I’m just chilling by the patio(which is beautiful) of the hostel,
doing stupid things on the internet.
going back to Buenos Aires,
I absolutely love the city,
it’s definitely one of my favorite places in the world,
if not the most favorite city.(I’m hoping it’s London)
Once I start a proper profession,
I want to have a flat in BsAs so I can spend at least a month every year here…
Being guilty of capriciousness,
I get sick of places quite often,
so I was afraid that my enthusiasm for the city was a one-time deal,
but the 2nd time around was just as charming,
if not more tantalizing(due to my low funds haha)
The city is full of activities…
I was hopping from one exhibit to another,
one park to another(to get some siesta),
doing things that I hadn’t done during my last stay and also doing some of the old things as well…
I don’t know,
I just really love the city.
The only concern I have is that I perhaps only love it because of its resemblance to the Europe(as they say “Paris of South America”) -I haven’t travelled much in Europe-just Spain and London.
and another is that it’s because maybe I’m not working there. lol
I mean what good are all the enjoyable things if you don’t have time to do any of them? (see: New York-well actually the crowd sucks in NY)
on another topic,
I’m dangerously low on funds, I have to survive a month and a half on about $100. how??
hitchhiking and camping most of the time I suppose. ugh.
can I pawn my soul?
I’ll buy it back once I have money.
