Exotic Men from Persia and other intersting events
2004-08-09, 3:33 p.m.

I suppose I should try to write updates more than once a week but I guess once a week is better than nothing. I don��t have much to say really and mostly this is just the place where I vent about all the crap that goes on at work.

Last week was a nice vacation for me because all of the students in my evening class were on vacation. I had three nights off, so I visited two museums and an art gallery. Here��s a view of what I saw.

Marc Chagall

This was one of the most amazing exhibits I��ve ever seen. This is only the third time that all of Chagall��s works have been shown in one place and it��s the largest showing ever for a single artist in Asia.

Salvador Dali

This was another exceptional show. The museum had numerous pieces from metal and glass sculpture to clothing and movies. It was well worth the $10.00 entry fee. I was truly amazed by Dali��s use of color and detail.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Photology

This was a small exhibit but very nicely done. Cartier-Bresson was one of the most famous photojournalists of his time. He passed away recently, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to view some of his work.

As you can see, I��ve been keeping myself very busy. Last week was probably the best week I��ve had in Korea in the past six months. On Thursday night, after going to the Dali show, I went to dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant and then went to Gecko��s for a chocolate martini.

I also met some very interesting women who have given me renewed hope for the status of women in Korea. One woman works for a company of all women that helps other women��s startup businesses. She��s in her late 30��s and she��s not married, which is considered extremely unusual. She wants to learn English so she can get a job working for the government as a policy maker on women��s issues.

The other woman I met lived in New York City for 10 years and went to a university there. She speaks English fluently and is getting ready to go back to New York to finish some classes. When she gets back, she wants to start a restaurant for ex-pats in Korea. Her mother is taking classes at our school because she��s planning on immigrating to the United States.

The weekend was good and I did a 2hour 10minute run on Saturday and went out Saturday night. I met a very good-looking Persian (aka Iranian) man at a bar. He was out drinking with his two other Persian friends. I��ve never met anyone from Iran before and their looks were very striking. One guy told me that he works as a glass blower and has been living in Korea for three years. Under different circumstances, they would have been interesting to talk to but I don��t pick up stray men at the bar, so I left.

Sunday was blah. I couldn��t sleep so I got up and went running at 6:30. My roommate, The Believer, was still in bed when I got home, which gave me time to take a shower and clean up. She was still in bed by 9. I had to wake her up so we could go eat breakfast.

The Believer went to church and I went to the PC bang to send e-mail. After spending a casual hour in a smoke filled room, I went home and slept for two hours. I woke up, watched Secret Window with Johnny Depp, and made plans for dinner.

I went out with The Believer and some of her friends to Myeong-dong. They are all Korean-Americans and devout Christians. We had a nice time except it was a little awkward for me when one of the girls asked if we could pray before dinner just as I was getting ready to dig into some kimchee. I tactfully put my chopsticks down and bowed my head in mock devotion. All in all it wasn��t a bad time and the girls were very nice.

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