Luckily for me, today was a nice Sunday, and since I didn't drink last night I had the day to do with what I please, and not just lay on my couch nursing a hangover and watching any number of awful American movies that the Korean movie channels insist on playing.
Sometimes you hear people talk about "clearing their head" or something like that, and I'm not entirely sure what that means or if it's an appropriate summation of what I was hoping to accomplish. I'll just say that I haven't been thinking very well lately, and it'd been a while since I spent a day alone doing nothing and something at the same time.
So I put Slaughterhouse-5 in my back pocket and stepped outside. I was surprised to find that, just outside my door, one of my fellow tenants in the building was using my table to dry some red peppers.
I headed north toward the closest of the mountains that surround Daejeon. I wasn't sure of exactly where to go, but after 15 minutes or so I found myself out of the city and into nature.
I saw a chicken.
I kept walking.
A few minutes later I found a little creek at the base of a mountain, and a spot where sunlight was scattered through some leaves, and I sat down.
I took out Slaughterhouse-5 and read for a little bit. However, I was in a mildly trafficked area, and the curious looks I was getting from Koreans caused me to continue along the side of the mountain.
Around now my path became more vertical. I soon found another spot, this one in the shade, and picked up where I'd left of in Slaughterhouse-5. The Tralfamadorians were explaining to Billy Pilgrim about their concept of time, so that gave me something to think about. Tralfamadorians, Vonnegut tells us, see all of time at once- past, present, and future. This can best be expressed in a Tralfamadorian's reaction to seeing a dead person, which is that the dead person is in a bad condition right now, however there are plenty of other moments in which the same person is doing just fine. I tried to decide if that was a comforting thought, but concluded that since I don't see time in 4 dimensions, it didn't do me too much good.
My thoughts were interrupted by a couple of bees that were fighting. I watched the battle for a while and then kept walking. I was getting pretty cold, anyway, sitting in the shade.
I found another nice spot, this one in the sun, with a nice view and overlooking a path below.
I sat here for a good long while, took out a good chunk of Slaughterhouse-5, and decided that when I got home I should write something on my blog about what I was doing. I tried to think of what exactly I would write about, but nothing really came to mind. When my legs started to go numb I stood up and kept walking.
The next spot I came to was my favorite yet; large rocks covered in sunshine, with no one near me.
I stayed here for a while more and finished Slaughterhouse-5. This is some of what I read:
Later on in life, the Tralfamadorians would advise Billy to concentrate on the happy moments of his life, and to ignore the unhappy ones-to stare only at pretty things as eternity failed to go by.
I tried to do the same, focus on the good things, but in time I figured that this was a mighty stupid way to go through life. After all, "Your eyes gotta do some raining if you're ever gonna grow." If all you do is think about happy times, you're better of just getting a good heroin addiction or something. I bet it sucks to be a Tralfamadorian.
I climbed higher up the rocks and was rewarded with a nice view of Daejeon, my home away from home.
I puttered around for a little while longer, but I was getting hungry so I decided to call it a day. Given that I had no idea at this point how I had gotten to where I was, I had no idea how to get back to where I'd been. I found a path and started walking, eventually making it to a road. I walked the road for a while until I found myself in familiar surroundings. I went to a little restaurant and ate some kimchi stew.
I got home to find the peppers gone.
I went inside and wrote this post.
World Series!
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