Day 37: September 11th

Oh us humans are a silly species...

We drink ourselves silly for no logical reason whatsover, wake up the following morning feeling like we've been runover by a bulldozer - 12 times over - and swear that we'll never drink again, only to 'forget' about our promise to ourselves, and repeat the whole damn thing over a few weeks later (or a few days in some people's cases!) ... how we've lasted this long on this planet without killing ourselves off via hangovers is a miracle in itself!

I woke up today at Gavin's with a bitch of a headache and feeling sore ALL OVER (a combination of yesterday's aggressive yoga, many hours of dancing, and sleeping on a paper thin mat on a hard bedroom floor...ugh!) I got to meet Gavin's really cool roomie though, Ryan, and he nursed me back to health with chamomile tea....yum! :-) We all just hung out and chatted for a while, and then I headed back to Shihung. I was doing completely fine on the trains and all and was almost home when all of a sudden it just got *really* crowded and REALLY HOT on the train and I knew I was gonna pass out if I didn't either sit down or get off the train *immediately*. Being that the train was packed, my only option was to get off at an earlier stop, get some fresh air, and peel off some layers. It was so warm today! Has spring finally sprung? (or is this sweatiness just a result of my stupid self-inflicted dehyration?) Whatever...I was glad to get home and relax. Actually, I didn't even relax. For some strange reason whenever I'm hung over I seem to *really enjoy* doing housework. I have no idea why, it makes absolutely no sense at all, but I always do the most cleaning in my apartment the morning after I've had a few too many drinks. So I did laundry and washed all my dishes and cleaned my kitchen - what a productive boy I was! ;-)

So, onto a new topic... I see a lot of reminders about September 11th all the time here, or mostly, just images of the Twin Towers, which automatically makes me think "Oh my god! September 11th! They're gone!!!" In fact, I see the World Trade Centre every single Monday to Friday. At the top of the stairs, when I'm walking into work, is a poster for REI. Well my school and the staircase leading there is full of REI posters, but this one stands out. Being that the name of my school is REI: American Language School it's no surprise that my school is full of American imagery - the stars and stripes, The Statue of Liberty, and lots of posters of happy-faced white kids embraced with equally-happy-faced Korean kids. However, at the top of this stairs is this one poster that you just can't miss - a young Korean boy and girl standing next to a Caucasian male and female teacher and a Korean male 'director(?)'...and rising up behind them is the skyline of Lower Manhattan....Twin Towers front and centre of the poster. It catches my eye every single day and is a constant reminder of something that is no longer there. Whether this is just an outdated poster or what, I'm not sure, cause obviously the Koreans are aware of the Towers' demise.

The REI poster is excusable, but I often see another reminder of the Twin Towers that I find puzzling and inexplicable. At one of the subway stations I use frequently to transfer lines, there is a large, bright poster for one of Korea's major banks. The bulk of this poster is the face of the Statue of Liberty, staring out over the harbour, but in behind her, in fully clear and obvious view, again, is the WTC rising high out above the forest of New York skyscrapers. Now this is a modern, contemporary, RECENT poster released by the bank. It's not outdated (ie: printed before September 11, 2001) so I'm definitely confused as to why the graphic designers/big bank marketing team decided to place such a controversial image in their ad campaign.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not 'bothered' or 'disturbed' or 'upset' by it. I'm not one of those ridiculously over-sensitive people who thinks that we should outlaw and erase every single image of the Twin Towers that exists so that we don't 'offend' Americans or whoever might freak out by seeing a photo of the late New York icons. I'm just puzzled as to why the Koreans continue to place these well-recognized towers in contemporary media. They're obviously aware that they're gone - do they just not care or maybe they want to 'always remember' or maybe they're just using them because they are a well-recognized American icon that they (whatever particular company is using them in their ad) want to associate their product with American ideologies? (I'm assuming that these 'ideologies' would be freedom, power, and an obsession with consumption?) It's an excellent example, anyways, of proof that the events surrounding September 11th affected different nations in varying ways. I'm coming from North America where that day made our world completely stop and has affected mass culture so much. Obviously it had a much lesser effect on Korean popular culture. I mean, you would NEVER see CIBC or Bank of America come out with a poster like that - Oh My God could you imagine the screams of complaints that would flow in???

Later that night before going to bed I was just channel -urfing and came across Die Hard 2. I remember watching this movie over and over years ago and absolutely loving it. It was like one of my faves for such a long time, no surprise given the fact that I've always had a penchant for action movies containing scenes of mass destruction and plane disasters. Anyways watching it again tonight I realized how....lame and cheesy (like in a bad way - the lines in this movie really are terrible) and OUTDATED this movie is!!! It's set circa 1993 and in the movie they're talking about the 'amazing wonders' of 'incredibly advanced technology' such as cell phones (the size of large blocks of cheddar) and fax machines and computers that look to weigh about 67 pounds each! Anyways this movie reminded me again of September 11th, cause in the movie Dulles Int'l Airport is completely taken over about as easily as it would be for me to overtake a 6-year old's lemonade stand! SO MANY things happen in that movie that made me shout out to the TV "That would SO NEVER be able to happen now!!!" given the current state of obsessive security, tight restrictions, and military-like grip the government has over America's major airports and airlines. Yes, Die Hard 2 is just a cheesy meaningless action flick that was completely unrealistic, even for 1993, but even then it just goes to show how much things have changed in just ten short years in our world...