Day 139: Life In The Village

Here's a list of the pros, and the corresponding cons, of my new life here in 'The Village.'

PRO #1: The Village is really friendly and family-oriented. It's a safe, wholesome neighbourhood in a clean and green corner of Ilsan and is full of inquisitive kids who love to ask random questions in English to any passing foreigner. It's cute!

CON #1: Every frickin' weekend morning those damn kids are up and about on the streets, yelling their heads off! Doesn't any kid in Korea ever wanna sleep in? And what about Saturday morning cartoons? Maybe that's just a Western tradition, but then shouldn't there be a big pot of kimchee those kids should be stirring that morning? I don't care - I just don't wanna hear them yell at 7:12am on a Saturday morning!

PRO #2: The Village is really animal-friendly and tons of the local families have pet cats and dogs. I *NEVER* saw any animals in my old hood in Shihung (except for abused ones) and it's great to be able to walk down my street and find cute kitties and puppies begging to be petted!

CON #2: Cat fights! OMG, seriously, I hear *AT LEAST* three cat fights every single night at like 3am! Those little kitties may be all wide-eyed and cutesy in the day time, but as soon as the sun goes down they turn into deadly, vicious little savages who are just dying to rip each other to pieces! And that ain't a quiet exchange of meows, let me tell ya!

PRO #3: Almost all of my friends in Korea now live within a 2-minute walking distance from my house! I'm never all that far away from a buddy and it almost feels 'college dorm-like!' It's so much fun - and way more convenient for my social life!

CON #3: I never get anything done! Before when I lived way out in the boonies I had tons of free time to keep up with my email and blog, reading, watching my fave TV shows, and to chat on the phone with friends back home. Now I'm never home and so all that stuff gets neglected! My bad!

PRO #4: I have new channels in my new apartment, including AFN which is the Armed Forces Network. AFN is the all-English TV station for the American military in Korea and has TONS of great shows on all the time, plus lots of really fun movies. 90% of the TV I now watch is on AFN.

CON #4: I get exposed to all of AFN's uber-cheesy, low-budget, PRO-AMERICAN MILITARY propaganda TV commercials!!! If you thought that Thunder Bay TBT commercials were low-budget and cheesy, you ain't seen nothin' yet!! And worst of all, is that EVERY COMMERCIAL (and "news" broadcast) is so full of American imperialism, jingoism, pro-Bush, pro-military, pro-"We're American so we're great - read: FULL OF OURSELVES - and everyone loves us so bow down and kiss our asses" arrogance and egoism that some days I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or projectile vomit all over the TV! It honestly feels like I'm in George Orwell's 1984 and that 'Big Brother is watching me' or something. The AFN commercials really *are* that bad!

PRO #5: There is a Baskin-Robbins just down the street from my apartment! I get to have ice cream absolutley anytime I please! And with the hot weather we've been having it's sure been awfully yummy!

CON #5: Steve and I are totally addicted to ice cream now. We go there almost every single day and by the end of the summer I'm sure I'll weigh *at least* 300 pounds! Haha!

So there ya have it - just a little snapshot of my new life in The Village. I absolutely love where I live and pretty much all the cons I've listed here are either exaggerated or just for fun. I've no major complaints and am a happy boy these days in my new hood!