The Heat of Seoul

It's hot and humid here in Seoul, though the famed monsoon rains haven't started yet. Personally I am excited by the prospect of witnessing these heavy downpours but friends who have been here in previous summers say they are no fun at all. They say the force of the downpour is like an assault and that the back splash goes all the way up to your knees. So far this Summer we've had the one evening of heavy rain on the weekend of June 12 and 13 but nothing else to speak of: we must have some catching up to do once the rains actually do begin.

At school everyone in my staffroom is stressed out and cranky as they do the jobs of 3 people while attempting not to upset the demands of anyone higher up on the food chain. The kids have gone apeshit on cue as I was warned they do in Summer and I last saw my co-teacher a week ago while waiting in the queue for rice rations in the canteen. She's broken out with that skin irritation she gets when she's doing too much again and even the usually placid and calm and Christian Seon Ah is beginning to bring the kids back to the staffroom and snap at them in rapid-fire Korean. Paradoxically, it only adds to her allure. I must piss her off tomorrow.

Everyone needs a break. More to the point they need a better working culture; one that's more efficient and flexible, but I'm not about to start proselytising here because it's too hot. I have an analytical mind up until 30 degrees celsius after which the only thing I'm analysing is how best to avoid noisy and crowded places. Which perhaps makes a primary school in Seoul an odd place for an extended stopover.

Meanwhile I'm sitting around drinking Maxim and checking Facebook every hour. Lunch time was nice because I got to see some human people but now I'm back to the virtual kind again. I'm starting to consider Lady Gaga and the fat prick from Masterchef as my closest friends. Ninemsn has followed me here you see. For every part of your culture that you think is tremendously valuable and you don't want it ever to change, like ABC Classic FM, there is something like Ninemsn that has you claiming you are actually a Kiwi.

The big difference around here is that suddenly no one is interested in the World Cup due to South Korea's timely departure on Saturday night. I was interested to see how many football fans Korea has as opposed to the myriads who went out and bought Manchester United shirts, Spice Girls cds and gelled their hair like David "Pepsi" Beckham after the Korean team captain Park Jisung made headway at Old Trafford in the last few years. True, Koreans go kimchi for their national team, but now that they have been knocked out, the bubble has burst. The Korean media shall now return to doing what it does best. And I haven't got a clue what that is because I only ever look at the pictures. It's quite "CNN" in style, which I don't favour, but at least this isn't the North: this afternoon I saw a media clipping from North Korea which trumpeted their victory over Brazil in the World Cup. I can't believe how close this society is to me. Geographically, I mean.

Just a bit earlier today, I was revising the ideas in George Orwell's 1984. One of the memorable quotes was something like (I can't be exactly sure - my memory's not that great), "If everyone believes something to be true, does that make it real?" If, therefore, the mind is convinced - indeed if all minds are convinced - then does it follow that reality no longer matters? Being away from home has made me more keenly aware than ever before of the philosophical traditions of the west and its theoretical commitment to truth. I think it was Tolstoy who, when urged to convert back to the church shortly before his death paraphrased the Old Testament as follows: "even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six."

And can I just rather arrogantly claim that it was a similar sentiment that I felt when deciding whether or not to leave Sweden earlier this year. I mean, I'm no Tolstoy, but I can't accept convenience over what I believe to be true.

And I don't really know how that started. If my Dad is still reading then I'm Kim Jong-Il.

It is predicted to cool down a little tomorrow.