New York Journals

New York, New York, U.S.A.
July 27, 2001

Last night I slept at another friends house. Another expat Korean teacher who relocated to New York after teaching and living throughout Korea for five years. He is now living with his Korean girlfriend who he met in Seoul a couple years ago.

Actually when I left his apartment this afternoon, I got on the subway platform and walked by a man yelling stuff very loudly. My first reaction was to walk by him, but I accidently caught his eyes as I walked by, and for whatever reason I decided not to give myself alot of space between him and I, and waited for the subway somewhat near him. He was ranting on and on with whatever thoughts entered his mind. It wasn't exactly coherent and well-thought out words, but more shouting out whatever thoughts that might occur to him. Then I began to think about why people in subways usually avoid these manic yelling guys, and it occurred to me, its because they say anything and everything that enters there mind, and if you stand too close to them, its very possible they will start talking to you or about you. Then the thought occurred to me, 'what if everyone knew every thought that I thought about', and a persons thoughts are so random and so absurd that it is somewhat alarming to hear anothers constant thoughts. So anyhow he gave me alot to think about, and on the subway I also sat somewhat near him because I wanted to watch everyone else's reaction as they came into that particular subway train. Most people kind of looked at him funny, some said to their friends 'god, i wish he'd shut up', and others shook their heads, some got up and moved away. So many different responses, but meanwhile I just sat and observed a somewhat once-in-awhile New York subway event which doesn't take place often, but often enough to become a familiar scene.

Anyhow, since I've been in New York, I've just been seeing all kinds of friends. Interesting how many Korean connections there are. Tonight, my third night in New York, I'm meeting an additional two friends who also taught in Korea in the past. They will be numbers 3 and 4 who I taught and hung out with in Korea. Also, I have three other Korean friends who are living in New York who I knew from last time I was here.

Incidently, this is how and why I returned to Korea last year of September 2000. I had been in New York the last two years at that time, and kept meeting friends with all of these Korean connections. One of my best friends in Portland Oregon married a Korean women, many of my friends have married Korean women and are scattered throughout the States. Then in New York City, one of my best friends is a Korean-American (he does web design in Paris for the last year - but he was here before), plus all these ex-expat Americans who I knew in Korea, plus all the cool Koreans I met in New York, combined with many Korean shop-owners seemingly everywhere. When I was in Korea in 1996-1997, I had absolutely no idea that Korean culture and Korean language would do anything for me when I returned to the States. Then I moved to New York, and my world seemed surrounded by it, mainly because I was aware of it, of course Korean culture is one of about a billion different world cultures co-existing and intermixing in New York. But I had no idea I'd have so many connections to the place, and it was a driving factor on my decision to return to Korea and get down the language, and hang out with alot of my old expat friends who'd never left the Korean Peninsula since I knew them during my 1996-1997 year in Pusan. (Oh, incidently, Pusan changed its name to Busan - just in case someone not too familiar with Korea is reading this AND looking at the map - I know chances are small, but hey, i might as well mention it).

The other thing I wanted to mention was just the amazing friendliness of New York people. My first morning after arriving in New York, I woke up early to get do laundry at the laundramat and have a big American style breakfast (its been awhile!). During my breakfast a Dominican man came and talked to me for about 45 minutes, he was curious about me, and shared with me his culture and his life, (I think he was retired). Then I went back to laundramat, and saw alot of Vietnamese calendars and cultural stuff scattered on the walls, so I talked to the woman (who I had assumed was Spanish by her accent), but turned out she was from Vietnam, and we talked for about 45 minutes. Kind of cool. Then just random encounters throughout the city, for example, one guy almost (not even quite) bumped into me and said 'oh excuse me my friend, excuse me my friend' and just general stuff. I asked another person a question and later walked by his same store, and he said 'hey you find that place alright? was it where I told you?' and just general stuff like that. Oh well, nice to be hanging out in New York for awhile. Contrary to any of the long-standing stereotypes of the city, its a really cool place with alot of cool people and interesting stories. The place is constantly making you think about something.