come on internet work for once
So those last pics, that was me on the beach writing a bit, a candid photo taken by my buddy Tilson. The other, the dude is orange, that’s a monk. To answer a few questions, yes I am one of the tallest people here at 5’10” and a half and yes the food is excellent for the most part. They do fry bugs over here which I’m really keen on.
There has been a definitive change in my life since being here. Every possible minute is an investment. Being unemployed this past summer, I had to find things to do. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the leisure, for a while. And I certainly loved being around my family and my good friends, all of whom I miss very much. But the things that I love, aside from the people in my life, the things that move me, that lift me and drop me and drown and resuscitate me – literature and music—became mundane and I almost fell out of love with them. For me, the magic almost drained out of them like a wet shirt dries on a clothesline, leaving it rough and brittle-ish feeling.
But now that I never have enough hours in the day, every waking minute is so precious. Basically, most people get a four year degree to do what I’m doing with no experience and almost as little training. I’m learning to swim by being thrown out of a moving helicopter in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. So I’m doing school related stuff about 11 hours a day. During that time, I do have a van ride to and fro, during which I listen to my ipod, whose value has increased exponentially to me. I try and read sometimes, but the rattling windows and sleepiness still sitting on my eyelids at 6:50 make that a little difficult. So I have, after working out, about three hours to myself a day after doing lesson plans and planning projects and etc. Sometimes only two. Books take me to farther places than ever before, and every phrase, dynamic, arpeggio, lyric, and beat are like little miniscule journeys. (Isn’t it weird that “journeys” is not “journies”?) Anywho, I’m loving music I have never been able to get into before.
I love how some music just takes you immediately to a place far and away where you first heard that song, or where you drove around with your best friend while listening to it. I was listening to an imported version of Parachutes (if you don’t know whose CD that is and you’re not my parents or extended family, you shouldn’t be reading this anyway) and immediately I was back in Dallas driving at night, turning onto McKinney and passing all the little hole in the wall joints and pubs and then back out onto central with all the lights of the Dallas night flashing by. It’s just like I have music that reminds me of certain kinds of weather – cold and rainy, that would be the Postal Service and David Gray. You all know exactly what I mean. That ability to transport myself if only briefly, is so important to me being over here. Music helps remember all of you and the places I’ve been with each of you. The Strokes – FIFA soccer with Armstrong. Standard.
Enough of that. I have a man crush on Walker Percy. I just finished Lost in the Cosmos, which everyone should read. It is a very good inquiry into the human condition and certainly the funniest I have ever read. He’s brilliant, and I laughed out loud almost every page. Which gets a lot of looks from the Thai people when you’re on a bus and the only American, and just laughing to yourself about a book. Yeah, I’m a dork, get over it. It’s very dry and somewhat elevated humor, but here’s a slice:
“Recreational drugs offer a spectacular remedy to the disappointed self. Rock star to his chauffeur: ‘Don’t let anybody kid you—nothing, not sex, not music, not adulation, can compare with the rush of intravenous Dilaudid.’ There are only these contraindications: expense, crime, illness, death.” Percy was a Catholic existentialist, or at least that’s what he’s been pigeonholed as. He was certainly Catholic. He basically just takes all our methods or escape/dealing with life and bores holes in them through laughing at them.
In other news, I’m writing a play for my second graders. Harry Potter and the dwarves from the Snow White tale. Yeah, I’m going to do a little revamping on the ole Heigh Ho it’s off to wherever we go song. And then I’m going to choreograph a little dance number to it for all my little girls who are too shy for speaking parts. Yeah, all those Sing practices should come in handy for once. That’s enough for a novella, so I’m going to quit, plus I have to grade papers. Probably all F’s. Somebody hit me with a music scene update from the states. I cannot possibly convey to you how bad Thai pop music is. It could drive one to hara-kiri.
Peace and grace friends and family.
Jordan
There has been a definitive change in my life since being here. Every possible minute is an investment. Being unemployed this past summer, I had to find things to do. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the leisure, for a while. And I certainly loved being around my family and my good friends, all of whom I miss very much. But the things that I love, aside from the people in my life, the things that move me, that lift me and drop me and drown and resuscitate me – literature and music—became mundane and I almost fell out of love with them. For me, the magic almost drained out of them like a wet shirt dries on a clothesline, leaving it rough and brittle-ish feeling.
But now that I never have enough hours in the day, every waking minute is so precious. Basically, most people get a four year degree to do what I’m doing with no experience and almost as little training. I’m learning to swim by being thrown out of a moving helicopter in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. So I’m doing school related stuff about 11 hours a day. During that time, I do have a van ride to and fro, during which I listen to my ipod, whose value has increased exponentially to me. I try and read sometimes, but the rattling windows and sleepiness still sitting on my eyelids at 6:50 make that a little difficult. So I have, after working out, about three hours to myself a day after doing lesson plans and planning projects and etc. Sometimes only two. Books take me to farther places than ever before, and every phrase, dynamic, arpeggio, lyric, and beat are like little miniscule journeys. (Isn’t it weird that “journeys” is not “journies”?) Anywho, I’m loving music I have never been able to get into before.
I love how some music just takes you immediately to a place far and away where you first heard that song, or where you drove around with your best friend while listening to it. I was listening to an imported version of Parachutes (if you don’t know whose CD that is and you’re not my parents or extended family, you shouldn’t be reading this anyway) and immediately I was back in Dallas driving at night, turning onto McKinney and passing all the little hole in the wall joints and pubs and then back out onto central with all the lights of the Dallas night flashing by. It’s just like I have music that reminds me of certain kinds of weather – cold and rainy, that would be the Postal Service and David Gray. You all know exactly what I mean. That ability to transport myself if only briefly, is so important to me being over here. Music helps remember all of you and the places I’ve been with each of you. The Strokes – FIFA soccer with Armstrong. Standard.
Enough of that. I have a man crush on Walker Percy. I just finished Lost in the Cosmos, which everyone should read. It is a very good inquiry into the human condition and certainly the funniest I have ever read. He’s brilliant, and I laughed out loud almost every page. Which gets a lot of looks from the Thai people when you’re on a bus and the only American, and just laughing to yourself about a book. Yeah, I’m a dork, get over it. It’s very dry and somewhat elevated humor, but here’s a slice:
“Recreational drugs offer a spectacular remedy to the disappointed self. Rock star to his chauffeur: ‘Don’t let anybody kid you—nothing, not sex, not music, not adulation, can compare with the rush of intravenous Dilaudid.’ There are only these contraindications: expense, crime, illness, death.” Percy was a Catholic existentialist, or at least that’s what he’s been pigeonholed as. He was certainly Catholic. He basically just takes all our methods or escape/dealing with life and bores holes in them through laughing at them.
In other news, I’m writing a play for my second graders. Harry Potter and the dwarves from the Snow White tale. Yeah, I’m going to do a little revamping on the ole Heigh Ho it’s off to wherever we go song. And then I’m going to choreograph a little dance number to it for all my little girls who are too shy for speaking parts. Yeah, all those Sing practices should come in handy for once. That’s enough for a novella, so I’m going to quit, plus I have to grade papers. Probably all F’s. Somebody hit me with a music scene update from the states. I cannot possibly convey to you how bad Thai pop music is. It could drive one to hara-kiri.
Peace and grace friends and family.
Jordan
posted by nordy | 5:04 AM
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Well bro. Sounds like all is well. Keep on eatin' those fried bugs...you know Pearson would like them. As for music...My Morning Jacket- "Z" - its great. The Darkness' new single is fair. The G Unit should have something new out soon...its probably going to revolutionize music as we know it. We really need to thank our lucky stars for growing up in Fitty's Era.
Happy Thanksgiving brozeph, miss you here in the states.
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