Day: July 28, 2012

Dateline: Eagan, Minnesota (10 pm Saturday)

…

I saw lakes and the setting sun looking out the window as we landed at Minneapolis. I didn't take a picture. But well, I'm here.

I feel as if I've been propelled backward in time – not culture shock, but temporal shock, maybe. By living in Korea, I live in my own future. It's another planet. And when I return to the US, I return to the past. That's the way it feels. I'm not referring to the putative modernity of either Korea or the US, but just the feel of the cultural differences and my own personal relationship, such as it is, with each culture.

Dateline: Los Angeles

…

I'm at LAX. Not visiting, yet. Just passing through, waiting for my flight to Minneapolis in a little while. I'll come back to L.A. next week.

That was a very long and somewhat unpleasant flight. I watched two movies as I wasn't really able to sleep. The first was one called Medianeras, a rather philosphical, internetty rom-com from Argentina – yes, you can find movies like that on trans-Pacific Korean Airlines flights, nowadays, I guess. I liked it. And then I saw John Carter, which I'd been curious to see but not curious to enough to go see it, when it came out. As an interpretation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' book, it was much better than I expected. Still shallow space-action movie – but that's all the original was meant to be.