Here are some pictures, minimal comments, leftover from my superfast trip down south over the weekend.
The view from the bus window – sunset while driving down there.
My motel room.
The view from the window – Yeonggwang, 630 AM.
Walking down the street toward the bus terminal in Yeonggwang. On the right, about 2 blocks ahead, is apartment number 1 of the four distinct apartments I had during my year-in-Hantucky (they moved me around a lot).
On the high street in Hongnong town, looking back toward the bus terminal.
The county administration building for the township.
My school where I worked, Hongnong Elemenatry, still looks exactly the same.
We begin climbing the mountain behind town to the northwest and pass some overgrown graves, which are everywhere in rural Korea.
Climbing higher, looking through the trees.
Looking down the mountain.
At the first peak, a marker with too many Chinese characters for me to read.
A viewing shelter that was under construction the last time I was here in 2010.
A bug disguised as grass. Really – look carefully!
Trees.
A good, if hazy, panorama of the town.
More looking down – this time toward Beopseongpo.
Small blue flowers.
Andrew by a rock.
Finding our way (and ultimately failing – we got pretty lost).
Going downhill through the forest.
A happy sign of incomprehensible meaning.
Coming around a bend, first view of the beach.
Looking back the way we came.
Climbing some rocks looking at the tidepools.
And then I was tired. We took a bus back into town and didn’t do much else before coming back. Basically, we went to Hongnong, took a 10 km hike, and came back. Was it worth it? I’m not sure. Just an exercise in half-hearted nostalgia, for me, and for Andrew and Hollye, it was, perhaps, just a kind of random, not entirely enjoyable adventure.
Today, I went to radiation. Later, in the afternoon, I saw Dr Ryu, who looked me over, and looked in my mouth. He pointed out all the little white sores I’m growing in there, and explained something of what was going on, which I appreciated. He said, “You need to stop eating spicy food.” Note that he said this before I had discussed with him my eating habits – something in my mouth tipped him off that I had been abusing my mouth in this way over the weekend – it was a kind of vaguely homeopathic undertaking, where I was eating spicy food because my goddamn mouth hurt like hell anyway, so what the hell, live it up, because at least I could feel something.
He said to stop pushing myself so hard. He’s said that, before.
I know.
I know. I went to work but stayed less than an hour. How’s that for not pushing so hard? I still walked a lot today – a round trip to the hospital in the morning and a big quadrangle back to hospital and work in the afternoon. But then I mostly did nothing, since getting home. Half napping, half reading. Listening to music. Trying to sleep but not really succeeding.
What I’m listening to right now.
Cold, “It’s All Good.” It’s from the album 13 Ways To Bleed On Stage. The lyrics to this song never made any sense to me – I’m not referring to their meaning, but rather to the weird mismatch between the published lyrics and the words as I hear them. There is NO WAY they’re singing “It’s all good.” Maybe it’s that strange North Florida accent? My theory is that half the band is singing “good” at the end, while the other half is singing “fine” – and you get that strange “it waz aooo gaaiiiine” that seems to be in the song’s audio.
Regardless… I keep returning to this album. I can’t even explain what the album, altogether, means to me. It is the soundtrack to too much of my life, since I acquired it in 2001. I used to drive for hours, running errands or roadtripping or just driving to drive, with this CD on repeat in the CD playter.
The songs are quite dark – this one is about drugs and depression and contemplated suicide, for example – but my overall response to them is uplift.
Lyrics:
Take another motherfucking hit of LSD
Let all the love inside the world belong to you
Well I can’t understand just why you went away
Too young to feel the pain and bitterness of love
Well I can never understand a motherfucking word you’d ever say
And all the people that you hurt came down on you
Well I can’t understand just why you went away
I sat and waited for the day you’d come back home
Well it was all good
Well it was all good
Well it was all good
Well it was all…
Take a loaded gun and blow my fantasy away
Turn off the lights and shine the spotlight down on you
Well I could never understand a motherfucking word you’d ever say
And all the people that you hurt came down on you
Well I can’t understand just why you went away
Well I sat and waited for the day you’d come back home
Well it was all good
Well it was all good
Well it was all good
Well it was all…
You are my hope, my god, my love, my fear, my gun
It’s over, it’s all good
Til the world came crumbling down
Oh well it’s all over
It was all good, til the world came crumbling down
Oh well it’s all over
It was all good, til the world came crumbling down
World came crumbling…
crumbling, crumbling, crumbling
Well it was all good
Well it was all good
Well it was all good
Well it was all…
[daily log: walking 8.5 km]
