Monday, January 5, 2009

Look on the Bright Side

TB assured me on Skype that my warm coat will soon arrive (my current one--the blue and white Adidas--is okay, but really doesn't get the job done for single digit Fahrenheit weather and below), that winter camp will soon be over, my house will sell (or if it doesn't--so what, it's only money), and that Beijing beckons. Or similar sentiments.

Not that I was feeling down, really, but it does get frustrating--Life, I mean, with a capital L. I am aware that some Korea blogs are relentlessly negative, a few are annoyingly positive. Frankly, both are in my Blogroll. I hope to chart a course between Scylla and Charybdis, recognizing the bad things about living here, but also aware that "things" aren't perfect anywhere one may live.

If I have to choose (and I do have to choose), I would rather err in seeing the bright side, by noting humorous miscommunications rather than droning on about office politics, by picking up cultural foibles rather than human failings, by observing our common proclivities rather than our ingrained prejudices. Like that time the Beverly Hillbillies set up their own company, I'm with Granny--she changed a V to an N with the stroke of a marker to become Nice-President instead of Vice-President!

1 comment:

Kelsey said...

Yeah, I try to balance the negative with the positive. It doesn't always happen, but that's because I don't really do much here in Jindo, especially now that it's cold and both I and the other foreigners are not going out as much. I think come spring, things will be a bit more positive.