initial response

So, I’m sitting in Houston and trying to figure out what to do next. I have roughly around a week till I leave and to say that I’m feeling fine and perfectly at ease with everything would be to lie out my ass. I’m looking over my funds, seeing what else I need to buy, who I need to talk to before I leave, etc.

So far on the list:
• a year’s worth of deodorant
• a cheap watch to cover up the tattoos on my wrist
• a pair of comfortable black shoes for the classroom
• underwear! You always have to be prepared in case I can’t find the right color abroad.


As far as Houston… anyone who’s been here knows what to expect. Aside from the unusual nice weather they’re having I still have to drive 20 minutes to escape the suburbs and find anyplace halfway interesting. For the time being I’ll be living at this little café, Agora, on Westheimer that has added free WiFi access to its menu. Houston being the capitalist center that it is, has obviously been very reluctant to adopt the free model of Internet access. In general, if you find it here you have to pay for it. One of the 1,234,348 reasons why I will never call this town my home again.

New Hampshire primary results start coming in around an hour from now, let’s all hope and pray to whichever gods we prefer that my man Dean makes a comeback. Kerry will get my vote if he gets the nod, but I doubt that I can passionately campaign for him on many issues other than being anti-Bush. I simply see him as your typical politician, spoon-fed instructions on giving sound bites for the last fifteen years. I respect his Vietnam experience and his resulting anti-Vietnam stance when he returned, but it’s not enough for me to make him my candidate for president. Additionally, if he’s unlikable to a southern liberal like me, imagine how he’s going to appear to all the other southern moderates. Dean might be from a “blue state” and come from a wealthy background, but he by no means comes off as a Yankee aristocrat. I still believe Dean has the presence to be a true leader. I’ve said that for the last few elections I, and I believe many other people, have been voting against people more so than for a candidate. That has to change, it’s symbolic of the larger problem our deteriorating democracy and the general public apathy in this country towards everything. All the pundits are sitting around criticizing Dean for his Iowa speech when, if I listen to old speeches of FDR and Truman I heard much the same passion as I hear in Dean, and we called them leaders.

I’m just getting this thing going. I might very well divide up some of the subject matter into different journals.

I’ll go ahead and label the stats of the city I’m moving to:
Pusan –
Population: @ 4 Million
Location: Southeastern tip of Korea. A big port city. Beaches, Yippee!!
Distance to:
Seoul: 141 Miles
Osaka Japan: 428 Miles

And more to come…