Philosophy from the elderly

Hello once again from yeoungtong south korea.
It's been a solid three weeks and i think i'm finally starting to get pretty comfortable where i am and who i'm meeting. i guess i've always been slow to warmup to people and actually be... well, me. so now after some solid nights of heavy and long drinking people are starting to recognize my face around the ole water hole we call the "Now" bar. that's where all the foreigners go to let loose and get hammied up. i think we an irishmen calls you a cunt 5 times to your face, and gives you a great big hug, it's a good thing.
i finally had my first bout of bad food in korea. for the most part everything has been great, but i tried this soup the other day that instantly rocked my stomach. i love bulgolgi, which is beef with a melee of other veggies in it, so i thought it would be good in a soup too. i'm not sure what was in it tha tdidn't agree with me, but wow, the sharp stings and pains that occured after ward had me walking home in a hobble. i think it was because i had spent the last night up until 6 singing kareoke and it was the first meal i had of the day. i was about 5 minuts from my place when i spotted a couple of my friends amy and clare walking their dog in the park, so i plunked myself on a bench beside them and starting talking. a couple more friends joined us as the sun starting setting behind the surrounding buildings. minutes earlier we got a good laugh at an elderly couple walking through the park. the old man had a hat on that sat way up on his head and didnt cover his ears. the old women was wearing a bland, long jacket that went all the way to her ankles as she danced around the park. it there are korean flower children, they were it. suddenly they were upon us and engages us in some friendly banter. we embraced the couple who were simply put, enchanting. the two of them loved life so much, whether they were on drugs or not. they kept calling eachothers shit out too. i dont think i have ever felt an elderly couple love eachother as much as these two. the women spoke the best english any of us had ever heard in korea, using words such as confined. well one thing lead to another and before i knew it i was opening up my lifes sorrows to this women. i told her of a girl here in korea that i lovingly refer to as a "rash" that just wouldn't leave me alone and how i just couldn't make her see i wasn't interested in her. she helped me understand how i should approach the situation in terms of the language i shouild use. it was a very uplifting moment for me.
later that night after taking a short nap i decided to hit up seoul for the night with some friends. me, amy and clare took the bus from suwon to gangnam dong in seoul where we met up with two friends at a bar called "the rainbow". i had never been to a huaka bar before and this one was perfect for my first time. it was a small place with about 15 places to sit around. you had to sit on the floor of thise place and take off your shoes and place them in a bag that you took to your "table" with you. we tried apple, 5 star (a mix of 5 flavours), liquorice, and the best one, cinnamon. the dj was playing great mixes of favourites like prodigy and underworld (imagine sucking on a huaka drinking a beer and listening to the song from trainspotting) it really was a beautiful time. i couldn't help thinking of so many of you back home that i wish could have been there with me.
all in all life here in korea is starting to be great. there are the occasional annoyances that come and go, like how they seem to not believe in trash bins so there are always myriads of trash piles on the sidewalk, and taxi drivers are absolutely out of this world when driving and you can't put a seat belt on while you are there. for now, i see a lot of the same things. i get lost in thinking about how our differences seperate us, but our similarities bring us together, and their are so many more similarities. people still worry about the same things no matter where you go; the future, love, money, their bankbooks, friends, integrity. people still get up in the morning and go to work. the leaves still fall of the branches and flutter in the wind until falling calmly to the waiting ground so my feet can wade in them like a slow moving river. the sun creeps slowly from east to west signalling one beautiful morning to one dark night. but in those few stars, that one shining moon, and those lifeless fallen leaves, you remember that you are far from home, that you are a small speck on a completely different part of this magnificently large and looming earth, and that here, above all else, is where you know you belong.