It's like riding a bicycle..............

Blah blah blah.
I'm typing in between sniffles. No, I'm not crying.. I happen to have caught a cold. 감기 not 강기... any other Korean kids made that mistake? I guess after a week or so of not enough rest and sleeping on couches, it takes a toll on you. I'm pretty sure I might've sent Jason and Elliot off with sore throats as well... er, that sounds really bad but yeh. Sorry guys.

Okay, that was a bad introductory paragraph into this brog.
Anyway, one of my friends from the first semester at Yonsei in Korea, Jason, came to visit me in San Jose/San Francisco for the past 5 days. He brought along one of his friends from high school, Elliot. Jason was the first Korean friend face I've seen since I've been back... I guess that was quick enough considering I made my return on the 3rd of August. But the timing was good and it was definitely great to see him. They stayed with me at my parents' house and Simba went crazy. I guess he never fully trusted them so any time they made a sudden movement(er... ok whenever they got up or ... uhm, laughed... yeh...Simba's crazy) he'd go into a barking fit. Yeh, so I basically got to show them how boring San Jose is. I took them to two bars only to find out that they had both closed for the night. I also took them to one of my favorite restaurants only to find out that that was closed as well. I guess the only place that I took them in San Jose that wasn't closed was the Egyptian Museum which was a big disappointment/embarrassment. We ended up wishing that that place were closed instead. For some reason, I thought that staring at a mummy would be cool but instead, it was actually a quite horrifying experience. I feared that if I breathed in too deeply or yawned or had any sort of intake of breath, the mummy's spirit would overtake my body. There was a small mummified baboon on display... and I envisioned a sort of "The Shaggy Dog" scenario where.... never mind, it's already dumb. (But basically it would have me as Tim Allen and the baboon as the sheepdog).


The highlight, as I'm sure they'd both agree, was going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I'd never been before so I was glad to go along for the ride. The only downside was that the place was an absolute clusterfuck. But I guess that can't be helped. I made my helpful comment on how I wished that we could've been there just by ourselves and wow, how cool would that have been? Yeh, no shit. Anyway, who wants to watch Jacques Cousteau movies with me?


Then for the remainder of the time, I dragged them here and there and everywhere and nowhere.
I seriously never know where to take anyone when they visit me places. It's also strange because I'm trying to find my footing in a place that I'm already supposed to know. The streets I used to have memorized have now been delegated to the back corners of my mind. The dark corners that never do and never will see the light of day... you know the saying that it's like riding a bicycle? Well, that's supposed to be a cliche because that's one of those things that you just never forget how to do. Now let me tell you a story in which I continue to defy all sorts of human rationale. Yes, I thought... it's like riding a bicycle.. when it came to well, riding a bicycle. I guess that doesn't apply to me or my life. When I tried riding a bicycle after a perhaps 7 or 8 year hiatus, I ate shit.. not once, not twice, but thrice. And it was all within one night. One hour, even...


The first time was my first attempt at riding a bike that was admittedly, too tall and too long for me. Whatever, I wanted to laugh in the face of danger and shun any sort of reason that could've helped save me from a bruise or two. I started gliding all wobbly-like down the sidewalk, thinking that yessss.. I'm doing it. I'm doing it! When I hear my friend shout out at me from the distance as I was approaching a hill going downwards, "If you're going to fall, fall towards the grass!" Upon hearing this, my bike stalled as if it had a mind of its own, and without further warning, I just plopped over. Physical comedy can be so fun.


We then decided that maybe the streets were too dangerous.. or maybe that I was too dangerous for the streets. Whichever.. but we then started riding around the empty tennis courts since it was too late in the night for anyone to be playing. It was by far safer choice but I still was prone to falling, running into shit and basically being unable to ride a freaking bicycle. For some reason, I actually thought to myself that if I was going to fall, it would hurt less to crash into a fence and catch myself than to just fall on the ground. Wrong wrong wrong. Actually, the bike was so large for me that I was only barely able to graze my feet against the ground, which is usually how people prevent themselves from falling after clamping down on the brakes. So instead of being able to stop like a normal person, I would just have to slow down and my friend would have to grab the bike for me and hold it steady while I would clamber down.



god sometimes my life can be such a disaster. But you know, even though I ate shit three times and had a new lovely set of bruises and cuts, I said fuck it and refused to give up. You know.. shit hurt, but still it ain't even that bad. Do you see where this is going and how it's going to be a metaphor for MY LIFE ? I actually just figured this out as I wrote this/am writing this. So whatever, I took that cliche, tweaked it, and now am appropriating it as my own. And yeh, I'm clumsy as shit but give me time and I'll be able to do it.


So I guess what it boils down to is this. I'm still trying to find my footing. But it's slowly getting better. And I'm finding the comfort of having friends I can safely crash into.

Yeh so I'm fucking riding it. I just have to see where it takes me.


Oy!