It's all news to me.

Without the internet and the skype update from my mom, I wouldn't have a clue as to what is going on in the world. I've become increasingly aware of the limitations to the information I do receive. Hindered by my inability to understand more than a couple common korean greetings, I live in a knowledge bubble that consists of children behavioural problems and literature with a grade six reading level. With North Korea's recent attempt to gain the world's attention, and by that I suppose I mean Mr. Obama and Co., trying to decipher what exactly is going on has been tricky.



Last weekend I was sitting in a bar called the Singing Chicken, which is a popular foreigner hang out, and every television had a korean news channel showing coverage of what the rocket launch would look like. I'm sure the journalist was going into extensive detail about time, place, possibilities, outcome, but without my own personal translator, all I got out of it was that a rocket may or may not have been launched from North Korea. Of course, the dissemination of information from North Korea is not the most reliable, unless of course you are China and have an alliance, otherwise you're working with grainy visuals and a skewed interpretation. Regardless, the broadcast I watched answered none of my questions, and also made me think, should I be worried? But then the music in the bar got louder as the friendly korean gentlemen at the bar began his lengthy playlist of Celine Dion, starting with the Titanic monstrosity, My Heart Will Go On, which he played first as an instrumental rendition. I believe The Power of Love followed, and then My Heart Will Go On repeated about 4 more times. So, about 3 Hite beer later and enough Canadian music to last me the year, I totally forgot about the sanction defying rocket launch North Korea may or may not have done.

As it turns out, what I had been watching was in fact coverage stating that the rocket was launched and that the accompanying satellite had not made it into orbit, although initial reports from NK had expressed a different sentiment.

I would never have even known this had my concerned and loving mother (who reads this blog and offers me...er...suggestions, and shows me the errors of my sloppy grammar) had not timely emailed me a link from the New York Times informing me of the current situation.

I feel as if as soon as I got off that plane in Busan and headed toward my desitnation here in Okpo, I've treated it like I'm in an alternate universe where the same political, social and environmental news that used to keep me in a far too personal relationship with my BlackBerry, is no longer of importance.

Anyway, failed satellite launch or not, I've realized I need to make an effort to know what is going on around me. I can't just assume I'm going to hear through the korean grapevine, or see a clip on tv and be able to piece together the state of world affairs. So now I'm back to my news feed obsession, although my poor BlackBerry has been reduced to nothing more than an alarm clock here in Korea, but the RSS feeds on my computer are alive and well again.

Just today I learned that a Canadian decided to steal a plane from Confederation College and fly out across the border to our friendly neighbours to the south, in an apparent suicide attempt, only to end up parking it somewhere in Missouri to wait for "Homeland Security."

I'm not sure why it's important for me to know all the little and big things that are going on around the world, especially since it's usually after the fact, but I guess if Mr. Kim Jong-il to my north is planning another sensational attention grabber, I may want to know about it before my mother gets on her email.



OK, let me have it mom, what did I spell wrong and where did I use the wrong form of the verb to have.

The Singing Chicken westerner/foreigner bar