Coffee Dumm

Why is Coffee Dumm so great?

Coffee Dumm: Dumm is home in Czech. Dumm(덤) also means kind of like an extra freebie as a gift to customers.

This has been, for all good reasons, my second home in Korea.

Korea, Seoul to be specific, has a very exquisite cafe culture. Actually I'm writing in cafe right now! 21ppl, 7 boys, 3 couples. Ugh, I hate feeling effeminate. Anyways, I've travelled around Seoul and been to many famous cafes. Coffee Dumm, though may not seem like a stand out from all the other 'make u feel artistic and peaceful in a plainly unique atmosphere' cafes, is truly unique, incredibly personal, and has, kind of an alluring pull to the customers, like a little boy(or girl...) who always asks funny questions and loves to be hugged.

It's the owner, we call her Heidi. She's just like a character from a cartoon. Infact, there is an online cartoon about her and the cafe! One of the customers, who is a cartoon artist, decided to make a series about the stories of the cafe.

What's so great about her? Well, 10 months ago she gave up her nursing job to pursue her dream of having her own cafe. Interacting and meeting new people day to day. She's genuinely a sociable person, she loves to talk about her day and listen to your stories. One of those baristas that really care about their customers. Since I've become a daily customer, I was able to see how she interacts with other customers. Genuinely sincere interest[sorry for the cliche]. She always chooses the right words with different people, and in simple terms, knows exactly when to shut up. 눈치가 빠르다. Most importantly, she's like a curious little girl who loves to explore in an adventure.

When I first went to Coffee Dumm, I was just looking for a cafe where I can relax, somewhere I would be comfortable, kind of like the Yonge and Cummer Coffee Time. I took out my book and started reading as plainly as any other student looking to fit in to a new world. I was about half a page through when she served my Hot Chocolate and asked me "Wow, Can you understand all that?" in a pleasantly surprised manner. Then, I explained to her that I was from Canada, and before I knew it, I had settled comforably in Heidi's Coffee Dumm

Since then, she introduced me to 4 ppl whom I'm tutoring currently and has become a close friend during my stay in Korea. Destiny is a strangre mystery.

A more mysterious meeting was with Heidi's husband. He's a handsome looking fellow, a well-built physiotherapist. But we clicked since our first conversation. As soon as I explained to him my interest in philosophy and neuroscience, he shared with me his recent business conference in Germany about neuroscience and his interest inrehabilliating patients with neural damages. He also shared how his interest in NeuroSci sparked an interest in philosophy and psychology. He's a man of surprising erudition. Occasionally going aroung hospitals, he lectures about the most recent and groundbreaking reasearch and practices in physiotherapy[I had no idea it was such a complex and interesting field!]. Currently, he's learning Japanese, German and English[from me!] in spare time so that 1. Read and understand american journals in physiotherapy 2. Study in Germany 3. Japanese just because... :P Although after a few beer we became practically friends(with a 15 year gap, I think having incredibly old siblings help), there's something about his friendly character that renders deep respect and honor. [seriously he reminds me of the gladiator of physiotherapy=]

Dumm = Home

It has become my home and a reason to comeback to Korea to the people who have treated me like long acquainted friends.

This leads to the question of the day: where or who is Home?

I mean, yes, there's the generic christian answer, our home is at heaven, or our home is with the people we love, where we are the most comfortable. But, are we all the same? what makes your home so special?

I'm inclined to say that this laptop has become my home recently. I'm practically glued to this machinery. But does that make it home? Is addiction home? I don't know, what do you think?

Started

Sometimes, when you have the courage to do so, you just gotta take out your old bike and start riding. Perhaps take a new path to your middle-school, or perhaps take the road you've always been taking, but go further. Go down hill without holding the handle, throwing your body away at the risk of a pebble on the road, split the wind with your calm, cool, and collected posture.

If you don't have a bicyle, buy one; you can never go wrong with a nice affordable city-bike, whether you get it at the garage store from the old man down the street or from the cycle store where you always feel that it's over-priced, and it probably is, but it will be your baby to cherish for the next 30 years [for those of us who don't have a car or a motorbike]. The thing is, bicycles are not only more environmentally friendly, but have a longer life-span than cars. Due to the barbarian Canadian weather, automobiles struggle to last more than 10 years, but bycyles, well... you only ride it until fall :) haha.

Cars are great! It can take you 100 miles away for star gazing with your girl-friend, take a drive to a completely foreign places in minutes, become your haven as you travel from East-coast to West-coast, and most importantly, make you the boss if your friends ever need a ride :) [thx david/guang nan] But cars can be, to a certain degree, mundane. When you are focused on the road, there isn't much else you can enjoy. It's like a home with a mission: you can't get too comfortable, but you look like a loser if you get so cought up with the goal.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is that now that school is over(unless you are in Waterloo and there's no such thing as a break), take a deep breath. We may not have so much the time to travel around the world, but we will have the opportunity to look around us and watch the sunset by the park. Something, well frankly, I've missed in Korea. I hope to all of you that you had a wonderful semester filled with those experiences you will never forget and those that you are dying to hope to get out of your head.

School was hard, and no one doubts that. But now that it is over, at least for a little while, let's feel old again, reminiscing the puerile speeches of our childhood. Take a stroll on your bike and let the wind guide you. All you have to do is get started.

Herb and Garlic

So, here's my first step to living a healthier life. Herb and Garlic Chicken salad. You are what you eat.

Ugh. it tastes so... meh... u know? no fat and grease melting in your mouth as your toungue explores through the sweet and heavenly meat. No juice squirting out of the steak as your canine teeth rips through the impenetrable fibre of the red, sinful, bloody blue rare.

Man, I must be the devil, but I haven't had a legit steak in soooo lonnggggggg, and I miss it.

Well, its either this, or a heart attack in 10 years :(

Btw, what's with all the Harper hate among students? Most of the students who are so excited to vote can't WAIT till they get Canada out of the Harper government. Okay, I understand to some degree why, but when I talk to them, they all seem to generalize so much.

I may be a little bit biased, or maybe it's just the difference of values betwen people. But, look! If you are angry that Harper cut funding to many social services that we had the privellege to enjoy, then perhaps you should go to Portugal and enjoy all their benefits as their government realizes that they have been unreasonable in their spendings and just asked EU for a bailout.

In an economic recession, you can't expect the governemnt to increase social services while decreasing tax and at the same time, increase government spending[actually that applies to ALL circumstances]. I'm not an economist, nor an economics major, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't work. If we want to get out of the recession, or at least not fall into a whirlpool like some countries like Greece and Ireland already have, people have to make sacrifices SOMEWHERE along the line. Look at portugal, they DIDN'T make any social cuts without raising taxes, they kept borrowing money to try to circulate the system, then BOOM! "Damn, we are screwed..." Now they will have to live with much lower standard of living like Greece and Ireland are having to deal with.

Okay, I'm not a huge Harper fan either, but let's just be reasonable here. and I find it really ironic how people are attacking Haper for making attack ads... no? I know Haper did a lot of crapy stuff. Don't vote for him if you don't like what he did, like buying that super expensive fighter jet or you think he should've cut funding in something else where your value differs or you belive your rights as a democratic citizen has been violated from the secrecy/hypocrisy of the administration(but then again, which gov't isn't). But don't just hate on him because he cut funding, especially if he cut funding, in what I believe, is from peripheral social values of Canadians.

Let's be honest, the economy is our number one priority[at least for me], and we need a leader that will help grow the economy. All the parties have a different perspective on how to achieve that process. Let's just becareful, not revengeful.

The Fireman.

Warning: long blog.

Question of the day: Is happiness the purpose of our life?

I don't mean just the infactuative pleasures, but what people genuinely regard as a happy life: Watching good movies, reading good books, poetry, theatre, sharing valuable time with the people you love, following your passion, being creative, logical; helping others etc...

All of the above is what I would call an 'Indigo Happiness' or a 'Cultured Man'. Everytime I go to Chapters/Indigo, these messages are bombarded at you. See, I used to adhere to that view too, until couple of years ago I volunteered for people with disabilities. They don't watch/read good movies or books, they lack a sense of value so they spend time doing whatever pleases them[most of the time], I don't know WHAT their passions are, they are not that creative nor logical, and they certainly don't have the capabilities to help others when they can't even control their bladder. They are not, and will not be a 'cultured' people.

But they do have a sense of belonging, and they are, as anyone who has worked with the disabled would know, inherently and fully human. Of course that is why we work so painstakingly(literally) to help them to think, to increase their hand-eye corordination, to interact with people, to experience society. But do we do this because we believe that they will be happier by doing this? I don't think so. Most of us just feel an uncontested moral duty, and perhapas even a reward from helping the poor and the weak[I'm referring to the secular, generally] In fact we, the volunteers, think and respect whatever makes the disabled to be happy... to be happy[whatever that means].

So, we don't need the soophistication of our intellect to be happy. After all, philosphers and scientists aren't the happiest ppl in the world! [I may alittle bit biased, but u get the point]

People often refer to the post-modern ignorancy: "Whatevery makes you happy!" But we've seen from the duty of helping the disabled that we believe in something greater than the happiness of an individual to drive forth our lives. In fact, if someone cannot experience this other quality of life that we value so much, then we often feel obliged to help them experience it.

I'm not attempting to find the purpose of humanity nor of each individuals, for only God knows. and perhaps this may not have been the best of example of our instinctive desire for something other than pleasure. But I am attempting to warn people, whatever their religion or philosophies may be, from the "Indigo Happiness"; It is not the purpose of our lives.

Happiness, is not bad. It is just that the happiness we generally speak of is not, and must not be the whole of humanity. The danger of the 'Cultured man', is that our purpose shifts as the culture shifts, from one generation to another. I think most of us, at least those of us who are spritual, understand that there is a pilar of truth to our purpose, and without this pilar, man is, and will be, lost in a world of his own creation. Perhaps I am just trying to redefine the happiness of today. But if, by happiness we mean the "Indigo happiness" or the "Cultured Man" that I have referred to, our happiness is an insufficient fund to the bank of our existence.

We have something, if not greater, more human, more liberating to find our purpose in, than the pleasures, wheter of the body or of the mind. To discover it, is his own journey [or her:P]. Whether that be God, morality, universal-discovery, progressive existence or anything for that matter, one thing is for certain: Once you have experienced the luminous truth, you will never be satisfied with the futile shadows of the dark and the eventually, lonesome cave.

--

"If you don't want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such thing as war. ... Cram them full of noncombustible data, choke them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy... I know, I've tried it; to hell with it. So bring on your clubs and parties, your acrobats and magicians, your daredevils, jet cars, motorcycle helicopters, your sex and heroin, more of everything to do with automatic reflex. If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if the play is hollow, sting me with the teremin, loudly. I'll think I'm responding to the play, when it's only a tactile raction to vibration. But I don't care. I just like solid entertainment."

-Fahrenheit 451-

We are more than what other tell us we are.

-That is the function of my seoul today-

Leather King

What a guy

Rant

This is a rant.

Question of the day: does memory create or limit imagination?

I'm currently taking a course on Early Church History, from Jesus to the Reformation. We've only got past the 3rd century, but I realised that there is so much to learn from the early churches. Not that they were perfect, but the issues they were dealing with then are much similar to the issues of today. Though I don't agree with some of the Catholic Theology, I admire that a large, and genuine part of the early church is still remnant in their practices. We have a lot to learn...

This course elicited a theological interest. I mean, I don't want to become a theolgian and all, but to remember that the question of God, no ,a relationship with God is probably the most intriguing and the most important question in our lives. Well, that's nothing new.

What is new, however, is that I've decided to go on a diet. I'm not exactly sure how to go about this really, Ive never been on a diet before, It's quite embarrsing to be honest. Just today, I ate a whole pan of Supremem deluxe pizza. Haha, maybe I'll start tomorrow...maybe... For now, I'm just watching my carbs. Trying to eat more fruits and veggies. But in my opinion, it really comes down to my sleeping habits. To regain control of my life, I need to wake up ealier. I'm determined to go to early morning prayer this week. Next week is Easter/Resurrection sunday, so I've at least got to try to live one week of reflection.

Man, It's THAT week again. Ever since being in Jesus Christ Superstar[JCSS], the last week of lent has been quite special to me[If you don't know JCSS, it's a musical about the last week of Jesus before the crucfixion], and I don't mean that in any spritual form AT ALL. I mean if you've ever had the chance to be in a serious musical/play about a character, you will feel that sense of conneciton too. Haha, I remember yelling 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' [not that, that's a funny subject at all... hee hee]

Speaking of musicals, I watched a play last week called 6남매[A sibling of 6]. It's about 6 poverty stricken siblings who struggle to make a living without their parents. A very comical and a sentimental performance. Man, there's nothing like the people we love, even if we don't love them.

The Barista looks stressed, he just went out for a smoke. But then again, he looks like one of those guys who always try look like they are stressed but are trying to hide it! Wonder if he just wants some empathy... -Sympathy, Apathy-

Ooo! Should I get a 'make you look taller' shoes? It looks like 1.5 inch from outside, but about 2.5 inch extra inside!! WHOaaaa... Naww, that's like giving the finger to myself, and I'm too opinionated to do that, but if I come back 4 inches taller, ;)

Anyway that's the function of my seoul today. [more like rant]

See ya later!

P.S I'm REALLy excited about this election[not that this is an exciting election, but because it's my first federal election!] Whoever readings, please follow up on the party platforms and VOTE!!! {and encourage others to do so too!!! (just not the green party hee hawww)]

Normal

Things in korea have turned normal again. The normal I speak of is not of peace and security one seeks after a period of chaos and estrangement. No. It is the type of normal that one dreams as a child never to become. Where beautiful things around you are ignored and time passes unknowingly. Lethargic, plain, boring.

--- Date: April 16, 2011

- Listening to the sound of guitar at Coffee Dumm. Why am I becoming morose all of a sudden?

- Life changes quickly

So many questions, too few answers. smaller my letters, larger the intensity.

Sometimes I feel out of control. Too stuck in the box.

I am too lazy to ask. What is time? What is our mind? Do we have a soul?

I think I am more interested in ppl thses days. We all change who are we?

Sunsets always remind me of highschool, I don't know why.

For some reason, beauty renders discontent. Uneasiness, Restless soul. makes me want to move, perhaps even run. Maybe even think. Thinking is probably the hardest. Because, now, you must not only move, but create, not of this world but of our imagination.

시작이 반이지만, 나머지는 어떻가지?

---

I needed my life to become ripe again, excititing as it used to be, full of newness that I had been seeking away from home. In series of attempts to motivate myself from watching random korean movies, to (trying to) waking up earlier[which did not work], I have decided to look back at the past, when I was motivated, nervous about life and things to come.

As naive as most of my journals were, I was pleasantly surprised, and quite proud I must say, of this one entry. An entry that I probably wrote at school while I was bored of some teacher blabbing on, but nonetheless it was, a message that I needed to hear now. I think I was writing to the world, and though I don't agree with some of the views of my past, it seemed like a letter or rather a scolding of my conciousness.

---

Date: In grade 12,January 17, 2010

If someone were to ask me for an advice, I would answer: for the heart or for the mind? I would tell them to continue to search for the truth, to always be fervent for the truth. Never take anything for granted, never to assume anything, be satisfied with nothing, be ignorant of nothing. I would agree that ignorance is bliss, but I'd tell them that ignorance is a drug. It keeps you in your highs, and lets you escape from this reality. You are hungry without it, become desperate for it, and you crave for even a small dose. I would love to tell them to sing and smile for you can forget about anything, everything while the ecstasy fill you, but I would tell them that we don't live to be happy nor to be comfortable, we live for the truth. They would repudiate and say that knwoing the whole truth is impossible. I would agree "Yes, it is impossible" but it is the attitude and the zeal which contributes for the knowledge of humanity that matters. That no one should live to live again, but destiny or not, we must fulfill our lives with purpose! the purpose to BE. I hope that you'll never give up. Just seek and ye shall find. Why? What? and How? These are the questions of recurring. These are the questions we must answer.

---

Perhaps the questions of desire are always within us. That is why we write journals, to seek answers, both then and now. Yes, it is true what they say. The answer is within us. The mirror that reflects our lives is not the mirror of the external. We may not be the progressive learners we hope to be, but as the child is the father to the man, the thoughts of yesterday may be the answers to the questions of today.

A note to self: Freedoms is not primarily choice and self-determination, but freedom is the discipling of our desire so as to make the achievement of the good first possible, and then effortless. - Father Barron-