Just recently, Mike Pearl arrived in the heart of the ROK (Gwangju) to teach at BCM and to take in the environs of the Korean Peninsula. It's been refreshing to have someone from California to talk to, to reflect with, and guide. If you were to question Mike as to what he hopes to gain from living here, and we'll assume he's considered it, he'll probably tell you there's no telling what stories and revelations will develop, when he will leave (if at all; if the peninsula allows it) and how all these variables will, in the end, change him. But give him time. Things are novel and strange, unnamed and untrodden. His perception of and relationship to newness gives me, in a sense, a feeling of balance, of orientation, which is nice and not. Mike and I met for the first time about three years back at a Cheesecake Factory in Fullerton. About half a dozen of us 20-somethings gathered there to celebrate somebody's birthday. If memory serves me right, the birthday was neither mine nor Mike's. Anyway, we all sat out on the patio, late in the evening, listening to suburban parking lot noises. Maria was our server that night, a slender girl from New Jersey with a worldly air. Besides being gorgeous at first sight, she had sass and a peculiar way of being engaged and detached while taking your order. She smiled with her eyes while her lips remained deadpan, self-aware. She wore her blond hair in a bun, and a small white oxford adorned with a pea green necktie.
When she walked away, there was on every one of our faces a she-is-attractive-yes-she-is look. Mike was the first to point it out and we were all glad he did. His response couldn't have been more wistful, more honest: "Yeah. She's hot." I remember meeting his brow, nodding: "Yes, I believe she is," I replied. We all gave her a big tip that night, mostly for making us feel giddy like little boys.
Keep up with the happenings of Gwangju at Mike's video blog here.
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