thoughtjunkie

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Writing time today was cool. We hung out in the neato privately owned (being non-chain is a big deal here for cafes) coffee shop in my town. The music I don't dig so much, but the guy is Started a new project in a completely different style than I normally operate in, which is cool. Hoping to finish it tonight, actually.

Afterwards, Jei and I went to Mangdu Heaven. I got Bulgogi soup (which was awesome-- I will be experiencing it again upon our next visit to Mangdu heaven (mangdu being 'dumpling', though I'm not sure I'm transliterating it right). Jei just got massive amounts of mangdu, which was also a very good choice.

Hung out with Jei, waiting for the bus, then walked home.
On the way home, this happened:
Walking across the street where The Bar (a very chill expat hangout) and the PCBang where I lived for my first few weeks are, a 40 year old man (exact age) with a stark white shirt and glasses came running across the street, grinning with his hand held high.
"Hello! Hello!" he said, gripping my hand and shaking warmly, with a bow.
"Anyonghaseio," I said and bowed back.
Still shaking my hand, he gently held my forearm with his other hand, and guided me backwards to the edge of the street.
"Have you heard Jesus Christ? Heard, Jesus Christ?" He echoed his words, as if trying to if he'd pronounced them correctly.
"Yes. I've heard of Jesus Christ. He and I have the same birthday." Which, of course isn't true, but whatever. He was a weird guy on the street-- I don't think specifics of changed-calenders really matter to the conversation.
"Birthday?"
"Yes. December 25th? Christmas?"
"Christmas..? Ah! Christmas!"
"Yeah."
"Have you heard Jesus Christ?"
"Yes."
"You believe-- you believe-- go to heaven. You no believe-- no believe-- you go... You go to hell."
Now, I'm not the sort of guy to blow off a good theology discussion, or run away because the guy's fundamentalism (who actually wasn't drunk, believe it or not) puts me off. I guess what I'm trying to say is: I'll play ball.
So I said, "Tell me. Are things good because God says they're good, or are things good, and God just follows the rules?"
I guess no one had ever brought the Euthyphro dilemma to a streetside preaching. Especially not in English.
"No. Earlier. Earlier, there was Adam and Eve. Adam sin? He sin. Then, the bad."
Doh. Philosophical dilemma, meet language barrier. Language barrier? Philosophical dilemma.
"That's not what I... Okay," I said.
"How old? How old are you?"
"I am 24."
"Ohhh! 24! American age?"
"No. Korean Age."
"Ah! I ammm... 40. I am 40. In America? 39."
"Nice."
It occurred to me, at this moment, that he had positioned me to be facing a rather specific direction. Not that I don't trust strange 40 year old men who accost me in the middle of the night, but... I pulled my bag round to the front of me, dropped my iPod (which is ancient and broken in 4 different ways, any one of which would have most people replace it) into a zippered compartment, zipped it shut, and put my hands in my pockets.
"So you? What is your name?"
"My name is Christian."
Hey, if he can't find the one white guy in Jungmun...
"You... Oh! Your name is Christian?"
"Yes."
"Okay! Okay! I believe in Jesus! And you believe in Jesus! And we go to heaven!"
"Um. Uh huh."
And with that, he shook my hand again, and tottered away.

So... THAT was weird.

(and no, I didn't have anything stolen. Which is cool too).