Hed ji and hunger

It's hot. Why, oh, why did we choose this time in the summer to come back? You'd think we actually enjoy that boiling feeling. We don't.

That being said, it's good to be back. I realized that I crave diversity, almost as much as coffee. Not quite, though. One age-old truth is that coffee wins.

Korea seems to have a balance between difference and familiarity that works for me. I guess that's worth the boiling feeling.

We bought a few movies over the summer. One of them was Over the Hedge. It's not one of my favorites, as they dumbed down the comic strip to make it a cartoon. But it was entertaining when we saw it in the theater. The highlight was reading the title in Hangul, reduced to "Hed ji". Thankfully, the movie was subtitled, not dubbed.

We decided to watch the DVD a few days back, and I noticed something new. There was some commentary on suburban humans, some intentional, some not. I thought about it, and I wanted to laugh and cry at once. It was a little weird.

The cute little forest animals (this is how I know nothing profound was intended when the special features blabber on about how cute the animals are) can't find food because a large section of their forest had been turned into a neighborhood. The animals start to despair, but the street-wise raccoon (hey I didn't write this stuff) assures them there is plenty of food in the world of the humans.

We are then shown a series of clips that emphasizes how much attention and time humans give to food. The best was a scene where a lady is wearing cucumbers on her eyes for a beauty mask. Food! the raccoon yells, underlining the wastefulness.

Next he says the part that punched me in the gut. "Think they have too much?"

Yes, I thought. Some of us do.

The lady who collects money in our apartment was translating some notices around the building. One said something to the effect of "Please eat what you make." Apparently the food trash has been piling up, and as I whined about before, it's hot these days. Too much food trash can be a problem.

Mine was piling up as well. At least with Koreans it's a cultural thing. I have no excuse.

We have too much. I don't know if we can just find those who don't and follow them with food. Is it that simple?

I have too much. I guess it starts with acknowledging that's a problem.