It's spittin' rain in Seoul today, one of those rainy spring days after which the sun comes out all "hey, what's up?" like it hasn't been gone for three days and you suddenly realize all the world has become violently green as the trees nonchalantly sway in the breeze and pretend they've been that leafy all along.

Nina is out shopping while I work. Hope she's not getting too wet.

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Warning: preachifying in progress

Another thing I'm going to miss about being abroad? This is sort of related to keeping perspective in regard to careers and noble life goals and shit, but I don't want to forget that America isn't the center of the universe. There's a whole wide world out there, and shock full of places and people and histories and foods and culture that are longer and richer and more awe-inspiring than the U.S.

At the same time, I don't want to forget that in practically every way that counts, America IS the center of the current universe. We're the richest, most powerful nation in the world, and our influence is EVerywhere. My coworker knows more about John Kerry than I do) because the outcome of our presidential elections directly affects people here. There are 69 Starbucks in Seoul alone -- 95 in Korea total. There's a monklet (a kid monk) on the top of Ankor Wat chatting up tourists in English because we've made English the language to know. When President Roh had a phone call with Bush, there were reporters and cameras there filming the call.

My Level 6 language teacher said that when she first arrived in the U.S. for her eventual four years there, she was surprised and a little scared about the absolute lack of care and interest that Americans had about Korea. "Koreans know a lot about America and have strong emotions toward it; Americans either didn't know or care about Korea, or if they did, resented the reports of rising anti-Americanism there. This land is so big and so powerful," my teacher thought, "that they can afford to not care. Koreans should know this."

I have two thoughts about this, both of which I've probably brought up before: 1. We can afford to not care for now, but knowledge is power too, and when others know you better than you know them, that can be a dangerous position to be in; and 2. power doesn't necessarily imply responsibility, but most religions and humanist philosophies agree that it should. I do too.

From taking the Foreign Service written exam two weekends ago, I learned again that the U.S. spends just over 1 percent of its federal budget on international aid, less than any other nation in its economic strata. When you grow up with the advantages (and I'm not saying everyone does in the U.S. -- lord knows a lot of work left to be done there, but that's a different discussion), doesn't it seem sorta of reasonable that you help someone else who had less? I hope I don't forget that that's true on an international level as well as domestic, and on a very grand scale (countries! continents!) as well as very small (spare a brother a dime, give a kid some time).