The Nomad Speaks!
I am now at my brother (동생; D) and sister-in-law’s (재수씨; E) place. 재수씨 is pregnant and due this Sunday (although NO ONE expects it to come then.) When I am in Korea, D is about the only person I really miss, so when I came back I wanted to spend as much time as possible with him; but there were complications.
My luck last week was a tad lousy. I spent the whole time looking at cars. Initially I found an Audi I liked but it was at a used car dealer and when I started looking at cars that were being sold privately I realized that being at a dealer added about $500-1000 to the price tag. I also saw some good Subarus, but having owned and driven them all my life, I preferred to get something different.
The plan was to get a car in Bozeman, where I grew up and where my parents live and then use that car to drive north. Since my brother lives more or less between Bozeman and Calgary, I would stop at his place and stay with him for about a week before continuing on to Calgary to meet ㅈ at the airport there on the 31st. However, looking for a car was difficult because the market was very thin. Despite my reservations about Subarus, I found a great Outback for a great price, a feeling that was confirmed the next day after driving two VW Golfs the next day. However, that night, when I called the Suby owner, I was told it had sold that morning, a feeling all the more frustrating because I knew it was the right car at the right price after driving it and had said so to my parents the night before. The one thing the VWs had though was a manual transmission. Every car I have owned (4) has had a manual transmission. I don’t hate automatics and I was willing to buy one, but manuals are just better cars to drive. Additionally, I intend on teaching ㅈ to drive a car in Canada and learning in a manual is much better, given that driving automatics is so easy. The next day I drove another Subaru Outback (they are ubiquitous is Bozeman; my parents have one) that was essentially the same as the first but $1400 more. The choice ended up coming down to the two Golfs that were very similar and I decided to choose the newer. I got a 2004 VW Golf with 86,000 miles on it, heated seats, manual trans, sunroof, everything. It is really fun to drive. I drove it in Bozeman over the weekend waiting for Monday so I could register it and head north. I had everything loaded, and was 12 miles out of town when the check engine light came on and I lost about half the power. I turned around and went to the shop where they told be that it was no big deal but if it happened again to come back. The second time it happened I was about 5 miles out of town. Turned out the part would take at least a week to arrive but for an extra $150 I could send it express it but that would still take two days. All I wanted was a car that I could depend on and here it was the first time I was depending on it and instead of being on the road I was in the shop. ㅈ was arriving in 8 days, so next week was not an option. Moreover the time I could spend with my brother was ebbing away. My parents suggested I just take their Outback north and they would get the car fixed and I could then meet them halfway this weekend. It was really the only option so I drove the 300 miles north a day ago.
My brother lives in Havre, Montana (pronounced /HAEV-er/ despite being named after Le Havre in France) in the part of America I call the “20%ers.” It is right next to the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in a flat farmland-rich, exceptionally conservative part of the world. Politically, my family, like most of Montana, fails into the libertarian/pragmatist group. My mother and I are more idealist but we are nonetheless, extremely independent and moderate. But we all like our guns and hunting. My brother has wanted to get into handloading. He is already into taxidermy and butchering and so if he gets into handloading he will essentially be able to produce everything he needs himself to kill deer and get them to him plate. I have always been the handloader in the family and so I brought all my equipment north to give to him since it isn’t exactly very useful to me while I am in Korea. I was also looking forward to making a batch of .280 Remington ammunition for myself because the stores have all been devoid of a wide selection in that caliber and what is there is expensive. The only thing we did not have was primers but when we went to get them everybody was out. It seems between the two wars and a black Democrat in the White House, what little was available has been bought up. In a moment of frustration, in the gun section of Walmart, in Harve, Montana, I complained to my brother “George Bush’s fabricated war is cramping my style.” 동생 gave me an alarmed look and whispered to me, “You are not in Korea anymore.” It is easy to forget that, though I can blends in here so completely, I am not one of these people, especially up here. I have not lived in this state for almost nine years now and I no longer am able to understand the place by feel as I once did. The ironic thing is the coming up here I began to appreciate the stark beauty of this part of the state in a way that I had not before. This is a hard and simple place that breeds hard and simple people. When I bring ㅈ down here, she will feel as if she has landed on another planet.