  Hae Won told me yesterday that she had to pawn some stuff because she ran out of money for the month. She said the shop wouldn't even give her half of the worth, and she was asking me if that was usual. I have no idea, but I told her that I thought it seemed like what a pawnshop would give. I've never been in a pawnshop before. She said the guy was creepy and dirty,no surprise. The experience seems to be just like how anyone would think that pawning stuff to buy food would be like.
Truly horrible. She swore me to secrecy, but no one who knows her has access to this blog. My friends travel in widely diverse circles. Not much over lap. I feel so bad for her. She technically could have asked her parent's to wire her some money, but she feels really ashamed. Her brother is in grad school at Johns Hopkins, and her parent's are not wealthy. Having her out of work is a big strain on them. When Jimin gets here there will probably be a big dinner thing, so I told Hae Won that I would pay for her dinner, and just tell everyone that I owed her or something.
It's about all I can do. I'm in no position to help anyone financially, but I totally would if I could. I went to the new green area of the LA River yesterday. There is a little park. I actually saw some long legged birds that kind of impressed me. They were nothing like what used to live by the river, but I didn't expect any wildlife at all. The LA "River" is truly surreal, as is much of LA, as everyone knows.
I kind of like it that way, though I know that ecologically it is terrible. There is this clump of trees and brush right in the middle of the aqueduct, and it smells kind of oceany. Sort of bad, but not as bad as expected. Of coarse, all the walls are covered in graffiti. Some of it is pretty elaborate. This feeling of not expecting much from my city is interesting. All the people I know who are really into "the city" are all from other places. This notion of the outsider caring more that the insider is kind of what I want to deal with for the October Surprise project. 
