Well, it turns out that with my new television, despite not having cable I'm able to receive one English-language channel after all: the U.S.Forces-Korea TV network. There are about 40,000 U.S. service members and civilian support personnel here, and they get their own TV station.
There are no commercials, but it's a steady feed of popular network television shows, including a rebroadcast of Jay Leno at around 11 p.m. (of course, this is in reruns right now due to the Hollywood writer's strike) and the Simpsons show up at like midnight, some nights. In between the shows and where there would be commercials, instead you get these military public service announcements. I swear, some of these public service announcements are exactly the same ones that ran on the USFK TV when I was stationed here 16 years ago. "Drive safe, winter's coming;" "A gambling habit can get you in trouble;" Etc.
I find I have a very low tolerance for these announcements, as the military community outlook reflected in these announcements seems terrifyingly narrow and often eerily unaware of the surrounding cultural context. Or maybe it's just because it reminds me of some unpleasant memories: all night watch duty at the company HQ, days off duty, but locked onto post with nothing to do but read ancient copies of Dostoyevsky, watch TV, or clean the bathrooms again because my (married-back-in-the-States) squad sergeant had volunteered us before disappearing somewhere with his (local) girlfriend.
Last night I dreamed I was driving through a blizzard in Minnesota or Iowa or somewhere like that. Where did that come from?
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