Sunday - Two Parts
My alarm went off at 9:15am this morning and I woke up to listen to the KU game. It was a great way for the team to start their season and a great way for me to start my day. Today was a good one. I have two things to share tonight, please enjoy (hell yes).
Part One - A Story
With two of my fellow co-teachers, I went to Costco today. The store itself was two stories of pure bulk-item deals, with some American foods I haven't seen since I left the States (like "real" processed Kraft cheese slices). It really made me feel like I was at home in the capital of capitalism. As sweet as Costco was, what I would like to share with you is the story of the journey there.
To get to Costco you have to take a short subway ride and then hail a cab and have it drive you up a large hill. We had no idea where Costco was, but the procedure to get there had been explained to us: you are supposed to hail a cab outside of the subway station and ask to be taken to E-Mart (which happens to be right next to Costco), Korea's version of Target. If you ask a cabby to take you to Costco, they will take you to a popular apartment complex that in Korean sounds like "Bosco." We left the subway station and began trying to hail a cab. This proved to be almost impossible on this busy Sunday afternoon. Plus, hailing a cab for three scraggly white kids in Seoul is not an easy task on a not-so-busy day. After fifteen fruitless minutes of waiting at a cab stand, we decided to start walking in a different direction on the other side of the street, hoping we could find an empty cab. As we were walking away from the cab stand, I noticed a couple of white kids walking the other direction who we almost asked for directions, but we decided to just keep crossing the street and hope for the best. We finally got a cab to agree to take us. It was an old man who was an abnormally agressive driver - and to point out that a driver in this country is abnormally agressive is like pointing out the 450 lb. man who just went back for sixths at the all-you-can eat Shoney's is overweight - it's probably not necessary and it could be a little rude. The guy took us there in a roundabout way (we found that out when a different driver took us back a totally different way) and was driving somewhat more like a maniac than most other drivers in this country. After we'd been in his cab for around twenty minutes we got stuck in a traffic jam. Cars weren't moving around us, and neither were we until our cabby got distracted with one of the gauges and took some pressure off the brake. Finally, our car started moving, but unfortunately the car in front of us had not. We slammed into the car in front of us and our driver started laughing. Allow me to repeat: We got into a wreck in the middle of a traffic jam and our driver started laughing. The woman he hit was being quite polite until he started motioning to the back of her car and presumedly saying, "your car looks alright...so I'll just be on my way." He got back in the car like he was ready to drive off and she became livid. We threw money onto the console and got the hell out of there. We walked the rest of the way. As we were grabbing a cart, I couldn't help but notice the two white kids we were going to ask for directions over a half hour earlier were walking into Costco ahead of us.
The lesson here is twofold. Walk whenever it is an option and never, ever, for any reason get in a car that is driven by a Korean. Lessons learned.
Part Two - An Expensive Habit
I've picked up an expensive habit over here. Not meth. Not kimchi. Not even Korean whores. Instead, I have been reading books all the time. The problem is, English books are quite expensive over here. For example I went and bought Steve Martin's "Shopgirl" and read the whole thing tonight. Last Sunday I read "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk. It would have honestly been cheaper for me to buy a bottle of liquor and six liters of beer at the local convenience store than to buy "Choke" - and it only lasted me one night.
When I was younger I used to read all the time. Reading is a much neglected pastime of mine, and I am glad to return to it. With all the free time I have, I find reading to be a good use of my time and I've already read a couple real good books. To give a little perspective on my reading habit, this summer at camp I read about 100 pages of one book. A few weeks ago I read "1984" by George Orwell in about three days. My next goal is to find more used bookstores around this city. I'm complaining because it's expensive, but it is delightful to have so much extra time to commit to reading. Dare I say, I think it may even be good for the Seoul.
(Okay, I halfway apologize for all of the cheesy puns with the word Seoul, but it's such a nice way to bring everything full circle, and with all the time on my hands, I devote at least thirty minutes of each day to "cheesy pun creation." I'll get tired of them soon and stop, but for now you're just going to have to live with them.)
Love from Seoul
Part One - A Story
With two of my fellow co-teachers, I went to Costco today. The store itself was two stories of pure bulk-item deals, with some American foods I haven't seen since I left the States (like "real" processed Kraft cheese slices). It really made me feel like I was at home in the capital of capitalism. As sweet as Costco was, what I would like to share with you is the story of the journey there.
To get to Costco you have to take a short subway ride and then hail a cab and have it drive you up a large hill. We had no idea where Costco was, but the procedure to get there had been explained to us: you are supposed to hail a cab outside of the subway station and ask to be taken to E-Mart (which happens to be right next to Costco), Korea's version of Target. If you ask a cabby to take you to Costco, they will take you to a popular apartment complex that in Korean sounds like "Bosco." We left the subway station and began trying to hail a cab. This proved to be almost impossible on this busy Sunday afternoon. Plus, hailing a cab for three scraggly white kids in Seoul is not an easy task on a not-so-busy day. After fifteen fruitless minutes of waiting at a cab stand, we decided to start walking in a different direction on the other side of the street, hoping we could find an empty cab. As we were walking away from the cab stand, I noticed a couple of white kids walking the other direction who we almost asked for directions, but we decided to just keep crossing the street and hope for the best. We finally got a cab to agree to take us. It was an old man who was an abnormally agressive driver - and to point out that a driver in this country is abnormally agressive is like pointing out the 450 lb. man who just went back for sixths at the all-you-can eat Shoney's is overweight - it's probably not necessary and it could be a little rude. The guy took us there in a roundabout way (we found that out when a different driver took us back a totally different way) and was driving somewhat more like a maniac than most other drivers in this country. After we'd been in his cab for around twenty minutes we got stuck in a traffic jam. Cars weren't moving around us, and neither were we until our cabby got distracted with one of the gauges and took some pressure off the brake. Finally, our car started moving, but unfortunately the car in front of us had not. We slammed into the car in front of us and our driver started laughing. Allow me to repeat: We got into a wreck in the middle of a traffic jam and our driver started laughing. The woman he hit was being quite polite until he started motioning to the back of her car and presumedly saying, "your car looks alright...so I'll just be on my way." He got back in the car like he was ready to drive off and she became livid. We threw money onto the console and got the hell out of there. We walked the rest of the way. As we were grabbing a cart, I couldn't help but notice the two white kids we were going to ask for directions over a half hour earlier were walking into Costco ahead of us.
The lesson here is twofold. Walk whenever it is an option and never, ever, for any reason get in a car that is driven by a Korean. Lessons learned.
Part Two - An Expensive Habit
I've picked up an expensive habit over here. Not meth. Not kimchi. Not even Korean whores. Instead, I have been reading books all the time. The problem is, English books are quite expensive over here. For example I went and bought Steve Martin's "Shopgirl" and read the whole thing tonight. Last Sunday I read "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk. It would have honestly been cheaper for me to buy a bottle of liquor and six liters of beer at the local convenience store than to buy "Choke" - and it only lasted me one night.
When I was younger I used to read all the time. Reading is a much neglected pastime of mine, and I am glad to return to it. With all the free time I have, I find reading to be a good use of my time and I've already read a couple real good books. To give a little perspective on my reading habit, this summer at camp I read about 100 pages of one book. A few weeks ago I read "1984" by George Orwell in about three days. My next goal is to find more used bookstores around this city. I'm complaining because it's expensive, but it is delightful to have so much extra time to commit to reading. Dare I say, I think it may even be good for the Seoul.
(Okay, I halfway apologize for all of the cheesy puns with the word Seoul, but it's such a nice way to bring everything full circle, and with all the time on my hands, I devote at least thirty minutes of each day to "cheesy pun creation." I'll get tired of them soon and stop, but for now you're just going to have to live with them.)
Love from Seoul
posted by Kyle at 12:22 AM
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