A Little Taste of Home
I finally saw one. I've been looking for one ever since I arrived in Seoul and I finally saw one today. I was walking down into the subway station by my apartment and a Korean girl was walking the other way wearing a Royals shirt. One of those powder blue t-shirts with the front graphic resembling an authentic Royals jersey. I knew it would happen at some point, but I got incredibly excited when I saw it. However, I'm not 100% sure she is a loyal KC fan.
I would equate people wearing English shirts over here to Americans getting those Chinese character tattoos - they might not necessarily know what they mean, but they think they look cool. I saw a guy walking the streets the other day wearing a nice blazer and a shirt that was a fake Skittles shirt that said "Shittles" and had a toilet paper roll instead of a cloud at the end of the rainbow. One of the kids I teach who happens to be about 10, wears a shirt on a regular basis that has a huge marijuana leaf and the number 420 on it. There is even a legend around our school of a kindergartener who used to wear a pair of jeans with a patch that said "Too drunk to fuck." Looking back on it, I wonder if some of the Chinese character encounters I have had in my past were more vulgar than I ever imagined.
People wear American sports teams' gear all over this city so I've been keeping a lookout for somebody wearing Royals, Chiefs or Jayhawks garb. I did see one guy wearing a Chief's getup when I was Christmas shopping, but I don't count that encounter as an official siting. Picture this: I saw a guy that was a few inches taller than me and weighed about a small child more than me. He had a Chief's visor circling his head just below his crew cut. He was wearing shorts even though it was freezing out and had an official Chief's Starter windbreaker from 1994 keeping his upper-half warm. He looked like the kind of guy that would be walking the streets of Raytown getting ridiculed by the locals. All he was missing was the Zoobaz pants.
I digress. Back to the whole "taste of home" part of this blogging. This past weekend was the kickoff of one of my favorite international events - March Madness. Nothing makes me feel more at home than watching the Jayhawks run some ball. The first game took place live on my computer at 8:00 am on Saturday morning. In order to make Seoul a little more Lawrence-y, I trekked across Seoul earlier in the week to buy all the fixins for Louise's West bloody marys: V8, A1, worcestershire and tobasco with fellow Jayhawker, Mr. Atwood, providing the pickles and vodka. We were pretty well shit-canned by 11:00 am. Nothing says home like being close to blacked out in the a.m. while the Jayhawks beat a team by 40 points. We topped the weekend off with some Sunday beer-can chickens coated in Gates hot and spicy rub and covered in Gates sauce.
I haven't really been homesick very much. Sure I miss friends and restauants, but my quality of life is so great over here, that most of the homesickness thoughts just come in passing. Either way, it is still nice to get a little taste of home every now and then. Between my Royals fan neighbors, Louise's West bloody marys and drunk kids cawing out windows, I feel like this place is becoming more and more like Kansas every day. I'm guessing by this time next week Seoul will have decided that evolution never really happened and their main export will shift from electronics to wheat.
Love from Seoul
I would equate people wearing English shirts over here to Americans getting those Chinese character tattoos - they might not necessarily know what they mean, but they think they look cool. I saw a guy walking the streets the other day wearing a nice blazer and a shirt that was a fake Skittles shirt that said "Shittles" and had a toilet paper roll instead of a cloud at the end of the rainbow. One of the kids I teach who happens to be about 10, wears a shirt on a regular basis that has a huge marijuana leaf and the number 420 on it. There is even a legend around our school of a kindergartener who used to wear a pair of jeans with a patch that said "Too drunk to fuck." Looking back on it, I wonder if some of the Chinese character encounters I have had in my past were more vulgar than I ever imagined.
People wear American sports teams' gear all over this city so I've been keeping a lookout for somebody wearing Royals, Chiefs or Jayhawks garb. I did see one guy wearing a Chief's getup when I was Christmas shopping, but I don't count that encounter as an official siting. Picture this: I saw a guy that was a few inches taller than me and weighed about a small child more than me. He had a Chief's visor circling his head just below his crew cut. He was wearing shorts even though it was freezing out and had an official Chief's Starter windbreaker from 1994 keeping his upper-half warm. He looked like the kind of guy that would be walking the streets of Raytown getting ridiculed by the locals. All he was missing was the Zoobaz pants.
I digress. Back to the whole "taste of home" part of this blogging. This past weekend was the kickoff of one of my favorite international events - March Madness. Nothing makes me feel more at home than watching the Jayhawks run some ball. The first game took place live on my computer at 8:00 am on Saturday morning. In order to make Seoul a little more Lawrence-y, I trekked across Seoul earlier in the week to buy all the fixins for Louise's West bloody marys: V8, A1, worcestershire and tobasco with fellow Jayhawker, Mr. Atwood, providing the pickles and vodka. We were pretty well shit-canned by 11:00 am. Nothing says home like being close to blacked out in the a.m. while the Jayhawks beat a team by 40 points. We topped the weekend off with some Sunday beer-can chickens coated in Gates hot and spicy rub and covered in Gates sauce.
I haven't really been homesick very much. Sure I miss friends and restauants, but my quality of life is so great over here, that most of the homesickness thoughts just come in passing. Either way, it is still nice to get a little taste of home every now and then. Between my Royals fan neighbors, Louise's West bloody marys and drunk kids cawing out windows, I feel like this place is becoming more and more like Kansas every day. I'm guessing by this time next week Seoul will have decided that evolution never really happened and their main export will shift from electronics to wheat.
Love from Seoul
posted by Kyle at 11:48 PM
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