Seal

I went down to the kimbap shop for lunch. For a little while, I had the place to myself. I picked a spot along the wall and tried to interpret more of the massive wall menu while I waited for my food. 
For a few minutes today, I didn't feel half a world away from Minnesota. Sure, I was eating ramen and kimchi with chopsticks, but public radio was playing. After that was "Kiss From a Rose." When you're sitting with your back to the world, listening to Seal and National Public Radio, it's harder to remember that you're sitting in Asia. 
And then I stood up to leave and discovered the restaurant was now full of blue-jacketed Korean men. I waited for the shop worker to finish rolling a kimbap, paid my 4,000 won, and mumbled "gam-sa-ham-ni-da" on my way out the door. Yep. I'm still in Korea.


(And I love it.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time Zones

Image
Fact #4 Korea's time zone is GMT+9:00. Minnesota is GMT-6:00 (Central Time).  That puts Korea 14 hours ahead of Minnesota. (borrowed from  http://www.travel.com.hk/region/timezone.htm )
Read more

Un-ni

Between my house and the subway station, there is a small bakery. I stop there sometimes...mainly for mocha bread. When I went in a couple weekends ago, a new girl was working. "Helloooo!!" I rarely am greeted in English and, with the exception of a few pre-kinder kids, no one sounds that excited when they see me. She asked the usual questions about where I'm from, informed me that English is very hard, and picked out an extra pastry for me.  "Service-uh," she said as she stuffed it in my purse. That's Korean for "this one is free."  Sunday morning I stopped again for mocha bread and a coffee. Same worker, same enthusiastic greeting. Well, possibly more enthusiastic. She even remembered my name! I realize I don't exactly blend in here, but I still thought it impressive that she remembered my name. Among other things, she established that she is my "big sister." In Korea, you are friends with people who are the same age a...
Read more

Graphite Chopsticks

We ate lunch outside in front of the coffee shop that gets a decent chunk of my income. I had tuna bibimbap . Like most rice dishes, this one is supposed to be eaten with a spoon. I was too lazy, however, to pull out chopsticks AND a spoon. A few minutes into my lunch, one of the baristas came outside, stuck a small plastic spoon in my bowl, and returned to her work.  When I arrived in my first grade class, quiet Shiyoo proudly held out her shiny, gray fingertips for me to see. She used her break wisely to color them with her pencil. Jason did the same but clearly forgot about it. He didn't make it ten minutes before his cheeks and nose were varying shades of pencil gray. 
Read more