August 23 2009

I woke up and made my first attempt to familiarize myself with my location in Korea.  Essentially, I live in the ghetto.  I’ve  been told that this whole development is a decade old.  I’ve also been told that I live in a very rich district and part of the fastest growing parts of the country.  Much of this seems true, but instead of living in the high-rise, beautifully modern apartment complexes I imagined, I find myself in a 4-story, concrete? Edifice separated by tiny alleyways covered in dried vomit.  Apparently old Korean dudes have nothing better to do on weekdays but to drink themselves into a stupour.  The inside of the room I am sharing is nice enough.  The bathroom however has no window, and no shower.  Well, it has a shower head, just it shoots… everywhere.  No glass door or separation of shower.  Quite peculiar.  The door to the bathroom is of course made of wood and as a result is dilapidating which adds a pleasant touch to the aroma of crisp mildew making a home of the base of the toilet and anywhere else it can find.  I digress.  I took the main street one way to one of the big name department stores, Lotte Mart.  Several floors with each the size of a big Wal-Mart.  It screams success.  On my way out, I walked the main down the other way to the E-Mart, another of the same but apparently Korean owned.  The funny thing I find about these stores is that there seems to be someone to help out customers at each 10 foot section of the store.  So anytime you stop walking, some petite asian girl starts circling you like you’re prey in the dessert.  Vultures? As long as you keep moving you won’t be flooded with “aanyong haseyo” or other current nonsensical Korean jargon.  I familiarized myself with some of the things that I will likely by buying over the next little while: bagels, milk, cereal.  I tried to pas the time, successfully, until my jet lag kicked in around 6:30PM asking if I wouldn’t mind sleeping for the next 14 hours.  I didn’t.