Tonight I cooked my first meal. Yay. I think it was a success. It started with peas that I bought from an ancient woman who was shelling them by the side of the road. Her 5 teeth were a silver row at the bottom of her mouth. She thought I'd bought a great snack. But I thought, 'fried rice'.
I also turned on the TV and found the American military channel, which is free-to-air and has all-American programming interspersed with community announcements for the defence forces, news from the pentagon, and vignettes about American heroes. Un/fortunately they were showing an episode of Law and Order, so I had a TV dinner. Yum.
This (propaganda) channel is one more thing on the list of 'things that make Korea seem like Bladerunner'. Last night I had to add car parks that have cameras automatically take a photo of your licence plate when you enter, and print out a ticket with your car's info on it....
Today 2 things happened that made me happy for at least 30 seconds.
The first was when I was standing on the subway, an old man grabbed my bag and motioned for me to take the seat next to him. It was so sweet.
Then, when I caught the subway again later, I did some crap sign language to the attendant to ask for a fancy swipe ticket, who smiled and spoke to me in English: 'I have to tell you that it is non-refundable, ok?', very feckin impressive.
Ok. Lyrics for tonight. Just a sample from a song by Beck.
There's someone calling your name, it's driving you insane
You were wearing that stained raincoat and your umbrella was a tangled mess
You were washed up on the glittering shoals looking for another crime to confess
You bribed yourself out of a place in the sun, but you had some change to spare
So you said you want to spend it on me and shook the blues out of your hair
Ooh such a beautiful way to break your heart
Ooh such a beautiful way to break my heart
There's someone calling your name, you're gonna miss that train
Ooh such a beautiful way to break your heart
Ooh such a beautiful way to break my heart
There's someone calling your name, it's driving you insane
3 comments:
hi random stranger.
welcome to korea.
yes, we can meet.
it's always great
to meet new peeps.
hey Jess,
reading your entries are taking me back to my time in Seoul and I am missing it like crazy. I also noticed those neon crosses on the top of buildings everywhere when I first came in from the airport, there's a real tacky Christianity thing going on there.
It must be stinking hot and smoggy there at the moment! Ask your boss to fix your f-ing air conditioner because it will be a long hot summer if they don't.
Make sure you check out:
- Insadong for great cultural knick-knacks to send home
- Hongdae which is the big party area of the city - ask your friends, they will know where it is
- Itaewon - the american military hang out. Not a nice place but if you need western stuff there's plenty there (and i got a hot red leather jacket handmade for $200 there)
ok I'll send you an email with my updates (still no word on the u.s visa) but in the meantime, keep writing about everything, it is wonderful :)
xxx
JACK!
MSN!
NOW!
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