Sunday, January 14, 2007

The Last 12 Days

I've not long left in Korea, I have started to count down.

Yesterday was the twelfth day, and it was a regular school day. On the way to work in the morning I realised some kid was following me, imitating my strut for the amusement of his mate. Am I that ridiculous? Had dinner with a friend in my hood. I really wanted to eat galbi - barbequed meat - one more time before I left cos I love it and it's so Korean to me. So we overate, it was delicious. Talked about the history wars in Australia and Spain.

Today I cleaned, I talked to home, I read blogs and eventually went out, with the mission to find a French ghetto. Last year there was a sensation in Korea when two French expatriates were under suspicious for killing their babies and storing them in their home freezer in this hood. I'd heard there was a Montmartre street and all... Unfortunately, my directions were sketchy, so I ended up roaming around in the twilight (and increasing chill), looking for anything French. After walking by a huge suburb being built, another one a ghost town, I'd given up when I saw a sign in French. Oh my. Stopped a moment later and took this photo ::

I'd found the hood. And it was nice and curious to be in this sweet neighbourhood with French families talking and delicatessens and nice beauty salons and lots of manicured dogs and wine bars. But I was very cold and over it. I went to the giant Gangnam Underground Shopping Mall and bought jocks for my brother (I'm under instruction), a cute top for Z, a cute dress that may or may not be able to contain my boobs, and some hair ties cos my hair is finally growing.

5 comments:

jedimerc said...

So strange to hear the words French and Ghetto applied in Korea. Sometimes you never know about demographics.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I met a few French people in Korea and I was really surprised. I remember reading about their own "safe center" in Seoul, should North Korea ever attack--so there have to be more French people in the capital than we think.

Oh, and I like your new profile pic. You look so pretty! The old one was super cute but made me think your hair was black, when it wasn't.

Dan said...

Gorgeous photo. I love the lighting.

j. ethan duran said...

its all french to me...

Bonnie Conquest said...

It's a pretty small community, not in the thousands. Nothing compared to the Filipinos, that's for sure.
But they are concentrated in this lil area. A safe centre! That's a bit rich, though...