To and Fro

I'm a creep magnet.  I know a lot of women say that about themselves, but have they been to Korea to see what happens?  The men here might not be totally polite…they spit on the ground and sometimes stare…but they generally keep at a safe distance.  Well, I somehow managed to find the one Korean man who didn't know how to keep his hands to himself.  

I was on the subway with Nicole on Friday night.  We were on our way to Myeong-dong to do some night shopping.  It was only 7:45pm but the early-bird drunks were already popping up around town.  Happy to find a seat, the two of us sat listening to and looking at our iPods.  I was actually reading my previous blog entry (I can really relate to the stories) when the man sitting next to me decided to lean in and take a look.  He was really close; I could smell the Soju on his breath as he breathed into my ear.  

"Oh, um, hey, dude--you wanna read my blog, huh?" I said out loud.  He couldn't understand me, of course.  Nicole laughed.  This guy was all up in my grill at this point.  I kept reading and laughing nervously as I felt his disgustingly moist breath on my neck.  Then he leaned his head on my shoulder directly and moved his hand towards my arm.  At that point, I realized he wasn't trying to sneak a peak at my iPod.  He was trying to cop a feel!

I looked over at him.  His drunken beer goggle eyes were rolling around all crooked inside of his red face.  He looked back at me and sloppily raised his eyebrows as if to ask, "You like what you see?"  Then he began to caress my arm with the tips of his fingers.  

"OMG, Nicole, he's touching my arm....EWW!!!"  After I got her to take a quick picture to commemorate this momentous occasion, it was time to switch seats.  From across the subway car, he continued to make googly eyes at me and wink.  He was swaying to and fro.

There he is, looking over at me!

We were happy to find he did not follow us out the door at our stop.  Not that we couldn't have lost him in a heartbeat in those crowds...but even still, it was comforting to know he couldn't really walk anyways, even if he had tried.  I think it helped that we almost missed our stop because I was so busy texting my other friends about how I had just gotten molested.  Nicole noticed the sign said "Myeong-dong" right before the doors were about to close again, and we jumped through them, like Indiana Jones.  It was a good technique, really.

In Myeong-dong, we flowed with the crowds up and out of the subway station into the immense crowds of the ridiculously cute shopping district.  With rainbow-lit signs hitting us from every direction and lighting our way, we passed by the shops and outdoor tables, with merchants selling designer knock-off purses and sunglasses, tight underwear and jeans, jewelry, and little plastic toys.  We couldn’t wait to shop but we really couldn’t wait to eat, after a long day of teaching.  So we turned down one of the smaller alleys and found our favorite Italian joint.

Since the city is so huge, stores and restaurants aren’t just horizontally placed.  They’re vertical, too.  So, after climbing up 2 flights of stairs to the 3^rd floor where the restaurant is, we were pleasantly surprised to be seated by the window where we could look down and watch the shoppers as we ate.  We enjoyed the view watching the usual:  school girls in their plaid mini skirts and sneakers, young couples wearing matching outfits, and female friends walking hand-in-hand as they shopped for clothes, jewelry, bags, and skincare products on this pleasantly warm, late-spring night. 

As we shopped, I snapped pictures of the funny t-shirts I saw for sale.  Once our backpacks were loaded up with lots of fun stuff, it was time to go home. 

When contractions don't work

LOVE it!

"His Look is Very Out of Date," as opposed to, "His Look is Very Vintage"

On Saturday, Kim joined Nicole and I on another shopping excursion.  First, we stopped in Hyehwa to get some more of that Indian food.  Then we hopped back on the subway and traveled one more stop to shop in Dongdaemun.  I took pictures of more hilarious t-shirts as we twisted and turned back and forth through the aisles of the shopping mall mazes. 

Were there's a willie there's a way.

Next, I wanted to return to the crazy exotic pet market to buy a bigger enclosure for my snails, Slippy and Slidey.  The one they sold me was cute, but it was tiny…and apparently they are going to grow.  So instead of climbing down a million stairs to take the subway only one stop, we opted for a cab, since they’re so cheap. 

“Dongmyo yok,” I told the driver.  I had squished into the back seat with Kim and Nicole, because I was eating fresh kiwi on a stick from a street vendor and didn’t want him to see me.  The stupid thing was, he could see me anyways. 

He quietly repeated what I had said back to us and set off for our destination.  He also seemed to be telling us I should just sit up front next time when there are three people.  He didn’t care about the kiwi. 

Pretty soon, either Kim or Nicole, who have more of a clue about directions than I do, noticed that we were going the wrong way.  Apparently when I had said “Dongmyo” it sounded to him like “Jongno,” which was in the opposite direction. 

“Aniyo, aniyo—Dong-me-o,” I said to the driver.  He seemed confused and started entering something into his GPS.  Nicole got a wandering WiFi signal and used it to look up the word “pets” in Korean.  I can’t read the letters so I tried to show it to him on the iPod, but he couldn’t really look while he was driving. 

“Dong-mee-oh,” I said again.  Then the light bulb went off in his head. 

“OH!  Uh soh-dee, soh-dee,” he said, apologizing for taking us the wrong way.  He turned around; we went back through Dongdaemun and landed in the right spot.  He even shaved a dollar off of the price for us. 

We had to walk through the outer edge of the fabulously gritty Sindang street market to get to the even grittier pet market.  After passing the rusty watches, random wooden pipes, used shoes, and dusty Discmans being sold from old blankets placed directly on the sidewalks, we turned the corner and approached the hundreds of squawking birds in cages along the canal. 

Kim is scared of birds.

When I had visited the place last week with just Nicole, the birds had seemed pretty subdued.  They were all thoroughly caged and hardly made a peep.  I had assured Kim that it would be ok.  Today, however, seemed totally different.  Sensitive to the fact I had a friend with a fear of them, the birds seemed to reach decibels previously unheard of by man.  Roosters were literally cock-a-doodle-doo’ing—loudly.  There hadn’t been roosters before—had there?  Parakeets were screeching.  Many were in glass fish tanks with no lids.  Their wings were obviously clipped, but they seemed so free to fly away.  I’m sure in Kim’s mind, they had been sitting there all day, waiting to fly out and attack her en masse.  I tried to walk between her and the birds, but they were on both sides of the sidewalk…stacked up high. 

A little ways down the sidewalk, I found a plastic reptile tank and bought it for $6.  It’s the same kind they sell back home for like $25.  Then we walked a bit further to the man who had sold me the snails.   He recognized me instantly.  He had more little snail containers out, so I picked one up and pointed at the dirt, showing him the container I had just bought.   He understood and handed me a small bag of snail dirt.  Yes—it was dirt specifically marketed for snails.  I paid him and we headed back towards the subway.

 

Unfortunately for Kim, this meant going back through all the birds.  I kept apologizing for putting her through such an ordeal.  She was, of course, really nice about it. 

The whole time we were shopping that day, Nicole kept reminding me what time it was.  The two of us were eagerly anticipating the arrival of our new teacher like a present coming in the mail.  “It’s 6 o’clock!” she said.  I was supposed to be getting a phone call from Beth when she arrived.  We wondered what she would be like, and discussed things like how exhausted she would be when she got here, and how we needed to show her how to use the combination locks, and how to turn on her hot water…and we’d of course have to take her to the store tomorrow to get set up…so exciting!  A new friend!  And I’ll be able to go back to my “normal” crazy kindergarten schedule!  Back and forth, back and forth…

The subway home was extremely crowded—the kind of crowded where you can’t even hold onto one of the hanging handles, but instead you’re crammed in the entryway by the doors with nothing to hold onto.  The people on board swayed in unison like kelp in the ocean.  A couple of stops later, a seat opened up behind Kim and I got her to snag it for herself, since she gets dizzy from standing up and being moved at fast speeds, sideways. 

“Thanks,” she said, glad I had pointed it out for her. 

“No problem!”  I said.  “I'm safer standing up!"