My Computer is in Hangul and Other Stories

Being logged on to the internet here in Seoul has my computer displaying everything in Hangul. Based on how frequently I visit certain sites, it's easy for me to remember which tab is the "sign in" or "search" button, but for a few moments I pretend I can read it and that my ability to navigate these webpages is because of that and not because of just remembering the placement of the hyperlinks.

I was out walking around earlier downtown. We came across this huge area of street vendors and sidewalk shops - just what I needed. I was finally able to drop some money on some useless junk. Well, it's not really useless. Maybe more needless. No, no I take that back. I definitely needed it and I think others back home will need these too. How about I keep going all vague-like?

Earlier today I got a Korean cell phone. I had to wait a day and a half because the system hadn't logged me in as a "foreign traveler" to the country. I was told that you cant actually buy a phone unless you are registered with the country. There's a long story with this in terms of adoptees and whether or not their bio fathers registered them at the time of their birth. Depending on the circumstances of the bio mother's pregnancy, alot of times the bio father will refuse to register the child. Interesting how this can affect things like getting a cell phone! But, I got a pre-paid phone so it would be easier to communicate with people here in Korea. It took me FOREVER to figure out how to use it. Some of the buttons are in Korea and some of the text on the different screens on the phone are in Korean. But, by random accident, I finally figured out how to text two of the people I've been trying to get in touch with here. This was another reminder of how hard it is to not be able to communicate with people as easily and conveniently as I am used to. And to think for part of my life cell phones, texting, email, etc. was not available yet! I dont know if I could ever go back!

Tonight I have been trying to work more on my presentation for tomorrow and am losing my battle with needing to go to sleep. Something about sitting at this desk on my computer makes me so exhausted. I was literally falling asleep in my chair. I decided to head back out tonight on my own and wander around. I went back to the area I was before with all the street vendors and sidewalk stores. A couple of things I noticed: First, rarely does anyone wear a baseball cap and if they do, it's certainly not a Boston Red Sox cap nor is it on backwards. Second, no one wears basketball shorts. So, here I am walking around with basketball shorts, a backwards Red Sox cap and my University of Minnesota football shirt. I drew some stares tonight for sure. But I liked it. I felt that for the first noticeable time since I've been here, that people were reading me as a gyopo (loosely translated as a Korean-American or foreign Korean).

Also, I got into this store right before it closed and managed to do a quick walk through looking at shirts. The sizes here are super small. Makes sense I suppose. One of the first shirts on this rack that I looked at was sized XL but looked like a US small. I'll have to get used to that since my diet of "all American food" has certainly caused me to blossom out bigger than a Korean XL!

Both times I was out walking around, I got a bit turned around. Moreso the first time when I was walking with Laura. We used the skyscrapers as our landmarks and eventually made it back to our hotel. Tonight when I went out again by myself, I tried to remember other landmarks to help me navigate my way back. I went down this one street that I thought would hook up with the original street I entered on. Not the case. Eventually I made my way back to the tunnel I had come up from. In Seoul there aren't many places to cross the street. Alot of stuff is underground including massive shopping centers. This is a good thing because cars do NOT give you any room. You are the one that will have to get out of the way and fast, not them.

Another random observation is that I can't figure out if people walk on the opposite sides of the sidewalk. In the states, generally, we walk how traffic flows - on the right and pass slower walkers on the left. In Korea, I havent decided fully if people just walk on opposite sides of the sidewalk or if they just walk wherever and if you're in the way, again, YOU have to move. This happened all night long and I would test out my theory by trying to walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk, but it didnt seem to matter in some cases although it was better than walking on the right side. Either way, I was still the one that had to move out of the way. Even if I challenged the oncoming walker by holding my ground, nope, I would have been run over!

One last thing that is coming to mind as my eyes are getting really heavy, but it is very common here for people, mostly those I am reading as female, to walk around arm and arm with each other. These are individuals who look unmistakeably female and no one notices. I feel like in the states, if we saw two feminine women walking down the street in some kind of physical contact like that, we would stare, do a double stake, keep lookin at them out of the corner of our eyes, and make all sorts of assumptions. Not the case here. It's interesting.

So, on day 2 (full days anyway), these are just some of my observations. We'll see what tomorrow brings.