A Bit About Town

Well, I was going to wait to do another post until later in the week, but the cold rain today ruined all my exciting plans of jumping on a red bus and seeing where it took me. (Buses here are color-coded. Red ones go into Seoul.) Today is Korean Independence Day, so everyone has work and school off. There is a big celebration in Seoul, and as a result, Geomdan is nearly deserted this morning. (Geomdan is the outlying provice of Incheon where I live). On Saturday, Sarah, one of the other teachers, took me around the city a bit. During the day, this part of the city looks a bit tattered, as there is a lot of industrial growth here. Every floor of every building is a different business, so sometimes you have to enter a restaurant and then take an elevator or stairs to get to a department store. There is a delicious little bread shop right around the corner from my apartment called "Paris Baguette." Random, I know. But you can look inside the windows as you stand out in the rain, and the warmth of the fresh bread inside fogs up the windows and makes it the most inviting shop on the street.


Across the street from Paris Baguette, and down just a bit is a bank which doubles as a convenience store. I had a time there Saturday, trying to buy shampoo and conditioner. They have a hundred kinds of shampoo of all sorts of colors, but I saw no conditioner on the shelves. "Conditioner" is a hard thing to explain when playing charades. I have been very grateful these past few days for my long years of education in the theatrical arts. One thing I love about this country, though, is how friendly everyone is, how anxious to help. Case in point: Sarah and I took a bus down to the E-Mart, a muliti-floor, multi-purpose store similar to Walmart. After shopping for groceries on the bottom floor (which was quite an experience--I have never seen so many fish eyes staring at me as I walked down an aisle), we went upstairs to look for a plug converter, since the electrical outlets here not only use a different voltage, but also are a different shape. Now, imagine walking through aisles of electronics, trying to find an adapter that: 1. changed voltage from 220 to 110, 2. adapted flat prongs to round ones, and 3. could take a three-pronged American plug with a ground. Now, imagine that you cannot find such a thing, and must now try to explain to the saleslady exactly what you're looking for. As we tried to demonstrate with invisible plugs what we wanted, the poor saleslady started looking more and more distressed that she could not understand us. Just as this was happening, two shoppers who were passing stopped, and the man started translating for us to the saleslady. It was a big relief, and also kind of funny, because as soon as he told her what we were looking for, this huge grin broke out on her face, and she started herding us across the store. The other shoppers followed, and continued to translate as they all started rifling through plugs, and Sarah and I stood back, trying not to laugh at the exuberance of these helpful Koreans. As they found the right one and we thanked them and started downstairs, I saw our little saleslady chattering to another store worker. In moments, before I knew what was happening, they started charging down the escalator toward us! At first I was a bit alarmed, and wondered if we had gone out the wrong exit or if we were supposed to have taken off our shoes in the store or something...but as they reached us, and motioned for the adapter in my basket, I realized that they were still trying to be helpful. She picked up the adapter and began pantomiming how to put the pieces together (it was a multi-adapter with different pieces for about five different countries) and how to plug it into the wall. I bowed and thanked her and tried to let her know I understood, and then watched how happy she seemed as she headed back up to her floor.


This is something that seems universal here. People want to help. There is an underlying thread of kindness and hospitality that seems to run through all the interactions I've seen. Perhaps it would be different if I was not a foreigner, and of course I am sure it is not always the case, but it is something I think that is much more a part of their culture than it seems to be in America. There, we so often treat foreigners with impatience and frustration because they have not learned enough English to communicate with us. Here, they treat foreigners (for the most part) as guests.

Well, I was going to say a bit about the food here, and my experience with traditional Korean barbeque, but my hour on the computer is about up, and I think it will soon be kicking me off. I've been using internet in a "PC Bang," a big computer room usually filled with dim, creepy lighting, smoke, and a whole bunch of Korean gamers. (World of Warcraft lives strong in Korea.) Hopefully by next week I will have internet in my apartment.