Old Men on the Subway

Last night I debated if I should take the trip to Costco and my empty refrigerator told me it would be a good idea.  So, I hopped on the train to visit a new part of town.

Costco is a tiny little "almost feels like I'm in America".  Well, only when it comes to the products.  So this is where I stock up on my junk food and other completely unnecessary but really wanted things.

$80 later I had a box full of chips, cheese, bananas, cereal, sour cream, muffins and sandwiches. I didn't have my completely useful Costco bag because I left from work... what to do?  Buy a bag for $2 or tough it out with a 20 lb box? Well, I didn't see any bags easily accessible so I decided to do it the hard way.

I always do it the hard way.  There is some weird thing in my brain that wants to accept the challenge, even though it doesn't make sense... just to see if I CAN.  Its like gambling.  This is how I lost my hairbrush.  I digress...

So, on the subway home, the white girl with the box of groceries got a lot of "looks".  Its always interesting riding the subway.  And here is where the real story comes in.

I plopped my box down in the "handicap/pregnant/ elderly" seats, since they were open.  These seats are clearly marked on the subway and although they are open, usually they will remain empty because its the right thing to do...  Well, I figured the huge box I was carrying made me handicapped...  A few stops later I felt awkward when a bunch of old men stepped onto the train and there weren't enough open seats... so I stood up just in case they wanted to sit.  They saw me and told me to please sit (but in Korean).  I stood for a while just in case, but they were ok... so I sat back down.

One of the gentlemen then wandered over and thus began the familiar conversation.  Though he started with "my friend thinks you are from Denmark"  I said, "no".  He said, "America right?"
"Yes, but my ancestors are from Germany"
"oh, Guten Tag"
"Ha!  But I don't speak German, it was my great-grandmother"

Then of course, how long have you been here, where do you work, etc etc...

The old lady across the isle half entered the conversation making remarks about my purchased items and that it looked heavy.

The man talking to me spoke English very well.  Well enough to tell me that I'm a very beautiful teacher and that next time I should get my boyfriend to carry the box for me.

It was then time to exit the train.  I kindly said good bye and they said, see you next time!

Lol... the ever familiar subway conversation... always with the old guys.  Maybe I really do need to start having my "boyfriend" carry my groceries.

Yeesh!
Life as an expat should never be boring... a new adventure awaits everyday.

Weekends Away and the Art of Sleeping

This weekend I took a fantastic trip with some friends to the Southern part of South Korea.  We climbed a mountain and went to a beach.

This was my first time to join a group travel/hiking trip in Korea.  I usually shy away from the group thing because you might just get stuck with some idiots.  Well, lucky me, it turned out to be a pretty decent group!

We left at midnight on Friday night and drove through the night for a sunrise hike.  I'm not a huge fan of sunrises... they've usually proved a big disappointing (its dark and then its light).  The weather was wet. Raining. Cloudy.  BUT- we did it.  We hiked to the "cloud" bridge, especially named for a day like the one we were having.  Every now and then we got a glimpse of the view through an opening.

After the hike we drove to Mokpo.  It was still raining.  I hadn't slept for 36 hours (or so) and I was TIRED.  But they had to kill time because the road we would have to travel would be under water until 6pm when the tide went out.

So I got a coffee and took a walk with my friends... in the rain.

We traveled to our pension and just had to wait a little while for the water to recede.  I was still tired.  But managed to set up the tent on the rooftop.  Forced to stay up to grill burgers, eat and then of course drink.  I finally left our rousing "game of death" at about 10 pm and crashed in the tent.  It was a fantastic sleep.

Turns out we had the perfect set up with our tent... I woke up once again for sunrise and it was beautiful... but I could only hold one eye open for about 10 seconds before I fell into a slumber again.

The next day we went to the beach and I got burned.  I'm not so good at even application of sunscreen.  Today my nose is peeling.

In the end, I'm glad coffee still has the desired effect, though last night I had a coffee at 5pm and the effect was finally falling asleep at 3AM.

There are more adventures to speak of, but if you really want to know, then you'll just have to ask.