Living abroad has some amazing moments, funny moments, frustrating moments, and downright weird moments. Here are some events that happened to me this week in Seoul:
1. An older student made me laugh because he told the other student in my class (a girl in her early 20s) that her skin looked like ceramics. Apparently that means that your skin looks good in Korean culture if you compare skin to ceramics. *smile*
2. I went to Olympic Park and enjoyed the beautiful weather and while I was there a really nice Korean man in his 60s or 70s was walking with his wife and approached me. He asked if I wanted my picture taken of the scenery since he thought I was a tourist. He definitely never considered that some people (not me of course) take selfies nowadays. My kind of guy! Once he found out that I had lived in Korea for 15 years, he was shocked and said that I am already Korean.
3. I went to the bathroom at Olympic Park and heard the song "Let it Be" on the radio in the form of the Korean instrument, the gayageum (가야금). It had a very calm and relaxing sound. But apparently one of my friends thought this was too much information, so if you feel that way too, I apologize! Haha!
4. Today I went to a Korean diner for lunch called Kimbap Cheonguk (Heaven). It serves cheap and fairly decent tasting Korean food and while I sat down to order my meal, a man in his late 40s started talking to me in Korean. I thought he was being friendly so I told him where I was from, what I did in Korea, etc. Then 5 minutes later, he asked if he could have my phone number and become Kakaotalk friends, which was a bit weird but totally possible in Korea. Also in Korea, these things don't really bother me since Korean people are very harmless, so I obliged. Later on in the conversation, I couldn't understand him perfectly, but it seemed like he wanted to hang out after we had lunch. I told him in Korean that I had to go back to work. However, as soon as I finished my meal, he seemed to rush through his meal right after I did. I went to pay for my meal and he was right behind me, which I thought was a bit creepy. I walked fast to a convenient store nearby since I was planning to get a dessert snack anyway. After I paid for my candy bar, I noticed him walking off to the right. I found that to be weird since I took about 10 minutes to look for my candy bar. Was he looking for me so that he could talk to me before letting me go back to work? Who knows? But it was certainly strange and I was glad that he didn't notice me walking the opposite direction. To top it off, when I got back to work, he texted me and told me he was the guy that ate kimbap with me. Then he invited me to a group chat with 167 people in it. In the group chat, there was a posting of Trump's letter to Kim Jong Un rejecting the Singapore Summit. I left the group chat and he quickly responded by texting why I left the group chat and said that he would invite me again. I had my coworkers text him in Korean that I wasn't interested. Thankfully, he seems to have gotten the hint. What a bizarre and extremely unexpected situation to be in!
Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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