Home alone

Last night, I went to a lovely dinner with friends to Bulgogi Brothers in the Hongik area. The meat was by far the finest cuts I've had here. We had ribeye and a japanese sort of ground meat, all of which melted in your mouth. After dinner we parted ways to return to home. When I arrived at home, Na HA and Jung Woo invited me to have some Makkoli (rice wine) and Mek Ju (beer) with them. We sat around the tiny fold out kitchen table which I think I recognize as a space saver cabinet/drop leaf table from IKEA. The lights were dimmed down with music playing from the adjacent computer, sound room. Some of the tunes he played included Portishead, Fiona Apple, Radiohead and then an unfamiliar but great sounding song came on. I asked who the artist was and it turns out it was Jung Woo's band that he was in. They were an indie band and released a CD several years ago. He said they were known, but not famous. He offered for me to burn their album. I am now forgetting the name of the band...maybe it was Blue Orchid?? Something like that, I think.

Jung Woo downed his Max beer and Na Ha and I shared a bottle of Makkoli. Jung Woo had only a single bottle, so he ran out in the rain to get another. Shortly after that, he went to get 2 more and a bottle of Makkoli. The rice wine is a milky wine as it is made from rice. It is fine tasting, but like soju, this makes me red and causes me to break out in hives. I did not realize I was having the Asian red reaction to the Makkoli until it was too late. Na Ha drank hers Korean style in a bowl. I drank out of a small sake style cup.

We chatted about life in Korea vs. US. They said that children are old enough to be left home alone for a short time at the age of 5!!! I couldn't believe it. They said they can make rice in the rice cooker. Na Ha was shocked when she read about a family in the UK who was arrested for leaving their 11 year old alone at home. Jung Woo recalls going to school alone on the city bus when he was 7 years old. He lived a far distance from school, had to get to the stop, pay his fare, get off and walk to school alone. Both he and Na Ha went missing when they were ages 4 and 6. Jung Woo was missing for 2 days. He and his friends went on an adventure somewhere in the city together and they got separated. Some kind gentleman found him crying and took him to the police station. This was back in the day of no internet, no cell phones. He didn't know his phone number or his address, only his parents' names. Eventually, the police found his parents to retrieve him. Na Ha said she got lost when she was little and a kind person took her to the police station. Her parents were calling all over trying to find her for days. Eventually they located her at the correct station. She said, if she had not found her parents or if her parents had not found her, she would likely have gone to an orphanage to be adopted. She said it was very common for children to go missing. It makes me wonder about how many of my adoptee friends who were older aged 2-7 were accidentally separated from their family and got placed in an orphanage because their parents couldn't be located.

As I have mentioned before, there are so many young preschool, grade school aged children walking about the city alone. They're all alone with their backpacks, crossing nonyielding traffic. It really is quite a sight in comparison to the US, where the parent drives or walks and waits for the school bus. Today, I was admiring my student's necklace when I realized it was basically a dog tag for a child. It had her name, DOB, Address, phone numbers for her parents engraved in it. I assume there is some understanding that a child could easily get separated in the highly populated city. From my overall impressions of Seoul, I think that a child is most generally safe. There are lots of people out and about. If people can leave their Macbooks, wallet and their Louis Vuitton bags sitting on a table at the coffee shop for hours, I would think people would help a lost child rather than harm them. Bikes are often locked from frame to wheel, but not to anything fixed such as a bike rack. A lot of the street vendors leave their merchandise on their cart and simply put a tarp over it for overnight.

Seoul has a great energy about it. There are just under 12 million living in Seoul. There are always people out and about, stores and restaurants are open around the clock. Bright flashing lights line the streets from the various restaurants, shops, bars and clubs. The social niceties and personal space boundaries are different from the states. People will body check you to get past, walk straight at you not yielding one side or the other. Ajumas especially ram their way through the crowd. As I recall from the FTH, "Korean woman, very strong"! Yes, they are! Coughing and sneezing without shielding is common. No one says "bless you". Spitting on the sidewalk in close range is also common. When someone enters a building in front of you, they will not hold the door, rather it will slam in your face. Sales clerks on the other hand are overly friendly and helpful to the point of being like telemarketers on the sales floor. These are some of my on going observations of the day to day. Some behaviors are unpleasant, but they become normal after awhile. All you can do is just excuse it and move along your merry way.