8/29/12
August 30, 2012 1 Comment
Last night we were all so tired we accidentally skipped dinner and went to sleep at 7-8 pm. Sidney said she didn’t know what to do for dinner, so she tried poking Mom awake and Mom just told her to go to the Mini Mart outside. Unfortunately Sidney didn’t feel like braving the typhoon for a meal.
So far Korea, has not been agreeing with my health either. I’ve been having stomachaches everyday. I also tire easily, and my appetite is sparse. I keep waking up at around midnight, staying up for a few hours, passing out again, and then waking up at around 6 am. I know I’ve always had crazy sleep schedules, but my circadian rhythm has never allowed me a few hours of activity before pushing me back to sleep.
Today was my first experience on the Seoul metro. I think we just embarrassed ourselves because we had no idea what we were doing. Mom almost sat in the elderly/handicapped/pregnant women/other unfortunate people section twice.
It was also the day for taking the Korean language test. I got pretty owned since I don’t really know a lot of the grammar rules. I can’t spell either. The directions said to stop at page 14, but it turns out that they meant for us to complete the whole thing. I tried to explain to one of the graders, but she just laughed and said, “I have no idea what you’re saying. Just do your best to finish”. My best was just three more sentences.
The person who escorted me out was able to understand that the directions said to stop though. I suppose the gestures I made helped.
After the written part came the interview. That was quite a bit easier. The teacher who interviewed couldn’t really come to a conclusion on what level to place me though she said I did a lot better than she expected given my circumstances. She said that while I could possibly do the second level, I lacked a lot of the grammatical foundations that the first level taught. Then again the first level is full of people who barely know the alphabet. But the teacher feared I might potentially fail the second level. I told her I would trust whatever decision she made and would work hard regardless.
I guess Mom just doesn’t get enough shopping done so we headed to Namdaemun immediately after. Right outside of Ewha is a bus stop. If you take the 7017 and wait six stops you’ll get to Namdaemun. It was kind of like the mall in terms of aggressive salespeople except worse. Worse cause they more desperate. At one point I blanked out and started staring into space until a man rushed out of his store and asked if I wanted anything. I accidentally blanked out towards his merchandise (jumbo packs of kim). In the end it just seemed like a tourist trap with all the suspicious K-pop merchandise. It was also kind of heartbreaking walking down an alley of eateries as ahjimas screamed at you to eat whatever they had to offer. One even said that if it tasted bad I didn’t have to pay. I know I’ve been fortunate enough not to know poverty at that level, but the experience sort of took it to a new level.
Myungdong again. By some random stroke of fortune we found a Cat Cafe. I miss you Oliver. At first it seemed like the best idea ever, but then we saw that they made drinks in a pretty unsanitary way. The top was off and all that cat hair was floating around. Plus, why did they spray our hands with sanitation? The cats didn’t like the smell. They have better immune systems than people do anyway. And I spotted another androgynous person. This person had longish short hair and was super skinny. So I figured female. Wrong. My gosh, I was so out of it that at one point while roaming Namdaemun or Myungdong, all the noise just stopped. It just looked like one big blur, and all the colorful lights were melting together.