The Little Things That Make Me Happy...

Just some pics of things that have made me happy while being here so far. Whether it's foods I've missed, places that make me feel like I'm back home, or a little yawning punk whom I look forward to seeing after work each day...

Mexican food, made by Mexicanos (yes, I looked in the kitchen and asked!):

 

Jalapeños!!!1!111!!!!1!!!!

I can't tell you how much I had been pining away for a burrito. Well, actually, I think i DID tell some of you...over and over and over again. The fact that this was a 30 minute subway ride and a 20 minute walk away made it even more tasty!


Next! 

I knew I was having severe burrito withdrawals but I didn't think I wanted this food so much until I actually had it:

Chicken Tikka Masala and two orders of BUTTER Naan bread!!!11!1!!!!1

Yeeeeeaaaaah, boyyyyyyy!

On a recent trip to Everland (aka Korea's answer <read: rip off> to Disneyland), I found these...

For the past 20 years, I couldn't just walk in to a store and find pre-made Chun Li cuffs, I'd have to special order them from some cosplay joint or make them myself (yeah, THAT's gonna happen). But I found these at Everland, just hanging on a non-descript rack in their main retail store. WTF?! Regardless, even though I won't be ready with a full costume until next year, I am ecstatic that I finally have the elusive cuffs.

Next!

Going to Costco at home was just a shopping trip. Going to Costco here is a rare field trip. A 40 minute train ride and 10 minute cab ride later, I finally made it!

It's smaller than the ones at home and the aisles are not nearly wide enough to hold the masses, but it did give me a sense of hominess to see the familiar bulk items on sale. But while perusing the various items, I came across this:

I don't think I really need to add anything to that (besides the big yellow arrow and text). 

And then, I hit the jackpot:

Guess what I had for lunch today? A thick, gooey, cheese quesadilla. Am in my happy place. Since I bought this at Costco, there are 40 tortillas in the bag and the cheese will last me a month in the freezer.

Last, but not least of the things that make me happy, is this little one who welcomes me home from work by glomping onto my thigh (only when I wear jeans -- somehow she knows) or mewling excitedly until I pick her up:

All in all, these things have made me miss home a little less. Just a little.

Technology and Realizing What Part of Me Is Actually Korean

A quick word from our sponsor:

This new blog entry has been brought to you by another installment of "This Is Why I'm Here."

"Hand Made A French Bakery." Le Sigh.

We now return you to your irregularly scheduled blog:

Most of you already know that Korea is light-years ahead of us in terms of cell phone aesthetics. LG and Samsung have some of the coolest looking phones here but they won't be made available in the States for a while. When you see the newest LG or Samsung advertised on t.v., just know that the Koreans here will consider it way outdated. Why? Because they're hoarding the best stuff for their own people, that's why. Understandable, I guess. But what about other technology in which we (we, meaning Westerners) should already have access to, either by our own sheer ingenuity or by usurping/commandeering someone else's?!  I have encountered two things here that I have never seen at home and I actually marveled at them. 

Yes, I marveled.


1.) Shopping Cart Escalators - I know some of you who have two-story Targets nearby have seen the cart escalators along-side the one for people so folks can bring their shopping carts upstairs with them, instead of cramming into an elevator. It's pretty practical, innovative, and incredibly necessary (as is a two-story Target). But they're also kind of a pain -- as I recall you had to lock the cart into place and make sure it was well-fitted onto the conveyer mechanism and then you had to follow it up to make sure to get it as it approached the landing.


You know how some grocery markets have the magnetic wheel-locking mechanism at the perimeter of their store so people don't steal their shopping carts? Well, the major multi-level shops here have escalators that employ that wheel-locking thingy so that you just ride up or down WITH your cart and your cart doesn't budge on the incline/decline. Now this is even more practical, innovative, and incredibly necessary (as is a two-story Costco). Observe:

You can thank me later for those 26 seconds of your life that have just been enriched. 

I don't know about you, but when I go shopping at a ridiculously large warehouse store filled with bulk items that will take me a lifetime to use, I don't want to take forever clicking my cart into place so I can babysit it as it rides its own rickety way up, then race to get there just before it arrives to wait for it with open arms like it's a hail mary pass. No. I want it, and the goodies it's carrying, to ride comfortably with me, having the full confidence that, even if I let go of the handle, it would not skid into me or the next person or, heaven forbid, crash to the floor, thereby spilling that 72oz bottle of ketchup (3 pack, of course). 

Maybe I just hadn't gone to the right stores in California or maybe they're actually available in the mid-west somewhere, but I had never seen one of these in all my 37 years until I got here. Get on it, America!!!   

2.) Waiting-to-be-seated Pagers - You know those little beepers/pagers the host hands you sometimes when you go to a restaurant and you have to wait more than 10 minutes to be seated? The fanciest ones I've seen would light up, vibrate, maybe play a little tune, and if it was uber-awesome, you didn't have to be confined within a 20 foot radius of the place in order for the pager to work...you could go 40 feet.  


I was at a little bread and pastry joint here and they told me I had to wait a few minutes for the milk tea I had ordered along with the chocolate bread (see Aug 19 blog). No problem. Then the guy slid me his cell phone.


Errrrrm.


I looked at him funny, which he caught, then he proceeded to tell me that it would notify me when my tea and bread were ready. I took a closer look at it. It looked like a run-of-the-mill cell phone to me... but then the screen came alive and it started playing music videos and movie previews. What, what whaaaaat?!


I was transfixed. Not only was this thing going to tell me when my delectables would be ready, but it would entertain me in the process?! I was so mesmerized that I failed to take a picture of this thing. This is what they have at a pastry joint?! What do they give you at a major restaurant -- your own K-Pop star to escort you around while you shop on their dime until your table's ready?


Listen, Cheesecake Factory: When I get back and I have to wait 35 minutes to have your inhuman proportions of food, you will not hand me that little plastic square that lights up and vibrates. You will import Colin Firth so he can walk me around like I was Elizabeth Bennett until he tells me that I can order my Bang-Bang Chicken and Shrimp without further delay. If he wants to light up and vibrate whilst doing so, fine.


Moving on. I have always felt like I was more American than Korean, most of you know this. Aside from my last name, speaking a little Korean, taken Tae Kwon Do, learning to play the piano, having chinky eyes, a flat face, black hair...okay, maybe I'm more Korean than I like to let on....I have looked at the world through the eyes of an American more often than not. It wasn't until recently that I began to wonder if there was a little nugget of me that was truly Korean instead of the scattered bits of me that I recognized here and there. This was partially why I came here; to try to knit those scattered pieces together, somehow.

Instead of one unifying connection, I found something else -- something that I had never known would define me as a Korean unlike any other quality I had realized before...


My driving.


Now, before the snickering starts, let me describe how people drive around here. They are damn good drivers (except the Korean women -- apparently that stereotype is true no matter where you are). Generally, most drivers, particularly the taxi and bus drivers, are both offensive and defensive when they're on the move. They don't make any excessive movements with their heads or bodies but are hyper-aware of the traffic and objects around them. When something unexpected happens, they don't freak out or have an exclamatory reaction; they just adjust and continue on. They own the road but since everyone thinks that way, they are always on their toes.


I'm not touting myself to be awesome like they are -- merely that I share some characteristics and a mindset with them:


a.) Pedestrians are not holy or esteemed (yeah!!!). They need to be aware of me as much as I am aware of them and share the responsibility of being smeared on the pavement if that occurs. Cars here don't stop or wait for pedestrians, they just move around them, and pedestrians know to move quickly and in the same direction they have been going lest they get a face full of windshield. It's a tacit and wonderful understanding. Flow is maintained.


b.) Traffic Lines -- As the preeminent Ellen Wieman once commented regarding the lane lines in Taiwan, it so happens to apply here as well: They're just suggestions. If you have a small car and want to pass two other small cars blocking you in two lanes, just go in between them. No harm, no foul, no birds being flipped. Flow is maintained.


c.) Red light? Meh. -- Why wait eons at an inefficient signal? I can't tell you how many times I've been at lights where it's green for the cross-traffic of which there is none. I look down the long road of on-coming traffic to the point where I can see the blurry, shimmering mirages on the pavement, but not a single car. Yet I have to sit there and wait? (Well, I waited 98% of the time.) I haven't really seen laypeople do this but if you're a taxi or bus driver here and you're at a red light with no cross-traffic moving or oncoming, you just go. Nobody cares. It's expected. Flow is maintained.


When these same Koreans try to apply their driving prowess in the States, they are called "crazy," "bad" or just "Asian drivers" but this is because they are out of their element. When surrounded by those of like-mind, incredible things happen. No one defers to anyone. Things just blend. They even know how to merge here and, I hate to admit, it is a skill at which we woefully suck.

Sadly, I will never drive here. As much as I miss my car and I miss driving, my police officer cousin has forbidden me to even think about it. I actually think I could do well here since I have realized that I am of like-mind in terms of my attitude, but I think my cousin is right. If I were to get into an accident here, it would be too much of a pain to deal with, given my status as a foreigner. Public transportation is too cheap and easy to consider getting my own car and paying the astronomical gas fees (pretty much double that of Cali). I do drive aggressively (though not considered aggressive by the standard here -- just "normal") but I am sure my driving life in Cali has tempered me a little and I would actually try to obey traffic laws here. That's no fun. Nor is it desirable.

I shall continue to drive vicariously through bus No. 1-1 and 15. I salute you, you paragons of traffic athleticism.  What, you just clipped that old lady? She knew what she signed up for when she walked out of her house. Flow is maintained.

Next time...Honoring the Moon.