With all the little fires burning, he would sure have no problem reaching out to touch the flame.
One things he might have trouble with , though, is finding anything. You see, in Korea, the streets have no names.
I was invited to a student's yesterday to help him celebrate the end of his exams at his night-school (which, in Korea, most attend from about age 10 on). Anyways, I set out last night to find it, and got totally lost. I tried two streets that might have been the one he was talking about before I found the right one. And then, where he said his building was, there were two.
I forgot to mention: not only are the streets unnamed, but the buildings are also unnumbered.
So now I am faced with the prospect of knocking on the wrong door and having to explain to a confused Korean why I am knocking on their door on a Sunday night. An equivalent situation, to help you with the imagining, would be if your "Road to Avonlea" viewing were interrupted. Going to the door, you find a smartly dressed Korean twenty-something holding a phrasebook. Flipping between pages that have the corners folded down (he obviously prepared on the way), he awkwardly says:
"I... student... (flip flip flip) middle school... (flip flip flip) looking am"
He then would smile meekly, as you slowly closed the door...
So, I wasn't too eager for that. I knocked on the door, waited. Then I saw the doorbell, so I gave that a try. Luckily, no answer.
I took that as a sign that I should quit while I was ahead. I feel really bad for not making it to the kid's party, but to be honest, I'm not even sure that I was at the right building, or even that I was there on the right day.
At least I had the phrase book handy, so when I got the pizza (our Sunday night tradition), I could properly ask for no corn.
"Oak-soo-soo Koom-ji!"
Monday, November 14, 2005
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