I'm famous! Almost.

Okay, I'm not really famous. But yesterday I had my first big break.

Matt and I went to the Yongsan Electronics Market last evening. He went to the video game section to talk to his new buddy about all the goodies he could trade as soon as our stuff comes. I went to E-Mart (the Super Target of Korea) to buy a few things for our house. We agreed to meet back at a certain place in 45 minutes. Well, I finished about 20 minutes before the meeting time, so I decided to go up to the meeting place anyway and hang out for a bit.

As luck would have it, a musical group called Inca Empire had set up an impromtu stage and were performing. There were three guys in the group(my favourite is Orlando), and they played all kinds of different insturments while they sang over a techno beat. As the name suggests, they play a lot of Spanish songs in the traditional style (plus the techno beat) of the Andes Mountains region. Matt and I had seen these guys performing before. Anyway, there was a man with a camera recording various angles of the group and also the crowd. I watched and listened to pass the time and then heard a song which was the mix of Abba's "Fernando" and what's-her-face's "Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps" song. All with a techno beat, of course. That's when I decided to buy the album. I liked these guys and wanted to support them. Just then I spotted Matt and waved him over to join me. I told him I was going to buy the CD, and he helped me talk to the lady who was selling them.

As we were leaving the man with the camera ran to catch up with me. He asked if he could do an interview with me for his tv show about the group. I was like, "Sure!" I'm sure they wanted me for the interview because I was the only whitie in the crowd and I bought their CD. So he asked me how I felt when I listened to their music. I didn't want to just say, "I like it because of the flutes and pipes and Orlando," so I started talking about listening to the music and feeling like it transported me to the time and place of the Andes and blah blah blah metaphysical whatevers. I figure a lot of it will be lost in translation anyway, so I don't think it really matters what I said. It's going to air soon on the Korean satellite TV on the WaveToday channel. It's too bad we have cable instead of satellite. I'm going to have to find somebody here who has it and can record it for me.

I'm going to be on TV! Next stop, Korean Soap Opera mini series, baby. Oh yeah.

Traffic Jams and Folly

So, driving in Seoul is crazy. Anyone who has been to Asia (or driven in Philadelphia) will understand what I mean by crazy. For everyone else, here's the description: cars parked everywhere, seven lanes of traffic when there are only four or five lanes designated by the painted lines, blind corners, no sidewalks, narrow roads that are incidentally also major thoroughfares, pedestrians all over, motorcycles that go everywhere (in between cars whether they are moving or stopped, along sidewalks (when the roads have sidewalks), through red lights (they are not required to stop); they pretty much get the best of both pedestrian and motor vehicle worlds without the responsibility of either), three wheeled trucks, people cutting each other off, merging lanes with no warnings, and steep hills. Nicks and scratches are the least of your worries here. They happen all the time, but everyone accepts them as part of driving. In fact, many of the cars here have bumpers to go over their bumpers. Go figure that one. I could go on, but I'll spare you.

I have not yet driven myself (our car comes tomorrow, yay!), however I have experienced traffic in a bus, a taxi, and a friend's car (the subway does not count, which I have most often used, but it does have its own unique sort of traffic). It seems to me that buses are the most aggressive and try to kill everybody else, followed closely by the taxis. Some ladies in the ward refuse to drive in the city at all. Although I will not follow their lead, I really don't blame them for their decision, especially since taking the bus (or subway) is so easy, convenient, and puts you on top of the "trafficial food chain."

Because we shipped our car, we are required to take the Korean Driver License Test for Foreigners, as it is illegal to drive in Korea without a Korean drivers license (they don't accept the International Drivers License). There is a packet of study materials that can be acquired somewhere. Matt was going to get them some time and bring them home to me so I could study them. In the mean time, I tried observing the traffic, figuring it would help me to learn the rules that may be different than in the US. Well, I couldn't really devise a set of rules based on watching the traffic. If there are rules (I assume there are, though there is evidence to the contrary), they are not followed to the extent that they are obvious. According to my observation, even driving on the right side of the road is not concrete, and I had witnessed too many face-offs between cars going opposite directions yet needing the same space on the narrow road. Because of this, I was rather interested to get my hands on that packet just to see what the rules that weren't being followed were. At least then I would know what people were supposed to be doing. When our car came I could then learn what people actually do just from driving around myself.

A couple of weeks ago (we were still at the hotel at the time) Matt came home from work one evening with the packet in hand and informed me we were going to go take the driving test the next morning. I was a little bit annoyed that Matt hadn't given me more time to study the information, but I got over it quickly because I figured I probably wouldn't have studied very much anyway. Studying is not really my style. Cramming, on the other hand... Anyway, I finally got to check out this packet, and let me tell you, I don't know how more people don't get in accidents than they already do.

Most of the rules are basically the same as in the US. Stop at the red light. Go during the green light. If you reach a stop sign at the same time as somebody else the person on the right goes first, etc. etc. One major difference is that you can't turn left on a green signal; you must wait for the protected left turn arrow. However, sometimes you can (I'm using a lot of italics today) turn left during a red light. Hmmmm. That is interesting. And counter-intuitive. My favourite rule (and the most ignored) is the one that states "no squeeze play." Squeeze play, eh? I don't think I've ever seen anybody excercise caution regarding "squeeze play." I've seen people nearly run off the road because it's so rampant. Another gem of a rule is when you approach an intersection the person going the fastest has the right of way. That was something I observed but I didn't think that a relative speed would determine a right-of-way as an official rule. Too bad you can't use that rule in the United States. Can you imagine telling a police man "well, I was going faster than that other guy..."? He'd write you a speeding ticket in addition to whatever else you did. Another rule (also often ignored) is "when on an incline, the descending car as the right of way." I guess that's one way to distinguish it. On a hill there is always either someone going up or someone going down. If this rule reflected reality, however, I think they would have to reword it to say "when on an incline, the biggest car has the right of way." However, they couldn't say that because it directly conflicts with another rule, which is "just because you have a bigger car doesn't mean you have the right of way." I think they added that rule just for Americans because most of our cars are typically bigger than the Korean ones (excluding buses, nothing is bigger than a Korean bus).

Well, I took the test and passed (100% woo!), and I now I have my Korean license. This is going to be interesting.

FINALLY times Five Hundred.

Yay! We have finally moved into our appartment (although our stuff is still incognito). We have a great view, and as I gaze over the City of Seoul I realize what a dichotomy this city is. Divided by mountains, buildings trip over each other on their race down the asphalt rivers, less than half of which even have names other than the "fish" that live there. A jumbled skyline greets the sun with its upraised hands, amputated sometimes, other times whole. Cacaphonous cauldrons of carrying calls cascade across the cantons of the omni-coloured city. Chaos.

And yet...

On the inside is quiet wood floors, the only sound is shuffling slippers. Everything has a place. Closets neatly packed, drawers cleanly stacked, garbage properly sacked, secades promptly whacked... The furniture has a sleek sillouette. Minimalistic. With bamboo. Serenity now, serenity found.

Seoul is a most interesting city.