SEOUL, KOREA - April 20, 2001
Riding the subway today and saw an old ajumma (old woman) with bent back, flowered shirt, and permed hair. She was begging for money (not very customary in Korea - and hardly seen). Young women with tight jeans and high heels gave her a funny look. She was one of the old style women. Her back was bent so badly that her she would live the rest of her life at a 90-degree angle, as if she would be forever tying her shoes - the incorrect way - bending your back at that angle without bending knees to tie them.
Korea is a constant mix of old and new. Remembering back to my Pusan days, where I was much more inundated with old Korean style culture (as opposed to this young, hip, university area of Seoul). I had encountered countless upon countless of these old style women walking throughout Pusan with their 90-degree angled backs with face pitched forward. A constant rememberance of the 'old Korea' when many women worked their lives away in the rice fields.
These days, Korean women no longer work the rice fields. More likely you are able to find them bent over and marveling at a new pair of shoes in the marketplace. The Land of the Morning Calm has become the land of the Ringing Cellphone. Modernization.
Well, hopefully, just hopefully, this weekend I'll be buying a used computer for my apartment. This website has been sorely lacking the last several months since my trip to Vietnam. Actually, I am thinking of setting myself up with an air-conditioner, used computer, an electronic korean-english dictionary, and perhaps even a new cellphone. Settling down for awhile perhaps? I still dream of other far-away countries.. but quite happy in this far-away country as well.. i must be getting older? For the first time I'm preferring the luxeries of life over the experiences of life.
I've been reading this pretty good book this week by Hunter S. Thompson called "The Rum Diaries". Its all about his days in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I haven't finished the book yet, but in this book, he too is about 30-years-old, and recently arrived in Puerto Rico after spending most of his 20s just bouncing from place-to-place. (Everyone knows Hunter S. Thompson does leave the island), but in the book, he's just putting down some roots and going for the nice apartment and all those luxeries of life for a little while. Hmm.. strange how similar I feel to him at this time as well.
Next Journal Entry in Seoul:
May 20, 2001
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Wintermoon2@yahoo.com