Tiger Man

City Hall subway station

Seoul

An elderly was selling hand-painted tigers at a subway station. They were quite impressive and I decided to buy one with my 10 dollars. He shook his head and explained the price (30 Dollars) in Korean, but I pretended to be confused. This went on for a while…. Finally, he took my Ten Dollars, rolled the tiger print and handed it over to me. I took a deep breath smiling broadly saying, kamsahamnida!  But he just mumbled in Korean. I think I knew what he meant: “Forget the thank you wise guy. Just get the tiger and go!”
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Chopsticks

Hong-Ik University

Korea

Diah had strong convictions on not eating pork while Sharaan absolutely shun beef as both meats were prohibited by the edict of their respective religions. At the dinner table, slices of pork and beef were grilled in the same sizzling hot plate. And since this was a Korean restaurant we used chopsticks, but we didn’t know how to use it, so morsels of beef and pork were flying all over the place! Diah and Sharaan were stunned but not us who found it wickedly amusing. “No worries” I said while carefully picking the errant morsels then plopped them to my mouth….

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Hurting The Foot

Korean Autumn

Seoul

I twisted my ankle after that Tae Kwon Do session with Sundong so I was limping back to the cabin. As they sipped tea, Arirang was playing in the background, a very popular Korean folk song where the girl wished for the boy to hurt his foot so he can’t go away and leave her.

Victoria looked at my foot and beamed knowingly. “Did you wish for this?” I asked. But she pretended not to hear. Instead, she turned away and poured more tea....

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Mongolian Emperor

Hong-Ik University

Seoul, Korea

One chilly Autumn afternoon I took a walk around Hong-Ik University in sandals and windbreaker. I was wearing a colorful Mongolian hat that I borrowed from Baataar. I surely got the stares and giggles from native Korean girls. I was enjoying the attention for a while until the cold gets to my bones and I have to run back to IWO office before I freeze stiff.
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