A good day

Spring is slowly moving into Pyeongtaek. I know that it is because I have seen the tiniest green buds on all of the trees lining the streets. It seems like the weather is taking its sweet time to warm up. It is frustrating to me because I am just so used to Kansas weather - you know, it is cold for like a million years, and then all of a sudden, Boom, overnight its 75 and sunny. In Korea, I feel like I am waiting for a pot to boil. Each week the temperature goes up one or two degrees. I guess I can't complain.

Today was special. 55 degrees and sunny, but best of all was the sky. We had a blue sky! In Korea, the pollution and other environmental factors ensure that the sky is an almost permanent slate gray. Not today. A robin's egg blue and I'll be damned if I was going to let it go to waste. I took put on my flats and walked towards the Tongbok market. I meandered up and down the narrow aisles and wrinkled my nose at the smells emanating from the basket of pig heads on the ground and the bowl of slightly pulsing eel like objects on the table.

I moved on to the downtown area and skirted it for a little bit. I like the smaller stores on the edges. They tend to be a little more funky and cheaper than the stores in and right around AK plaza. I walked into one store and greeted the young woman working with the expected "annyong haseyo," and as she noticed I was Caucasion, she pulled an adorable little girl from around the counter. I am used to this. Parents are often pushing their kids to talk to Caucasions so that they can practice their English skills, but this time was different. This time, I knew the little girl. It was Tiffany! One of the students in my class. She ran to me, but was incredibly shy (not a trait that I thought she possessed) and just stood there rubbing her face against my waist.

I was a bit confused because the shop worker was not her mommy, but the shopkeeper managed to explain that her mommy was right next door. I do love that about Korea. The society is based on Confucian ideals that require a society to take care of each other first. Its such a safe country (on the whole) that kids are allowed to wander from shop to shop, street to street, and they are watched by everyone. The whole "it takes a village" idea.

Tiffany grabbed my hands and dragged me to the restaurant next door where her mommy was working the front. She seemed very pleased to see me and insisted that I stay and eat. Apparently, tiffany's family owned the restaurant and her mom worked the floor while her dad cooked. They showered me with food and even though I was not exceptionally hungry, I stuffed myself to make sure that I did not offend them. It was really delicious! I had cold noodle soup with thinly sliced beef, a hard boiled egg, and some radish. They also made me a hameul pajeon -a seafood pancake- and when I got up to say goodbye, they insisted that I drink a cola and wait for a bit....at which point, they gave me a to go box full of freshly made dumplings. It was so incredibly sweet of them. I thanked them a hundred times, bowing and telling them how delicious it was.

After leaving, I continued to walk around for a bit. I walked into the shoe store where my mom and I had shopped during her visit, and after checking out a few of the shoes I noticed a woman looking at me hard. It was another one of my student's mommies! We greeted each other with big smiles and not much talking, although not for lack of trying. She hovered over me, which made me uncomfortable, because I didn't really want to buy a pair of shoes. Well, I did. It is me after all, but I wanted to show her that i did respect her shop and liked her shoes. I pointed to a pair of sandals in black. I had bought the same pair in blue when I was with my mother. I explained to her that I had that pair of shoes. She took that to mean that I wanted that pair of shoes. She took the shoes up to the counter and I sighed. I DID like the shoes and could always do with a black pair. They were not ridiculously expensive or anything so I figured I could buy them to save face. When I pulled out my card, she waved me off. "My gift to you" she said. People here are just nice. Don't you wish you could visit?