...so said the weather forecast on TV this morning. And they weren't kidding: the first thing I noticed stepping outside was the heat. The second thing I noticed were the cicadas: they're out in full force, an almost deafening sound that makes you feel like you could be attacked by a swarm of locusts at any minute.
Against my better judgment, I hiked up (part of) Bomunsan, a local mountain. I got a decent view of the city but was wiped out afterwards. So I wandered the streets looking for someplace to eat that looked (a) air conditioned and (b) big enough to have an English menu. I eventually wound up in a barbecue place that was really tasty.
Apparently I'm failing to communicate the Korean line for Do you speak English? While I guess it's not strictly necessary, as I'd find out quickly enough by throwing English at people, but I wanted to learn the Korean phrase for this so I don't come across as assuming that everyone speaks English. As it turns out, all I'm getting across is that I don't speak Korean. This phrase has been met with confused looks every time I say it...I suspect I'm not pronouncing English correctly.
My linguistic (mis)adventures continued when I ducked out of the heat midday into a supermarket. A couple of friends requested specific items from Korea: kim chi-flavored seaweed, and barley tea. This turned out to be harder than I thought. The place was unnerving enough with store workers at every turn shouting out some sale. But I eventually found the seaweed. I was hoping at least one of them would have some little kim chi icon. No dice. I even memorized the Korean characters for kim chi, but couldn't find them on any of the bags there. The barley tea it turned out was conveniently labeled in English, but the only English words on these packages were self-evident ones devoid of meaning, like flavor and quality.
So I asked someone in my fractured Korean. The problem was I didn't know the word for seaweed. So as much as I pointed to the seaweed, she thought I was just confused and took me over to the kim chi. It turns out that the word for seaweed is kim. And somehow I couldn't quite get beyond "kim chi type kim".
Other discoveries: yes, the video game channel is real. But there's also televised Go. Even more agonizingly slow to watch than to watch someone planning their Starcraft moves.
Tomorrow will be just as hot. And I'll be in a suit. But (hopefully) in well-air-conditioned buildings...
No comments:
Post a Comment