feet [asian themes].

um, i went to korea! (just for a weekend. after a really tiring biztravel to japon.)

s korea is cool i think. and by south korea i mean the really really limited part of seoul + dmz that i saw.

reason 1. i like when people are real with you. like, if they don't want you to eat in their restaurant, because they know it will be a pain to try and understand you trying to order anything besides kimchi, so they're just like, sorry, closed, with their forearms in an X in front of them. even though there are obviously happy koreans eating inside. but it's like thank you for being honest. in japan everyone kind of just acts really sterile and nice to keep from causing any sort of non-conformance. in korea there's no over abundance of that orderly stuff. old ladies just shove you around if you're in the way. and a lot of things they seem to do just kindof by the seat of their pants, and i like that because it's familiar, haha.

reason 2 also, all the ATMs, even in the seediest places, have a big ole' FOREIGN button written in english, so you don't have to just guess a bunch of kanji to get to a screen you can understand and then wonder if you just withdrew seventeen million yen from your work credit card. yow-zahs.

reason 3. also, asian children yelling cute things to you in english appeals to every american tourist, cause so many places you just feel hated or looked down on or just dumb, but then the kids are like HELLO! BE MY FRIEND! duh, who doesn't love that. until they start demanding things.

reason 4. i went kareoke with some people, some of whom were native koreans. these guys basically served a big plate of spicy-beef-flavored-kareoke-superiority to everyone else there. i like that they take their singing seriously. it reminds me of myself when i'm hanging out with julie and ken.

well, the asian theme for this post's pictures is:

'ME STANDING AWKWARDLY (LIKE REALLY AWKWARDLY)

NEXT TO SOLDIERS'

awkward me #1 and soldiers at the empty train station where they've built tracks that go right up to north korea, but no trains run into there. cah-reepy.

awkward me #2 (i almost started laughing because i was trying to make my feet look like the guys, but then i didn't know what to do with my hands, as in all these weird soldier pictures) and American soldier at the United Nations checkpoint before the demilitarized zone. this is where you have the briefing where you sign the waiver saying that if something 'unforeseen' happens while you're in the demilitarized zone, no one's accountable for it. they also explain no pictures of the south korean side, when you're on the border you walk single file, no pictures unless its during the two minutes you have to take pictures, and don't wave or point or throw notes with your phone number at the north korean guards.

awkward me and awkward hands #3, here with the tae kwon do-stanced south korean soldier. they all stand like that along the border, which seems like it would sap all your energy, but maybe the north koreans don't have tae kwon do so they're intimidated by the pose? (i wouldn't blame them, it always looks like they're about to deck someone in the face.) the cool part of this picture is that it's taken inside of the UN building that is right on top of the line of demarcation. in fact, this is the only place you can walk right across the border. as in, the soldier is standing on south korean side, and i am standing (technically speaking) in north korea.

whaaaaaat?!