Seoul Searching

My favorite doppleganger from Big Bang, G-Dragon (photo from NYLON)


The streets are flooded with tourists and eager shoppers. It is only Monday afternoon, but since it isn't rainy and it isn't completely freezing outside, the whole city deems Monday as a good day to go out in the city. I can hear the chitter-chatter surrounding me, but somehow the words are meshed together in a blurry mess of a foreign language which I cannot understand.

I close my eyes for just a moment, imagining I am in Seoul. Nope. It doesn't smell like Seoul. The pungent wafts of silkworms and dried squid hasn't turned my stomach yet. However, I must say- "Bordeaux, you aren't smellin' too hot yourself."

It has been only six months since I left a small piece of my heart in Seoul. That's weird to say. Six months... my heart- Seoul? haha

If you would have told me that I would miss the crazy ajummas who glared at me on most of my walks to work in the morning or the crazy long work weeks... I probably would have laughed. But now, not a day goes by where I hope I can hear someone speak in Korean.

Seriously, I am getting to the point where it is borderline creepy. I find myself lingering behind anyone I suspect might be Korean.

A trip to the Korean market in Paris brought me one sack of kimchi closer to happiness. Later that week, I went to my friend's house for our weekly dinner. This particular night, I brought the kimchi to share with my friends. On my tram ride there, I spotted a Korean couple. The whole time, I hoped they would notice my Kimchi sitting atop my bag. I purposely waved it around like a child trying to flash it their way. Really I don't know what the point of that was.

That would be like a French person desperately searching for an English speaker and waving McDo in their face.

My ringtone is "Haru Haru"- one of the first KPop songs I fell in love with and had on repeat when I first moved to Seoul. I love you Big Bang. If I am in the presence of someone who may be Korean, I pray, hope, and even wish my phone would ring. What are the chances of that happening? Who calls people anymore these days?

So what happens if I get lucky and actually get to encounter someone from Korea? Well, I have it all planned. For instance, one scenario that could take place is that I could accidentally bump into them. And since I know how to say "I'm sorry" in Korean, I could mumble this and then they could get confused and wonder to themselves if some random girl just spoke Korean to them or if their French is soo good that they can't even distinguish between the two languages (I mean, because this is what I automatically think of when I randomly hear English these days). Then they would let it sink it... the syllables "chwe°song°ham°ni°da" would dance around in their head like children on a playground. And then it would go from there... however... I don't think it would go very far since my Korean is limited... in fact I would say very limited... to the point that the conversation would go as far as them asking me if I speak Korean.

Actually, nothing would happen.

Two Fridays ago, I got on the train and sat next to a young lady about my age. She answered the phone "Yo bo sa yo."

That was my opportunity. I had three hours sitting next to her and I said nothing.

I guess I am not as much of an awkward monger as I thought. Instead, I was passively awkward and watched Kkotboda Namja on my BlackBerry and fell asleep.

When I first started writing this, I had a point- some great meaning, but since I haven't spent an ample amount of uninterrupted time in front of the computer, I am afraid to report that if you are looking for a point there is none. It is just the random thoughts of me missing the Korea.