Hunt For The Red Chair

Today was the first day I didn't hang out with anybody. I woke up, went on the Internet, showered, went out to Myeongdong and took some video footage of the place with my camera. I ate at Pizza Hut, which doesn't resemble the American version in any way at all. The place is clean, the service is good, the food is better, there are flowers and glass panels, etc. After that, I bought a Rolling Stones dvd for three dollars, and was shocked to find old Ozu, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi and Naruse movies at the same little underground shop in Myeongdong. I figured that there are no English subtitles for those, though. I also walked around Namdaemoon Market for an hour looking for a chair, sweating to death. I asked many people about where to buy the chair. I kept saying "어디에서 의자를 살 수 있어요?", but I think my pronunciation of "의자" was bad, so I had to follow it up with "자리" and "chair" each time. I bought a wall scroll that says "사랑" and the woman from whom I bought it was very nice and wrote down directions for me on how to get the chair. We had a nice mini-conversation. I finally found a small, wide green chair with a short back to it, for forty something dollars, and a larger, thinner, taller, red chair for seventy something dollars. I asked the people there which one was more comfortable. Of course, they told me to buy the more expensive one. First, I said "보여 주세요", so that I could see what the damned things looked like unfolded. I walked back to my hostel, sweating to death, with a forty pound red chair with metal sticking out. After that, I cooled off in my room, talked to people on MSN, and then went out for a late dinner. I got three doses of chicken kebab, and stood there for twenty minutes talking to the nice Iraqi man who runs the place. He cleaned an eyelash off my cheek with a tissue! I tried to ask him about the situation in Iraq and if it's getting any better, but I don't think he got my question. I asked him why he's in Korea and he said it's because his brother is here, running the kebab stand. I saw the brother praying (he's a Muslim) the other day. I asked the guy tonight who the little girl I saw the other day was, and he said she's his brother's daughter. I told him I'm twenty-five, and he said he's twenty-nine but not married. He looks fifty hahaha. He said he doesn't find the women here attractive, but Korean people are very nice. I asked him if he likes blondes. I told him he should come to New York some time soon, but he said he can't, because he's Iraqi. I told him I've only been to different states in the U.S. and Korea, but I'd like to go to Italy. He didn't know what Italy was, so I said "Italia" and made a hand gesture, which he understood. I said that his brother's daughter must be picking up Korean very fast, and then he said that she goes to a "hak-gyoo" haha. He said Korean is a very hard language to learn and pronounce, and mentioned the word, "빵". I finally headed home and picked up my laundry from 민. People who work here are very nice and do your laundry for you for only three dollars. Here are some pictures from today!