Keren in Korea: "Change...the transforming experience...is part of the quest in travelling."

I'm reading "Bella Tuscany" by Frances Mayes. She writes about her house in Italy that she has taken from a dilapidated old farmhouse, to a home...refurbishing everything from the tiles on the floors, to the lights on the ceiling. She writes about exploring the countryside, eating and drinking their way around Italy. It's written beautifully and it's thought-provoking as well.

This little paragraph really stuck with me: "Often we take America with us. How can we not, being thoroughly products of our own culture? We see what we know how to see. Powerful built-in genetic strands that go back to Stone Age territorial instincts that make us secretly believe the Danes or Hungarians go home and speak English at night. How much is that in dollars? What are these terrible breakfasts? Where is real coffee? More harrowingly, we are wary everywhere of being robbed and mugged. We fear the violence of American everywhere."

Indeed, I could personally relate to this. We do take what we know with us and try to fit our new round experiences into the square hole of what we already know. I had some of these same thoughts and questions when I arrived, although I know Hungarians absolutely DO NOT go home and speak English. LOL I talk in fahrenheit, inches, pounds, miles...they talk in celsius, centimeters, kilos, and kilometers. Neither of us know how to convert from one to the other. But as I am in Korea longer, the easier it is to drop the walls that we've built around us. I embrace learning a new language. I'm having fun trying new foods (most of the time). I love exploring new areas, running across something fascinating just around the next turn...it's amazing. And more than anything, Korea is full of human kindness. OK, maybe it's not so apparent when the ajuma is shoving me in the small of my back on the subway train...but overall, the people of Korea are wonderful, pleasant, eager to help a traveler who is lost. Everyone is not out to rape, rob and pillage...maybe run over you with the motorcycle on the sidewalk though.

Tomorrow I will take my down coat and tennis shoes to the laundromat to wash and dry, before I pack the coat away. The shoes will help the down be fluffy...line drying just won't do. Volunteering to "Feed Seoul" tomorrow evening, taking bread and soymilk to the homeless near the Seoul Station subway stop. It will be another good day!

A fresh fish/vegetable/fruit/flower market in Anhyeon. Tarps were so low overhead that I had to duck.