Get Off That Plane Like you Were the One Who Invented Kimchi

These were the last words I received before I boarded the plane for Seoul (compliments of my brother, of course!). And at times when I’m getting stared (really, it’s all the time) at or feel like I’m the “ugly duckling”, that’s exactly what I remember. After the initial shock of being alone and halfway around the world from anything remotely familiar, I was finally able to start settling in. This means that I didn’t automatically break into tears when someone asked me how I was doing and the thought of food also wasn’t making me nauseous anymore. As a result, I was able to start trying the local cuisine. Since the initial “culture shock” has worn off I’m now just trying to navigate around the city. It’s a bit tricky since the bus schedules are not in English. Luckily, some of the more well-known bus stops are also marked in English at the bus stop itself. This is how I managed to get up the courage to get on the bus this past weekend. I saw some young girls (like elementary-school age) waiting for the bus and they had out their 1,ooo won bill (equivalent to $1). From looking at the sign (in Korean), it appeared that it would cost me 80 cents to ride the bus. So I got out my 1,000 won as well to pay and got on the bus. I tried to pay the man, but he proceeded to chatter at me in Korean (he could have been telling me anything for as much of it as I understood) and wildly motioned for me to just sit down without even taking my money. What I could infer was that I was obviously doing something wrong as far as the paying went, but he was forgiving because I was clearly out of my element. I have since learned that you need to buy a bus pass at a convenience store and you scan the card on the bus when you get on. But how does that explain the girls paying when they got on the bus? I’m still confused by that. Maybe he sensed that I was the inventor of kimchi..... who knows?