My Weird Life Gets Weirder

The thing that scares me about agreeing to live somewhere for more than just a few months is that I might get completely used to my surroundings and then get bored. Well, the longer I live in Seoul, the weirder it gets so I’m finally confident that I’ll be able to stay here as long as it takes me to pay back my school loans.

WEIRD: I suppose this could happen anywhere but I’ve been to quite a few different cities and Seoul is the first place that this ever happened to me. Some dude followed me for almost half an hour last night as I was trying to walk home. Ignoring him didn’t work so I pretended I didn’t understand English and I answered everything he said in Spanish so he’d give up and go away. Instead, he used charades and loud, slow English to explain that he wanted to get drinks with me. I smiled and told him in Spanish to please f off but he didn’t quite. He continued following me from across the street and, every once in a while, he crossed back to my side to ask me for my number or something stupid. He eventually took off running up ahead of me and stood in a dark little alleyway (ironically, the one I live in but I really hope he didn’t actually know that) and then stood there and watched me walk by. I obviously wasn’t going to go home while he was standing right there, so I went to my friend’s house and made sure he didn’t see where I went once I turned the corner. The weirdest part was that he didn’t seem the stalker type. He was around my age, well-dressed, and didn’t appear to be under the influence of anything. Seriously though…so annoying.

WEIRDER: I’ve said before that the traffic here is nuts but today it hit a whole new level. I literally saw a girl get hit by a car. We were walking on a tiny little street FILLED with people and I don’t understand why cars ever try to drive through there at all but, every few minutes, one does and they’re in everyone’s way. They go pretty slowly but they don’t really stop so it’s mostly on the pedestrians to get off the road in time. Well, this one tiny little Korean girl in stilettos didn’t do her job well enough (the eyes in the back of her head must’ve be out of order) because a car hit her from behind. She slid a little but somehow didn’t fall over (I guess because he hit her pretty slowly and her arm was linked with her friend’s). The sound of her high heel sliding on the pavement was disgusting and she ended sort of sitting on the car for a second. The girl looked a little stunned as she moved off to the side of the street and the car pulled up and rolled down the window to apologize quickly before driving off. Everyone around stared for a second and then kept walking as if nothing had ever happened. It was like experiencing a flash mob where something ridiculous happens for just a moment and then things go immediately back to normal and you’re not sure if it happened in real life or if you just imagined it. So weird. (P.S. The pun in the first line was really not intended...I realized it when I was reading over this.)

WEIRDEST: There is a hospital near my house that I go by often and there are always patients hobbling around just outside the door…gowns, crutches and all…smoking and hanging out. That’s strange enough on it’s own but the other day I saw the craziest thing. I was on an extremely busy street, walking to the grocery store (very, very, very far from the hospital) and I passed a man who was walking around, dressed in his hospital gown, pulling his IV pole along with him. Seriously…when I was in the hospital, visitors had to sanitize their hands before coming anywhere near me. I can’t imagine the size of the bricks nurses would’ve shit had I tried to walk outside with my IV pole still connected…and that man was at least a mile away from any healthcare facility. He was with his wife but…I mean…I just don’t get how that’s allowed. SO WEIRD.

With situations as random as these waiting for me around every corner in Seoul, how could I ever get bored? :)