A Tour in Pictures of My Neighborhood

안녕하세요 !

“An-nyeong Ha Se Yoh!” That’s “Hello!” in Korean.

Being in Korea is as much about the dislocations of language as it is about disorientation in a new place. I am surrounded by novel scenes, but also by new sounds, written in unknown-to-me symbols.

Until I started to learn them last summer. I am continuing to work on this, and can now sound out a lot of the syllables of the Korean language. As for vocabulary, I think I know 6 words so far. But I work those 6 words a lot.

Here is my neighborhood last night. I went for a wander and took some pictures.

These are the narrow alleys making a sort of village, behind the large boulevards which cross the area.

The narrow village-y area has colorful signs, lots of people walking around, cars creeping, and delivery motorcycles and scooters zooming. Most everything is open on a Sunday night.

Every few shops, it seems, there is a photobooth shop: people pour in to take group photos with the provided hats and props on a night out, families get pictures with kids, and singles fix their make-up in the mirrors and get a quick record of their moment of glam. I needed some pictures for a visa application, on a pure-white background, so I ended up stopping at a few of these do-it-yourself shops to see if I could figure out the machinery and manage an apt picture.

You can go to a *fun!* photo shop, which will have tons of goofy things to dress up with. Or you can go to a serious photo shop with only monochrome backgrounds.

Here are my results, from the Photogray Shop (blue hair!) and the Old Moon Shop (anyone need a gun for hire?).

Bright projected-light advertisements spin on the ground in each block, lighting the narrow alleyways:

Sometimes I use a translation app on my phone to try to decipher what the advertisement is for.

And often, this is a totally useless endeavor. The original ad is above on the left. And my translation is provided on the right. #Hi The Woollim Era #Kyft, anyone?

So I found a nearby sign that seemed related and aimed my translation app at this sign.

I don’t know about you, but I remain thoroughly unenlightened.

I did discover that since my last visit, a new “Fresh Fruit on a Stick Encased in a Hard Sugar Shell” Shop had opened, directly across the street from the other “Fresh Fruit on a Stick Encased in a Hard Sugar Shell” Shop. I went to the new one to try some of their fresh fruit on a stick encased in a hard sugar shell. The two shops seem to have identical prices, and the same offerings (purple grapes, green grapes, tangerines, strawberries, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, or some mix of those). I got strawberries. You have to crunch through the sugar shell to the juicy fruit on the stick.

I guess the “Fresh Fruit on a Stick Encased in a Hard Sugar Shell” Shop Wars are on! I shall take no sides, however. I shall be the Switzerland of all fruits on all sticks encased in hard sugar shells! I will alternate between the two shops each time I need some fresh fruit, encased in a hard sugar shell, on a stick.

Finally I decided to seek some dinner. This requires some courage, frankly. My 6 words of Korean only get me so far. But this went well, and I felt a smidge of pride. I greeted the sole staff member in the cafe with a cheery version of the “Hello!” I typed above at the start of this post, ordered via a kiosk and paid there, and sat at the counter to await whatever culinary mystery I’d just arranged to have delivered.

It turned out to be a wonderful meal. It had meat, salad, miso soup, rice, egg, lemon garlic sauce, tea, and pickled radishes and cabbages. At the end, I pointed to my empty bowls, bowed to the cook, and said “usuhan/ good!”

And that is Korean word #7.