I saw several unusual things today.
Walking to work, I saw a right-hand drive SUV. I thought maybe it was from Japan – there are auto ferries between Busan and Shimonoseki – but the car had local license plates, so who knows? perhaps just someone's eccentricity?
Then I saw a woman carrying a large bag of vegetables on her head. It took me a few moments to realize this was unusual. It might be that I'm in a very middle-class part of Korea, now, but this is not a common sight. Yet my recollection of traveling around the country back in 91 is that there were women with large bags of vegetables on their heads everywhere. So either I'm in the wrong place to see such things, or there have been radical changes in Korean bulk vegetable transport over the last 16 years.
After work it was raining hard. Fortunately, I had brought my umbrella "just in case," but even still, with the wind and rain, I was rather wet by the time I got home last night at around 11.
But, walking home, I saw a female bus driver. I actually did a double take. I remember an exchange with my dad when we were in Mexico in July about the notable absence of female bus and truck drivers there, and just the other day I'd been reflecting that the same certainly applies here. So, that was an unusual thing, too.
Finally, as I crossed the last major street on my way home last night, dodging raindrops and trundling buses (I've been wondering if there's some kind of traffic-law exemption for buses, here, given how often they run red lights and make contra-indicated right turns), I saw a new MINI and a new Beetle, both dark blue – I shouldn't be surprised, as BMW has dealer outlets here, but I haven't seen any VW dealers yet, and this was the first one of each vehicle that I'd seen here.
These are very banal "unusual" things, but I guess I'm groping for something to write about.
I love the rain – I went to sleep to the sound of the rain through the open windows of my little apateu (=apartment).
This morning, I've been reading Lucian's A True Story – I may have read this a long time ago, but I don't recall, and it was one of the "books in progress" that I threw into my small "books to take with me" pile (which my friends Mark and Amy ended up mailing to me because I couldn't fit them into my luggage, but I wish I'd managed to fit them in, as mailing books to Korea is not a discount proposition).
Lucian of Samosata is one of the most amazing writers of all time. The True Story is a veritable 2nd century work of fantasy fiction, in which he explicitly states it the only true thing he will say is that it's all untrue. My interest in Lucian goes back years, and interrelates with my work in grad school on Cervantes, who clearly was at some level familiar with works by Lucian and his late classical imitators. In tone and style, it actually reminds me most of something like Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth.
Not sure what I'm doing today. Going into Seoul today, but what to do? Want to look for some postcards and/or souvenirs for my nephews, Jameson and Dylan, and perhaps for others, too.