Almost Famous, and Other Odds and Ends

I realize that I've written a lot about specific events or places I've been to or things I've done, but what's been really amazing (he said introspectively as he entered week IV of Project Korea) has just been the day-to-day of being here. I've been trying to figure out a good way to describe it, and I've decided that being an English-speaking foreigner in Korea is sort of like being a very little bit famous. I don't mean Brad Pitt famous or even really Michael Keaton famous--it's more like being the 12th man of the Knicks bench, or a HITG actor. People look at me an extra second longer and strangers periodically come up to me on the street to talk. Yesterday in particular led to a lot of conversations. I had a late lunch, and so I was the only person in the restaurant. The two women working behind the counter chatted with me for a while and then told me (or rather, conveyed by gestures, facial expressions and saying "Saturday-Sunday" again and again) that I should come back next weekend. Later on that day, I went to the movies with a friend. The movie theater was on the 8th floor of a building, and three kids (two girls and a boy, probably 17 or 18 years old) got on the elevator with us. The young man said "hello," and then "pleased to meet you." I told him I was pleased to meet him too, at which point he pointed to my earring and said, "I like" (which is more than certain Ivy League Presidents have said). I thanked him, and he stuck out his hand for me to shake. "Hand touch-ee," he said. So we shook hands and went on our separate ways.

On the one hand, it's obviously kind of fun. It's nice to have people paying attention to me and making a fuss. But on the other hand, it's kind of frustrating. Most of my conversations can't really progress past the "questions you learn when you first start studying a language" phase, so we pretty much grind to a halt after "what is your name," "where are you from," and do you like Korean food?" Not much to do besides hand touch-ee and move on.

Other sinppets:

--Monsoon season has begun in Seoul. Yesterday it started pouring at about 4:00, and didn't let up until 6:30 the next morning. Non-stop deluge. I will try to bring souveniers home for people, but I may have to leave some things behind so that I can make room for two of every animal on my ark.
--Watching TV on the treadmill, a Japanese station was showing a video of great Hideo Nomo moments (did you know he had 200 wins?! How about that?). Anyway, at one point they showed an extreme close-up of Hideo Nomo lifting weights, and it turns out that he has really, really bad teeth. Just thought you should know.
--Speaking of baseball, Peter Gammons reports the following on espn.com: "According to the Korean News Bureau, South Korean Doosan Bears' pitcher Park Myung-hwan twice lost his cap while delivering a pitch and each time frozen cabbage leaves fell off his head twice in a game on June 19. The frozen cabbage leaves inside the cap were used to keep his head cool. The Korea Baseball Organization has been moved to rule that wearing cabbage leaves inside a baseball cap constitutes an "alien material" that may disrupt a game, prohibited according to the organization's rules, the organization said in a statement Tuesday." I almost went to the game. I think being in attendance for that would have topped being given the finger by Turk Wendell for most memorable moment at a baseball game.
--I went out with some attorneys for dinner tonight, and had a dish called soondofu. I've actually had it in the U.S., but this was different (and better). It's a hot and spicy soup with tofu and some other noodle or filling in it (I had small dumplings). Here, you also get a raw egg that you crack into the soup, and the heat from the soup cooks the egg. It's delicious.
--Finally, two t-shirts seen in Seoul yesterday: "I Lover of Sports" and "Viva Tacos." I think the latter is a sentiment we can all get behind.