Day 2:
Everyone goes through this at some point. I remember my parents talking about seeing
their old neighborhood from when they were children, and looking on with
remembrance and a little despair. Things
change, they always do, but it’s when so many things change and for the
negative and you become faced with the undeniable reality that what you knew in
the past is no longer there.
My old school is gone, and my favorite place to hang out is gone. These two places were amongst some of the
most positive experiences that I have had.
Both are gone. The buildings are
still there and in one case the sign was still there, shadowed and aged like a
grim reminder of a childhood fantasy that has long since moved on. The only comparable image that I could think
of would be visiting an old carnival from your childhood, seeing the plastic
faded the paint peeling, and seeing everything filtered with dirt and water
stains.
Ok so let me talk about something that isn’t as depressing. We spent the majority of the day running
around town trying to find stuff from the last time that I was here. Seomyeon hasn’t changed much, except for the
fact that they actually added buildings and took streets away in one area. Yes that’s right, I got lost in one area
because the streets literally changed.
Rachel and I got some lunch and had one of the cutest moments where a
little girl and her mother walked up to our table and the mom asked us “My
daughter was wondering where are you from?”
I knew just enough Korean to answer her in complete sentences.
We wandered around the local beach and got some delicious ice-cream,
feeling the wind on our faces. I love
the smell of sea water. Some people talk
about the romantic attachment to the sea, and I can understand it. For me it isn’t the salt so much as it is the
smell of open water. We got some dinner
around the local university. Now here is
one moment where things went the reverse way.
This Indian restaurant was visited by a number of us one night long ago and
it was terrible. This night however it
was delicious. The pewter glasses were a
strange touch. And speaking of wandering
I thought that we could just walk back to the hotel after dinner, but big dumb
Jack went the opposite way. We didn’t
walk too long or too far, but it was the last straw in my fantasy of thinking
that I still knew and was part of this city.
Well tomorrow is another day and perhaps I can start going about
learning the city all over again.
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