warm in your coat

yet another cold winter weekend here in korea. when speaking to vickie today she told me that many people are saying this winter is a lot warmer than normal. i can only imagine what a typical winter here is like. on saturday i found myself venturing into seoul again to meet a friend for a movie. while i was waiting for him outside a man approached me and asked if i spoke english. could my blonde, curly hair and white skin be giving me away. here i thought i was blending in with the locals. when i responding by say yes he talked to engage me in conversation. if i had only studied russian and spanish a little harder perhaps i could now be using these skills in times of need. he was asking me questions about where i was from, what i'm doing here, etc. he was a korean born man who has been living in new zealand and austrailia the last few years. i kept looking at my watching and hoping my friend would arrive shortly. the whole time this man spoke his breath reeked of alcohol. it seems my ability to attract crazies has followed me here too. during our small talk he finally got to the point of approaching me. he needed money to buy a bus ticket. i politely told him that i didn't have anything to which i figured now he would leave. he didn't. he continued to talk and finally told me that if i got bored of my friends and came to seoul that i should call him. like that was going to happen. he insisted on givng me his number not wanting to write it down or put into my phone i told him i had a great memory. i'm not sure if he seriously thinks i'd actually call but i'm not in the habit of hanging with strange men who talk to me on the street. whether he was being geniunely korean i'll never know. i quickly told him i had to get going and we parted ways. i met up with ahn and we grabbed some food before going to the movies. while we were ordering the woman behind the counter asked ahn something. he turned to be with an embarassed look on his face. i asked him what and he said that the lady wanted to know if my hair was permed. what is it with koreans and perms anyway. i told him that it wasn't and he turned to the lady and repeated it in korean. she then looked at me and smiled. it seems like the koreans favortie question for me is either "is my hair permed or did i dye my hair". wake up people! there's more in life than straight black hair. we went to see elektra which was almost as bad as catwoman. there were some cool things about the movie and alot of awlful stuff like jennifer garner. she should definitely stick to alias. after the movie we headed back to the subway terminal where we ran into mr. crazy who said hi to me. ahn looked at me and asked if i knew him and i told him that it was my stalker from earlier. that dude was still lingering. that night horace and i went to the western manhatten bar for some beers. it was dead. but the good thing they only charged us for two beers each. you gotta love that. this morning i was a pumped up to go to dongdaemun market which is suppose to be a good shopping spot. i'm not sure why but since coming back from thailand i have the shopping bug. i decided i'd set out after watching my korean soap opera "love's pinwheel" which is getting really good. while i was getting ready my sister called so i spoke to her for awhile and then i was talking to vickie since i hadn't really spoken to her since our trip. by now it was 1:30 pm and i started to get the lazy bug. the thought of heading out to dongdaemum which was at least an 1:30 subway ride didn't seem so appealing now. i guess my quest for a new coat would have to wait. i layed around for a little then realized i didn't want to waste my day doing nothing so i decided to take the subway one stop down to handae university stop to see what was there. the first store i went into i found my coat. a long white ski coat with a fur collar. the best part was that the jacket was on sale. i tried it on and instantly loved it. it wasn't quite the bomber jacket i thought i wanted but it was better. however, i decided to walk around some more before buying it. as i walked around i stumbled upon an outlet shopping plaza. for a minute i felt like i was back in florida doing the outlet malls. there were about 4 rows of shops that covered about 4 blocks. nothing really caught my eye but it was still good to know that it was here incase i needed cheap stuff. on my way out i stopped back in e-land, the store where i saw the coat. after trying it on again and admiring how chic i looked in it i decided to buy it. there was no way i couldn't. like i said it was a white down coat with a fur trim around the hood and it was only $49 dollors. the sales lady tried to get me to buy a sweater too but i declined and walked out with my new jacket. have i mentioned how much i LOVE it. it also has an inside pocket for a cell phone. now i'm definitely going to fit. especially since almost everyone here has a jacket with fur trim. the best part is that this store caters to college students and on the inside tag it says "empowering youth…it takes guts to make the right choice…" it sure does.