Tour, Day 1

Tragedy strikes; that’s its nature. I expect tragedy whenever I start traveling: I picture all my clothes circling around a Nepalese luggage conveyor belt, or my wallet making its lonely way from me in the back of a taxi. Usually I’m way off base and I end up with no more trouble than a screaming baby in the seat behind me or a dirty hotel room. Since neither of those were the case on this trip, I almost missed my three day field trip. My taxi driver from the hotel mixed up the university with the local military base, a fact I did not discover until my cabbie zoomed away from me on the corner. I did manage to flag down a second taxi who got me to the school while twice telling me I was a “handsome boy.” When I say he got me to the school in time I mean just in time—the taxi skidded in front of the departing tour bus the way cops block off a road in Jerry Bruckheimer films. By that time I had missed an orientation meeting and fee Yonsei visors, but I much prefer a seat on a bus and a translator to coral me.

Between the cab driver and my tourmates, my appearance has cone into question a number of times. “Are you half Peruvian?” someone asked over lunch today. Recently my genetics have come into question by a number of observers who question if I’m Basque or Mexican or Italian or Greek. I keep having to explain that I come from the land of the people of the see-through skin—Norwegians and Swedes who yellow instead of tan. I’m German/English, both peoples with a heritage of pastiness. But half-Peruvian…this is a first. Part of this might have to do from the askers. The majority of the student body seems to sprout from California and at least three quarters of the group Asian, so I may begin to appear more ethnically diverse in a country Caucasian minority. Like how I would look better if I hung out with the tragically homely all the time. Or how people look better when they hang out next to me. Hey, wait a minute…















The rest of today I spent at the “Korean Folk Village” (http://www.koreanfolk.com/) which included a traditional Korean haunted house and a demonstration on how to grow traditional Korean rape:























They grow snake’s beard too, but that seems only mildly less troubling. More photos below. I may try to set up a photo bucket program to you can all marvel at my photographic non-artistry.