Just as I had gotten used to the warm weather and was happy with my super strong sunblock that I bring everywhere, it started raining. Yes, that’s right, the monsoon has arrived in Seoul. I had just started to learn all of the tricks and got myself an awesome fan, I even planned to go shopping for some Korean-style summer shoes, and now it’s of no use. I don’t feel Korean enough to be able to walk around in crazy high heels when the rain is pouring down, like today, at least not yet.
Korean girls really are amazing! Even when it is raining crazily like it was earlier today they still wear high heels and mini skirts. When going down into the subway a couple (actually quite a lot of them) will fall down the stairs, but they just get up again and walk away, as though it is normal (and maybe it really is). A couple of my friends here have been in Korea during the winter as well and they have told me stories about how Korean woman still wear high heels and skirts in the snowy winter. Just the thought of a mini skirt in winter makes me shake. I still have a long way to go before I would ever be able to pull that off.
I SO need an umbrella now, I am not sure how many days I will survive without one. I had to go to Hongdae today because I finished writing in my vocabulary notebook that I bought the other day (yup, filled it all out, every single page) so I had to buy a new one. Unfortunately they didn’t have the exact same one so I had to get a different one, in a similar style.
As I was about to leave for Hongdae on my own (unnie had lunch with an old friend downtown so she wasn’t home) I ran unto unnie in front of the building and she decided to join me. I still haven’t bought an umbrella yet, but thankfully unnie brought hers. As soon as we got out of the shop in Hongdae it started raining heavily: we both got soaked. I had to throw out my socks because they had turned the same colour as my shoes, and I’m quite worried that my shoes will be ruined. The good news here is that: if my shoes do get ruined that will just give me a good excuse to go shoe shopping some time soon.
My notebook and vocabulary book got slightly wet as well (they were in a cotton bag) but I dried them as soon as I got home and they are ok now (yush: my hard efforts weren’t wasted!). What’s more: this gives me a good reason to buy a new bag. As you can hear read this change of weather really just forces me to go shopping. I have to prepare properly for the month to come. And, yes, I’m quite fond if that idea.
We got this in class today, it is a souvenir from Lotte World, where we are going on Friday for a field trip. Now you might be wondering what this is. I was wondering for a while as well and then I read what it said in the package and immediately started laughing.
It turns out that this cute things is… an ear pick! Yup you know those things that you stick inside your ears to clean them and that come out again in a disgusting yellow colour. This one is cute though and, you can use it many times (you dry it in a tissue afterwards to get rid of the ear boogers). Personally, as a Western girl, I found this quite disgusting at first, but now I just find it funny and slightly ridiculous. I still can’t imagine that is very healthy though, I am sure that some batteries stay on the ear pick even if it is cleaned…
However, curious, as I am, I tried it when I got home. At first I thought it would be slightly painful since it is a small scoop made of wood, but it didn’t at all. It doesn’t work as well as the western style ones however, but maybe that is just because I haven’t really learnt how to use it yet, I am sure that there is a trick to this gadget.