Dave's Sketch Journal

We thought we'd take a full day and do a little work. We are on a tourist's VISA and are not supposed to work. But then again, if we are thinking of moving here we ought to check out the work situation. So, along with another Korean couple, we took a trip on the bus and scouted out a place.

The Korean couple had only had a yogurt for breakfast. So we soon ended up at the local KFC.

It was packed! There were seven lines of 10 people deep. We finally found a table and got a coffee and a coke.

When I went up to order, the KFC cashier pulled out a picture menu. They do this when they see a non-Chinese person. I'm supposed to point to the items I want. Since I was only ordering coffee and a coke, I don't need no pictures. I can do this myself. I smiled at her, pulled up my training paints, ignored the baby pictures and ordered like a big boy. She raised her eyebrows slightly and then asked me a question. She was testing me. Yeah, I knew what she was doing. So I faked it. I answered "yes" and calculated that whatever the question was, a "yes" couldn't hurt me much in an eating establishment. (I thought she asked if I wanted to eat in but she asked if I wanted to eat out. How could I get this wrong?) She put the coffee and coke in a paper bag, took my money, and I returned to the table to join our friends.

The best way to learn a foreign language is to sit around and talk about everyday stuff. This is totally stress-free and loads of fun, especially when you have great companions that are so forgiving. Many of my sentences were punctuated by long pauses and  electronic-dictionary searches. Of course, even if I found the correct Chinese word they might not know it and have to look it up in their Korean dictionary. Chinese is the language we have in common. They knew very little English. We don't know any Korean.

So we spent the entire day visiting various eating places and laughing a lot. We talked of the weather, our families, and even our hobbies. I need to do this for the next two months.

On the way back home I took a couple of grab shots of the crazy transportation we see in the streets.

The guy on the bike should have rented a truck but instead he's strapped these long planks on either side of his bicycle seat. It looks like he'll spear someone coming in the opposite direction.

I saw one guy pushing his friend in a wheelchair down the middle of the road and against traffic. Go figure. No wonder the poor guy is in a wheelchair. His buddy has been avoiding the sidewalks!

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention. Got a new doo. Went to the same place as Ruth and got a haircut for $2. Includes the cut, a before and after shampoo wash, and blow dry styling. Whoa dude.

...dave
When I went to the beauty shop the the hair stylist said it would cost me $75. And that was just for the estimate! - Phyllis Diller

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