I sent the umpteenth my-friends-are-all-leaving-so-boo-hoo email to my Canadian doppelganger today, and in return got a beautiful, lovely phone call back. Mia, Mia, Mia, you make me so glad to be alive, because I get to know people like you.

Fueled by the optimism flowing from Canada, I messaged my prairie dog-owning Japanese friend Mayu, and arranged to go for a walk on Youido Island, which is famed for its cherry blossoms in the spring.

Well, pretty much all the cherry blossoms are gone now, which was rather disappointing, but Aki (who also joined us) and I were muchly amused by Mayu trying to get close enough to pet one of the wild rabbits that roam around the Youido Gardens.

While we ate kimbap (Korean sushi), spicy rice cakes, chicken shishkebab and cotton candy, we people-watched and doubled up in laughter about: 1. a guy wearing a purple shirt, purple pants, and purple shades; 2. a girl wearing bright, rainslicker-yellow skirt, shirt, and cowboy hat (yes, that's right, a cowboy hat); and 3. a girl wearing a very short blue and white skirt with black high heels.

There's a huge square on Youido that was originally meant for anti-communist rallies, and can apparently accommodate 1 million people. Completed in 1972, it is the biggest plaza in Asia. The material out of which it is constructed -- asphalt -- was chosen by the president himself, so that it could double as a runway for the Air Force in the event of a national crisis. (For you urban studies enthusiasts out there, see this site, which looks kinda ugly but is full of extremely interesting facts about the plaza.)


Said plaza was full of people today doing just about everything one can do on a flat surface in the public: rollerblading (everything from beginners taking a class to grunge gals and guys doing tricks), playing basketball, biking, skateboarding, walking, eating, sitting -- even a couple of people sleeping. We watched some very cool-looking guys doing tricks on bicycles, and no doubt showing off because I was snapping pictures of them with my big-ass pro-looking camera.

The bikers reminded me of the skateboarder subculture back home, which for some reason holds a certain fascination for me. Actually, that's probably a holdover from going out with John -- he used to do downhill skating when he was younger, until he went flying over a parked car one day in the misguided hope that he could jump over it (the parked car, yes) in an attempt to avoid a moving car that was coming at him. Man, how come I don't have memories like this? Oh wait -- maybe it's because I didn't have a death wish when I was younger.

It still gets cold in the evenings, so when the sun went down, we decided to head to Shinchon and get dinner, for which Maiko joined us. Over a Mr. Pizza combo, Aki told us about her work visa woes, and various stories she's heard about other people trying to work in Korea.

Among Aki's colleagues at her previous parttime job, there were two people who only had C3 (?) visas, on which you can stay only 3 months in Korea and technically can't work. However, one of the colleagues had renewed this visa SEVEN times in order to work at her job. When she got called in by the Immigration Service, she told them that she was dating a Korean guy and wanted to get married to him, but that his parents were against it, and that they were still trying to work things out.

"They believed this?" I asked incredulously.

"Well," Aki replied, "it's sort of true -- she does have a Korean boyfriend -- but mostly she got away with it because she pretended to start crying, and you know how Korean people have a lot of jong [translated variously as feelings, love, emotions, heart]."

Aki's other colleague had a different story: he pretended that he was studying to enter a Korean university. "I guess he might get called in for an interview also," Aki said with a grin, "and they might ask him why the heck it's taking so long for him to start college. But he can always say that he's trying to get into a very competitive college, and so needs to keep studying."

Aki herself has secured a position with a large hotel in Busan, the second largest city in Korea, but it's all contingent on her getting a certain kind of work visa, and with her being a foreigner in a country where youth unemployment is extremely high, the getting of the visa is very uncertain. I wish her much luck. Being a gyopo, or overseas ethnic Korean, I don't have problems of this kind -- I can stay here for two years at a stretch and pretty much work anywhere. Just another advantage in the life that is hk's.