Foreign footwear

The longer I'm in Seoul, the more things stop being new and exciting. Today when I got off work, I grabbed some kimbap, headed to the orphanage to volunteer, picked up manjoo on the way home, then cooked some vegetables because I realized I never eat anything green. Any of those things would have been made into a post seven months ago, but now, they're all just part of my daily schedule. I forget that things are still exciting for everyone back home, and so I haven't been posting about things that in hindsight I know would make people smile.

Like socks.

I've always liked silly socks. I didn't wear white socks until well into college, and even then it was only when the fun ones were dirty. Therefore, when I got here and realized Korea is the KING of amazing socks, I thought I was in paradise.

I bought some socks for friends and family, but for the most part, I just enjoyed looking at them. I could never decide which ones I liked best, so instead of buying all of them, I just decided to wait until spring and go crazy. During the winter, I reasoned, I needed to wear warm fluffy socks, but now that it's warming up outside, I can start collecting every pair of socks I see.

I don't even know how many pairs of awesome socks I'm up to by now. I'm going to post them in groups of ten so maybe you'll forget how many you've seen and therefore not judge me for owning a few hundred pairs of socks.

I think my favorite part is that these are normal here. At home, I always wore funny socks, but I typically ended up being regarded as "completely useless in selecting proper under-shoe garments." In Korea, tons and tons of people wear funny socks. Everyone has at least a few pairs, and since it's customary to take off your shoes in a lot of places (including some restaurants), everyone gets to compare. Well, maybe I'm the only one comparing. But rest assured, friends in Seoul, if ever we're in a situation where we've removed our shoes, I will be, without a doubt, deciding who in the room has the coolest socks. And treating said person with the utmost respect.