Memory trigger

Some of the videos at Eat Your Kimchi dredged up a couple of memories from my family's trip to Korea in 1987. I've been thinking about Korea a lot lately.

The memory takes place at my in Seoul. I'm not sure whose house it was. I think my grandparents were there and at least one of my aunts. Someone (one of my aunts?) owned/worked at a small convenience store just down the street. My parents wanted me to go down there by myself and get us something to eat (I don't remember what -- ramen maybe?) and made me memorize a phrase in Korean. I walked down there, repeating the phrase over and over in my head, and entered. The relative (aunt?) was so excited to see me that she immediately started fawning over me, jabbering and not listening to my stammered, probably incorrectly repeated phrase. She handed me a bunch of Drumsticks and before I knew it I was back with my family with a shellshocked and bewildered look on my face and an armful of Drumsticks.

They really like kids in Korea. This sort of thing is very common.

Over at Eat Your Kimchi they sampled banana milk. I remember traveling across Korea on a bus and getting a banana milk at a pit stop. I thought it was odd but tasty. I guess I never had banana flavored penicillin as a child to ruin me.

The most surprising thing about the videos at Eat Your Kimchi was the one where they visited Seoul Tower. The skyline in their video took my breath away. Seoul in 1987 was a vastly different place than it is today. My family's house where we stayed in Seoul was very simple. I don't recall if they even had running water or if it was a pump. The toilet was a shared outhouse in the alley. I wonder what that street looks like today. I sure don't remember many, if any, highrises in Seoul.

I just remembered something else about that outhouse. We were walking past it one day and heard some poor gentleman inside having some serious straining issues. To seven year old me and my twelve year old brother it was just about the most hilarious thing ever.

Heh, it's still funny.