Sunday, December 28, 2014

freelacer

No, this post's title isn't a typo: it's free-lace-er. I was out walking around town with my buddy Tom the other night (it was Christmas, in fact); we veered toward Namdaemun Market because Tom needed to buy a new pair of shoes. He said he wanted to buy me a new pair of walking/running shoes as well, given the ratty state of my New Balances (which have probably seen around two thousand miles of foot travel since 2008), but I groused that I wasn't a charity case and I could just get my shoes repaired at any local gudu-suseon-jip—one of those tiny shoe-repair places that you can find at random intervals on Seoul's city sidewalks.

So I accompanied Tom to his favorite shoe seller as a gesture of moral support. Inside the shop, the men running it complimented my Korean, and when I asked how much it might cost to get some laces for my beaten-up shoes, one of the men said he'd simply give me a set.

Hence free laces for yours truly, the freelacer.


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2 comments:

John said...

All the best for the New Year Kevin! Stay warm up there on the top part of the planet!

Kevin Kim said...

Thanks, and Happy New Year to you, too!