beachhead

Well, my boxes are all in my new place, but it's going to be a few days before I have a bed, it seems. My buddy Tom, who helped me move my possessions (along with a grumpy yongdal ajeossi who just wanted to drive, lift off some boxes, and get paid), had asked me to download a phone-shopping app called "Wi Mae Peu" (short for the Konglish "We Make Price"), and everything was going fine until I had to enter my new delivery address. For some reason, my address did come up on a menu of possible addresses, but when I clicked on my address so that it was placed in the appropriate blank of the merchandise-order form, I got a warning that said, in Korean, "Please enter your address exactly"—as if I'd made a mistake when it was, in fact, the computer that had put the delivery address in the field. This is one of those nightmarish Möbius loops that one can get caught in while shopping online on a poorly constructed website, and I see no immediate way around this problem. I may have to just shop for furniture in the real world.

In any event, I'll figure something out soon. Tonight, I sleep on the floor; tomorrow, I go back to the Golden Goose to work another four hours; this weekend will be spent shopping and exploring and making up my walking average. I had thought about doing one final hike up Namsan before leaving the Dongguk neighborhood, but that would have meant pulling an all-nighter. As things stand, I got only two hours' sleep, anyway, so I'm a bit ragged right now and could use some shut-eye. My new place's floor is warm and welcoming; I've got a blanket that can serve as a temporary mattress, and two pillows to support my gigantic skull. I think we're set for tonight. (Obviously, I also have Internet service, which I guess was activated remotely, because the guy who I thought was going to visit around 5PM never showed up, yet my Internet is working fine.)


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