my 100th day in korea

1 December 2007

Back in September, my friend at work, Ms Heo, told me that it was her boyfriend called to wish her happy 1600 days of being together.”Two things,” I said. “One, wow, that’s a long time; two, how do you count 1600 days like that?!”

Koreans celebrate anniversaries in increments of hundred days and years, instead of months and years like I’m used to. I immediately decided that I must celebrate my hundredth day in Korea, which, according to my cell phone’s handy anniversary reminder function, was December first.

To celebrate, I invited a couple of my best friends out for a Korean dinner at my favourite Korean restaurant. Ms Heo, a moral studies teacher at my school, has become one of my best new friends I’ve made here, and my other friend is a friend from America I met studying abroad a couple years ago. We dined on one of my favourite Korean dishes: pajon, a potato and seafood pancake.

Afterwards, we went to the N Seoul Tower on Namsan Mountain and took in the panoramic views from the top of the tower. The N Seoul Tower, very similar to the CN Tower in Toronto, is one of Seoul’s paramount landmarks. Ms Heo was worried that the views wouldn’t be great because of the cloudy weather, but the clouds didn’t mask the radiance of the lights. The view was amazing. Seeing the glowing city lights is one of my favourite things about city life. The tower’s windows are marked with the directions and distances to cities all over the world. We read them all and thought of our friends and family in various locations around the globe. It was the perfect Korean celebration of one hundred days in Korea, my new home.

Early the next morning, on 2 December, I received a phone call from a friend that changed my feelings about my hundredth day. Our friend, John, died in a motorcycle accident in Seoul the previous evening, on my hundredth day. My hundred and first day in Korea was spent mourning a great new friend.