Happy New Year!

Weaver Adventure Blog for Week of January 1, 2013

So Happy New Year! Wow, 2013. Blows my mind, really. I can recall hearing about 2000 and thinking it was the distant future, with daily trips to the moon and hovercrafts instead of cars. Well, 2000 seems like the distant past, no one visits the moon, and I still don’t have a hovercraft. In fact, I walk more than ever!

Walking in a big city is the most efficient way to get around. Bar none. Sure, there are cabs, subways, buses, etc., but unless you really have a long way to go, it is quicker and easier to just put on your coat and walk. All the walking I have been doing has an upside – I have lost about 4 kilograms (approx. 10 pounds) since moving here. But there is a downside as well – my shoes are getting beaten up.

Now, as I have mentioned, I am a slave to fashion. I have about 5 pairs of shoes. 2 black, 2 brown, and some snow boots. Perhaps some running shoes that I haven’t seen in a while. I am also a bit miserly, so I like to get a lot of miles out of a pair of shoes. This used to be pretty easy to do, as I walked very few miles. Now, with more trekking in the day, I find my shoes are getting scuffed, stained, and scraped at an alarming rate. In the past, I relied on the shoe-shine stands in most major airports for a quick shine before my flights. Alas, these stands are not the norm in APAC. And I don’t fly as much as I used to anyway. So what to do?

I asked the advice of my co-workers. “Where can I get my shoes shined?” They said not to worry. “We’ll go after lunch.”

After lunch, we stopped by a tiny cube of a stand on the street around the corner from the office. These little cubes are everywhere in Seoul. They often serve as small shops selling food, or magazines, or coffee, or offering a service like, you guessed it, shoe shining