The Places That Remember Us
Some places remain inside us long after we have left them. A narrow side street in Seoul. A coffee shop in Daejeon. A subway platform where we once stood waiting beside someone who is no longer part of our lives. Years pass. Buildings change. Restaurants disappear. Entire neighborhoods transform beneath glass towers and convenience stores that never seem to close. Yet somehow, when we return, a part of us still expects the past to be waiting there. I have felt this many times in Korea. Sometimes it happens unexpectedly. I will walk past a small restaurant and suddenly remember a winter evening from twenty years ago. Not a major event. Nothing dramatic. Just sitting at a table eating kimchi jjigae while snow drifted outside the steamed-up windows as tired office workers quietly filled the room around me. Other times it comes from hearing music in a café or catching the faint smell of roasted chestnuts on a cold street near a subway exit. Memory arrives quickly in Korea becaus...
