The Trip to the Fortune Teller

Fortune tellers are much more common in Korea than in the US. What's really odd about them is that they're not phone psychics, they're not crystal ball readers, they're not tarrot card readers in gypsy clothing. What's so odd about them is they're just dressed like regular people and they sit around in little orange tents downtown. That's it.

I've never really been interested in this kind of thing before, but I decided to try it out once. The experience was well worth the $10 I paid. First, I had to wait outside a little orange tent for about half an hour while the fortune teller finished up with the high school girls in line before me. It was a crowded street, so sitting on a tiny stool outside of an orange tent (just outside of a movie theater) waiting for a fortune teller seemed really surreal.

When I finally got inside, a woman who looked like she could easily be someone's aunt or maybe a cleaning lady asked for my birthdate, and nothing else. She looked up something in a small handbood she had, did a lot of what appeared to be mathmatical calculations, and then told me my fortune:

1) Apparently, I'm going to get married either this year or next year. I'm not exactly sure how that's going to work out.
2) She said I was good with language, but that's a pretty easy guess since I'm a white guy in Korea (and about 90% of white guys in Korea are language teachers) AND I was speaking to her in Korean, obviously not my native language.
3) She said I didn't have to worry about money, another good guess, since more foreigners in Korea are well paid. I DID however ask if I'd still be not have to worry about money if I went back to the US, and she said I'd never have to worry no matter where in the world I went.
4) She said I like quiet places, which is true, and that I get stressed easily, which is not true.
5) She said I can be a writer if I want to.

She then asked me to ask her any questions that I want, but I didn't have any that she didn't cover. Sure, it was a whole lot of silliness, and she got a few things wrong about me, but I was surprised she also got a couple things right. I suppose it's her job, though. It was worth the $10 just for the experience of it.

R