Korea 9.25.11
Just a few final thoughts about Korea while we’re waiting at Inchon Airport for our flight to Tokyo. Yesterday, on our last day in Seoul we had a few interesting adventures. First we followed the guidebook which told us about a subway stop that was at an “interesting vista” of the city. So we went in hopes of taking some good pictures. Although we walked all the way around the station we saw nothing but the usual Seoul cityscape. However, at the stop was something called Lotte World that is sort of a cross between Las Vegas, Disney World and the Mall of America. It was huge. Acres and acres of space. There was a full size model of the Trevi Fountain and a jazz band playing. There were lots of other vaguely Italian Renaissance statures. There was a theme park, an ice rink, a gazillion screen cinema, a live theatre and probably lots more we didn’t see. There was the huge Lotte Hotel that is considered a top hotel and the Lotte Department Store that reminded me of Marshall Field in its prime. Everything from designer clothes to housewares. A total sensory experience. I bought a pair of walking shoes as I’ve already gone through the pair I brought.
Then on the subway on the way home we sat next to a Korean woman who started to chat with me. I responded with shille hages sum nida which is Korean for excuse me, one of the few Korean phrases I picked up, I don’t speak Korean. She responded in English – Japanese? No I replied a little Chinese. That got us nowhere. Then she said habla Espana and pulled out a Korean-Spanish language text that she had been studying. It was filled with little cartoons illustrating various phrases in Korean and Spanish. Jim immediately began chatting with her in Spanish and though his Spanish was better than hers we continued to chat in a combination of English and Spanish. Then she and another Korean woman sitting next to her decided to adopt us and although we felt we had a good mastery of the subway by then they insisted on showing us our transfer point and walking us to our next train. We arrived home (the hotel) safely.
Last word. Every Korean subway stop has clean, modern free public bathrooms. Why can’t the US?
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