Adventures Under Ground
I bet that you didn't realize that the original name of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" before publishing the major work was.....you guessed it: "Alice's Adventures Under Ground." I feel so smart.
The following is from an email from Hottie, who is already in Korea waiting for me and our family of puppies. Before we begin, I am including a legend/glossary for those "civilian" readers out there:
*Joe - Nickname for any Army enlisted soldier. Comes from "G.I. Joe."
*Yongsan - One of the larger U.S. Army Garrisons in the country in the south-central part of Seoul.
*Itaewon - the largely international part of Seoul just outside the gates of U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan.
*SNU - Seoul National University. Considered to be the "Harvard" of Korea.
January 10, 2011. 1:48am CST/4:48pm Korean Time
"So yesterday was quite an adventure...
I took at cab to the metro station. The taxi driver let me out and I walked down into what I thought was the subway...I mean, why wouldn't the subway be underground? There seemed to be quite a few people walking down a stairway that looked identical to all the other subway systems that I've ever been in. Well, as you can imagine...NOT the subway. I wandered into an endless maze of an underground shopping mall. Every store looked the same and I was soon very lost in a place where no one spoke english, and nothing was posted in english. I spent about 15 minutes trying to make heads and tails of it until I swallowed my pride and asked someone. They didnt speak english. I tried to motion subway with my hand. The gentlemen seemed to know what I was talking about to showed me how to get out of the shopping maze. I walked upstairs out onto the street. I had no idea where I was or where my starting point was. I saw two Joes who directed me across the street to the station. As it turns out, I didnt see the ABOVE GROUND subway station in the distance instead of the stairwell to the UNDERGROUND shopping center. ?????
The further out from Seoul that you get, the less and less people speak English. I tried asking some Soldiers about directions to Itaewon, but a helpful Korean girl that spoke pretty good English intervened to help. She was much more helpful. I asked her about good places to live and she didnt really have an answer. I told her about you going to school at SNU and it turns out that she was a student there working on her masters degree in Statistics.
The following is from an email from Hottie, who is already in Korea waiting for me and our family of puppies. Before we begin, I am including a legend/glossary for those "civilian" readers out there:
*Joe - Nickname for any Army enlisted soldier. Comes from "G.I. Joe."
*Yongsan - One of the larger U.S. Army Garrisons in the country in the south-central part of Seoul.
*Itaewon - the largely international part of Seoul just outside the gates of U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan.
*SNU - Seoul National University. Considered to be the "Harvard" of Korea.
January 10, 2011. 1:48am CST/4:48pm Korean Time
"So yesterday was quite an adventure...
I took at cab to the metro station. The taxi driver let me out and I walked down into what I thought was the subway...I mean, why wouldn't the subway be underground? There seemed to be quite a few people walking down a stairway that looked identical to all the other subway systems that I've ever been in. Well, as you can imagine...NOT the subway. I wandered into an endless maze of an underground shopping mall. Every store looked the same and I was soon very lost in a place where no one spoke english, and nothing was posted in english. I spent about 15 minutes trying to make heads and tails of it until I swallowed my pride and asked someone. They didnt speak english. I tried to motion subway with my hand. The gentlemen seemed to know what I was talking about to showed me how to get out of the shopping maze. I walked upstairs out onto the street. I had no idea where I was or where my starting point was. I saw two Joes who directed me across the street to the station. As it turns out, I didnt see the ABOVE GROUND subway station in the distance instead of the stairwell to the UNDERGROUND shopping center. ?????
Seoul Subway
COEX Underground Shopping Mall
The more ghetto-fied underground mall more like what Hottie saw.
The further out from Seoul that you get, the less and less people speak English. I tried asking some Soldiers about directions to Itaewon, but a helpful Korean girl that spoke pretty good English intervened to help. She was much more helpful. I asked her about good places to live and she didnt really have an answer. I told her about you going to school at SNU and it turns out that she was a student there working on her masters degree in Statistics.
I walked around Itaewon a little while and had lunch at a Korean restaraunt that didnt speak much english. Had Bulgogi stew. It rocks!"
Awesome bulgogi stew
And that, my friends, is how I discovered -- to the great discomfort and even greater fault of my husband -- the wonder of underground shopping. Yay!
Picture of excited and almost somewhat evil laugh.
Wha-hahahaha!!!
Wha-hahahaha!!!
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