More phone + Lotte World!

Well yesterday wasn't as exciting, so I didn't take the time to write about it. I will simply make two observations:

1) Cell phone service sucks for foreigners here. First, after some searching, Ada and I figured out that I either need to buy 1) a new USIM card (pretty much the same as a SIM card) or 2) transfer the service to me from the previous owner. The problem with 2 is that she is gone for Lunar New Year and won't be back until next week (phone-less until then). And the problem with 1 is that I will need a subscription plan, which means I need an Alien Registration Card, which means that if you add in the holiday days, I can't submit for the card until next week. The reason is: Lunar New Year. I think it will work out eventualy, but I feel absolutely naked without a (working) phone (because I carry it with me to play with my virtual pet).

Lunar New Year is coming up (actually, tomorrow). It is a national holiday where many Koreans travel to visit family. I heard a story of a family that had to book a plane ticket to get from Seoul to Pusan (about a 2 hour bus) because there was nothing left of anything else. Anyways, it means that the business hours are all messy and I am mostly stuck with nothing to do. Ada and Brian went for a trip today for the New Year and so I am here alone watching Ada's dog Jasmine. I think Jasmine was abused in her earlier years and doesn't take kindly to men at all because she is constantly frightened of me and Brian, but seems to be okay around Ada. I tried to walk her tonight and we made it about half way until she refused to move...I had to carry her back.

So a lot can happen in two days, which explains the jumping around. 2) The second thing that happened yesterday was that Ada and I went looking for phone help. The place we needed was SK telecom. I had NO idea how frequently these stores appear. Literally, in a one block radius, there were about five different stores. Ada explained that they each serve different functions, but never really clarified what those functions were. All the stores sell phones, some can offer credit for prepaid service, some can help with USIM problems, some don't seem to do either, some are VERY friendly to foreigners, some are mean to foreigners. I didn't think it was possible to visit twelve different SK telecom stores in an hour...I mean think of Starbucks in Seattle -- one every block -- and I was amazed at how many of these stores exist. Each one appears to be independently managed because they all have sales. My Korean is still poor (awful), but one store appeared to have a 90% off phones (I read that in English)...or they raised prices by 90%...but I doubt that. When you see "90% phone..." you mostly assume it is a sale for how much % off.

Ada also gave me some useful advice. The traditional barber shop signs that spin red, white and blue are like everywhere on the streets around her place. They spin much quicker here than back home, so I told her I really liked the barber shop signs. Ada then gave me one of those "wait, what?" moments when she enlightened me that they can sometimes be symbols for prostitutes. "Wait, what?" Ada continued "I've heard from friends that if there are two spinning next to each other, that is where you can find prostitutes." We also just happened to be passing about three in a row that were paired together. I was silent a couple seconds and then thanked her: "I would have been very confused during that haircut..."

Lotte World: If I could describe it in one word, I would say "DisneylandwithoutDisney."

(Lotte World will now be abbreviated as LW because I got tired of writing Lotte so many times)

I got in touch with another exchange student from OSU studying in Korea named Josie. I had been communicating with her through Facebook and she invited me to join her and a friend at LW today. I honestly had no idea what it was. Nonetheless, I thought it would great to meet Josie and her friend and spend the day with them. I woke up at like 8:15 in order to meet her outside LW at 9:30AM (I was trying to be late, but made it on time thanks to a miscalculation on how long it would take the bus to reach the subway). Josie was born and raised in Korea, but her parents moved to the USA because the education was better (I know, I was a little surprised too) and they wanted her to learn English. She is already fluent in Korean, is near perfect in English (she was more humble about it) and also speaks Japanese. Really smart.

Her friend (I feel so bad because I forgot her name twice) was also really nice, but was too shy to really speak English around me. What that led to was Josie talking to me for ten minutes in English and then talking to her friend in Korean. Her friend and I indirectly communicated through Josie -- but my jokes weren't as funny in Korean, apparently. I felt really bad because I wanted to talk to Josie but didn't want to leave her friend out. In my defense, Josie taught me like twenty new Korean phrases (I remember maybe 5 of them =*( ), and her friend's name was hard for me to remember. I was the first American her friend had really spent any time with...I am going to sleep tonight hoping I made a good impression.

Back to LW: LW is an amusement park in Seoul, housed inside what I see as a big shopping mall. Let me clarify that: if you took old Washington Square, built two more stories and installed a theme park, you would have half of LW. There was an additional island outside with some fun rides, so maybe take that image and add an island about the size of a football stadium if the stadium were flat. The theme for the park seemed to be "Western culture."

Let me first stress how awesome this place was. I had such a blast and it was an amazing day. But I have to laugh about a few things, observe a couple more and then say what I loved.

Laugh 1) I think in the Western world there is often a mental organization that groups together all Asian societies into one shared culture. I was reminded of that here as well, except in the opposite direction. There was this ride that was something like "The Pharaoh's Curse" that possessed an Ancient Egypt theme. Inside the doors, there was this statute of Horace or some similar Egyptian god that was held on a pillar with Ancient Greeks. As we continued through this room, I noticed impressionist paintings of romantic France and American architecture. The next room was the pharaohs tomb...

Laugh 2) Disneyland has those magic cups...LW has the "Drunken Basket."

Laugh 3) Speaking of Disney, most themed rides seemed to be eerily similar to Disney. "Pirates of the Caribbean" was found with "Adventures of Sindbad," "Space Mountain" was this ride like "Comet Rush," and "Splash Mountain" was some weird adventure with many dinosaurs. One ride that I loved was called "French Revolution." I didn't get the name at all because there wasn't anything remotely French...unless the revolution involved a cave with flashing lights and one of those loops on a roller coaster where you are upside down.

Laugh 4) Sometimes the English translation just came off humorously. I remember reading a couple signs and just smiling to myself (Ali Baba and the 40 Fibs). I bet American signs written in Korean come off odd as well, but chuckling about the language differences is sometimes just called for. Case in point, from the English LW website, Lotty (the mascot) is described as "(one who) likes to play with other children, and is our friend who breeds dream with bright and nice mind." Ignoring the proximity of children and breeds, I just couldn't help but picturing a parent reluctantly explaining "when two people love each other very much..."

Observation 1) The staff at LW was really great and brought some positive energy. Josie had to translate, but as we finished the rides, four staff members would say something like (and you have to sing this in beat, each period is a pause) "the exit..is on [clap clap] the right." I couldn't imagine that job being very fun, but the staff seemed to have fun with synchronized hand movements (like "are you ready [point point] then lets get this [clap clap] ride going [move arms in a circle to point at the conductor]). Everyone there also had this wave where they took both hands and just kind of waved them. One guy told Josie that at Everland (the biggest in Korea, LW is the second) they do the same wave with their palms facing inward. That should be a jeopardy question.

Observation 2) I REALLY stuck out here. I got kicked off two rides for being too tall where a Korean that looked about the same height as me passed without question. The cut off for two rides was 1.87M (I am about 1.95M according to Josie's phone) so I was only 8CM too tall. That is nothing! Maybe he was short enough and I misjudged his height, but we met nearly eye to eye. There was also this little girl that ran up to me while I was waiting in line, waved, and said "hello." As I started to respond she ran off. Put a big smile on my face. Brian and I were walking home one night and this little boy said "hi" and ran off, leaving his two friends there. Brian growled at them and they took off too. I laughed as Brian explained he was tired of the kids.

Great Thing 1) I am not sure why (because today was a holiday), but there were not many people there. In the afternoon, some waits were about 40 minutes (reminisce of Disneyland). The park seemed to quiet down at 6PM when we rode the same ride three times in a row by running around and getting back in line. There were two rides that took us up some 30 stories and gave us a free fall. The lights of the Seoul buildings bouncing off the half-iced river was breathtaking (coupled with the quick fall, which also made it hard to breathe).

Great Thing 2) The park was very accommodating to foreigners, printing many signs in Korean, English and Chinese. Many staff members also spoke a little English to help me out during those confusing times.

Great Thing 3) The food was great! I couldn't tell you what I ate today, but everything was spectacular. There was this snack that was like a pancake stuffed with a sweet paste of beans and sunflower seeds (according to Josie). It was so sweet and wonderful, despite my limited description.

Great Thing 4) The rides were very fun. We bought our tickets to enter LW at about 10AM and left at 9:00PM only because I was concerned that the bus wouldn't be running too late during the holidays. There was a laser light show starting at 9 that I wanted to see and then there was this ride that circled the inside section. At night, the illuminated structures would have been beautiful.

Great Thing 5) Josie is awesome. Was so great spending the day with her. Her friend was nice too, but I wish there would have been something I could have done to help her feel comfortable speaking English around me.