I Love Malling.

Phewwwww. What a day yesterday was.

Joel took my to Seonhak Station, which is about a ten-fifteen minute walk from my place; he showed me how the reloadable T-Money transportation card works, then I was on the subway and off to Yongsan Station.

Yongsan is one stop West of Seoul on the 1 Line. But why stop in Yongsan instead of Seoul? I'm glad you asked. Yongsan Station is attached to the I-Mall, which has just about anything and everything you'd ever want. Really.

The signs for I-Mall all say 'I Love Malling,' which makes me wonder if they meant 'Mauling' or even realized the similarity. Regardless, it's funny stuff.

I ran into Jay and Evan at I-Mall! They were just looking around, but had big plans to scale a big mountain and wanted some food first, so we went to a Thai place- I had chicken fried rice which, to my surprise, included some yellow curry. Was pretty damn good! Cultural note: the phrase 'yuh-gi-oh' means 'you, over here' and is a perfectly acceptable way to summon a waiter/waitress.

After the fried rice adventure, I wandered around a good bit until I found the music section of I-Mall. Yeah, there's a music section. Complete with everything from violas and cellos to big, button-covered Ableton Live specific MIDI interfaces. I... had to drop a bit of money. I couldn't help it. But I came out with two Korg MIDI controllers, the nanoPad and nanoKontrol. The Pad has a Kaoss pad built in (YES YES YES) and ten drum buttons with roll/flam features- the Kontrol has nine channels, each with a fader, knob, and two buttons along with play/stop/rewind/ff/record/loop controls. The best part is that every button on either device is fully assignable through software, so I'm stoked as Hell.

Anyway, more about I-Mall. They have bloody everything. I've seen red and lime green PSPs, vending machines with Bomberman figurines in them, shirt/vest combinations that put American ones to shame, sick ass USB hubs... there was a really nice LG LCD TV on sale for some 300,000 won... marked down from 1,500,000 won. Uhm. They have two floors for computers! Some really amazing machines, too.

The place is amazing. I love malling. It wasn't too hard to get there, either. Just take the Incheon line North to Bupyeong, transfer to Eastbound Line 1, and boom.

The subway is really cool, I enjoyed it. A little crowded at times and I got my fair share of weird looks, being one of three foreigners in my car at best.. but it's neat. There are TVs in the Incheon Line subways, and they announce which stop you're coming to (along with a voice announcement). A neat experience.

Then, last night, I went out with Tom and Joel. We went to a foreigner bar in Bupyeong. The first song that played when I walked in the door was MGMT's 'Kids,' of course, because I can't escape that bloody song no matter how far I fly. Not that I hate it, it's a good song, but.. anyway. I drank a bit too much last night and got pretty quiet. Actually, I was kind of quiet the whole time. It's a damn shame because there were new people there, could've gotten to know them, la la la... but I'm still kind of humbled/overwhelmed by all the newness here. I still feel very much like a guest here, and it's hard to get into the swing of things socially under those circumstances. I think once I feel more at home here and really understand the length of my stay, I'll be better about it. What I need to do is realize that everything that's happened to me so far, my entire past, it's just a story. And once I'm able to crumple that up and start again, I'll really get into the swing of things. I've always had a problem with pushing myself to socialize; I never really do it. I think there's a sense of entitlement behind all of that- I'm used to being liked, so I feel like it should happen immediately without any effort on my part. This is something I noticed happening to me before I left, even, and I really need to get out of that rut.

I slept until about 11:30a today and I'm still a bit hungover. Jay and Evan are going island hopping today- there's an archipelago area not too terribly far from here, and the ferry that goes between the islands is pretty cheap. I woke up a bit too late, though, and I'm a bit wary of spending any more money after my adventure in Yongsan. I'm still doing alright, but I want to play it safe until Wednesday when I open my bank account and am able to exchange my traveler's checks.

I'll probably go on another picture quest sometime soon, and should be able to update picasaweb.google.com/thefinalthom relatively soon. Keep an eye out! :)

Wishing everyone back home the best,
-토맛