In my seemingly never-ending quest to find what I’m looking for (an oblique U2 reference), I’ve moved on and left the land of K-Pop and bulgogi.
It was an easy bail. Walk 400m to the subway, ride a few stops then get on a different line. I, of course, made a wrong turn and was at the exit before it was pointed out to me by a nice man that I needed to be on the other side of the station. My faux pas was irrelevant anyway, as the train I needed to be on still hadn't arrived in the time it took to retrace my steps.
Hop on that one a few stops to another station where I took a light rail that had an exit directly at the airport. Total cost: $2.50. That meant I was leaving a few dollars (about $3) on my subway card. Not as good as I did in Sydney where I left with less than a dollar, but still not terrible.
I did pretty well with my cash management as well. I bought a radler (I do like them) at the beer bar with my remaining cash stash, and left with 1300 won in my pocket (about $0.95).
Before fearlessly boarding the plane, I left it in a collection receptacle for the Korean Red Cross. Seemed a safe thing to do. I gave my leftover cash in Nepal to a woman sweeping up the concourse, but she asked. I’d stacked them on the seat next to me, and was going to leave them when I walked away. She’d have probably gotten them regardless.
I say fearlessly boarding. The double whammy of plane and manufacturer doesn’t cause me pause.
Interestingly, when I checked in for my flight at the counter in the airport, I was asked for an onward/return ticket. I didn't read that it was necessary when I looked on the State Department website, but I could have missed it. Good thing I had a ticket out already booked heading back to the good ol' US of A. I have a dentist appointment I mean to keep. Also, I need a new passport. This baby is a little full with only a couple of blank pages left and is looking a little worn. There isn’t a lot of gold left on the cover and it doesn’t work so well with the automated readers anymore.
I have my first two weeks planned in the States, but I've heard that even expedited passport processing takes up to five weeks or so. I'll have to find something to do while in the land of high prices, sales taxes not included in listed prices, and tipping culture — three things I am not a big fan of. Regarding the taxes, I mean come on. List the total price on your menu/board, whatever. You aren’t tallying it up by hand — your cash register is a computer and can be configured appropriately. You could probably get away with rounding it up to the nearest quarter and make a few pennies per purchase too, and you’d probably be applauded for it.
But, that is weeks away. More currently, I'm meeting someone for dinner tonight that I’ve never met, and only exchanged a couple of messages with. I know almost nothing about him, other than he's a runner and is registered for the TRTER. Should be fun. We’re getting together to chat about it, possibly over a beer or two and some local cuisine. It’ll be great to have a local to guide me through the potential minefield of language difficulties and my allergies endemic in seafood. And beer.
Last night after checking in, I did my walkabout. I needed an adapter. Despite using plugs similar to the USA, in my room, they’re not grounded. Odd. I needed something to connect my grounded plug to an ungrounded outlet. Conveniently, there was an electronics superstore half a K away. Nice. Bought what I needed and a new phone cover. I was set. Walked a bit around the outlet mall. Weird to see all the similar names. Heck, it was kind of weird to see so much English alphabet in use, even if it’s not the native script.
In other news, I’ve done some thinking and analysis of my moves over the last few years, and there’ve been a few moves, haven’t there? I’ve discovered that my enthusiasm for a place decreases over time, and eventually I move on. The process has been pretty consistent as well. I arrive, and for at least a few days, I do and see and test out new restaurants, new venues, new trails, new everything. It doesn’t take too long before the explore:exploit ratio begins to decline. Then, over a varying amount of time — probably dependent on how interesting it all is to me — I feel the urge to move on. Even if it’s just to a new place to stay in a new part of the town I’m in. And the process starts anew. I mean, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do to defeat the ennui, amirite? I could construct a graph, but everyone’s seen the spike with a long tail, so no need. I’m sure if I look deeper, there is something there that’ll keep me in one place, but who wants to look? If my psyche was mapped, that place would be labeled with “Here there be dragons.”
Anywhoodles, as the Cat man said, Morning Has Broken, and it’s time to explore my new stop a little more. Oh, didn’t I say where? To continue the musical references from my youth, the Eric Burdon and the Animals had it wrong. It’s not the house. It’s the Land of the Rising Sun.
Be kind, and take care of yourselves. If you can, care for someone else too.
Slang, out.