Hello lovely readers,
I can’t seem to do anything but get further behind in posting these posts. I apologize for that. This is my post for Saturday, November 2, 2019.
I had intended on doing some adulting today. The dust bunnies living on my floor tell me that I need to give the place a thorough cleaning. But first thing’s first: I needed get a passport photo taken.
I headed out to Lotte Mart (that’s where my boss said I could get the photos). Since I had woken up late, I figured that I’d just eat when I got there. I had already eaten at the Lotte Mart food court before, so I knew that they had Korean food available, and one of my goals is to eat more Korean food. It’s not that far from my place, and it was lovely outside– if a bit cloudy– so I just went walking. No big deal 🤷♂️
Without much incident, I made it to Lotte Mart. I walked around the store a couple of times, but couldn’t find where my boss was taking about. At this point, I was more than just kind of hungry. I fumbled my way to the food court. I’ve been here before, and I thought that ordering food would be cake 😒
There’s four main food places in the food court proper: three Korean food places, and a Lotteria. Don’t worry, I didn’t get Lotteria 😉
How did I order my food? Lots and lots of guessing. I assumed that it was going to be simple, but it never is, is it? Firstly, each of the different food places had a display of plastic choices. You then go to a touch screen ordering machine. Sounds simple enough, right? I selected the option I wanted, and pressed the big touch button on the bottom of the screen. And then a bunch of other Korean options popped up. I was like
I almost almost walked away, but I was like: I want my food, dang it! I’ll just press buttons and see what happens. Did it work?
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It was an interesting combination of foodstuffs to say the least. There was, starting in the upper center and going to the right, omelette rice, a cheesy pasta dish, tonkatsu, spicy kimchi, danmuji, and a simple noodle soup. It was a lot of food for the price, and for the most part, it was… okay. The tonkatsu was really good, while everything else was… okay. I was kind of disappointed in the omelette rice; I had never had it before, and I was surprised that the egg was so thin over the rice; I had never had omelette rice before, and realized that my own disappointment was because of my own misplaced expectations of the dish.
After eating, I walked around some more, trying to find the passport photo place. Did I finally find it? Of course not 😞 There came a point where I figured that If I kept going, the employees were going to think that I was casing the place, so I shot a message to my cousin, asking where on Earth I could get a passport picture taken. He recommended checking in the subways, which I was like
I don’t know why I didn’t just go there in the first place… I had seen the booths there before in my brief travels.
I found my way out of Lotte Mart, and I walked to the subway (you’ll find that a common theme in my journey around Korea is that there’s always a ton of walking 😉).
I hoofed it to the subway. Luckily, the photo booth was in an easily found location, and I stepped inside. I got to the point where I selected the proper size and pressed the big red button.
After what seems like forever, the photo sheet printed out. Outside of the general passport picture badness, I noticed something else… the booth made me, well… let me just put this here:
Then I realized that this was on the booth. Oh, boy… I’m practically transparent in the passport photos.
Afterward, I looked at the time on my phone and I was like: Let’s go see a movie!
I made it to the CGV. I first went to Gong Cha for a milk tea, and the server remembered me and my order: a large black bubble tea. I’m pretty sure I started blushing.
I thought about watching Weathering With You, but then I realized that I hadn’t seen Joker yet. So I decided to watch the movie that I would be able to understand.
I walked up to the counter– the ticket vending machines don’t accept cash– and fumbled my way into purchasing a ticket to the film. The cost of a ticket, at least at CGV, depended at where you were sitting. I think I sat in the best tier of seat, paying 12,000 won for my ticket.
I had some time to kill, so I grabbed a bite to eat. You know how I mentioned that I wanted to eat more Korean food…
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I got a double bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a drink. It was a legitimately tasty burger. If I may, I do sometimes appreciate the finer things in life.
After dinner, I had a little bit of time to play some games. After I put in my 500 won, chose my game, and proceeded forward, I realized why these cabinets had like 400 games… The retro game cabinets were emulators called Pandora’s Box. I was like: hmmm….
In any case, Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves booted up. I love old-school, 2d fighting games. Although I can’t necessarily say that I’m good, but I do love them.
I don’t know what I was expecting about the theatrical experience in Korea, but it was disappointingly similar to going to see a movie in a higher-end American cinema. I suppose that’s a good thing, as it was a comfortably familiar experience. On the other hand, I was hoping to have something more Korean-flavored similar to the corny cheese pizza. That being said, it was kind of trippy to see an English-language film with Korean subtitles in an environment that felt like home away from home.
As for the film, I think that Joker was absolutely fascinating in a number of ways. I won’t clog up this post any more than it already is, but Joaquin Phoenix is incredible in the title role, and the English-speaking news media’s portrayal of the film prior to its release was completely misleading and baffling. The movie is surprising, and I think it represents the ultimate form of the “dark and gritty” that DC has been trying to achieve in recent years. If you can stomach dark films, I’d say that it’s worth a watch at the very least.
…All that being said, did I do the adult thing?
Well…
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😞
Until we meet again,
Kevin
Adventures in Korea 