In which we go to a movie, and then I get terribly lost.

Long time no see! I'm back with some fun stories for you. Let's start with our trip to the movies.

We went to see "Frozen" at a Korean theater, and I thought I'd show you a little of what the experience is like. First, the theater we went to was on the top few stories of the Lotte department store, which seems to be pretty normal here. There isn't room to build out, so they build up. And up. And uuuup. So we take a bunch of escalators to the 6th or 7th floor, I think, and buy tickets.

The really cool part is that you can choose your seats. Also, these screen kiosks make it significantly easier to go to movies here, since we don't have to deal with the language barrier.

The next step, of course, is the snack bar.

There is the familiar butter popcorn, as well as cheese popcorn and carmel corn. My favorite is getting a bucket with half butter or cheese, and half carmel. They put a little divider thing down the middle so the flavors don't mix. 

They don't have candy, but there are nachos, hot dogs, and ice cream. And of course fried squid. Because what is a movie without your fried squid?  :)

And here's a shot to show you the lobby. You buy your tickets here, and go up another floor or two to your theater.

Now for my tale of sorrow and woe, the night I got lost.

I had a tutoring appointment with a new student, a ten-year-old boy. His mom doesn't speak much English, so we'd been communicating via text and using translating apps, which is always fun. And by fun, I mean a bit nerve-wracking. Anyway, I was to meet them at their apartment and she gave me their address in both English and Korean, and since I have a total of three navigation systems I figured I had a decent shot of finding their place even though actual street addresses in Daegu are absurdly difficult to get/find. They aren't really big on street names or house numbers. To get places they mostly seem to rely on landmarks.
       I made my first attempt to input the address into one GPS. No go - it couldn't find the neighborhood (side note - Daegu is divided into something kind of like districts, and then further divided into neighborhoods. They live in Dalseo-gu, Wolseong-dong.) So I tried the second GPS. It got the neighborhood, but not the actual street number. I figured meh, as long as I get to the general area I can figure things out. So off I set, not knowing the impending horror to come.
      First off, my trusty GPS took me in a literal circle. Twice. Not like around the block, but u-turn after u-turn. So I made a turn that forced it to "recalculate". Eventually I found myself on the expressway. Since we haven't had a car long, I'm not very experienced in driving in Daegu, and I just thought, "Okey-dokey. I guess this will just get me there quicker?" Oh-ho-ho no. Where it got me was OUT OF DAEGU. Literally outside of the city. My poor '94 Hyundai was attempting to keep up with the 100 km/hour speed limit without completely disintegrating, as I tried not to panic. Eventually I found a way to turn around, and found myself at a tollbooth. Of course. So I attempted to pay the toll, but it seemed that I needed some sort of pass or ticket or something. Eventually between two different tollbooth operators it became aparent that I needed to go somewhere else for some reason with the ticket they gave me. I drove off, trying to puzzle out what they were saying, and as I looked around I zoomed right past what looked like some kind of station. I assume I should have stopped there, but it just wasn't gonna happen.
      I followed the expressway back into Daegu, and then turned off my GPS (I may have sworn at it and thrown it on the floor while cursing its lineage). I decided to use the navigation system on my phone to get home and just text my client to let her know I'd need to reschedule since I was half an hour late. Again, the trap was set by the navigation gods. Somehow my phone decided to betray me. It took me all over the stupid city (I'm sorry Daegu - I don't mean that. I still love you). After a while it sent me down an alley. I thought, "Huh. This is weird. Maybe it's some kind of shortcut. I'll see where it's going." The alley got smaller and smaller - and it was already small to begin with, since people park their cars on both sides of the street at all sorts of happy, jaunty angles here. And at this point - heaven forgive me - I became that stupid woman who follows her GPS blindly into a river. Okay, not a river, but a freaking market. Yep, I ended up in a MARKET. It wasn't a big one, just one of the small little neighborhood markets, but since the alley was so small and packed with people's cars, I couldn't turn around and I ended up hitting stuff. Stuff owned by the market people. Water jugs, and some poles, and I was soooo humiliated. Just the worst night ever ever ever. I stopped my stupid car, cheeks flaming, and rolled down the window as a man came walking up. He didn't look angry, just a bit concerned and amused. I showed him my GPS and said, "It lied. I'm lost." He nodded, stood behind my car, and directed me back in a 147-point turn to get me mostly out of the market without hitting further objects.
      At this point, I asked if he knew where Camp George was. More specifically I said, "Camp-uh Jo-ji?" Which is how every Korean person says the name of our post. He pointed off through the alley and gave basic directions in Korean, which I understood, but then a woman came up to my window and said, "Camp-uh Jo-ji? My husband work. I show." And this woman, the greatest Korean to ever live, just climbed in my car and directed me home. When we got back to the post I told her I would call her a taxi and she just chuckled and said, "No, I walk."
     After reflecting on that experience, I thought about how different it would have been in a city of comparable size in the states. Can you imagine what would happen if you destroyed property of any kind in a big city - think 2.5 million - in the states? Cops would be called, there would be a big tumult. Here they were like, "Aw, poor little nummy-head. Let's just get this poor puppy home." Seriously, not a word was said about their broken stuff although I apologized profusely in Korean. These people were amazing. And thinking about it further, if I'd had my kids with me I don't doubt they would have offered us food. LOL
      So that was my terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad driving experience. I think from here on out I'll stick to mostly subways and taxis. :D