A Day In The City: Verbing Nouns

Seoul is a really really big city. Last weekend I went journeying toward two specific sites: A gigantic tech mall and what is supposedly one of the swankiest saunas around. Luckily both these places are within a Pocari can's throw of the same subway stop, Yansong.

Exiting the station itself was an ordeal, as the tracks spit you right out onto the first floor of a gigantic shopping complex. The tech mall itself was six floors of every imaginable brand name and product under the sun. One entire floor was dedicated to music instruments and recording equipment. I spent half an hour fiddling with an MPC 5000 trying to simultaneously play all the parts to "Under Pressure" with my two pointer fingers.

From the top floor I could see a lit-up courtyard where a break-dance competition was probably taking place. I say probably because, as usual, I have no idea what is going on at least half the time. I could have been watching a modern treatment of Westside Story or possibly some kind of religious ceremony. For all I know, these young men could have been telling jokes in pantomime to hip-hop music. Actually, I think that will serve as my standing definition for all dancing.

Next to the mall is Dragon Hill Spa which lived up to its reputation for being awesome. Of all the cool stuff there however, the coolest was the name of the place itself. Sure, there was a Himalayan Pink Rock Salt Kiln, an Ocher Chamber of the Training of the Mind, and a supervillain-esque Ice Palace, and all sorts of other rooms of relaxation. However Dragon Hill's name out on its sign is spelled using "Konglish". This is a wonderfully curious method of using Korea's hangul lettering system to phonetically spell English words. So Dragon Hill was "DRA GON HI RU". It's like using finger paints to describe the scent of cinnamon. This is how I'm gonna learn the Korean alphabet, by sounding out the extra value meals at "MAK DON ER UDS".