I went to the Dongdaemun station to find the airport bus stop again, then walked east to Sinseoldang station. At about 12:30, I stopped at a bank to cash two traveler’s checks. I had them signed and handed over to the clerk, who stared at them as if they were from Mars. She told me the person who could handle it wouldn’t be back until 1 PM. Gee, thanks for telling me now... So I wandered around and came back at 1:00 and they finished the transaction. Memo to self: use the ATMs, they don’t charge as much fee as traveler’s checks–the bank took out about ₩7,000 in service fees from the $40.00.
I walked around Sinseoldang, then turned south and found myself in a fairly industrial area.
Some of the traffic signals use downward-pointing arrows to tell you how much time you have left to cross.
Turning east, I found myself at the river walk once more.
I walked west and found the “Wall of Hope,” which is decorated with 20,000 tiles, if the sign is correct. The tiles range from the very artistic to the excruciatingly cute.
Well, actually, ₩1000 bill tourism. I decided to randomly choose a place to explore, and I did so by finding the first sequence of digits on a bill that corresponded to a subway stop number. I picked 714, Junggye, which was a nice area replete with schools but not much in the way of tourist attractions. I did get photos of a small park, but had to cut my visit short as it was threatening to rain, and I didn’t want to get caught in a downpour.
Whenever I’m on a bus, I seem to attract the “bus weirdos” who sit down next to me. Every time I was on the subway and someone approached me to talk in English, it was, well, strange.
Today it was a guy who is in charge of some meditation center. He was highly surprised that I was not married; he just couldn’t fathom it. “But man and woman are yin and yang; they are meant to be together.”
I just didn’t have the heart to tell him, “Hello! I’m gay! I’m 52 and single. You do the math. Do I have to sing you Broadway show tunes to convince you?”
He continued the conversation by asking me if I had ever wondered what my purpose in life is and where I came from (in spiritual terms, not where I was born). I told him my purpose was to do what I do best, help other people by doing it, and have a good time while I do it. As for where I came from, I said that was a question for philosophers to answer, and I didn’t really care. Needless to say, he was most displeased with my answers, which were not of a sufficiently high spiritual caliber, I guess. Luckily for both of us, we parted company a few stops later.
Last morning in Seoul before heading to the airport. Since I’ve been writing about Dongdaemun and Dongdaemun stadium all this time, I figured it was about time to show you pictures of them.
The bus trip to the airport was uneventful; I got there about four and a half hours early. I had some shrimp fried rice with oyster sauce for lunch. The flight left on time, came in about five minutes early, and here I am at home again.
