Day 3: Gangnam Style

All by myself! Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore!

**the alternate title to this particular blog post**

For those of you who worry about me, the alternate title is in good fun. I promise I'm not moping around the streets of Seoul. However, as suggested by Eric Carmen's famous lyrics, I would've appreciated doing this outing with a buddy. There is something great about having a friend to adventure with. I know people push the "traveling alone is amazing" agenda, and I see their point. With that being said, it's definitely an acquired taste. I think with more experience traveling alone; I'll learn to enjoy it more.

Now that you feel so sorry for me... ;) ... let me tell you about my adventure to Gangnam! I woke up with three goals (1) travel to Gangnam on the subway, (2) say "hello" & "thank you" in Korean, and (3) do a little shopping. I am proud to say that I met all three of my goals. Woohoo!!!

To travel to Gangnam, I needed to get on the yellow line at the Sunae station. The station is only two blocks away from my apartment. If you look at the maps below, I marked my station with a black star. Then, I traveled to Jeongja station to transfer to the red line. The red line takes you all the way to the Gangnam station. Without a hitch, I was able to get myself to Gangman. I noticed a couple of things about the subway travel that was interesting:

 - A lovely musical number that plays when a train approaches. It sounds similar to music from Super Mario 64; I kid you not.

- In the tunnel from Jeongja to Gangnam, there was a long line of TVs on the side of the tunnel. As you looked out the window at the TVs, it gave an illusion of a flipbook. I imagine each TV had a still image that turned into a short film by just flying past them so quickly.

- There are boxes/cabinets filled with gas masks in the subway station. I'll be asking someone about these, and I'll get back to you about them.

Once I arrived in Gangnam, I looked for a place to get coffee. About two blocks into my walk, I saw a Starbucks. I had a "I can't go there, because that isn't adventurous enough" moment. I didn't want to be unadventurous. So, I paused for a brief moment to decided my level of security in forging forward to try something brand new. As you can tell from the pictures below, I caved and went to Starbucks. On the bright side, I tried by "hello" and "thank you" with the baristas.

Korean Tip: Don't just read the Hangul or English translation of the word without carefully listening to a native say it first. It might not sound exactly how it looks. I know this from firsthand experience (arrrrgh). You might want to YouTube before trying it aloud. I was running around saying "Cahm-saw-HAM-nee-duh." Here is how you actually say it.

After butchering my "hello," I sat down and drank my coffee and read a little. Here are some photos of my quick trip to Gangnam: