Climbing a mountain, indoor version.

So I decided to get out tonight since it's Friday. Well, technically, if you've been reading along you know I was supposed to have choir practice tonight. I walked down to the church and it was full of people listening to a guest priest talk. I saw my friend Hwan Jo's dad and sat beside him. Using a combination of facial gestures, his cell phone's calendar and my cell phone's dictionary, he silently told me that choir practice was canceled this week. So now I had no plans.

I took a taxi to Mega Mart and walked around there for a bit, to see if they had any Christmas decorations for sale yet. They're slowly starting to bring them out, so maybe I'll go down there again next weekend and pick up a small tree and some lights for the apartment. Speaking of next week things, last week I went to ETLand, an electronics store. They promosied me that they would have the iPod Touch in stock next week, which is now this week. Conveniently, ETLand is right next to Mega Mart, so I strolled in, only to be told that the Touch isn't going to arrive until December 16th or so. I don't know if this is a sign that I should order one online or if this is a sign that I don't really need one at all.

Anyway, I was already halfway downtown by this point, so I took a cab to Hyundai Department Store. Assuming they closed at 9 (it was 8:30), I went in and took the escalator to the second floor. Then, abruptly, the escalator stopped. "Hm," I thought. "I guess they shut the escalator down half an hour before the store closes. I'll just walk up the rest of the way." Big mistake. By the time I got up to the sixth floor where the iPods were, I was about to die. It was like climbing a mountain, part two, this time in public and wearing a winter coat. I arrived to a deserted electronics section. There were a few guys in suits over by the big screen tvs, but I don't know if they were employees or what. At this point I noticed there were dust covers over everything. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the department store doesn't close at nine.

I was wrong. The department store closed at 8:30.

So anyway, in no shape to mount the escalator for a manual descent, I looked for the elevator. Finding it, I was dismayed to discover it was not functioning, it being after store hours. Frantically looking for an alternative to climbing down the escalator from the 6th floor of an empty department store, someone asked, in English (!) if I needed any help. Luckily, the 6th floor manager was walking around and spotted me. He took me to the employee elevator and rode it down too the ground floor with me. Then some Korean girls (who were simply amazed that I knew any Korean at all) talked with me for awhile and gave me directions to Bennigans. I knew where Bennigan's was, but it was a nice gesture nonetheless. We said goodbye, I walked for about a block, stepped inside a Paris Baguette for a pastry to fortify myself, and took a taxi home.

Not a bad Friday night. Sure beats sitting at home.