Aliens and Electronics

I just got my alien registration card today, which is fabulous. It means that in the next little while, I will be able to get my cell phone (in Korean, it's called a hand phone, or a H'aent P'on). Many Korean words are adapted from English (actually english words that are "hangulized"). Hangul is the word for the Korean alphabet.

I want to tell you about the promised land... in Korea, there is a magical and mystical place where you can go to satisfy your electronic desires' wildest dreams! That's right, there is a place where the subway lets you off and you can go to the electronics mall. What's that I say? YES, there is a mall devoted to NOTHING BUT ELECTRONICS. It's the most wonderful place ever. They have 6 football-field-sized floors of stores that sell nothing but electronics. Each floor is devoted to a different type of electronics. One floor for laptops, one floor for PCs, another for MP3 and CD players, another for cell phones... it's unvelieveable. The next time I head there, I will take some pictures to show you how wonderful it is!

Speaking of electronics, I should mention the TV here. It's really bizarre. There are several stations devoted to odd things. One station is a 24-hour video game channel (and not just any video games - one particular one called Starcraft. Another channel is a 24-hour tutorial for playing a game North Americaners would call "Goh". It's a game played on a grid where you place black and white chips at the grid intersections. I want to learn how to play. There is also the math tutoring channel, as well as countless infomertial channels. Wild. You gotta see it to believe it!