Ruffled Red Umbrella

Last night I wandered the streets of Gangnam under my little red umbrella, bumping spokes with the thronging masses. There is something wonderful about umbrellas here--little bits of individuality to hover above the sameness of every dark brown head. Some are straight, black and imposing, some flowered and ruffled and girly, some with curved handles, some with collapsible handles, some with polka dots and some with plaid, some steepled and spired, and some with sunny blue insides. But the one I want everyone to see has pink polka dot hearts and a red ruffle:


Yes, about last night. Ahem. I found directions on the internet to another salsa club in Seoul, well, in Gangnam. I know it exists, because I found YouTube footage of people dancing in it. However, the directions failed to give an exit number for the subway station. I came up whatever exit I pleased and found a cluster of young men, my prejudice being that the youth are more likely to speak English than the aged. "Do you speak English?" I asked apologetically. One of their black umbrellas turned around to reveal a pleasant young Korean man who said to me in a flawless English accent, "Yes, actually." I had to find Black Angus, as it was the only landmark in my directions, and he managed to find a young couple who knew where it was. I walked there, then followed the rest of my directions, "go down that alley, take your first right, walk about a block and take a left, you'll see the sign in black and white." Umm...no. You won't. Because I didn't.
But, I wandered the little neighborhood until I was tired of being rained on, and headed back to the subway for the hour long return journey to Jukjeon. I don't, however, count it as a loss, because on the way home, another young man wearing thick-framed glasses and some sort of shiny brown shoes looked over at me and said, "hi." With that introduction, and the subsequent revelation that he wants to study English literature, we decided to become friends.

I thought I might visually introduce you to some of my co-workers:

Emily.


George.


Clockwise from the left: Jacob and Kristin (from Denver), Angela, Emily, Me.