a frustrating cab ride

Well my mum encouraged me to keep track of the small things I go through on a daily basis too. So I thought I would include this small story of our first huge miscommunication in Korea. It was probably one of the most frustrating hours of my life but hey, I survived. Lou, Manz and I were in a cab on the weekend trying to get to a place called Hongdae. So we hopped into a cab and told our cab driver where we wanted to go. Unfortunately Manz mispronounced our destination and instead of saying Hongdae, she said Hundae. She forgot the g and said the o like a u. Apparently this was a huge deal because we ended up 30 minutes away from Hongdae outside a small university in some unknown district to us all. We were panicked and frightened. We made the cab driver pull over and we got out and started asking people on the street where Hyundae was, trying to explain it like "you know place with bars, music". FINALLY a young woman told us we wanted Hongdae. We had been charged $20 by this point but the cab driver waited around for us and took us to our destination free of charge. By that point we were so tired and so frustrated we barely spoke for the next 15 minutes of our ride. Then as I noticed the cab smelled badly of B.O. (body odor) I started singing a song. To the tune of Yellow Submarine but with a few changes in lyrics..."We all live in a B.O. smelling taxi, a B.O. smelling taxi, a B.O. smelling taxi". The girls and I just burst out into laughter and proceeded to make up verses to accompany my chorus. So by the time we got to Hongdae we were all in better moods and took that ride as a lesson learned: Be sure we know how to pronounce where we want PRECISELY before getting into a cab. And the worst thing was the cab driver was just laughing the entire time at the situation. Like c'mon buddy, paying $20 and spending 1 hour in your smelly taxi cab is NOT funny. However we ended up having a great night at the shisa bar and will forever be singing "we all live in a B.O. smelling taxi".

Another interesting note to myself. NEVER get on the subway between the hours of 6 and 7pm. Good LORD! My trip to Home Plus (like Wal Mart) today after school was something I've never experienced before. The subway cars were packed...and I'm not talking full, I'm talking RAMMED FULL of Korean people. I was pushed and shoved from the platform into the car only to stand awkwardly with two Korean man practically on me and it took all my will power to keep from screaming outloud. I felt like Elaine in the subway episode of Seinfeld. I was definitely screaming obscenities in my head for the five minutes I was in the subway car. Thankfully I was only two stops away from Home Plus and escaped without losing my cool. I bought my winter jacket and had a bit of dinner just to make sure I wouldn't get back on the sardine subway of rush hour. Korea is such a strange place sometimes.