The Coex Mall

Well, the HSI is over and the medical group was graded “EXCELLENT.” I actually guessed the final score within one point and the number of pages in the report within a page (as inspectors, we used to compete to see who could guess the unit’s score and the number of pages was the tie-breaker)–for this inspection, I was the closest on both counts, so I win!

Yesterday, Kennie (the first sergeant) and I took the bullet train to Seoul. The bullet train travels at 186 mph and the trip takes less than 2-hours. We left early and took an AAFES cab from the base to the Iksan train station (a 20-30 minute drive) and bought two round-trip first-class tickets on the train. It was a comfortable ride. In Seoul we hopped on the subway and headed to Samseong to visit the Coex Mall. I couldn’t believe how big this place was. In addition to all the stores, it had a luxury hotel and an aquarium!

The main reason we went was to visit the Apple (computer) store. In addition to the Apple store, we looked around a bookstore that makes Borders look like a Five-and-Dime! They had a “foreign book section” which contained all the books written in English. They had a very nice selection, too (about the size of a Waldenbooks you’d find in one of our malls in the States). After the bookstore we had a beer in “O’Kims Braühaus,” a microbrewery serving Irish-style beer. Delicious! After the beer we took the subway to Itaewon and ate dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.

We lingered too long in Itaewon, though, and almost missed our train back to Iksan. It wouldn’t have been so close, but the subway from Ichon to Youngson (the last connection) was delayed. Anyway, we made it with a couple of minutes to spare. Back at Iksan we caught a “Kimche” Cab (Korean cab) back to the base.

I’ll be making this trip again!