Going to the Movies

            So over the weekend I went to the movies here in Gwangju.  I heard that I might be able to check out Thor so I wanted to see if I could do just that.  I knew that there were a couple of theaters around downtown but I had no clue where to find them.  I decided to go to the Gwangju International Center to ask them and they were able to give me directions to a theater only a couple of blocks away.

            I head to the theater but they are not showing Thor.  I’m pretty disappointed and I try to ask the ticket vender but he has no idea what I’m saying.  Fortunately the couple that heard me trying to talk to me did know what I was saying.  But instead of trying to give me directions they had me follow them instead!  I couldn’t believe it but they walked me a couple of blocks and voila there was the movie theater!  I gave them many thanks and will certainly remember to pay their kindness forward if I see someone in a similar situation.

            I go inside, head upstairs and go straight to the customer service ticket desk.  I figure that they will have more patience with me than the regular ticket venders.  I also grabbed a Thor mini-movie poster just so I could make sure she knew what I wanted.  I really didn’t need it because she spoke good enough English to not only listen to me but also order my ticket.  The real kicker about ordering my ticket was that you can RESERVE your seat in the theater!  You read that right you can reserve your seat in the theater.  Now I knew why no one was rushing around or hurrying to get to a theater because they had no need to save any seats.  I felt like I was in Bizarro World and I had no idea what to do. 

My seat is the one in pink on the upper left.

            So with that extra time I decided to try and buy some snacks but they didn’t have any candy just nachos and I wasn’t in the mood for those.  So I went ahead and decided to go to the theater.  I go up some narrow escalators, get my ticket checked and then head up to the seventh floor.  Once I’m there I’m still a good 20 minutes early but I figure that’ll be ok because everyone else will be getting there early too.  Nope once again I was wrong because they don’t have to save seats so the theater screen was still closed since they were cleaning it. 

Very narrow escalators

            With 10 minutes before the movie started they opened the doors and we all filed in.  I found my seat, row F seat 10, endured some awful Korean commercials and then enjoyed a good summer comic-book blockbuster.  But I wonder why the Koreas go and watch a comic-book movie?  Especially Thor since he’s originally from the mythology of the Norse and I’ve talked about how Koreans don’t understand irony so I’m positive they’re not understanding the entire movie but whatever I was the only one laughing at half the jokes so it’s not my problem.  And next time I go to see a movie I’m showing up five minutes beforehand.

Can you see the numbers for the seats?

         Also I want to congratulate my cousin for graduating from Medical school, my girlfriend for graduating from undergrad and my best friend for doing the same.  Awesome job guys!