Here Chin-Hwa and I were, shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Shopping on Black Friday in Korea is nothing like shopping on Black Friday in the U.S. For one thing, Koreans don't know they are supposed to be shopping like mad. (You would be surprised at how much this changes the shopping experience.) Anyhoo, we found a bus that took us straight to E-Mart. It was here I made my fateful discovery: an escalator that would carry my cart. This escalator was magical: I could not roll the cart back or forth while on the escalator, but the moment the wheels hit normal shopping ground again, I was free to roll. My mind was blown. I found this picture on the web to help give you all a visual. I have no idea who this man is, but I can tell that he and I share a certain fascination with the magical cart escalators. He even seems to say, "Look! No hands!"
What is also important in this story is that E-Mart had multiple floors, thus explaining the need for an escalator. Let's just say I walked away with some wonderful Christmas presents. And a renewed faith in the creative capabilities of humankind.
My friend,
ReplyDeleteYou will be happy to know that the US is not far behind in several of these discoveries. Here in Chicago we have escalators that will take your carts up and down at places such as Ikea and Target, but they are on a separate 'cart escalator' next to the 'human escalator'. I am intrigued by the Korean discovery that they can exist as one.
Also, it is getting to be the norm for all new buildings to have 'under floor air' distribution, meaning that instead of the vents we all know are typically near or at the ceiling, the air is circulated from the floor, keeping our feet warm and not haviing to heat or cool the ceiling - where nobody feels anyway!! We Americans are a little slow, but we're catching on. Megan Sather