KMA is still there in Yeouido, but it wasn't much of a trip. I'd forgotten that the closest subway exit to the building was Exit 4, not Exits 1 or 2 (good thing I looked at Naver Map). The neighborhood both had and hadn't changed.
The main building by Exit 4 looked exactly the same, but later, when I strolled over to look at the row of restaurants where I would normally eat on my KMA Saturdays back in the day, I saw that many of the old, familiar joints had been replaced. I don't remember an A Toi (French for "to you") flower shop, and there was now a Frank Burger, with a logo looking suspiciously like Shake Shack's. Another Korean knockoff. I wondered if it was any good. My old haunt, Shinuiju Soondae, was still there, clinging to life; I was tempted to sit down there for lunch, but I imagined that prices have gotten more expensive since a decade ago. Farther down, there was now a Salady, a chain I used to buy lunch at back when I worked at the Golden Goose. I was tempted to eat there, too.
Inside the building, aside from recognizing the familiar lobby, which looked about the same, I didn't recognize much of anything else. The general layout of KMA was about the same in terms of architecture, but the people were all different, and some of the in-room tech—from what I could see when peeking in—had changed slightly.
The purpose of the visit, which was essentially a cold call after having sent my paperwork over last night, was just to get my face out there... and that's about all I accomplished. I was told I'd have to wait to be contacted since I had already made my online submission. Always stick to the script, right? At a guess, KMA will likely phone me instead of emailing. That's if they even call. I first got introduced to KMA through a friend who already worked there, but I haven't spoken with that friend in over a year, and his Canadian contact inside KMA—the guy who sort-of supervised me while I'd been an employee there—was, last I'd heard, in the States, doing grad work. So: no one familiar. Life passes you by.
Still, it was a nice trip down memory lane.
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