Seoul, Part II

Sunday we ventured into the big city again. This time we were on our own to fend for ourselves. Surprisingly transportation was very easy. We had all the apropriate maps in advance, we studied them and decided on our plan of attack. We were on our way and on schedule (which in itself is amazing for me.) The actual point of going into the city on this occasion was the house warming party at Dan and Karin's new home. Our big chance to mingle among the foreigners and not have to speak in broken English (which we find ourselves doing a lot! ) The party was not until later in the evening and it is a waste to go into the city for only a few hours so we made the trip earlier in the morning so we could explore a little and go to Costco. Yes, we went to Costo again but like I said, last time we only made our mental list, this time we purchased. We still had to be somewhat conservative in our spending becasue we still have to lug the stuff home, a little different than stuffing your trunk and making several trips into the house to unload! The necessities were instant oatmeal, granola bars, baby carrots (with no dill dip *sad*) , babybel cheese, popcorn and the favourite find - a three pound bag of M&M's! They sell the exact bag back home and I was never allowed to purchase it, suddenly we are in a foreign country and that made it OK, I guess! I know it must not be very exciting to read our grocery list but finding this stuff was very exciting for us!

After the Costco adventure was over we headed back to the main subway station to store our stuff and kill some time before the party. They have giant lockers at the subway station which are life savers (shopping can get heavy!) After tucking our stuff safely away we went exploring underground. I swear it is an entire other city down there! We came across yet another mall which was busier than Devonshire at Christmas and walked and walked and walked some more (I honestly don't think we even saw the whole thing!) We checked out some cool stores, a music store among others, that keeps a better stock of English music than HMV or Music World. All four Rufus Wainwright CD's were in and they were cheaper than at home! We dicovered that CD's will work in our players (DVD's will not) so hopefully we will discover some cool Korean music to introduce everyone to!

After grabbing a Starbucks (did you think we wouldn't) we headed to the party. We met people from England, the U.S. and Canada. They all live in Seoul and most are on there second or third year of teaching (we still promise one year!) Real hamburgers were barbecued on a real barbeque, veggies and dip were enjoyed, chips and salsa even! For desert - apple and pumpkin pie with ice cream (If you thought the ice cream from Kawartha Dairy was good...) We really enjoyed learning about everyone else's Hogwans (Korean for private school) and learned a few tricks on how to handle our kids and our school!

Darin and I had a bus curfew so we had to leave early. The last bus leaves Seoul at 10:00 and to ensure we get a spot on that bus we buy tickets when we arrive in Seoul (Dan and Karin missed the last bus once and had to take an $80 cab home!) We said our goodbyes, walked briskly to the subway and made it with 3 minutes to spare. We were still on schedule and quite proud of ourselves! The ride to the terminal was 10 minutes and that was leaving us 20 minutes to get our groceries out of the locker and make it to the bus - all of which should take 5 minutes.

Boy, were we wrong! We were getting off a differnt subway line then before so getting off and turning left did not lead us to our stuff. A little under 10 minutes later we were at the locker frantically grabbing our things so we could make it to the bus, only, where was the bus? I think we took a wrong turn (OK, we did take a wrong turn) and that led us to the complete other side of the subway station. We literally broke into a run, leaping up (and down) thousands of stairs (and no, that is not an exageration!) and all the while trying to read signs that would point us in the right direction. We finally made it with mere seconds to spare and sank into our seats, hearts beating wildly and sweat dripping freely. But, no, this will not discourage us from venturing into this wonderful city again. Our plans will take us back in a short two weeks, and this time the adventure will be overnight.