I woke up at 7:45 so that I could meet Stephanie, Maddi, and Sun at 경복궁 (Gyeongbokgung) to tour a palace and take a look at the folk museum. I'll post a few pictures because it's hard to just talk about in a blog post, but it was REALLY awesome and pretty. The palace complex consisted of lots of buildings with cool architecture and really pretty paintings, gardens, ponds, a tower, and lots of nice scenery. There was a gift shop where I grabbed some postcards, and a lot of great photo opportunities. The entire day my camera was reading low battery so I was panicking thinking I wouldn't be able to get all of the pictures I wanted. Another reason I was panicking was because I LOST MY NOTEBOOK WITH ALL OF MY INFORMATION IN IT. I didn't have it for three hours. I found it right outside of the subway station and breathed the biggest sigh of relief of my life. I've never lost anything that important before. It had passwords to my twitter AND my facebook, AND my blog, AND - well, you get the idea, and all of the contact numbers I need in Korea. Oh my gosh. So stressful. So happy I found it.
After 경복궁, we went to 인사동, which is a big shopping area with cheap things for tourists. I got a typical Korean-tourist t-shirt and looked at a lot of pottery, tea, and jewelry. We ate 김밥 (kimbab) at a place near the big shopping area and while we were eating it started raining like CRAZY. We saw Susan in a shop randomly and waited out the rain with her and talked a little.
After all of this I left Maddi, Sun, and Stephanie to go meet Dayoung, Bomi, and Alex near Yonsei. I got lost and eventually made my way all the way to 을지로1가 station (which is about 3 subway stops away from where I was supposed to be and an extra 30 minute walk I didn't have to take) and so needless to say I felt sweaty and gross and had to stop at home before I could go out again.
The three of us had fun hanging out, and eventually I went home. I was mad hungry so I stopped to grab some street food (my first time!!! and one of the few times I'll ever go- it's so greasy, haha). While I was waiting for my corn dog to fry, A GIANT CICADA CAME OUT OF NOWHERE AND ATTACKED ME! It flew straight into my chest and bounced off (it hurt!! he hit me really hard!!) and then flew around the food stall a little bit. My hero, a Korean ahjussi from the food stall next door, came over and just literally grabbed it out of the air by its wings and threw it off into the trees. I was almost crying. Bugs are so scary. I went home after that, finished my food, and passed out.
The next morning I was supposed to be at the 신촌subway station at 11:30 to meet Alecia for my cell phone and to have lunch. ...I, of course, woke up at noon. After yelling a few choice expletives I threw on some clothing and went running out the door. I made it there 45 minutes late and she, being the lovely amazing person she is, was there waiting for me still. Alecia gets a lot of love and a huge hug from me.
We had lunch at 하늘본닭 (Korean-Born Chicken?) which is a chicken stir-fry sort of place (the spices in the air there always make me sneeze up a storm, but it's soooo delicious) and we had the kalbi stir fry. We left and went shopping at the nearby Hyundai department store, and then stopped at Cold Stone and had green tea pat bingsu (I see a trend forming!) for dessert. She treated me for lunch and dessert even though I begged her to at least let me pay for dessert. My stomach wasn't complaining, though! Tee hee.
Anyways, now I'm back at home and chilling out, and will probably grab some snacks later and just figure out what I'm gonna do about my passport and my ARC card and my visa and my banking card and chest x-ray/HepB scan. Phew. Busy world. I have an appointment with the embassy on Monday!!
Talk to y'all later!
<3,
Janet
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