Shoulda gone Seoul-o

Okay okay that was a cheesy cheesy title...whatever, start your own blog and show me that you can do better.

The big Seoul weekend was delayed by one night because our boss had planned an employee dinner, which was pretty much just chicken and beer and noribong (singing room), but it was a nice gesture and a fun night out.

We booked bus tickets for 7:40 am into Seoul. Now I have an alarm clock but I haven't used the alarm function on it yet so I wasn't quite sure if it was set being that I don't understand Korean instructions. So my plan of action was to rely on my inner clock to wake me up in time. My inner clock is actually very paranoid so I was up every half hour checking the time. Then the next thing I know it was 6:45 and I was supposed to be meeting Lorne and Mary Ann in half an hour, I jumped outta bed and into the shower in a panic, upon getting out of the shower I looked at the clock again and realized I read it wrong, it was actually 5:45. This was my first indication that the day was not gonna go as planned.

Lorne's purpose of the trip was that he had been called earlier in the week and asked if he would like to make 400 dollars for standing in a department store for two days dressed as a Royal Guard (yes there are pictures), so Mary Ann and I were gonna spend the days wandering around. And after my post last week you think I would have known better than to jump at the chance of a weekend trip with the two of them but I naively believed the weekend would be good.

After about half an hour of walking around Mary Ann started complaining that her feet hurt and she was tired and we should find a hotel for the night so that we could spend the afternoon napping (which of course was my purpose for visiting Seoul, to sleep the afternoon away in a hotel room). So we went in search of a hotel room for the night and I figured that was best cause I could leave her and do my own exploring. The hotel deserves a posting all to itself, so more on that later.

After stopping at a few subway stops and looking at areas we found a decently priced hotel that would suffice for one night. I wandered around the area by myself for awhile and then went back to meet Mary Ann so that we could go meet Lorne and head out for dinner and to meet up with some of Lorne's friend that he had taught with previously.

Mary Ann complained the whole way back to the mall that her feet hurt and it took all my power to suppress my thoughts on her choice of footwear and why her feet hurt. When we met up with Lorne he was equally grumpy and crabby like Mary Ann because he had spent seven hours standing in a very hot guard uniform, that was too small for him and having his picture taken numerous times.

We wound up at a Sizzler for dinner and Mary Ann was grumpy again cause she wanted to eat in some food court. The Sizzler actually wasn't bad and it was at least a little enjoyable. At dinner I told Lorne and Mary Ann I was gonna head back early today because I wanted some time to relax and not just wander around shopping all day, when really I just needed an escape route. Lorne tried to get Mary Ann to say she would leave with me, I guess he was looking for his escape route too. Anyhow we didn't meet up with Lorne's friends cause he was tired. *rolls her eyes*

We did however go to an English book store which was fantastic, there were plenty of foreigners and books and definetly the highlight of my day. Actually the whole area had a big city feel to it and the mall was huge, with an amusement park and everything, and that was great too.

Lorne wanted to see a movie rather than just head back to the hotel, but Mary Ann was tired *rolls her eyes again* so I made a quick decision and told them to go to the hotel and I was heading back to Daejeon rather than getting up and going in the morning. Lorne said he understood and I think he felt bad and at that point I didn't really care I just wanted to get away.

I got back to the bus station and learned that the last bus to Daejeon had left about half an hour before. I was weighing my options of wandering around Seoul for the night or heading back to the hotel when a cabby driver asked me where I was going, I muttered "I was going to Daejeon but I guess now I'm not." (that's right take it out on the cabby), he told me to wait for 2 minutes and he would be back. Two minutes later he appeared with two other people who were also trying to get to Daejeon, he said it would be thirty dollars, which was only ten more than the bus so I jumped at it.

By midnight I was back in my own place and happy to get some sleep.

Honestly the day wasn't all bad, I really really loved Seoul and can't wait to go back and explore some more just with different company next time or by myself. And it was nice to have today to relax and read and hang out before starting the work week again.