Sunday in Seoul

Our day started early....4 am to be exact! Jet lag has definitely set in, and it's not fun! So what do people do in a strange city at 4 am? Fantasy football on the internet for Jeff of course! Waking up at 4 means that we were ready to crash by early afternoon, but we forced ourselves to keep moving. We left the hotel by 9, grabbed some breakfast, and began our trek to the Seoul Tower. This "trek" included our attempts to navigate the subway system and make our way to the tower. We got off at the wrong stop, which resulted in a very long walk straight up a hill. It turns out it was the wrong hill we walked up, so we went down and started again. We finally found our way and enjoyed a wonderful view of the city from the top of the tower. After the tower we walked to Namdaemun market for some shopping. Namdaemun is a huge outdoor market that sells everything under the sun-clothes, toys, food, as well as live animals that will soon become food...it's never dull walking up and down the streets in this area! By this time, we were very tired, but knew that we couldn't go back to the hotel or we'd fall asleep, thus prolonging our jet lag. We wanted to explore an area called Insadong and we've both been there before so we didn't think we'd have a problem finding it. We were WRONG! I'm not sure if it was our exhaustion or the fact that we're not able to focus on much of anything right now in anticipation for Monday morning, but we got lost. Actually, we got very lost. Lost for at least 90 minutes in the rain. We must have looked pretty pathetic standing at a busy intersection in the rain, studying our map with bloodshot tired eyes, because someone took pity on us and pointed us in the right direction. By this point, we were both wet, our feet were killing us, we were hungry, and we were getting more tired by the minute. We got lucky though, because we stumbled upon a McDonalds. Now, you're probably wondering why we're eating at McDonalds in Korea with all sorts of exotic foods to sample. Let me tell you though, in Korea, McDonalds is apparently the place to be seen! Decorated with leather chairs, it was filled with men in suits, and women all dressed up. It was kind of strange but the food was familiar and filled us up!

I don't think either of us realized just how difficult it is to navigate Seoul and communicate effectively with no knowledge of the language. Today was a tough day with regards to those issues. It's funny because cashiers seem to assume Jeff should speak Korean and understand what they're saying. When they talk to us, we both just stare with blank faces. They will then usually repeat themselves loudly and slowly. Finally, they will often point to the Korean characters on paper along with obscenely loud volume and equally slow speed ....like that suddenly makes it all clear for us! I want them to know, volume and speed have nothing to do with our inability to speak or understand Korean!

Just a very random and quick FYI for anyone who might be traveling to Seoul in the near future....the 80's are alive and thriving here! Apparently, I didn't get the message to bring my stirrup pants and leggings with me. I swear, all the girls and women are wearing leggings-under shorts, under skirts, under jeans, under a dress....it looks like an old Madonna video!

One last note....for some reason the blog won't let me upload pictures right now :( Cross your fingers that it works tomorrow so you can see our first family picture as a family of three! Pictures or not though, we'll definitely update the blog and let everyone know how our meeting went! We're in shock that in just 13 hours we'll be holding Graham. It's overwhelmingly wonderful and emotional and lots of other indescribable feelings, that our wait to finally become parents is now down to a matter of hours.