24 Hours In...And We Are Feeling Pretty Good





So we made it to Seoul, alive, and with all our luggage intact. Somehow, we also managed to get all 334 lbs of checked luggage up 3 flights of stairs at midnight Korean time (9am MN time) into our newly floored, wall-papered, and slightly furnished apartment. The first lag of our trip to Tokyo was pretty torturous, seeing as the best in flight movie was High School Musical 3. We also had dinner at 3 pm, a sandwich at 8 pm, and breakfast at midnight (MN time). Upon arrival in Tokyo we were hit with some deja vu, as we departed from the EXACT SAME gate we had 7 years ago when we flew home from China. We even got to take the bus out to the tarmac and load the plane by climbing stairs! We were excited to discover our apartment is only a few blocks from the Olympic Stadium! And there was even an ambulance there to greet us as they took someone away on a stretcher! Welcome to Korea girls!



I spent the night on a traditional Korean mat, which is similar to a double-thick comforter. It wasn't as bad as I expected, besides the fact that I don't think Koreans sleep on their sides, as your hips tend to get sore on the hard floor. The bonus to sleeping on the floor is that they are heated! I actually got too warm during the night because Meg turned the heat up since she was on a nice comfy bed and not the warm floor. Honestly, all of you should invest in these...they are amazing!





This morning we got up and started unpacking all of our new stuff. We have the usuals - plates, cups, chopsticks, frying pan, and pot. We also got some pretty cool stuff like a pink electric kettle, a hot plate (no stove or oven), 2 foldable tables with 4 foldable chairs. We have a mini-fridge (think college) and a nice size TV with one channel in English. The Evangelical station. Our biggest problem is the lack of closets and dressers. As in, zero. We spent some time this afternoon searching for inventive, cheap ways to store our year supply of clothing.




We finally ventured out about 1 pm to explore our area and because we hadn't eaten since our sushi snack 7:30 pm the night before. We wandered the streets and back alleyways for awhile trying to get our bearings and find somewhere to eat. We finally just threw our hands up and walked into the first place we saw with pictures of food on the window. The place was packed with Koreans eating their lunches. Half the restaurant was floor seating and half was tables. We got ushered back to a table and were then asked (in Korean) what we would like to eat (or so we think). Our body language of pointing to pictures and shrugging our shoulders was not going over well, so Meg finally pulled out her phrase book and pointed to the phrase "Can you recommend any local favorites?" The guy nodded, held up 2 fingers, and went to the kitchen.




Moments later we got our rice and side dishes (kimchi, bean sprouts, sweet potatoes, raw onion with green pepper, a spicy red sauce, and hot green beans). Then, we were served steaming hot bowls of soup. The soup was AMAZING! It had beef (still on the bone), clear noodles, green onion, and some interesting vegetable in a clear broth. The soup was literally still bubbling when it was put on the table. We started to eat (probably getting a few laughs from the guys sitting next to us) as we imitated the locals as best we could.




After lunch we explored the area some more, finding Lotte department store and passing several other interesting looking shops. Our goal was to find some storage for our apartment (as well as some other necessities like food) and possibly a bed for me. We accomplished none of these on our 2 hour journey until we were about 2 blocks from our apartment when we happened upon a "supermarket" down a flight of stairs. We were able to find some good clothes storage (as you will see later in pictures!) and almost everything else on our list (besides garbage bags, for the life of us, we can't find the government mandated garbage bags). We had quite the haul to carry back to our apartment when all was said and done (and each dropped about w30, 000!)




So here we are, sitting in a Starbucks (don't boo us yet, we didn't want to sell out either but it was the only place with internet. Plus, Meg made it more authentic by getting a green tea frap.) We traveled about 30 minutes by subway to get here, in order to get used to the subway system and see a different area of town (Itaewon). About 20 minutes ago, a guy who speaks English (yea!) asked us to watch his computer while he ran to the bathroom. Seeing as he was probably only the 5th non-Asian we have seen all day, we started talking to him when he came back. Turns out, he is from Uptown, Minneapolis! He is a writer over here and has been here for 13 years. So, it really is a small, small world!




We will add more pictures when we have more time (and better internet) but wanted to give you some idea to our first 24 hours as foreigners!