Weekend Update

Another weekend has come and gone, and this time, instead of lazily linking to a friend's post about it, I'm going to do my own work! NOW YOU ARE STUCK WITH MY WRITING MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Ahem.

This weekend was fairly quiet, as I had approximately one mountain of laundry to do on top of ::shudder:: lesson planning (cue Bernard Hermann score). But on Saturday, I did manage to have a dynamic* day filled with Kim Yuna in Seoul.

It started out auspiciously enough, as I arrived at Nambu Station to meet friends about an hour late. It wasn't entirely my fault, however...I got off the train at the wrong station. But that's because there were two stations named Seoul National University! And they aren't even right next to each other! When you have a subway system as extensive as Seoul's, you're bound to run out of names eventually, I suppose. Anyway. I got there, which is all that matters, and we made our way to the Coex shopping mall to grab some lunch.

And that's where we saw her. Kim Yuna, plastered ALL OVER the walls. This girl is EVERYWHERE, and with good reason! She is amazing! She is all that anyone could ever hope to be and more! She is the very pinnacle of female beauty, talent, grace and awesomeness! And she has like six billion sponsors, all of whom pay her seven

figure contracts! THIS GIRL IS LOADED.

Pictured: Me, being very nearly as awesome as Kim Yuna at the Coex shopping center.

The mall was pretty blaise, insofar as these things can be in South Korea (read: the mall was about fifty million times more intense than a standard American mall). We had lunch, looked around, and then took our leave to Jamsil to find a Teddy Bear Factory or whatever for Alanna. While there, we headed to the Lotte Department Store and let me tell you, THAT is a store. You may think, "oh the Macy's flagship in NYC is better," or "oh the Marshall Fields in Chicago was better," but no. Just...no. NONE of these stores have anything on the unbridled consumerism that is the 12 floors of the Lotte Department Store.

Everything, but everything, can be found here, from the grocery store on the basement floor to the wedding planner on the 10th. It. Was. Heaven. I will be back (they have a Nespresso boutique AND an Apple store), and I will spend way too much money here.

None of these adventures, though, could compare to what was in store for Alanna, Jill, and me. The main goal of our day was now to get to Namsan Park and head to the top of N Seoul Tower, the tallest building in South Korea. And if you know me, you know how

much of a sucker I am for a view.

Working under the impression that we could find this place ourselves in a reasonable amount of time, we followed our guide book to what we thought was the appropriate station, and immediately decided to take the wrong exit. It's not entirely our fault, though, as the sign did

say it was for Seoul City Tower. Which is, apparently, not N Seoul Tower. Two very different buildings.

After ignoring the advice of some less-than-helpful Korean guys, we found the appropriate exit from the Seoul Station (which, btw, has like 14 exits), and after a few minutes of

walking caught a glimpse of the tower. Success! Or rather, not quite success. We were still quite a ways away, so we decided to take a cab. Advice when in Korean cabs: know where you're going, and know how to say it in Korean. We

climbed in the cab, and proceeded to drive RIGHT BY the entrance to Namsan Park and ended up just as far away from the tower as we were when we started, and just as unsure how to get there.

Our initially hopeful sighting of Seoul Tower

Look. I know what you're saying. "Why didn't you just get a map? Or ask someone? Or try again with a different cab? Or give up and find a nice dinner someplace and then maybe go

noraebang? What's wrong with you people???" Yeah well shutup. This is Korea, damnit! It is a dynamic place, and we are going to be dynamic people and go with the dynamic flow and if that means taking seventy billion different forms of transportation to get to Seoul Tower (including a glass Wonka-vator and a cable car), then well that's what we're going to do!

And we did. And it was pretty worth it. By the time we arrived at the top of the tower, it was nighttime, and the city was all lit up. It's a shame that none of my photos of the view really turned

out, but it really was kind of awesome. They put on the windows the names of cities in those directions, and the distances from that point to those cities. Which was cool, but it also really drove the point how far away from home you are.

Best shot of the view I could find.

It was getting late, and we had heard tell of a Thai place in Yongsan, so we decided to head over there for a late dinner before heading back to our little corner of southern Gyeonggi-do. Of course, when we got there, we had to spend about a half an hour trying to find it. And of course, when we did, it was closed. So of course, we headed to a convenience store in the train station for our dinner: Korean doritos and Cass beer. DINNER OF CHAMPIONS, SON.

Yuna would be proud.

Yu-na-it.

*A note on dynamism: Korea's slogan is "Dynamic Korea". Everything in Korea is super dynamic. The sights, the sounds, the smells. Dynamic. When you think of South Korea, you must think of dynamism. It is the law.