Oh man, I have so much to update you on that I don't even know where to begin. Last Sunday Teaven and I went to Seoul since we had to leave from the airport early Monday morning. We took a train from Chungju to Seoul, and then we took a taxi to a motel. The motel he took us to was.... interesting. The room wasn't that bad, but the bathroom was horrible. The toilet didn't work, so it smelled like a port-o-potty. Yuck. lol. Thankfully, we didn't spend much time there because we were so busy exploring Seoul. We took a cable car to the top of Seoul Tower. It was so neat up there. There are millions of "love locks" that people have written on about the people they love and placed them along the rails. Teaven had a specific place in mind for our locks where no one would ever cover them up. Every time he held out the camera for the picture, I had a mini heart attack thinking it could fall down the mountain. When we finished with the locks, we took the elevator to the top of the tower where they have all of these points that show you what you are facing and how far that place is from you.
Then, we went to a place called Itaewon, which is near the military base. We walked around a lot of shops, and many people came up to Teaven and asked if he wanted a custom-made suit. Then we decided we were hungry, and guess what we found! Taco Bell! I knew there was one there, but we hadn't seen it, so I figured we wouldn't be able to find it. For this girl who misses Mexican food, it was delicious. Teaven was not as enthused. We finished there and hailed a taxi. We were attempting to go to a movie theater, but the taxi driver had no idea what we were talking about. He had to pull over and ask these girls on the side of the road. They pointed us in the direction of the I-Park mall, and we appreciate their decision. This mall is HUGE! Each floor was dedicated to something different. Teaven found a video game and was able to successfully get a haircut. We enjoyed walking around the mall, and when we finally got to the floor with the movie theater, they didn't have any new American movies so we called it a night.
The next morning, we woke up super early to catch our flight to Japan. Yes, that's right. I said Japan. I believe I can officially call myself a world traveler now. To say this trip was chaotic would be an understatement. Our ticket said we were going to Fukuoka, Japan, and we thought it was just outside of Osaka, which is where we were supposed to be going. When we arrived at our gate, Teaven decided to look up how far away Fukuoka is from Osaka. To our surprise, Fukuoka is 8 hours away from Osaka, and we had a huge deadline to get our visas, so there would be absolutely no way we'd be able to take a train or anything from Fukuoka to Osaka. Insert freak out mode. I started to call the other teachers to see if they knew what was going on all the while we were walking around the airport trying to find somebody to talk to about getting our flight changed. When I got ahold of one of the foreign teachers, Mina, she told me should would call the boss. The boss had her cell phone turned off. All the later flights to Osaka were full. Insert super panic mode. What were we going to do? We had to be back at school on Wednesday and it took a day to get our visas. Finally, Mina called me and told me she reached the boss. Apparently, the boss purposely booked our flights for Fukuoka because the Korean consulate there is much easier to get to. Phew. Although we were upset that she didn't tell us, we were equally relieved that everything was worked out. So, we get to Fukuoka and talk to someone about how to get to the Korean consulate. They tell us which bus to take, and although there was no English, we successfully got off at the right bus stop. Unfortunately, the little paper the information guy gave us on how to get to the consulate failed to mention where to go after you get off the bus. So we spent the next 30 minutes trying to find someone who spoke English and could point us in the right direction. It's hot. We're sweaty and lost. Finally, we found someone who showed us how to get there, and we even made it 30 minutes early. We went across the street to a convenient store, got some water, and sat in the air conditioning. During our wait, we met another teacher who was doing the same thing as us. It was fun to talk with her. Unlike the adventure of arriving at the Korean consulate, the visa process was painfully easy. Thank, God. All we had to do was drop off our paperwork and pick up our visas the next day.
With that finished, we still had the whole day ahead of us, so we got back on the bus and headed to our hotel. Well, we thought we were headed to our hotel. Unlike American bus systems, Japanese buses do not go in loops, so a little down the road, we notice everyone getting off.
Wait. Are we supposed to get off too? The bus driver motioned at us, and we knew that was our cue to pay our money and get off.
Now, what? We have no idea where we are or how to get to where we need to go, so we walk into a building and notice that we are very close to the Fukuoka Tower. Might as well go to the top since we've got nothing better to do. The tower was nice, but not nearly as cool as Seoul Tower. From the top, we noticed that the beach was very close, so we went there next. We walked along the beach, and then decided to get a taxi to take us to our hotel since apparently we don't know how to use the bus system.
After we checked into the hotel and ate dinner in the restaurant there, we walked to the mall down the street and explored a little more. We were very tired that night, so we picked up some ice cream and watched a movie in our hotel room. The next morning, we woke up early and picked up our visas. The day before we had seen a Hard Rock Cafe across the street from the consulate, and since we'd never been there before, we decided to give it a try. It was very good. Then we headed to the airport and waited for about 6 hours to get on our flight since we were out of money and things to do. Japan is an expensive country, especially compared to Korea. While there, we both realized how thankful we were to be living in Korea.
And when we arrived back in Korea, we felt like we were coming home. You know that feeling you get when you've been on a road trip and you begin seeing things you recognize that tell you you are close to home. That's the feeling we got as we walked through the airport. I remember as a kid, I always knew I was home when we approached the big hill heading from Belton into Killeen. This feeling of relief washes over you and you look forward to sleeping in your own bed with all of the familiar surroundings. I never thought I'd feel that way about Korea so quickly, but I am so thankful I do. I love the little place we can call our home. I love the city we live in. I love the friends we are making and the place we work. Thank, God he knows what he's doing. :)
