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Breakfast and tea to kick off my morning! Always greeting, bowing, and smiling at all the cleaning staff/desk attendants/security and door adjusshis I encounter everyday has yielded some good karma. I ran into the cleaning lady who does my floor on my way out to the elevator, and we talked about the rain and where I was going. She's so cute; sometimes I'm still in my room when she comes to clean so we talk a little. She asked if I had an umbrella and upon hearing I didn't, she immediately scurried off to the staff room and gave me her own to borrow! How sweet :) So I managed to stay drier today than I was yesterday haha.
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In the bigger subway stations they have lit up ceiling signs to indicate what the flow of foot traffic should be! Guess there's so many people they have to be efficient with how people are walking so they don't bump into everyone all over. I also tried Angel-In-Us Coffee (another popular chain located everywhere) finally; it was cute as usual, and my vanilla caramel machiatto was delicious!
Raining or not, I am down to my final days in Seoul so I have to make the most of them. I spent this morning scoping out (the ENORMOUS) Seoul Station (seriously, the potential floors you can go up or down to never seem to end) because the Express Airport subway leaves from there. I will need to take a cab from my hotel to this station, check in my baggage here and then ride the express to the airport (~an hour). I am flying Japan Airlines to Tokyo at 1:40pm!
I got off at Myeongdong station to finally explore the shopping district. It was incredible!! It brought back those feelings of amazement and wonder I felt when I had first arrived. Myeongdong was just like I'd imagined it would be from brief glances I'd seen on tv and shows, with tall long streets tiled in gray cobblestones and shops EVERYWHERE. I was so incredulous and happy just wandering around the various streets and drinking in the sights. Even though it was a drizzly gray day, there were hordes of people out. I thought I'd get used to the masses of people everywhere here ALL the time, but nope, I'm still incredulous :)
I dropped into one of the many BBQ places in Myeongdong for lunch, and got a vegetable bulgogi dish. Delicious!! I also spotted a Cat Cafe around the corner, which Jessie had been telling me about. You can bring your cats here! Like physically. I am both a cat and dog lover, but as I'm deathly allergic to dogs this puts a damper on my enthusiasm for things dog-related lol. So I am STOKED about this Cat Cafe, that's such a fun idea. I had heard about them, but have never seen one...and didn't expect one in Korea!
On my drizzly walk back to the station I spotted Namsam Tower again, looking so close (but I know it's so far still haha). I also stopped by one of the many street vendors by Namdaemun Market (which my hotel is basically located within I've discovered, that's why there's so many vendors and shops in front of my hotel). I got what looked like a Green Tea pancake and some sort of mini-roll. I got the pancake and 4 mini-rolls for less than $2. I could happily live off this street vendor food for the rest of my life :) They need these things in college towns! The pancake turned out to be stuffed with seasoned glass noodles and vegetables; AMAZING. The little rolls turned out to be soft buns with red bean paste inside. I'm not a huge fan of red beans, but I know my mom would've loved them :)
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SO MUCH NOMS, there are no words to describe it. I'm contemplating giving up my decided KBBQ lunch tomorrow (to commemorate my last lunch in Korea) to go try and find this curry place again. I probably won't though, since even with me AND Yeji looking for the place we still couldn't find it for awhile hahah. Stick two green tea-loving girls who are hopeless with directions together and you get....well us, wandering lost for like 20 minutes through Hongdae :D I love every minute of it anyway, since it's in Korea!
I had a dinner date with Yeji tonight at her favorite Hongdae curry place! I haven't had curry here in Korea yet, so I was really excited. It was SO yummy! Perfect for a cold, rainy day :) I had a beef curry over rice with pork cutlet and garlic chips. Definitely making a return trip whenever I next make it back to Korea haha.
We had fun wandering around Hongdae looking for some fingerless gloves I wanted and we got dessert at Caffe Bene, another popular Korean coffee place I see everywhere but haven't yet tried. I always have such a good time whenever I go out with Yeji :) I'm so sad tomorrow will be my last day in Korea; I've gotten so used to here that it will be strange to be returning home after all this. First though, I will be off to Japan so the strangeness will only be a little (since Japan is more similar to Korean customs than America at least). The mannerisms and such will be very different though, as well as how I interact with people. And I just learned how to be a Korean...hope I'll be okay x.x