Seoul and Korea's transit system

Yesterday I took a little excursion into Seoul.

The day already began off a little rough. I had spent the night at Caitlin's house and had woken up earlier than her to run home and put on warmer clothes seeing as yesterday was the coldest day of Korea's current winter.

I rushed to the terminal only to have Caitlin make me miss the express train. No biggie, it's only an extra 10 minutes. We went into Seoul, miscalculated our transfers, were cornered by a creepy, dirty man who kept calling Caitlin beautiful and refused to believe me when I said in Korean that I can't speak Korean, and ended up in a totally different station for our Korean friend to find us.

Not too bad. We're foreigners. It happens when you live in a country where you can't speak the language.

We had a lovely time with our mutual friend Suhyun. We hadn't seen her for about 6 months, since we left the states, and it was great catching up with her. She was the one who had warned us about the cold...and she was 100% correct. It was so cold yesterday! I even dressed for it and it couldn't be helped. I was shivering!

We explored Insadong which, I realized when I saw a restraunt I had eaten at, that I had been there during TaLK orientation which seems excessively distant in my past. We went to an expensive tea house, but it was worth it. Then, headed off to a cute little bar for dinner and soju. :) Oh the joys.

A little norebang later and it was time for us to be off. I had to teach in the morning, so we left with pleanty of time to catch the train back to Chuncheon.

On our way back to Sangbong station, we missed our stop on the green line and had to go back. A pain, but fixable. Then, we arrived, at last, at Sangbong for what would potentially be about an hour and ten minute ride back home.

However, 20 minutes into the ride, the train stopped at a random station and kicked us out. As we desperately cried, "Chuncheon!" their only reply was, "Bus or taxi."

It was 11:30ish by that time. No buses were running...nor do I believe we could have found a bus station in time to catch one if it was. 20 minutes out of Seoul meant that a taxi ride was surely out, so we had but one more option.

Sex motel.

Now, I'm not against the prospect of staying in a motel. It's really not that bad. It's just really embarassing to go up to a bunch of Koreans to ask where a motel is, when we all know what motels are REALLY for, especially in Korea. So, all of these Korean people thought Caitlin and I really just wanted to get it on, cause we were rather persistant in finding a motel...seeing as it was the coldest day of Korea's winter thus far. Our luck was dismal.

In the end, we had to take about a 5,000 won taxi ride at 12:00 to a motel. The motel is thankfully cheap. But you get what you paid for.

I have never been in a more unbearibly hot room. And that, my friends, is why I am writing this blog. Not because I partcularly care about telling you of my destestible fate, but because I've been laying in that same damn, hot bed for hours awake and can't stand to just lie there anymore.

I miss my apartment...and I have to teach children tomorrow. Today is going to bite. So...fucking...much...