................Taking Flight...............: LAZY day

What a sloth I was today! I basically stayed in bed allll morning and part of the afternoon. But, in my defense, I was busy uploading pictures and updating my blog. All very important and relatively time consuming tasks! I also skyped with Joe which was really nice. We talked a long time.

When I finally decided I would make myself presentable for the world, I went to Emart. I was still in search of a decent pillow. The one my school has provided me with is a bit too thick and not very soft. I saw a down one at Emart last week for a decent price but thought I would ponder a bit; when I returned a few days later--it was gone. So it was back to square one and time to wait a little bit longer. This time there were 2 pillows I tested, and the one I thought I wanted was actually too soft and no support, so I think I picked the right one.

I then took the bus into downtown Seoul. A few days ago when I went to Mc Donalds for an ice cream cone I saw the menu and for some reason it stuck with me and I really wanted this spicy chicken sandwich...which, if you know me is so strange because I never eat Mc Donalds at home. So, I set off on the bus and thought I would be smart while I was reading the stops and would get off at the stop called "City Hall Front". Well, it actually took me a bit further than City Hall so getting off at the previous stop would have been better. I ordered my food and took it to...yup, Cheonggyecheon. There were a lot of little festivals/concerts going on along Cheonggyecheon (street level, not stream level) which is pretty common, especially in the summer and early fall I think. I sat for awhile taking everything all in. Then I went to Gwanghwamun Plaza, just down the street because there was some kind of event going on there as well. It was actually kind of like an art exhibit/information about the Korean miners and nurses that went to Germany to work and get money starting in the 60's because Korea's economy was so poor. It was pretty interesting-I couldn't read much of the information, but there were a lot of pictures and paintings to get a general feel for the situation as well.

I walked towards City Hall again to get the subway and I passed the farmers market thing that I saw a few days ago. There was another kind of concert going on here. I stopped to see what it was. The announcer said that some b-boy's (break-dancing) were coming up next. I stayed and watched their performance. The most interesting thing to me is that b-boy genre seems like it's more for young people, but the vast majority of the audience were 40+ and they were all clapping their hands along with the beat and watching intently.

When the performance was over I went underground, but actually it was the basement level of the new City Hall (which is connected to the subway on the other side). In the basement, they have a museum with artifacts they found while digging to build the new City Hall, information about the "green" building, a nice sitting area and a few other things in this big space. I went to see some stuff about the building.

I took the subway to Hongdae to meet my friend Krystle and her friends. I arrived early so I walked around a little bit and window shopped. At the meeting time I went to go wait at the entrance of the subway. I was watching the people come out and I saw someone that looked like my friend Min Kyung's husband. I've never actually met him, but I've seen plenty of pictures of him. I was going to ask if he WAS Chris...but I was too scared and didn't say anything, but sent MK a message asking if she knew where her husband was, haha. She said he was meeting a friend somewhere, but wasn't sure where. Shortly after, Krystle came out and we met up with her friends, who were waiting near the entrance as well. Turns out I met one of the other girls at my workshop day! Small world. (Especially when we're all moving through similar circles). Krystle is a vegetarian so we had to find a place to accommodate her dietary needs; I personally wasn't too hungry after eating a late lunch so I didn't mind where we went. They picked an Indian restaurant. I just ordered naan, which is a type of flatbread. It was gigantic and not too bad.

After dinner, we went to "Hongdae Park" and sat outside waiting for some of their other friends to join. There are a lot of interesting characters in Hongdae. We had a French guy come up and introduce himself to us; he's like a social director in the park-he knows everyone there. I decided I would call it an early night and skipped out to catch the subway home.