Switched up Sunday

Today was a little bit out of the routine that Sunday has become. This morning I didn't go to church at Hannam because soccer was from 4-6.

The plan was to meet Jacob at noon in Sinchon. Well, I looked at the bus times and there were no buses coming. I waited around and then checked the bus again and it said 4 minutes! I quick rushed to make sure I had everything and ran out the door. I figured I wouldn't make it to the bus stop in time, so I ran to the next stop down and made it there before the bus arrived. Then, the bus went so fast! I made it to Sinchon (maybe 2 stops more than I normally would ride) in under 30 minutes! I went to a cafe and waited for Jacob to finish his tutoring. I told him I was in Twosome Place and he said he was there also! He finished and we took the subway to City Hall. From there, we walked to Namdaemun Market.

We were on the hunt for a toy store. Specifically, a toy store that sells Pokemon. My unni (older sister) told me about the cheapest store she knows of and when Jacob caught wind of that, he demanded to know where it was so he too could reap the benefits of this store. Well we wandered and found the store we thought it was, but it was closed on Sunday. I sent my unni a picture of the map and she said she didn't think that was the right location, but it was closed Sundays anyway. Jacob was a bit disappointed because he wanted to go Pokemon browsing. We wandered a little bit more through Namdaemun before deciding it was time for lunch.

Since we were so close to Myeongdong, we both agreed on returning to Panda Express. After we ordered our food, we took it up to the rooftop area of the Lotte Young Plaza (department store). There were two picnic benches and we sat and ate outside. It was cool, but not too bad. After lunch, we split ways-me to soccer in Itaewon and Jacob back to Hongdae to tutor a new client.

I took a bus to Itaewon and it was much faster than I expected. I stopped off at a subway station stop to change clothes. Unfortunately, when I got there, I saw the bathrooms were on the other side of the "pay" area. I asked the worker if I could go to the bathroom and he said yes, so I went through the gate where you don't have to pay. I returned to the bus stop to continue on to soccer, but when I boarded the bus, I didn't get a transfer which bothered me because it was well within the 1 hour transfer time on weekends. The last stretch, from Hangangjin Station to Itaewon took almost more time than the first part of the bus ride-there was a lot of traffic. I got to the stop and walked to the high school and fields. I was early so no one else was there yet, but other kids were using the fields. Finally Stefano arrived and we chatted a bit. Then John and Eirik came with 6 high school boys.

First we asked the kids on the big field if we could play there and they told us to give them 1 hour. So we went to the small field behind the school. There was a group of maybe 4 Korean guys playing around. They hadn't rented the field so we asked if we could all play together. Another group of 4 guys also showed up so we decided we would make 4 teams of 5 and rotate with winners staying on, losers off. Before we started playing, a janitor/groundskeeper from the school came on a little truck and told us we couldn't play if we were a team. He left and the guys decided we'd still try anyway. The first two teams played and then my team came on for about 5 minutes before the guy came back and told us to get off. He shooed us off and locked the field up. We headed back to the big field and made a playing space for ourselves through the middle, sideways, since the kids were still playing, but only shooting on the goals. Our team was our regulars (10) against the Koreans and 3 other foreigner kids (11). We beat them probably 7-1. I think I like playing on a full field better than futsal. After about an hour yet another person from the school came to shoo us off the field saying people can come and practice individually, but not as teams. Though it's never been a problem before and the kids had organized as teams and had been playing there all day. I'm not sure what he said exactly, but one of the older Korean guys kind of talked back to the man and all of our high school boys started clapping so that was kind of funny. As we walked off the field and started changing and stuff, the school guy kept telling us to hurry up and leave.

John and I left together and walked to the bus stop. We got to the bus stop and were waiting when a neighborhood bus pulled up. We saw it said "Itaewon Station" on the side so we hopped on. I was watching the way we were going and I thought it seemed a bit different than the route I was expecting and after a few stops when 1) I didn't recognize anything and 2) didn't hear Itaewon being called as a next stop I said something to John that I thought the bus was going the wrong direction. (I also looked at a map and confirmed it) He said it wasn't a big deal, but wasn't really paying attention because he was on his phone. Anyway, after about 2 more stops, he looked up and said that we should get off and walk to Noksapyeong. So we hopped off and walked through some back streets and got to Noksapyeong. Now, I always thought I walked relatively fast, but walking with John was almost a struggle to keep up! I got off at Daehung Station so I could go to Sogang for church. Jacob was waiting for me outside the station exit. We still had about 45 minutes before mass started, so we went to Tom n Toms. We ordered a Chai Tea Latte to share. Then I realized it had milk in it, but I tried some anyway. We talked a little bit and I got bit by a mosquito. Pesky things won't die! I barely got bit this summer and early fall, but now they're making their appearance!

Finally back to Sogang for mass. They have a projector and screen on the left side of the church now. They put the readings and songs on it. The Mexican priest had mass. The first part of his homily started out a little rugged, but it seemed like he was reading a lot. The final part was much better and he seemed to just be speaking more. He talked about how we are temples and we should try and work on making ourselves better (like how Jesus said if you destroy the temple I will rebuild it in 3 days), not only physically but mentally and spiritually. I liked that.

After mass, we took a bus to Jacob's old neighborhood and went to our favorite kimbap shop. I ordered ddeok mandu soup (rice cake and dumpling soup) and Jacob tried a new menu item, a spicy chicken bowl. One of the sides was kimchi cheon (pancake)-we both loved it! We walked back to the bus stop near his guesthouse and I headed home. Happy to say that I didn't get sick from drinking the Chai Tea Latte. Though I didn't drink all of it (since we shared), but I might try branching out to that a little now.