Annyeong, Seoul

Oh no. It's my last full day in Seoul. Say it ain't so!

After mailing a couple of postcards at the Seoul Central Post Office (again, only five minutes away from my hotel!), I walked over to Namdaemun Market, another Divisoria if you will. I found myself inside the accessories arcade, but it seemed very early and not all the tinderas were around. Walking further to Seoul Station, I caught the train to go to the World Cup Stadium.

I haven't had breakfast so I went to the mall's foodcourt. I knew how to order at a foodcourt since that's what I did in the AK Mall in Suwon, but since all the restaurant names were in Hangul at this mall, I didn't know which one had my bulgogi dolsot bibimbap. The cashier, who was quite nice and seemed to be familiar with confused tourists, walked me over to my counter and told the cooking ajummas to look after me. HeHe. The ajummas were all smiling at me and seemed to be quite amused. They kept talking to me, but I had no idea what they were saying. For the first round, I figured they asked me where I was from so I said, "Miguk saram." They all smiled and repeated what I said and then they started talking away again like I understood them. Eventually, one of the ajummas spoke up and addressed me directly and I'm like, "Uhh, I don't understand." No, really, ajummas, I don't understand. LoL. But eventually the light bulb turned on, and I eventually got that she was telling me to sit down while they cook my food. Score!

When the food was ready, they hollered from five feet away that my food was ready. Funny, but I was quite appreciative that they were looking out for me because I probably would've just sat there while my food was getting cold. Since my tongue almost fell off from all the spiciness of my last dolsot bibimbap at Insadong, I made sure to sit next to the water dispenser this time around in case I need to chug down lots of water again. HeHe. While finishing up my huge stone pot of rice goodness, a mother and daughter pair sat at a table next to me. As always, the baby was looking at me and I was making funny faces at her to make her laugh. Why do babies love me? Before I left, I said "Annyeong!" to the baby while the mother happily looked on. Ha! I swear, there's hope for my Korean language skills! HaHa!

I went back outside and walked around the World Cup Stadium. I was hoping to see the grass, but all the gates seemed to be locked without anyone around. However, I eventually saw some ajummas cleaning up outside and sure enough, a few more steps further led me to an opened gate. Bingo! I just went in and walked down to the seats. Ahhhhhhh! The location for KimRaeWon's "What Planet Are You From?". Mission completed. HaHa! Actually, a couple of nights back, there was a soccer game between NKorea and SKorea, but I didn't think it would be fun for me to go alone so I decided against it. But this is good enough.

I had to be in Yeouido for an appointment at 1:30 so I took the train to Yeouinaru Station. Before leaving the station, an ajussi asked me if the train was going to Yeouido and I said yes. I kept on thinking, "Out of everyone he saw, how unfortunate of him to pick a tourist to ask this question." HeHe. Good thing I knew the correct answer. He then asked me if I was American and I said yes. Hmm, must be the jeans, sweater, and sneakers ensemble that gave it away. He later told me that his brother was studying at University of Michigan. I wanted to ask him more about the job market here in Seoul, but the language barrier couldn't handle it. When we got out of Yeouinaru, he pointed me to the 63 Building, but I knew there was a free shuttle that I can take so instead of heading over there, I made a detour instead. I bid him goodbye and looked for the shuttle stop.

I couldn't find it. How far is 40 meters? This American doesn't know. And I should've downloaded an Apple app for metrics conversion before I left Seattle! After going up and down the street, I found the shuttle, but it didn't stop when I flagged it down. It turned out that the shuttle stop was further down the street. When I got there, everything was in Korean and if I assumed correctly, the shuttle arrives every hour. If I were to wait for the next one, I'd be late for my appointment, so I started heading over to the National Assembly Building, which I soon realized was quite a walk from where I was.

Since I didn't have internet anymore at my hotel, I didn't have the phone number nor the map of the KBS Building that I was supposed to go to. All I knew was it was the one near the National Assembly. I passed by the very packed Yeouido Park where Cathy was at a couple of days ago, hoping to catch the sakuras in full bloom. The park was full of office workers at their lunch hour...not sure why they were there since I didn't see any restaurants nearby. Eventually, I found the KBS Building. Woot!

Walking inside, it reminded of those couple of times I had to go to the ABS-CBN Building for my pointless interviews at Star Cinema. When I got to the receptionist, it took another fifteen minutes for them to figure out where I was supposed to go since I didn't have the phone number of who I was supposed to see. Eventually, they managed to figure it out and off I went to see Sarah and Chris tape their K-Pop Connection show on KBS World Radio. What friendly people in the English section of KBS World Radio! Free plug! HaHa! I was telling them of my unemployment and how I want to find a job in Seoul, but all of them kept telling me that the easiest route is to be an English teacher since all of them started as such. Aigoo!

So that's how radio shows are made. Cool stuff. And I really love how one's voice comes off really nice on radio waves. I wonder if my squeaky, high-pitched voice can be improved via those mics. HaHa!

After bidding them adieu, I headed over to Yeouinaru Station to do this shuttle thing again. Luckily, it arrived shortly after I got there. Ahh, 63 Building. Unfortunately, there were some people with me at the elevator, so I couldn't raise my fist, look up, and shout "Supermaaaaaan" as the elevator went up. Oh come on, you know you want to try it, too. The view was still quite hazy, but it was a little better than yesterday's Seoul Tower view. As I looked out the windows, I really kept wishing that a job will turn up for me in this crazy, but fun city. All the KBS World Radio folks kept telling me that it's all about connections, similar to how I eventually found a job in Manila. Let's see, there's Cathy...and there's Cathy. HaHa!

I was hoping to go on a Hanggang Cruise and go to Olympic Park, but I'm just way too pooped to walk and I wanted to be back at Myeongdong before the stores closed. Instead, I headed back to catch the train. At my hotel, I asked if Break-Out had a show tonight and it did, but watching it would be another W50,000 and the stores would be closed by the time the show let out. So instead, I just walked around Myeongdong and relished my last moments there. I bought some carmelized sweet potatoes (grub!), but refrained from another hotteok. After awhile, my feet started aching so I headed back to my hotel at 8:30pm, the earliest I've been back in all of my six days in this city.

While doing my laundry on the 10th floor and watching CNN report about Barack being in London to meet the Queen, it finally set in that I'll be leaving tomorrow. *Sniff.