Yesterday around 7am I woke up in Seoul with two mosquito bitten fingers. Not exactly the start I wanted, but that's okay. I then proceeded to lie in bed for nearly 3 hours thinking through all the things I would do over the next 24 hours.
I had to pack, clean, do laundry, terminate my phone contract, do a few homework assignments, go to KLI, eat all the mandu in Korea, and catch a flight to Hong Kong.
Naturally, as my carefully planned adventures go, plans went awry. Packing was much more difficult than I anticipated. I didn't finish until 12:30 am. Granted I took breaks, but even still.
The phone termination was a hassle. Parth and I went with Parth's Korean friend (as in speaks fluent Korean) but we still left very confused about the process. Apparently the phone store got better as the day wore on.
That part of the day then merged into KLI where we got a picture with Monday Wednesday Teacher (that's really what we called her for most of the semester before learning her name)
After a rather brief KLI it was back to packing and laundry until dinner time. The inconvenient thing about not having a phone is that itouch's don't vibrate when you get a message. So I managed to not notice the dinner time messages from Parth, Matt, and Avery. 20 minutes later I clued in, by which point they had already left.
They were heading towards the magical mandu place, one which I had never been to before and therefore couldn't find on my own. So I frantically messages Matt, the only one remaining with a phone. Not a chance was I missing out on magical mandu!
Fortunately Matt responded and they were just around the corner so I ran to catch up with them and we proceeded to get magical mandu. Like legit, this mandu is AMAZING. life changing mandu.
Meanwhile, I was very jittery about my departure. At this point I wasn't nearly done packing, I had laundry running,a and my flight was only 12 hours away.
I had already resolved not to sleep (and it should be noted that I really didn't sleep on the 4 hour plane ride either) since I had to depart at 5am. So after the guys got ice cream waffles and Megan and Christina joined us, I went back to finish packing.
Mostly everything fit and I was done with the process in two more hours. One of my bags happened to be a little overweight, but I ignored that and proceeded to do hw.
At 3am Megan, Christina, Parth, Corina and I went to get another round of mandu from the 24 hour mandu place. Meanwhile, I wad still very jittery, and the girls were tired and a but cranky...poor Parth. It was the perfect ending to the evening.
As soon as we got back I said the last of my goodbyes and checked out of my room (oh yeah, SO many goodbyes yesterday!) then Megan, Christina, and I made the long trek to the subway with all of Christina and my luggage (Megan doesn't leave for another few weeks).
Now granted, the trek isn't really that bad. Not unless you're lugging a 59 lb bag along it. Which we each were. But we made it all the way to the airport on time.
After I managed to have my extra baggage fee waived, Christina, Megan and I hung out on the benches until it was time to go through security.
We said farewell to Megan and, after Christina fought with her laptop to get it in the bag (apparently it gained weight in Korea), we proceeded to my gate. There we had a few final moments together when we discovered the incongruity of her flight home.
The flight times just don't line up! (don't over think this one. Imagine it from a jet lagged perspective)
And that was it. I said goodbye to Christina and got on the airplane.
And so ends my adventure in Korea. V.V
But that's okay, I'm already on my next adventure: a week in Hong Kong with one of my best friend's families!! (a week, you ask? Why yes, I'll be home in a week!)
While I still have some stories to get up here from Asia, I thought I'd take a moment to say: I'm home! It's been just about a year since I left for South Africa, and it has been a truly amazing year. I've made many new friends, had many great adventures, and tried many new foods.
