The care package from my mom and niece got here today.  All much appreciated, and the cookies and popcorn were still good.

Today was payday, except that we didn't get paid.  Tomorrow, perhaps.  James has to get the parent company in Austrailia to send us some money.

I went to a print shop to get some calling cards made, but apparently they don't do that.  I can always order online, but local would be cheaper and quicker.

The plan today was to take the subway to Seoul and take a bus tour of the city.  My time estimation skills are so good that, with my plan to be there by at least noon, I didn't get there until after 1 o'clock.  I grabbed a quick lunch at KFC (they're everywhere) and found the bus.  There are 30 stops on the tour.  You can come and go as you like and the bus comes every half hour.  I didn't get off at the national palace, so I can't tell you what this scene was all about.  The first stop I got off the bus was at the Korean National Museum.  Sadly, the museums close at 5, so I decided not to go in.  there was still plenty to see outside.

The tower you see on the hill is the Seoul Tower, which you'll get to see up close in a minute.  The netting in the foreground is a golf driving range.  The museum looks like an all-day tour at least, so I'll have to go back earlier in the day.

I was planning to ride the bus on to the tower.  All the seats were taken, and then more people got on and it was really, really crowded.  I was folded in behind a seat, bent sideways from the AC vent, so I got off at Itewan.  This is a "tourism zone," and it was CROWDED. 

I was actually kind of annoyed by the whole scene.  Partly, it was being tired and hemmed in on all sides by people.  Partly, it was this special "tourism zone," with all the traditional Korean trinkets, while down where I live in "real" Korea, real Koreans are snapping up western merchandise left and right.  I didn't cross the street to go in, but I did find . . .

I wandered around until the next bus came so I could go up to the tower.  The mountain climb with our daredevil bus driver was as much excitement as I wanted.  The mountain is cool because there's nothing else much up there, so there are a lot of people just walking around enjoying nature.  I bought a ticket for the observation deck and went down to the staging area to wait.  You go according to your ticket number, so I had to wait, and this area was really full too.  It was annoying, because people were sitting in front of the windows with their backs to the window.  If you're not here to look at the view, then get the heck off the mountain, it's crowded up here!  Outside, I did find a place to get a clear shot of the city:

As you can see, it was a smoggy day.  This is actually the best picture I got from up here.  Little interesting note: you can see all the padlocks.  That must have been the thing to do for a long time, because they're all over the fence.  There's a sign asking people not to put any more on because it's going to fall down.  I finally got to go up the tower, and it was really tall and I didn't know what I was looking at and it was really tall, so I wanted down.  The wait for the down elevator was half an hour.  People everywhere . . . At the bottom, I did get a couple of good shots of the tower from below.  Here's one.

It was getting dark.  I wanted supper.  The historical sites were closed and I wasn't interesting in shopping, so I rode the loop back to the subway station.  There were a couple of interesting looking places on the back end of the bus loop, but I'll have to go back.

It felt good that I planned this little trip all by myself and it worked.  I went to another city and found some interesting stuff and didn't get lost or have any drama.  Thinking back to my first week, when finding Lotte Mart right down the road was a major victory, I guess I've come a long way.

I walked back from school again today.  When I got back to within sight of E Mart, I was hungry and decided to walk over to the corner with all the American restaurants.  So back up the main street, I headed down a side street that dead ended.  The next ran into a little construction site that stretched out for 2 . . . 3 . . . 5 . . ? blocks.  By then, I was tired of walking and jumped on good ol' bus 60.  It goes down to E Mart, makes a right, and stops within a block of my apartment.  I did this from the subway station last week when I had to leave the train a stop earlier than I'd planned.  The. bus headed down the street and took a left at Emart.  A left.  So . . . he's just going to loop around and come back to Emart from the other side.  But he kept going, on the expressway up to the next town.  Great. I'm just on the other side of the loop.  This will take a little longer than I thought, but I had nowhere to be.  I got to see some interesting countryside (sorry, no camera).  I remembered my Walkman and listened to some music while dozing.  A similar thing happened to one of the other teachers.  She got to the end of the bus route and had to get off at the bus terminal and catch a different bus.  I'd probably have to do the same thing.  We were driving around the back streets of some city - the bus is getting empty by now - and the bus driver says that this is the end of the line, everyone has to get off.  Or at least that's a rough translation.  I look around.  This isn't a bus terminal.  This isn't anywhere.  "Jukjeon?" The driver says.  "You idiot.  You want that stop over there."  At least, that's a rough translation.  So there I am, on some obscure street in the outskirts of idontevenknowwhatcityimin Korea.  I forgot my phone this morning, so I'm completely on my own.  There probably isn't an English speaking person within a mile in any direction.  I had thought to go to the bus stop near my house and find out which buses go there.  So when 660 finally rolled in, I double checked with the driver.  "Yes, I go to Suji.  It's an extra 400 won (32 cents, bringing the total to about a $1.14).  I finally did stop at McDonalds for some chicken strips and made it back to the apartment a mere five hours after leaving school this afternoon.

Bible study was good last night.  More like I'd envisioned, with an actual devotion and prayer time and some loosely knit groups of individuals hanging around talking.  I think they're Baptists.  It's called "Life Church."  And all I can surmise from the brochure that Jack gave me is that he's read "The Purpose Driven Church."  "Our approach at Life church is straightforward and simple:  get connected to Christ, get connected to our growing community, and get connected to your calling by discovering God's plan for your life.  At Life Church, we are interested in seeing every believer grow into spiritual maturity, and begin living a life filled with freedom, strength, and purpose."  It's a big long purpose statement that doesn't tell me a darn thing.