2015년 08월 08일
I woke up early, around 8am, because I had a tour of the Blue House (which I pre-registered for about a month ago) at 11am. The Blue House is basically Korea's version of the White House -- it's where the current president lives and conducts her business. The e-ticket said to meet at the Gyeongbokung East Parking Lot at 10:30am, so I met up with another student who signed up for the tour at the same time and we headed out together a little bit before 10am. It would only take us about 20 minutes to get there by subway, and we figured that they would wait for us a little bit if we got to the parking lot around 10:40am, so it wasn't a big deal...
Right?
We left the Gyeongbokung subway station at 10:20am, giving us 10 minutes to find the parking lot in order to be "on time." I printed out a map of Gyeongbokung and the location of the parking lot prior to our departure, yet it didn't help us at all. It was so unclear and vague with directions. While the directions said one thing, the pictures said another. So, we left the station and found a nearby police officer to assist us. Because the student I was with was only a Level 1A student, it was now my obligation to attempt to use my Korean skills to help us navigate to the designated meeting place.
But, my skills aren't actually "skills" yet...
So, what I managed to churn out for the security guard was: "청와대 '투워' 어디 있어요?" ("Where are the Blue House "tours"). However, because I had no idea how to say "tour" in Korean, I literally just said "투워" (too-weo, a terrible Korean pronunciation of "tour")... I tried.
Anyways, this guy pointed us in a general direction and we started walking. At this point, it was 10:35 and we felt terrible.
We kept walking, and around 10:40am, we found another group of cops (this is the Blue House, remember). I repeated the same question to these officers and they were SO much more helpful. Rather than giving us a vague direction, they specifically pointed out where we had to walk on the map and spoke slowly enough in Korean for me to understand what they were saying! In addition, one of the officers contacted the information center to tell them that two foreigners were on their way and would be a little late for the 11am appointment.
It was about 10:45am at this point and we were tired. It was a very hot day and we'd been walking around all over... finally...
We had to walk around the corner of the palace walls to turn down the final street, where we found one more cop and I asked him yet again in order to confirm that, yes, we were actually headed the right way. It was 10:55am by the time we stumbled upon the information center and, presumably, the parking lot (which we never really did see). Just as we were about to cross the light, a security guard demanded to see my e-ticket, looked at it, and said "closed."
With my limited knowledge of Korean, I couldn't find any way to say, "There was a police officer earlier who contacted the information center and said that we would be late, it's okay! We're allowed to go there!" In reality, it would come out as "아까... 전화했어요... 늦게... 돼요... 괜찮아요!" ("Earlier... did phone call... late...we can... it's okay!") Mind you, that's all relatively informal speech as well... Not too polite, but I wouldn't have thought of honorifics at the time.
So, we gave up.
Instead, we decided to visit Gyeongbokung since the student I went with had never seen it, even though I already had. But, it was nice to see again.
After we walked around for a couple of hours, I ate my final lunch in Korea, 파마산 돈까스 (Parmesan Donkatsu/cutlet). It was delicious, but the portion size was too big.
We took the subway back to Sogang and parted ways. Then, I had about two hours to pack my suitcases before my boyfriend headed to the dorm to take me back to Incheon. But, when he got to Sogang, it was pouring outside. So, we grabbed a snack in the GS25 and tried to wait out the rain - after all, I didn't want to be dragging my luggage through puddles...
In the meantime, I saw a bunch of friends at the GS25 and made sure to say goodbye to them. It was such a sad moment and I definitely wasn't ready to be leaving this country any time soon...
But, it was almost 4pm and we needed to get to Incheon for the night. So, I said my final goodbyes and we rolled the luggage to Daehung station, headed for Incheon.
We dropped the luggage in my room and went out for my final dinner in Korea (it was about 6pm by the time we settled in). While my boyfriend ordered some 김밥 (kimbap, not sushi) to share, he ordered some 우동 (Udon) and donkatsu for himself. I, on the other hand, had some delicious 만두국수 (manduguksu, dumpling soup). It was a relaxing, albeit saddening, last dinner...
After dinner, we went for a walk at a nearby park. We jogged, talked, and looked at a view of Incheon from the bridge crossing the street. It was a very emotional moment. I wanted to soak in as much of Korea as I could before I left, but I couldn't get past the inevitability that I would leave this amazing country and have to come back to the U.S. to finish my studies.
The only silver lining to my thoughts was that maybe I could visit again some day soon...
I woke up early, around 8am, because I had a tour of the Blue House (which I pre-registered for about a month ago) at 11am. The Blue House is basically Korea's version of the White House -- it's where the current president lives and conducts her business. The e-ticket said to meet at the Gyeongbokung East Parking Lot at 10:30am, so I met up with another student who signed up for the tour at the same time and we headed out together a little bit before 10am. It would only take us about 20 minutes to get there by subway, and we figured that they would wait for us a little bit if we got to the parking lot around 10:40am, so it wasn't a big deal...
Right?
We left the Gyeongbokung subway station at 10:20am, giving us 10 minutes to find the parking lot in order to be "on time." I printed out a map of Gyeongbokung and the location of the parking lot prior to our departure, yet it didn't help us at all. It was so unclear and vague with directions. While the directions said one thing, the pictures said another. So, we left the station and found a nearby police officer to assist us. Because the student I was with was only a Level 1A student, it was now my obligation to attempt to use my Korean skills to help us navigate to the designated meeting place.
But, my skills aren't actually "skills" yet...
So, what I managed to churn out for the security guard was: "청와대 '투워' 어디 있어요?" ("Where are the Blue House "tours"). However, because I had no idea how to say "tour" in Korean, I literally just said "투워" (too-weo, a terrible Korean pronunciation of "tour")... I tried.
Anyways, this guy pointed us in a general direction and we started walking. At this point, it was 10:35 and we felt terrible.
We kept walking, and around 10:40am, we found another group of cops (this is the Blue House, remember). I repeated the same question to these officers and they were SO much more helpful. Rather than giving us a vague direction, they specifically pointed out where we had to walk on the map and spoke slowly enough in Korean for me to understand what they were saying! In addition, one of the officers contacted the information center to tell them that two foreigners were on their way and would be a little late for the 11am appointment.
It was about 10:45am at this point and we were tired. It was a very hot day and we'd been walking around all over... finally...
We had to walk around the corner of the palace walls to turn down the final street, where we found one more cop and I asked him yet again in order to confirm that, yes, we were actually headed the right way. It was 10:55am by the time we stumbled upon the information center and, presumably, the parking lot (which we never really did see). Just as we were about to cross the light, a security guard demanded to see my e-ticket, looked at it, and said "closed."
With my limited knowledge of Korean, I couldn't find any way to say, "There was a police officer earlier who contacted the information center and said that we would be late, it's okay! We're allowed to go there!" In reality, it would come out as "아까... 전화했어요... 늦게... 돼요... 괜찮아요!" ("Earlier... did phone call... late...we can... it's okay!") Mind you, that's all relatively informal speech as well... Not too polite, but I wouldn't have thought of honorifics at the time.
So, we gave up.
Instead, we decided to visit Gyeongbokung since the student I went with had never seen it, even though I already had. But, it was nice to see again.
After we walked around for a couple of hours, I ate my final lunch in Korea, 파마산 돈까스 (Parmesan Donkatsu/cutlet). It was delicious, but the portion size was too big.
We took the subway back to Sogang and parted ways. Then, I had about two hours to pack my suitcases before my boyfriend headed to the dorm to take me back to Incheon. But, when he got to Sogang, it was pouring outside. So, we grabbed a snack in the GS25 and tried to wait out the rain - after all, I didn't want to be dragging my luggage through puddles...
In the meantime, I saw a bunch of friends at the GS25 and made sure to say goodbye to them. It was such a sad moment and I definitely wasn't ready to be leaving this country any time soon...
But, it was almost 4pm and we needed to get to Incheon for the night. So, I said my final goodbyes and we rolled the luggage to Daehung station, headed for Incheon.
We dropped the luggage in my room and went out for my final dinner in Korea (it was about 6pm by the time we settled in). While my boyfriend ordered some 김밥 (kimbap, not sushi) to share, he ordered some 우동 (Udon) and donkatsu for himself. I, on the other hand, had some delicious 만두국수 (manduguksu, dumpling soup). It was a relaxing, albeit saddening, last dinner...
After dinner, we went for a walk at a nearby park. We jogged, talked, and looked at a view of Incheon from the bridge crossing the street. It was a very emotional moment. I wanted to soak in as much of Korea as I could before I left, but I couldn't get past the inevitability that I would leave this amazing country and have to come back to the U.S. to finish my studies.
The only silver lining to my thoughts was that maybe I could visit again some day soon...