Maternal Koreanism Part 5: Seoul and Farewell.

We left early to find mom a hotel room. The room we found was cheaper than, cleaner than, and less getting ripped off by taxi drivers than the first hotel in Seoul. It really was a nice place and it made it all the worse that we could have stayed someplace like that the first night if we had just made it a few feet further to the hotel info desk instead of getting caught by the cabbie. So it goes.

From the hotel, we went right into Seoul proper. I wanted to go to Itaewon, the foreigner section of Seoul, because they have good Indian restaurants, something very hard to find in Korea. The food was, in fact, great.

We toured around Itaewon a bit, but I wanted to get out of there. It's boring, like being in a Korean version of Fort Wayne but with more Koreans and more military guys. Really, it's weird for me to be in an area where everyone speaks English.

Anyway, from Itaewon, we headed to a Korean Palace. It was nice, but unfortunately it was mostly closed off for repairs or something. I didn't totally understand.

We left the Palace and headed across the street. This was harder than it sounded because there were no clear crosswalks. We made it, though, and checked out a nice photography exhibit at a museum nearby. Great stuff, really.

From there, we stumbled into another bookstore. Just as nice as the first one with at least as good a selection of English books. Now I know where to get me some books, that's for sure.

Unfortunately, mom ended her trip with me by doing the most boring thing I'm sure she could think of: checking out prices on laptop computers. But I had to make use of my Seoul trip, and I knew I'd be back in a month to by a laptop, so I needed to price them and see what I could get.

From there we parted ways: I threw mom on a bus, and headed off to find a train back to my apartment. I missed her as soon as I walked away. It was weird to be sitting at home, going to sleep, and getting ready for school the next day knowing my mom was just a few hours away in Seoul. I wished I could've seen her off, but it was hard enough getting one day off school. They never would have gone for two. These things happen.

Well, mom, thanks for coming to see me. I really appreciated it, and I liked sharing what I've learned with someone else first hand. I hope you enjoyed the visit as much as I did.

Other folks, look forward to mom's version of the story, as she's agreed to guest-post the story of HER trip.

R