Anyway, I think I'm on last Friday now. Classes were the same as usual. Like Thursday, the plan for the day was to go to the National Cemetery. First, Mia and I were to return home to drop off our backpacks so we didn't have to lug around school books all day. Unlike Thursday, we were actually successful with this plan.
In order to eat a quick lunch so we could get out, I bought us kimbap at Yonsei. They weren't really filling, so we found more at 7-11. I'm glad we were still hungry that day because we discovered that 7-11 in Korea sells very legit kimbap. It's got gotchuchang in it and bulkogi. They also use plastic to separate the kim from the bap so that it doesn't get soggy. Genius. It's also relatively cheap. Too bad they don't sell this in the States. Enough of that, though.
We headed out to the cemetery, making a couple of expected stops at various stores in the subway stations along the way. It was a longish trip, but eventually made it out to the cemetery. We also conveniently managed to choose probably what was the second hottest day after Gyeongbokgung since we've been in Seoul to make this trip. It was so hot.
We actually had a pretty intense itinerary planned out for our trip to the National Cemetery, which involved us seeing our great uncle's grave and then going to see the tombs of the presidents buried there and exploring anything else we might have found there. That didn't go as planned really. I blame it on the heat.
The trip to the cemetery was a lot easier last time because Mr. Son drove us around the cemetery to look for the grave. Thus, even though we had problems finding the grave last time, we had an air conditioned car to run to. This wasn't the case this time. We probably should have hired a taxi for the trip. For some reason, we copied down the number incorrectly or something, so we spent a while circling around the cemetery. We eventually found out that we had the wrong number or something and did find the right one. We paid our respects. By the time that this was all over, we were too wiped up to do more climbing and walking to find the presidents' tombs, so we left.
Along the way, we found the tomb of the unknown student soldiers:
Also, Saturday was Korea's Independence Day, so there have been Korean flags all over the city. I think they were doing something special at the cemetery as well because there was a lot of drumming while we were there.
Our next stop for our Friday was to James's favorite place in the world: Namdaemun Market. Ah Namdaemun. It was just as crowded as usual, but we were on a somewhat mission. Umma wanted more of some shirt/skirt thing that she liked. We were also looking for the knockoff LeSportsac pirate knockoff luggage that they had seen somewhere. We found a small toiletry bag, which I got. We also eventually found the stand that had the luggage, but the guy was rude and was going to charge some exorbatant amount of money for it, so we didn't get it.
We next needed to meet Auntie Maureen in Myeong Dong again. This should have been easy, in theory, because Myeong Dong and Namdaemun are relatively close to each other. However, we managed to misinterpret her instructions several times, so we got lost and walked around in circles for a while. Good times. Oh Seoul.
We did eventually make it there and got to experience Myeong Dong on a less-rushed intinerary. It was nice. We made our way to this mandu (potsticker/gyoza) house that's pretty famous. Frommer's recommended it and apparently it's always got a line coming out of it. It was so good.
After dinner, we walked around Myeong Dong for a while, looking at the little stands. James also bought food. I would make fun of him, but he didn't like the mandu and I think he was still hungry.
We left Myeong Dong and made a trip to the Seoul Station to get tickets for our Sunday trip to Gyongju. Apparently, while Umma was trying to buy the tickets, some guy started yelling at her for taking too long. Who does that? That guy, apparently, but how rude, lol.
On the way back to DMC, I thought I would do everyone a favor and take the line that goes directly from Seoul Station to Digital Music City Station. This turned out to be a bad idea. We sat at the station for like ten years. The train also traveled at a snail's speed. I think we could have walked back to DMC from Seoul Station faster. It also left us off like in some weird back area that we hadn't been to. Well, at least we didn't have to transfer right?
That was about it for Friday. The one thing we didn't get to experience that Umma had planned for us were trips to Namsan Tower and Bambpo Bridge.
I end today's entry with an enormous ant. The ants at the cemetery were huge.
Oh, also, Auntie Maureen wanted to get a nice picture with Umma. Because Umma is awkward, in pictures, this took several tries. Here are some highlights:
They eventually got this one:
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