Amy's Adventure to Inje: Back in Seoul...Missing Gimhae

Well, my trip has come full circle...I now find myself back in Seoul and even in the same room at the SWS Guesthouse as when I started almost exactly 4 months ago. All I can say is that the time really flew by and I can hardly believe I'm back where I started. I am really missing my bunk bed and Jenny at Inje right now, believe it or not. I have had such an amazing journey and will be forever thankful for those who touched my life and made my time at Inje so amazing. I know that I have many friends to welcome me whenever I return to Korea.

This morning I was kind of lazy and didn't really work on packing right away. Jenny and I met with my students to go to lunch. We actually went to the same restaurant my taekwondo instructor took us to the week before (wow, it really was just a week ago that happened...my how time flies). After lunch we got smoothies and went back to campus. I worked on packing and squeezing 4 months of my life into a suitcase, duffel and backpack: let me tell you...it was not easy!!!! Bumsik came up to help me carry my very, very heavy suitcase down the 3 flights of stairs and then more the stairs down from English Town. I had other friends and a few students come join to say goodbye...the taxi came a little early so all too soon it was off to the bus station. It was so sad to see all these people I have come to love waving goodbye to me. (The taxi driver must have thought I was crazy because he kept looking at me out of the corner of his eye and kind of laughing and shaking his head at me...) When we got to the bus station, the driver kindly took my suitcase into the station. I found my bus and settled in for the ride.

The journey from the Express Bus Terminal to the guesthouse was quite the trip. Exhausting. I had to move from the bus terminal down to the subway (lifting my suitcase over a few steps to get to the escalator). The subway station there is huge so I had to walk quite some distance to finally get to the tracks. I had one stop and then needed to transfer lines. That was kind of a problem because there was no elevator from line to line. I had to carry my suitcase up about 10 steps...I finally made it to my station back in Gangnam; I remembered where the elevator was so I took that up to the street. The guesthouse is probably about 1/2 a mile or so from the subway station and uphill (I'm not exaggerating!!). As I was struggling with my bags a kind young man came up to me speaking to me in Korean "Where are you going?" He offered to help me and ended up rolling my suitcase all the way to the guesthouse. It was sooo nice and I was so relieved; it definitely would have taken me three or four times as long to make it to the guesthouse otherwise! When I got into the lobby, the cute old desk man smiled huge and gave me a big hug. He helped me upstairs and started the air conditioner right away. I wanted to find some things, so I started going through my suitcase...only to find that my shampoo bottle cap had come off and all the rest of my shampoo had leaked out! It made quite a mess because the liquid made one of my pairs of shoes bleed a little bit. That was a nice mess to clean up. I caught up with Emily and Jenny on chat and I made plans to meet up with some friends from my program tomorrow! There are a bunch of us hanging around Seoul for the next week, so I am glad to know I won't be too lonely here. Jenny will be joining me at the guesthouse on Tuesday! :) I am making myself get to bed early, so goodnight!!

PS There is a full moon outside my window...thinking of you Mom! See you soon!