I don't know about anyone else, but I have discovered that when you look forward to something for a long time, say for three months or so, and that thing finally comes around, it doesn't quite feel real. I have felt the sensation a number of times, and it keeps striking me that something must go wrong. This thing that I have been pinning all of my hopes on cannot actually be happening. Well, I haven't been pinning my hopes on my visitor, but I have definitely been waiting with anticipation for a long time!
I could hardly sleep on Friday night. My brain was just buzzing with the excitement of having Grant come and stay with me for a whole month! Well..,. the excitement was only part of why I couldn't sleep. As I lay in my rather uncomfortable bed I couldn't stop the thoughts from popping into my head. I was so sure that something would go wrong! Everytime I closed my eyes I saw a different catastrophe popping up like a headline in my mind:
MAN MISSES HIS FLIGHT TO KOREA - Girlfriend left waiting at the airport in vain.
WOMAN MISSES HER BUS TO THE AIRPORT - Boyfriend left lost and unattended.
TERRIBLE BUS CRASH ON THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT - 22 year old survivor has only managed to say three words: "Grant. Gordon. Airport."
These thoughts were, of course, not condusive to sleeping very soundly, and so I woke up nice and early on Saturday morning and puttered around the house abit - last minute tidying and such things - before bouncing out of the door and finding myself a taxi to the bus terminal and a bus to the airport (which is ridiculously expensive at 18,000 won).
I got to the airport in record time and was then sitting around.
Waiting.
For hours.
I had heard that the bus to the airport took between three and four hours. I made it to the airport in just over two and was left with nothing to do while I waited for the flight to arrive. There was a bookstore to browse, but they only had about three shelves of English books. There were restaurants, but I had already grabbed a snack at the bus terminal on my way out of Cheongju. There were makeup stores, but I was stocked up already. And so I sat and read my book and listened to my music and looked up every five minutes or so to check the time. When the flight landed, I made my way to the exit, trying to contain my excitement. An hour and ten minutes later, after more terrifying thoughts had crossed my mind (what if he DID need a visa and now they aren't going to let him into the country and no one will tell me; what if the medicine he is bringing me is illegal and they have arrested him and he is in a cell somewhere calling out my name; did that person being carried out on a stretcher just call my name?!) he emerged no worse for the wear, and I got to hug my boyfriend after 8 months of being apart!
Our embrace did not last long though as a taxi-driver interupted us with questions of where we were going and how we wanted to get there. Grant's bag was bigger than I remembered, and I realised that my plan of using the subway was not going to work so well. Incheon airport wasn't that far from the hotel that we were going to stay at. It would be a 30,000 won taxi at most, not much shared between the two of us. We would get there quicker and more comfortably. The expense would be worth it.
Take us to our hotel, oh wise taxi driver!!
Only it wasn't a 30,000 won taxi drive. It wasn't even 50,000. No, it was 150,000! I sat in the back of the cab watching the meter going up by 200 won every minute and started panicking. We weren't even close to there yet! I hadn't planned on spending nearly that much and my cash supply was looking very low as we made our way into the hotel, Grant's bag being dragged behind us and me mumbling to myself about never trusting taxi-drivers again.
Grant's first weekend had to be spent in Seoul, or so I decided. And so on the first night, we tentatively made our way around Gangnam trying to find a restaurant to eat at. I am no expert on Korean cuisine, but I wanted Grant to have a Korean meal and I wanted it to be a good one. Yet none of the restaurants that we passed seemed good enough!
Samgyeopsal?
Neh... galbi and kalmegi are so much better!
This restaurant?
Nope... I don't know what they sell.
Here?
Don't feel like it.
Eventually we made our way into a Japanese restaurant - the best option we had come across so far - and had a mediocre, non-Korean, rather expensive meal. After dinner we walked around and took in the various sights and sounds of Gangnam, coming across numerous galbi and kalmegi places on our path, before heading back to the hotel for an early night's sleep.
What was in store for Grant on his second day of being in Korea?
Korean culture?
Neh.
Korean food?
Not likely.
Instead we headed to Itaewon, where I attacked the English bookstore with a vengeance (though Grant took a stab at it as well) before heading to try and find a pub that would be showing the Formula One that night. After wandering around Itaewon for a couple of hours we headed to the next best thing, Yongsan Electronics Mart, where the streets and pubs were replaced with aisles of cameras and laptops and other gadgets. Why had we come here, I can almost hear you asking.
Over the last few years I have developed a fondness for photography, and have always planned to buy a decent DSLR camera before the end of my sojourn here. Grant, on the other hand, has recently taken to astronomy and would like to do some astral photography. Where better to look for a decent camera than Yongsan, where bargaining is welcomed and encouraged and everything is so much cheaper! Grant knew exactly what he wanted, and after doing some pricing and looking around we settled on a Canon EOS 550D along with a 28-80mm lens and a 4gig memory card for a bargain price of 1,150,000 won (about R7100 where the camera alone would have cost about R9000 in South Africa). Even though we were sharing the cost of the camera and I knew it was a bargain, thinking about the money that I had spent made me cringe in horror, and so Grant decided that drinks were needed. We made our way back to Itaewon and settled into one of the pubs for drinks and dinner and some Grand Prix watching.
And so ended our Seoul trip. We headed back to Cheongju early Monday afternoon and the rest of this week has been spent introducing Grant to all of my friends, showing him a couple of the sites of Cheongju (like Chungdae Jungmun and Home Plus) and just basking in the glory of having my boyfriend with me for a whole month! This weekend will be spent at the Lotus Festival in Muan in Jeollanam-do, where I will get a chance to take the new camera for a test drive. As you can imagine, I am looking forward to this immensely, but more than anything, I am just looking forward to travelling with my baby for 3 more weeks! Yay! You can expect to see more about our Korean adventures here over the next few weeks. Just don't expect me to post too often. I am with my boyfriend after all :)
I could hardly sleep on Friday night. My brain was just buzzing with the excitement of having Grant come and stay with me for a whole month! Well..,. the excitement was only part of why I couldn't sleep. As I lay in my rather uncomfortable bed I couldn't stop the thoughts from popping into my head. I was so sure that something would go wrong! Everytime I closed my eyes I saw a different catastrophe popping up like a headline in my mind:
MAN MISSES HIS FLIGHT TO KOREA - Girlfriend left waiting at the airport in vain.
WOMAN MISSES HER BUS TO THE AIRPORT - Boyfriend left lost and unattended.
TERRIBLE BUS CRASH ON THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT - 22 year old survivor has only managed to say three words: "Grant. Gordon. Airport."
These thoughts were, of course, not condusive to sleeping very soundly, and so I woke up nice and early on Saturday morning and puttered around the house abit - last minute tidying and such things - before bouncing out of the door and finding myself a taxi to the bus terminal and a bus to the airport (which is ridiculously expensive at 18,000 won).
I got to the airport in record time and was then sitting around.
Waiting.
For hours.
I had heard that the bus to the airport took between three and four hours. I made it to the airport in just over two and was left with nothing to do while I waited for the flight to arrive. There was a bookstore to browse, but they only had about three shelves of English books. There were restaurants, but I had already grabbed a snack at the bus terminal on my way out of Cheongju. There were makeup stores, but I was stocked up already. And so I sat and read my book and listened to my music and looked up every five minutes or so to check the time. When the flight landed, I made my way to the exit, trying to contain my excitement. An hour and ten minutes later, after more terrifying thoughts had crossed my mind (what if he DID need a visa and now they aren't going to let him into the country and no one will tell me; what if the medicine he is bringing me is illegal and they have arrested him and he is in a cell somewhere calling out my name; did that person being carried out on a stretcher just call my name?!) he emerged no worse for the wear, and I got to hug my boyfriend after 8 months of being apart!
Our embrace did not last long though as a taxi-driver interupted us with questions of where we were going and how we wanted to get there. Grant's bag was bigger than I remembered, and I realised that my plan of using the subway was not going to work so well. Incheon airport wasn't that far from the hotel that we were going to stay at. It would be a 30,000 won taxi at most, not much shared between the two of us. We would get there quicker and more comfortably. The expense would be worth it.
Take us to our hotel, oh wise taxi driver!!
Only it wasn't a 30,000 won taxi drive. It wasn't even 50,000. No, it was 150,000! I sat in the back of the cab watching the meter going up by 200 won every minute and started panicking. We weren't even close to there yet! I hadn't planned on spending nearly that much and my cash supply was looking very low as we made our way into the hotel, Grant's bag being dragged behind us and me mumbling to myself about never trusting taxi-drivers again.
Grant's first weekend had to be spent in Seoul, or so I decided. And so on the first night, we tentatively made our way around Gangnam trying to find a restaurant to eat at. I am no expert on Korean cuisine, but I wanted Grant to have a Korean meal and I wanted it to be a good one. Yet none of the restaurants that we passed seemed good enough!
Samgyeopsal?
Neh... galbi and kalmegi are so much better!
This restaurant?
Nope... I don't know what they sell.
Here?
Don't feel like it.
Eventually we made our way into a Japanese restaurant - the best option we had come across so far - and had a mediocre, non-Korean, rather expensive meal. After dinner we walked around and took in the various sights and sounds of Gangnam, coming across numerous galbi and kalmegi places on our path, before heading back to the hotel for an early night's sleep.
What was in store for Grant on his second day of being in Korea?
Korean culture?
Neh.
Korean food?
Not likely.
Instead we headed to Itaewon, where I attacked the English bookstore with a vengeance (though Grant took a stab at it as well) before heading to try and find a pub that would be showing the Formula One that night. After wandering around Itaewon for a couple of hours we headed to the next best thing, Yongsan Electronics Mart, where the streets and pubs were replaced with aisles of cameras and laptops and other gadgets. Why had we come here, I can almost hear you asking.
Over the last few years I have developed a fondness for photography, and have always planned to buy a decent DSLR camera before the end of my sojourn here. Grant, on the other hand, has recently taken to astronomy and would like to do some astral photography. Where better to look for a decent camera than Yongsan, where bargaining is welcomed and encouraged and everything is so much cheaper! Grant knew exactly what he wanted, and after doing some pricing and looking around we settled on a Canon EOS 550D along with a 28-80mm lens and a 4gig memory card for a bargain price of 1,150,000 won (about R7100 where the camera alone would have cost about R9000 in South Africa). Even though we were sharing the cost of the camera and I knew it was a bargain, thinking about the money that I had spent made me cringe in horror, and so Grant decided that drinks were needed. We made our way back to Itaewon and settled into one of the pubs for drinks and dinner and some Grand Prix watching.
And so ended our Seoul trip. We headed back to Cheongju early Monday afternoon and the rest of this week has been spent introducing Grant to all of my friends, showing him a couple of the sites of Cheongju (like Chungdae Jungmun and Home Plus) and just basking in the glory of having my boyfriend with me for a whole month! This weekend will be spent at the Lotus Festival in Muan in Jeollanam-do, where I will get a chance to take the new camera for a test drive. As you can imagine, I am looking forward to this immensely, but more than anything, I am just looking forward to travelling with my baby for 3 more weeks! Yay! You can expect to see more about our Korean adventures here over the next few weeks. Just don't expect me to post too often. I am with my boyfriend after all :)
I just bought the same camera as you about 8 hours before meeting your boyfriend in Dubai!