Day 1

---

Ahoy there, reader. Yesterday, my first day, was awesome. I asked one of the persons at the front desk how I could get to the closest subway station. It wasnt very hard. The maps of this area make things look a lot farther than they really are. Or maybe it's the layout of things here that make them seem closer and the map is actually accurate. Who knows. But anyhow, it was still really early so I took a stroll around the area to look around and explore the hotel and surrounding area. I got to Chungmuro station and looked around there. This girl who works with the subway helped me get my ticket and told me what I needed to do to get to Gangnam station. And off I went.

Navigating through the station was really intimidating at first, but it doesn't take long to adapt and it actually becomes pretty intuitive. I got to Gangnam station and there were a whole bunch of little shops/stands at the station. Mostly of clothes and cell phones--holy crap were there a lot of places selling cell phones.

So the station has 8 entrances/exits. I was very scared because I that means I had a one-in-eight chance of seeing Jasmine! We agreed to meet at Gangnam station. Oh crap!(recall that I do not have a cell phone and cannot call her) But then I thought about it and realized that she said "exit number 7." When she had first told me that, I just figured that Gangnam is exit 7 on the subway line. It's not! So I went to the surface and still had about an hour to kill. I walked around to explore that little portion of Seoul. Got thirsty and made a search for somewhere American-friendly looking. Walked by a Starbucks and considered it, but then said "NO!" Found this other place--a smoothy place-- and got me a drink there. Then I walked back to the station exit, took a seat, and waited for Jasmine.

The past few weeks, my facebook profile picture has been one of Bruce in a plastic afro. Jasmine and I have been communicating via facebook for the past few days and I was really hoping that she did not think that i look like Bruce. She eventually saw me and we found Jennifer and Eric very quickly. They were there waiting too. Jasmine had arranged to show all 3 of us around together.

So, apparently, Gangnam is a hip place to be for the youngsters--and when she says youngsters, I think she means highschool/college kids. We went to Nolboo Restaurant and ate (how do you say sausage in Korean?) Sausage Jiggae. It was good. Eric got a splatter of the soup on his white shirt. It was orange and I knew it wouldnt come out. Smack dab in the middle of his shirt. Jasmine asked the lady there for PongPong--some soaplike liquid thing-- and the stain just disappeared! It was incredible. Magic, even.

Afterward we went to get cell phones. There are 2 main service providers in Korea: KTF(?) and S...something. I'm using one of Jasmine's old phones. Don't have a charger at the moment. After we set up our phones, we took a subway ride to Samseong and visited Coex mall. Did some souvenir shopping there. Got a few things. After that we subbed to Noksapyeong to meet her friend Jay. He's an actor. We walked around Itaewon. Then tried this pastry from 'Rotiboy.' MAN IT WAS DELICIOUS. Then we ate Thai food for dinner at 'Buddha's Belly.'

Off we went, again, to drop off Jenny and Eric at Jenny's grandparents place. Can't recall where that was, but after that we headed back to Noksapyeong. We went up to see this kittenthat Jay had seen that was up for a free adoption from a store. It was a cute kitty. All the puppies were adorable too. Jay was torn between getting and not getting the kitty. But after about half an hour of staring at it, Jasmine bought it for him for his birthday next month. So we brought the kitty back to his apartment. He was really shy and needed to get familiar with the area.

We went out, the three of us, to grab a drink and decide on a name for little kitty. Sat outside a convenient store and each had a beer. Talked and chilled for a bit. I was upset that I couldn't come up with any good names, but we finally decided on Leo and headed back to his apartment. I didn't finish my drink.

When we got back, Leo wasnt shy anymore! He ran right to us. Gave him a paperball to play with. So cute ^__^ Sat around for awhile and we finally had to go. Jasmine and I taxi'd back to my hotel and she asked the person there about my cancelling my reservation. Daniel's aunt is offering me a her place to stay at. It turns out I have to go through expedia to figure out the cancellation. I emailed them last night but haven't heard back yet. I'm thinking I won't hear back from them until after my stay here is over. -__- Took a shower and ktfo. I was tired.

---