Day 1: We got some sleep, but woke up pretty early because of jet lag. My first meal is pictured on the top left, it's called kook bap, which translates to soup rice! Side dishes are bomb. After we ate, I went to a convenience store (I think GS 25, which is everywhere) and purchased a T-Money Card. The T-Money Card is used to pay for the transportation in Korea such as the bus and the subway. How it works: You scan it once when you're getting onto the bus or to the subway and scan it when you get off the bus or out of the subway station. There are a number of subway lines, so you can transfer without paying until you reach a certain distance, then you will get charged. Same for the bus transfers. Then it was check in time for our serviced apartments, DMC Ville. We still had all our luggage, so the only plausible way would be to take a taxi. Luckily my friend helped us through this...our luggage was sticking halfway out of the taxi's trunk and they don't normally take that much luggage. We settled in for a bit and checked out our amenities. DMC Ville is only for foreigners, so they have great services such as breakfast served Monday - Friday at the residents' lounge from 7-9am, shuttles that run to the universities and shopping places and on Saturday to Costco/HomePlus, a gym, a swimming pool, a squash court, sauna, and weekly cleaning services. My friend helped us learn how to ride the bus and we were able to get to Yonsei University which is located in Sinchon where we did some shopping and pigging out. Getting back home was a bit harder, but Amy has a great sense of direction so we found home after wondering for a few minutes.
Day 2: Still jet lagged, we both got up around 6 am. We were pretty hungry, so we walked around our living area and found that most places don't open until 8 am. We finally got some yummy baked goods! I was on the hunt for adapters because the outlets here are different from the U.S. We asked the front desk person for directions to a store that would have these as well as home supplies such as toilet paper and detergent. He told us about the shuttle service and we were able to catch that to HomePlus since we didn't have a Costco membership. LESSON: Bring large tote bag(s) to carry groceries. We stocked up on toilet paper and water and bought some food to prepare for dinner. It was slightly challenging to carry everything back on the shuttle and home but mission accomplished. Then we went to the gym for a bit since we had time to kill. After we had a quick bite we went to bus stop to catch a bus to Sinsha to meet my friend. We had our first encounter with the subway station as we walked through to get to the other side, it was so big! After we shopped for a bit, my friend explained how to get back by subway and then transfer to the bus. The system is very efficient and the english translations helped. Already feeling accomplished, we got home and decided to cook up dinner (first time). As pictured below, this is the meal we prepared. What you don't see is the curry that we tried to make and ended up being scrapped. Anyways, ready for more challenges!