Fun & Catastrophe

Last week was a terrible week. It was so bad that by Tuesday I was desperately wishing it over and done with! The only thing that kept me going was the eagerly anticipated Ladies Weekend.

So what happened on the Ladies Weekend? Girls stuff!! haha

As I'd decided to be a bit cheap, I had to get up at 5.30 to catch my train to Seoul. The trip went by sadly without my gameboy... *sob* but thankfully with both my ipods. (Ok, yes I'm a geek) Then I made my way to Noksapyeong, a subway station that was hiding very conveniently next to Itaewon (the haven in Seoul for foreigners), caught a taxi to the Hyatt Hotel and waited for my friends to meet me. It was really very hot and muggy in Seoul, so I was grateful that the Hyatt had some lovely shadey trees in their entrance.

Kat & Meaghan met me and we strolled back to Cris' palace. That's right palace, it was so big that her couch would not even fit in my apartment, it was so big her fridge had two doors!!, it was so big that she had a Jacuzzi in her ensuite!!! I was extremely jealous but I hate to think how much it cost. We kicked back and chatted for a while until I realised just how much quality shopping time we were wasting kicking back in the apartment. So Kat, Meaghan, Suzy & I made our way to Myeongdong shopping centre of Seoul, where we spent a few hours pushing through the crowds and buying silly and sensible things.

When we'd had enough shopping and realised that there was not enough time for the jimjilbang (hot spa), we headed back for a Kat nap (she did) and to prepare for the nights' entertainment. Suzy insisted on taking photos of all of us, so here is how we looked.

Kat, Meaghan, Squeezy & Suzy (left to right)

We had a fun night out. We ate at the Aussie Shop - which was delicious!! Meaghan took photos of the US soldiers, much to their amusement. Kat forgot about the "I can't believe it's not Coach" shop in Itaewon due to the rain, the time and the rum & cokes she'd been knocking back! We partied at the Wolfhound then changed to the cool Bungalow. Bungalow had an outdoor Jacuzzi (which Kat, Meags & Suzy still wanted to hop in despite the rain - but I wasn't prepared to strip to my knickers just to so I could drink cocktails in a jacuzzi in the rain!) and rooms with sand floors. I'm definitely going back to the Bungalow! Then it was time to shake our groove thang so we changed bars until we found a song we liked. We danced for a while, having lost our other/new friends but we still had Wade's Canuck hat!

That was pretty well it. The next day we put Suzy on the bus to Incheon Airport and it was a sad moment, particularly for Kat (as they are cousins).

So we split up and started heading home, each of us going in such different directions.

I neglected to mention that I had had a phone call from Mike during a waffle stop (you need serious sustenance for girls only shopping!). Sadly it was bad news. While I was shopping and indulging in some girls time, Mike was on Samcheok beach swimming and doing beachy things. Here comes the sad bit, Mike lost his wedding ring on that beach and even with a bunch of friends helping him to look for the ring it just wasn't to be found. Then the beach was bulldozed - sealing this rings fate. Mike called me to tell me about the loss and I felt my stomach drop to my knees. Then I thought it's just a piece of jewellery, it's not the basis of our relationship and it's completely replaceable. Mike sounded so distressed that I just wanted to comfort him, a bit tricky to do when we were so far apart.

So I hatched a cunning plan! After splitting up from the girls, I raced over to Nam San Tower, round and round, a 350m steep climb and up an elevator, down some stairs and I was at the gift shop. The very gift shop from which Mike had bought a couple ring for me. I picked out a ring for Mike - hoping that I was making a good guess at his finger size, and had it stamped with the very appropriate " Susie heart Mike". I had a nice chat to the lady at the gift shop, I think it helped that I was wearing my couple ring and had obviously been there before. She was a bit stunned that I'd come all the way to Nam San Tower just for the couple ring. But the thing was, I didn't know where else I could go and I couldn't afford to take much time on this because I had my train to catch. By noon on Sunday all I could think of was getting home to Mike.

Our couple rings

With my mission accomplished all that remained was to obtain some reading material (damn my forgetting my gameboy!!), some lunch for on the train and to get myself to Cheongyangni station. I picked up Matilda by Roald Dahl and a magazine at Bandi & Luni which had the benefit of being 1 minutes walk from the subway station that I needed. So with a super speedy subway ride to Cheongyangni subway station, I had some time to kill. I checked my ticket and I had the 2.25 to catch. This gave me about 45 minutes to while away, so I wandered around Lotte, testing lipglosses and buying some munchies, before walking up to the train station (above ground).

If only I hadn't missed my train!! Yep, that's not a typo. I had confused my seat number 2 25 with the departure time of 2pm!!! So instead of waiting 2 hours for the next train, I waited less than an hour for a train to get me 2 hours closer to Taebaek and then changed for a bus. This with no credit on my phone too :( The train man in the terminal helped me to change my ticket and I was given a refund of the difference in price! Seeing as it was my mistake I would normally expect to buy a new ticket at full price, so it was nice to have some help sorting it out. I needed to take a moment because I knew I was about to start crying, unfortunately I couldn't use the ladies toilets to have a private sob because they were packed with people and were squatties. So I grabbed a random chair and tried to compose myself. The curious looks from the Ajumas weren't helping. I had to let Mike know, so I emailed him and after a while I located the pay phones and told him what had happened. Yesterday I had wanted to comfort him and here the tables were turned and I needed a little comfort. So he told me not to stress out, my reply was to sob back at him, he said give me a call and I said I had no credit. Disaster!

I hate buses. And bus drivers!!!!

It was supposed to be an express bus but the driver kept detouring into these teeny tiny villages to drop people off. Then when I was finally in the town just before Taebaek - he changes buses and has a 10 minute break!!!! ARG!!!
So I got home at 9pm - 7 bloody hours of waiting and travelling and all my fault.

It all felt like such a catastrophe! Mike losing his wedding ring and me missing my train.
But I must've had some luck because when Mike tried on his new couple ring it fit even better than his wedding ring had! But it was a lot of fun, hanging out with the girls - I'm glad I went. Next time I'm not going to miss my stupid train!!