Hilary Meets the Land of the Morning Calm

Back in January 2005, I was a freshman at Bishop's University in Québec. I signed up for a double dorm room, and shared it with a girl named Saeko Ochiai, from Tokyo. She quickly became one of my best friends, becoming very much like an older sister for me. I had to say goodbye to her when she left Canada a year later, but we kept in pretty good contact with skype. As I planned for what to do after school, Saeko was a big supporter of my application for JET in Japan, and later, teaching in Korea. When I told her I had secured a job and would be a mere 3 hour's flight from her, she immediately made plans to come visit me.


So Sunday the 19th I made my way back to my airport of arrival, Incheon airport to go find my very first roommate. True to form, I was waiting at the wrong gate, so unfortunately I didn't get a shot of her walking out into the arrival area. (The yellow is what I thought was her flight, and the red was her actual flight. Yup, totally standing at the wrong gate!)


But the important thing is, we found each other and proceeded to have an awesome week together. Here it begins, on the subway back into the city.



The first thing on the agenda: drop off bags at the apartment, go do some minor grocery shopping. (I have been really enjoying my grocery runs for the high surprise factor: is this label any true indication that its what I'm looking for? Only one way to find out!)
And on the way home we stopped to have some bibimbap from a place across the street from my apartment.

Unfortunately I had to work all week, so Saeko was on her own exploring the city while I was doing my teacher thing. We still managed to go out a few nights. One night a coworker of hers (a translator counterpart who works for her company here in Seoul) and a coworker of mine from school went out and to a nice bulgogi restaurant, called Bulgogi Brothers, in Mokdong.

At said restaurant, I had my first encounter with a high-tech bidet (only at the time I had no idea what the contraption was), whose control panel made me think of the Captain Kirk's ship control panel on his captain's chair. I then proceeded to learn not press buttons when you don't know what they do. I think this time the lesson will stick...