Tuesday in Seoul

Oh dear...my dogs are a barkin'. My feet hurt so bad right now! We walked forever and then some today. We went to Insa-dong and bought a few things. It is more an an "artsy" type place. Lots to look at. My sunglasses broke just as we were starting to shop. Actually, they got stuck in my hair, so there I was...standing in the middle of the sidewalk, head down, my husband trying to free me from the things. As if I don't stand out like a sore thumb anyway...now I had sunglasses swinging from my head. Great. On the up side, we found this incredible restaurant while there...it was so delicious. I had bulgogi bibimbap and Jason had mandu soup. The mandu are dumplings filled with meat and they were each the size of your fist. The biggest ones I have ever seen. We each had a nice, cold bottle of coke too. We came out of there very full and very happy. All for only $11. That's the cheapest meal we have had so far. Food is expensive here. This morning's breakfast at Starbucks was crazy. We each had a bagel with bacon/egg/cheese and we shared a bottle of juice and it came to just under $14 and neither one of us were extremely satisfied or full. Guess we know what to look for now.

Once we left Insa-dong, we went to Kyobo bookstore. It's a bookstore in the basement level right in the subway and it is HUGE. I have never seen a bookstore this big. We were in there for what felt like forever. Most of the signs were in korean so it took a bit of searching to find what we were looking for. The children's section was crammed (and I mean crammed) with kids. There were a bunch of places to sit as well as a carpeted area and it was covered with children. They are all so cute. I look at those faces and wonder what Ben will look like at ages 5, 6, and 7. All those kids made me really miss my own. We found a few good buys there and loaded up our arms with our packages and headed back to the guesthouse.

We got back here and I was soooo exhausted. I decided to lay down to rest my weary feet and before I knew it, Jason was waking me up because I had fallen asleep for well over an hour. I'm definitely not adjusted to the time change yet. Maybe after tonight as I am so tired I could just fall over. This is the most exercise I have had in the past 2 years put together, I think. You know me...I hate exercising!

After my nap, I could barely open my eyes (mainly because I was certain they were filled with sand) so we decided we better get up and start walking some more. (Apparently, logic has gone out the window here.) We headed out to the Coex Mall. It's an underground mall that stretches out for forever! It's Seoul's Megamall. I couldn't believe how huge it was. We were pretty sure we were lost a few times over. Jason picked where to eat tonight and we sat down at Pizza Hut. I got to give the korean people lots of credit here. They joined pizza with bulgogi and made something incredible. It was so good!! Bulgogi pizza...now that's one I will be trying at home.

On the way back we decided to stop at the E-Mart. We found eggs and bread so that is tomorrow's breakfast. We figured it wasn't necessary to spend $14 again on tomorrow morning's meal, besides we will be busy getting ready to meet Lily!! No time to go hunting for food.

We are to be at the social worker's office at 9:30. We will go over some paperwork and then load into the van to go to Lily's home. I can't wait. I'm excited, nervous, excited, and nervous some more. I hope she likes us and we don't scare her too much. I'm not sure how strong her stranger anxiety is...so we'll see what tomorrow brings. I just want to hug her, kiss her, tell her how long I have been waiting for her, tell her how much I already love her, and how much I have longed for her. But...I know the reality is that this is going to be a very hard thing for her, that she will be leaving her family, the ones she loves, the ones she feels safe with, the ones who are her world right now. No...I can't force or push myself on her. I need to be patient and do it on her timing. THe day will come when I can snuggle into her...and I will be waiting!

Well, off to wrap up the gifts we brought for her family as well as the social worker. I have to write my thank you cards too. We found this amazing, fancy cake at a French bakery so we will give that to LIly's fostermama tomorrow too. It looks so decadent...it ought to be for $16 for the tiny thing. :) heeheee

I won't get to posting pics tonight...but check tomorrow on the blog.