We took the metro railway... the subway, though I feel funny calling it that, since we were above ground for about 90% of the journey. Anyway, the ticket from Cheonan to Seoul was only 3200 won (500 of which was a refundable deposit on the plastic ticket, which you return upon arriving at your desired destination), which is less than $3 American. Public transportation is so cheap, it's almost laughable. The trip was about an hour and a half, mostly because of the constant stopping.
People here are so used to living in such small quarters with one another that the idea of "personal space"is non-existent. You get bumped into, jostled, shoved, and pushed all the time. On the subway, in the station, on the street. My hand was clutching my purse the entire time, holding the top shut with nervous hands, praying no one would attempt to rob me, though none of the locals seem to have the same concern.
The first shopping center we entered was a mass of booths, piled high with everything from dresses and jeans to watches, jewelry, purses, shoes and luggage. Literally everything in the world of fashion, both knock-off and genuine... over six floors of nothing but clothes. Soo-Bin had her eye on dresses, so for a long while we shopped around for clothes for the Soo's. I really didn't mind. I was so taken by all of the clothes, that I was snapping photos and touching clothes, without noticing Soo-Min and her mom deciding on items.
We moved around through the city easily, running over busy cross-walks and hiding under eaves when the rain became too heavy to walk in. We met up with one of their mother's sisters for lunch. I cannot recall the woman's name, but she has an infectious laugh and an overall happy personality, so I like her despite the cultural difference between us.
Soo-Min tells me that after dinner, often Koreans like to have coffee or sweets of some kind, so when our lunch was over, we wove between cars and street vendors to a nice little coffee shop called "Ediya Coffee" and enjoyed a few more minutes of visiting with the aunt. I'm not big on coffee, but I had a delicious mint chocolate chip blended ice drink; well they chatted and sipped their coffee, I was sucking mine down, staring at the graffiti on the walls around our booth, even adding to it with a pen I swiped from the Korean Air flight back in June.
We spent the entire evening shopping; Soo-Min needed some heels for a job she'll be starting on Monday, and that took up a lot of the evening. By the time we were finished, their father, who was in Seoul on business, called and offered to pick us up. It was good to finally sit after so many hours on our feet.
-B
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