First Trip to Seoul

Figuring out the bus from Icheon to Seoul was probably the most frustrating experience I've had so far. It was the most frustrating because I let myself get angry at the language barrier. The Icheon Bus Terminal is completely in Korean. The "English" website for the Terminal is most useless. The English help line was asking for my reservation number and when I said I just needed to buy a ticket, the girl said, "Oh. Sorry." Hang up. The tellers don't speak English and I was counting on friendly Koreans to help me. But as my friend from my program later pointed out, not everyone had the day off and a lot of people were probably heading to work and in a less helpful mood.

But there was this one girl. In her twenties. Pink sweater and looking like she might speak English. I'm like, "Oh yeah, she's the one to save the day." I could not have been any more wrong. She was SO rude. I just wanted to rip that pink sweater to pieces. It was a Scarlet O'Hara moment if I've ever had one. 

One eye-opening fb convo with the previous native English teacher later, I realized that all I needed to do was take any bus to Seoul; then, the subway would take me where I needed to go (duh). I'd been focusing too much on the specifics. So, I bought a ticket and honestly didn't know if I got on the right bus. But I did. And then I hiked up a mountain. It was a fantastic day. Subway love.