A Love Motel, a Little Test, and Some Burgers

We spent our weekend in Seoul, trying to make it to my GRE in time. At the point now that I am wondering why  I'm even taking it, we set out to the concrete jungle at 9 pm with nowhere to stay. I would have been freaking out about our impending homelessness but we were too busy. I didn't know where the exam was being held, we didn't have train tickets, and we had to get through "Speech Day" at the hagwon before we could head out.

We checked homework, graded about 20 spelling/sentence tests each, filled out our weekly reports, completed the speech evaluations and sent in our lesson logs by 8:25, the end of the day. Our kiddos performed admirably - no one cried (well at least during the speeches), no one was sent to the principal, and everyone remembered at least a few words from their pre-written by a Korean teacher who doesn't fully understand the English language.

We quickly squared away the location of the exam (thanks to three or so phone calls made by the director in Korean), bought two one-way train tickets online for 9 pm, and the director told us that there were some benches in Insadong (an outdoor folksy shopping area) that we could sleep on! Great! The head teacher wished me good luck and we ran back to our apartment, fed Gizmo, lectured her about fire safety, grabbed our luggage and headed to the train station. We arrived with 8 minutes to spare and started eating our prepacked dinners of gimbap and cooked apple slices. The train arrived at Cheongnyangni station a little before 11, and with some minor hiccups we made it to Anguk station via subway some time before midnight.

So there we were in Seoul, at 11 pm with nowhere to stay. I looked up a couple of love motels during my 25 minute break at the academy, so we went to Anguk (near the testing site) to check them out. We ended up in Insadong and the two motels I had located online told us to get out as soon as we walked in. Michael was starting to freak out. We both have had two colds in the past few weeks and he is taking a bit longer to heal with this last one. Tired, frustrated and about ready to collapse on the street, he finally gathered the last of his strength to walk to Hotel Tomgi.

We thought this might be a long shot, but as we walked in, we were welcomed as warmly as any other Korean businessman with a Russian prostitute/Korean mistress. The rooms available were on display on the wall in the entryway for us to pick out. We opted to walk to the front desk where margaritas and popcorn were waiting for us if we so chose. The desk woman was very nice and asked us to choose between 70,000 and 90,000. We chose 70,000 and she took our money and handed us a card. We took an elevator up to the 10th floor where we were greeted with dimly-lit hallways and a haze of cigarette smoke. As we opened the door to our room, a maid came running at us with an extra roll of toilet paper - she had just cleaned our room. At 12:30 am, you also might be wondering why our room was just cleaned - our room previously held guests whose checkout time was midnight. You make the call what kinds of people this hotel serves.

After figuring out how to close the door, we checked out the place. For 70,000 won, we were awarded a giant bathtub, a massage shower, a 56 inch flatscreen with a DVD player and a Wii, and a computer with free wifi. The place was a little smoky, but after running the A/C and an air purifier for a few minutes, it was a lot better. It was a shame we didn't get to enjoy much. Unlike most of the guests at Hotel Tomgi, we were just looking for a place to sleep. The sheets were clean, but there was what we called a "stripper light" flashing above the bed that we couldn't figure out how to turn off. The next morning we checked out around 7:30 - apparently the quitting time of partiers since there were two "couples" in the hallway picking out their rooms.

As we walked out of the motel and headed toward the test site, street vendors were cleaning up their carts before heading home and girls still in their sequined tops were making their way into the subway, finally calling it a night. The walk to the test was not difficult. We went through Insadong and along a busy road then finally down a road that led to a palace. Just past the entrance to the palace was a gate to the University. Outside of the gate there were many vendors handing out brochures for their GRE cram schools, giving us folders and pencils on the way in. Duksung Women's University is nice. We walked through a garden-y area and up 5 flights of stairs and we were there.

We arrived around 8 and I was supposed to check into the room by 8:30. Well, the check-in process took quite a while. I got into the room around 8:35 while people were still checking in around 9. After going through the instructions in both choppy English and Korean, we filled out the massive bubble sheet and booklet with signatures, and finally started the test around 9:30. Two hours and twenty minutes later, I had completed all four sections and was finished!

We headed back to Insadong for these:

Hoddeok: Sugar-stuffed fried dough

Around 1 we made it to Itaewon, which is like the designated foreigner section of Seoul. We hit up Kraze Burger with one of Michael's old roommates, Lauren, and her boyfriend, Nic. We had a delicious meal (their tofu burgers are pretty awesome) and hit up the Foreigner Mart before heading back to Chuncheon.

So that's it! I'm still deciding whether the GRE was worth taking. At some point, I will figure out what the heck I am doing, but for now I'll just keep winging it. A deli, Korea, something else will surely pop up.

* I do apologize for the lack of photos, unfortunately my battery charger on my camera has decided to stop working. Eventually, I will get a new one :)