I missed my flight................ trauma...

Yeah, guess what? I missed my flight. It was so traumatic this morning. So my flight is at 10am, which means I supposedly should get there like 2-3 hours before. Ok, no problem. So I checked out of the dorm at 6:30am, gave front desk my key, and dragged my luggages down the ramp to hail a taxi. And then I remembered that I forgot my phone charger.... sigh! So I dragged everything back up the ramp and then went to the front desk to get my key back. Went upstairs and opened the room door. Got my charger and was about to leave, and then I realized - I can't open the door from the inside.

Korean doors are all digital, so you have to open it with a card instead of physical key. We were basically locked in. I don't know the front desk's number so I couldn't call at all.... so I tried calling the number on the key, but no one answered. There's a phone in the room, but it doesn't work. By that time, it was around 7am, and I started to panic a little. I called another program classmate who I knew was still here and she went to front desk to try to get them to open the door for us. They said to try to use the code to open, but that doesn't work either. They tried the master key, which also doesn't work. Finally, they got the maintenance person to drill a hole in the lock to open the door. By that time, it was 8am.

I was seriously panicking by that time. My roommate told me to call the airline to tell them that I will be late, but they said if I don't check in 50 minutes before the flight leaves, it will be $100 no-show fee. I asked if there is a later flight I can change to, and they said it's all full with the exception of business class, which is $400-600 more. I asked when the next flight that is available is, and they said tomorrow at 2:30pm, but only two seats left so I have to decide right away if I want to change flight. They won't charge me extra to change flight (then why did they charge me $300 to change flight when I did it in the US?!?!!?), but I have to decide right away. So yeah, I decided to change flight instead of risking going all the way there, paying the taxi fare, not make the flight, and pay taxi to come back. Yup, and that's why I'm here one more day. And thankfully, my Singaporeans friends let me stay at their place for the night.

My roommate and I moved out of our room as quickly as possible. That lock is basically destroyed and you can't lock it inside or outside the room.

It was such a freak accident... I don't know what else to say. Except that I shouldn't have forgotten my charger.

It rained super hard this morning, which made it harder to get anywhere.... but I decided to go to church anyways. But first, my last breakfast at the dorms.

This is the second time I go to this church. This is the Yeoido Baptist Church (I don't quite remember the name), but it's the one that my classmate goes to.

This was just them practicing in the morning... there was more people when the service started. I was so tired from the trauma and sleeping too little last night that I kept falling asleep during service. Sigh.

They were really nice and invited me to join them for lunch and encouraged me to keep learning Korean. Very nice people :)

After that I just went back to the dorm and dragged my luggage to my friends' apartment. I was dripping with sweat by the time I arrived. It was simply too heavy. Sigh.

Well, what are you gonna do on an extra day in Korea? I guess more sightseeing! So I went to Namdaemun and walked around the traditional market. It's definitely a place for more traditional stuff..... more ajeomma and ajeossi here.

Bought some omija for my friends who let me stay at their place :) I hope it tastes really good!

I was looking for sikhye everywhere, but a lot of shops were closed today... so no good. But! I did find one and it was pretty good :) And while we were at it, I bought a honey hotteok too. It was quite good :)

And then I saw this other hotteok place that has a really long line..... and so I decided to also wait in line to see what the fuss is about.

I think the reason there is so many people in line is that it's really cheap and big. Only 1,000 won per hotteok. Yum! So I got a vegetable hotteok... mmm... yum! The husband takes the order and cooks it while the wife quickly makes the hotteok. She was almost mechanical..... I feel really bad for this couple. They have no smiles on their faces..... just all work. Sigh.

But good hotteok regardless!

And you can see the size difference between this one and the sweet hotteok from the other place...... both are 1,000 won, which definitely makes this one a better deal. 

And then some pictures of Namdaemun gate (finally a close up!)

And one thing that happened at Namdaemun. I saw two American tourists (two white men) asking an older Korean man some questions and I saw that man struggling to answer in English... so I went up to ask if I can help. The tourists were immediately ecstatic that I speak English and was able to help them fluently. So I didn't want to give them the false idea that I was a Korean who speaks fluent English, so I told them I'm actually from America. Now this is the part that gets everyone every. single. time. That I am asian and I shouldn't be speaking English fluently, nor does "I'm from America" mean anything. It's really hard for white Americans to grasp the idea of anyone being American who's not white. Sigh.

But anyways..... so I told them as much as I can about the reason for these gates and etc.... and I was surprised that they really were not prepared for this trip at all :( I guess there are some tourists who don't do a lot of homework before traveling and so they don't quite make the most out of the travel time they have. But to be fair, I probably would have done the same thing if it were not for this program. This program was probably the best travel tour I've been on..... while learning Korean at the same time.

Next, some scenery from Seoullo and on the street.

And inside the Seoul Station... so busy. It's just like the airport..

And the last thing that happened today was meeting up with classmates, eat some katsu (Korean katsu is a little different... the flakey thing on the outside is a lot flakier).

And then taking picture of this chicken thing....

I've seen this thing in webtoon before...

Hahaha.... so funny...... alright, I really hope I make my flight tomorrow.....