We’ve hit the day’s doldrums. Clay’s off at work (he teaches at an academy that runs from 4 to 10) and we’re left to our own devices, which at this point means wandering around for about an hour then inevitably coming back to the apartment for naps.

Sleeping 5 in a single room has its disadvantages. To combat this problem we’ve bought a room in the yeogwan across the street. “Love hotels” have sprung up in many highly-populated urban areas to fill the need for separate private places for couples. Many families still live together and young adults don’t necessarily move away, so when they require privacy they simply buy a night at the local love hotel. For our purposes it also fits the bill…it’s cheap and clean.

Earlier when we were more chipper and enterprising, we took the subway to Insidong (sic) which is the big tourist trap area of Seoul. Before we could get into serious shopping/perusing we ate lunch at a traditional Korean spot. We had to do the whole sit-cross-legged-on-the-floor deal which was novel at first but soon grew tiresome and then downright uncomfortable. Clay ordered us a meal that included about 50 different plates and steaming bowls of vegetables and fish. It’s great to experiment and gain an appreciation of a cultural through the medium of food…but there weren’t many truly compelling dishes included in this particular cornucopia. I think we all managed to eat at least a little of everything, but the overall response was unenthusiastic.

Nevertheless we hit the streets with a full head of steam. Insidong has a lot of cool little shops and craft places. I got some things for the fam, Mat got gifts for his schmoopie, then we all grabbed some quince tea and rice snacks at the little tea shop.