So I gave them as much information about my purse as I could (information I learned to relay in one of my classes in Japan). What it looked like, what was in it, where I left it, what line I was on, etc. But they couldn't find my purse. I didn't know my phone number as it was written on a piece of paper in my purse, nor my address which was again in my purse, for them to send it to me if they found it. Needless to say we are all at a loss as to what to do. I am trying not to have a panic attack and after an hour in the train station I was getting out my passport ID number card (in case I lost my passport and needed to go to an embassy to get a new one) that was in my wallet, which was thankfully in my back pocket due to the fact that my train pass was in the wallet and I needed easy access to it. That saved me, because I found also in my wallet a business card that my boss had given me and the train police were able to call my boss.
Luck must have favored me because my boss had just gotten a call from my phone from the Korean girl who had picked up my purse. She was in Gangnam, which was only one stop away from where I was in the train station. My boss called her back, and told her to meet me at exit 11 in Gangnam, so I could get my purse and passport back. Needless to say I thanked the train police and went running ... caught the next train to Gangnam (banged my hand in the process as I was a bit in a hurry) and hurried to find exit 11 once I got there. I arrived first, and waited a few minutes for the lady to show up with my purse. Thankfully, being a foriegner, I was easy to spot and my purse was returned to me, without any contents missing. I thanked the nice Korean girl profusely, and probably would have stayed longer to chat as she spoke English, but as I was running an hour late, I needed to hurry to meet Nathaniel. I made sure to call my boss and let her know I had my purse and everything back safely, though it took me a while that night to calm down.
But I arrived safely to my destination, and a point of pride, I didn't get lost once, despite having to take a detour to Gangnam to retrieve my missing purse. Those of you who know me, know that I had little to no sense of direction, so I was pretty proud of myself, travelling two hours away without getting lost. Thankfully I have experience with train systems from Japan, and that really helped me out. And all the stations have the names both in Korean and English, so I had no issues finding where I needed to be. Anyway, I have never done that before, and had avoided losing anything on the Japanese trains, only to do it here where I don't speak the language. I lucked out that the people working that day understood English. Either way, I got extremely lucky and learned my lesson to be extra careful to make sure I have everything when I get off the train as I could lose some valuable things such as my passport (since I haven't gotten my alien registration card yet). And that is how my Chuseok holiday began.
So Friday night I pretty much crashed, tired both physically and emotionally from my adventure. We relaxed and took some walks exploring the area, especially on Sunday. Nathaniel almost stepped on a snake. I pulled him back but I only noticed it because I was watching the people walking towards us and they suddenly stopped and looked down. So we all waited for the snake to slither his way back into the tall grass before continuing our walk. I didn't have my camera so all of my pictures of the walk are from Nathaniel. There is a lot of free to use exercise equipment along the river path, and that was interesting to see. We also saw a crane with a baby flying and swimming around, a bunch of ducks and geese too. There were lots of people out and about because the day was so nice, and it was a holiday. A few children were in their Hakbuk, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. You can definately tell though that women and men don't interact as much in groups as they do in America, as they were very much seperated when we saw them sitting playing games. But that's just one of the cultural differences between Korea and the United States. Here are some pictures that I stole from Nathaniel.
That weekend, Nathaniel also made an interesting desert with a Japanese pumpkin (small squash). I think it was called Monjoo, but I don't remember. Was pretty good and had lots of cinnimon in it. Monday was a fairly relaxing day, though we did have an interesting, but frustrating incounter with Nathaniel's landlady. I speak no Korean, Nathaniel speaks very little Korean, and she speaks on Korean. Nathaniel tried to call a co-worker to translate, but no one was around, so it was interesting trying to figure out what she wanted ... I think it was a gas bill receipt, but either way, spent a long time trying to communicate with her and all the while she is looking at me like 'who are you' and I'm just sitting there completely lost. Poor Nathaniel was a bit flustered for a while after that, and had to go all the way to his work to see if the receipt in question was there as she didn't want to wait until Thursday when his holiday break is over. Sadly I return to work a bit sooner than that on Wednesday. In the end, he never found the receipt and the landlady ended up calling his coworker. Seems she only wanted to know whether the bill had been paid or not, which of course it had been. Thankfully the return trip was uneventful and I got to relax my last night of holiday.
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