Flying home (and the shopping haul!)

 Sunday we woke up bright and early (10:00) to get breakfast at 10:30 and then checked out. Even with getting up so late, I was NOT chipper. This was one of those, "Don't talk to me until I've been awake for a few hours" days. Well, I mean, that's most days. But usually that's only an hour or so. 

I'm not a happy camper when I wake up.

Once we got some food in us, we had the wonderful opportunity to haul our luggage down to the train station. We decided to walk a little further because we had figured out that at the other exit there was an elevator so we wouldn't have to haul the bags down stairs. This would have been fine, but it was raining. Not much, but enough. And with all the bags, some of us couldn't put up umbrellas as well. 

So. I was hot, sweaty, and my hair and clothes were wet with rain. I was soggy, tired, and unhappy.

But we made it to the airport with only a few setbacks. I was the only one who made it all the way without troubles at the turnstiles. Dan and Maddie both needed to add a little onto their T-Money cards. And Mandy not only needed money added to her T-Money, but also needed to have them fix it because she had accidentally run her card at Seoul Station when she wasn't supposed to so it was all confused. The whole don't run your card thing if you are going to the airport line through Seoul Station was confusing. 

The airport itself was simple enough. We found our gate and crashed.

We wanted to get some lunch at the airport, and burgers sounded like the most delicious thing in the world. So we found a Lotteria and ate burgers and fries. Nom! 

There were also these ladies doing surveys for tourism in Korea so Maddie and Mandy got interviewed about our two groups. They gave us these cute little magnets for our trouble. They gave Mandy and I each a pack of the magnets, but Maddie only got one with none for Dan. She was like, "Hey, why didn't they give one to Dan?" and I answered it was cuz they were married and Mandy and I were just gals being pals. 

Gay privilege at its finest, folks.

I was very glad that I had brought a change of clothes for the airplane because, with the humidity, my clothes were still slightly damp from the rain (and sweat, if I am being honest). 

The flight itself was uneventful, but we watched some good movies, ate some mediocre food. Mandy and I were across the aisle from each other and the guy next to me kept manspreading and fell asleep with his elbow completely in my chair. I allowed the elbow since I was sitting forward playing on my phone, but I did nudge him out of the way when I wanted to lay back. And he was cool with it. So, no arguments, no grumbles, and we made it back alive and in time to snuggle with our cats before crashing.

I was very proud of myself for waiting to go to bed until 10 so I would quickly get back to a normal sleep schedule.

Sleeping until 2pm the next day, however, screwed with that plan. 

I spent that Tuesday (after not sleeping Monday night) unpacking and putting things away to keep awake until a normal hour. Which means you get to enjoy seeing pictures of all the things I bought!

Man... look at that haul. 

I wanted to get some things to either put on our shelves or hang on the walls on our trip. That way I can give the "trinket and art tour" like my dad did with all the visitors at our house.

We got this lovely lucky calico cat in a kimono in Asakusa after wearing our kimonos.

We also bought this pretty celadon vase set in Insadong. I'm pretty sure the shapes are supposed to represent the masculine and feminine and that might be a little weird in our queer house.... but it's pretty and I like them. And Mandy picked out the flower design!

We also have to blessings we want to put in shadow boxes to hang on the wall. The wooden one was given to us by our host at the cooking lesson in Japan and the red one is from the temple in Asakusa. I'm not sure what the wooden one is for, but the red was just a basic good health for the home.

There were several stops in Japan to get Ghibli Studio themed items. I am especially excited to put together my Kiki's Delivery Service 3D wooden display.

A lot of the items I got were also cat themed (hello Shramp!), including the gifts we got for our fur babies.

It was quite the effort to get Cat Benetar to sit still for a picture in her persimmon hat.

Ebby was surprisingly chill about the whole ordeal and we got several cute pictures of her wearing her apple hat.

Most of the snacks were finished on our trip. But I had some leftover strawberry pies and, of course, the obligatory dragon beard candy.

I feel like I was pretty conservative on the amount of jewelry and hair goods I purchased. I love my hair flower with the danglies and the beautiful pottery necklace. And all the earrings I got are quickly becoming part of the weekly rotation.

Oh, Korea, how I love your skincare and cosmetics. Look at how little I purchased. Though I did figure out that Tony Moly has an online US store. So that might become a problem. My favorites are definitely the lip tints from Tony Moly and the Apply Soft Gel Peel mask from Orchid Flower. Those tints last all day and that mask is such a lovely gentle exfoliating mask. 

Relaxing with an anti-aging mask. 

There was also clothing purchased!

While I will be wearing the denim skirt from Harajuku (it absolutely screamed Barbie Movie), the hanbok skirt is probably my favorite purchase from the trip. It's a modern design so it's shorter and the pattern is a little more modern as well as printed. But it is so, so pretty.

I also got this pretty hair pin. The color matches my skirt so nicely and I showed Maddie it, like, "Hey! It looks like the trans pride flag!" Then when I checked out, the girl was really excited because I bought her first design and she pointed out that she put the trans flag in the design wondering if anyone would notice. Yes! We did! It's so pretty.

We also got to pick a matching norigae (tassel decoration) to go with our skirt. I got this lovely embroidered blue one. She showed me how to hook it onto the little loop on the skirt. Isn't it pretty?

Overall, we had a wonderful time. Even if it was hot and exhausting. It was so much fun getting to go with my wife and friends on a long trip. I'm thinking our next adventure should be in Europe. Maybe over Winter Break this time? 

What do you think?

Days 7: Meerkat Cafe

Saturday was our last full day in Seoul and I really wanted to go to a particular store: Hoya in Seoul. She specializes in modern hanbok design size XS-6XL, a hard thing to find in Seoul. I had seen her videos on Tik Tok and Instagram for a while and I really wanted to check out her in person store.

The shop was only a couple stops away, but it didn't open until 1pm. So we took the subway out, getting there a little bit early. We wanted to make sure we knew where the shop was before getting lunch. The store was easy to find, but there weren't many food options open around the store. We did end up finding a little spot that was mostly filled with construction workers getting some lunch, but we managed to get some decent food. Nice.

Then it was off to Hoya in Seoul! So excited.

The store was small, but it was FILLED with pretty goodies! There were skirts, crop tops, blazers, jackets. So many pretty things. I knew I wanted a skirt so that's what I spent most of the time trying on and spinning in. 

Maddie and Mandy were enamored with the blazers. I loved (loved loved loved) the skirt I got and I wanted the flutter sleeve jacket, but they only made them custom (so I would have to wait a bit since they have a waiting list) and they were also a little pricey. Even if it was so pretty.

So, so pretty.

But I got a skirt and a pretty hair pin. 

The two ladies in the shop were so amazing. They were so excited to show us around, have us try on different things, and no pressure sales. I picked my hair pin and the girl was so excited that I chose the one she had designed. It was so much fun and I wish I had infinite money to buy all the things.

From there, we headed to Hongdae for our reservation at the Meerkat Cafe! We got to Hongdae and Mandy really started not feeling good, so she decided to head back to the hotel while Dan, Maddie, and I walked out to the cafe.

We put our things into lockers, put on slippers, and we inside. 

When we first got in, it was fox time! Look at how happy he is!

We weren't supposed to touch them, but we got to watch the one fox baby follow the worker around chasing and getting dragged around by the rope. So cute.

Maddie played with a baby on a trampoline. 

Then they brought out this pretty baby. Again, we weren't supposed to touch, but they got it to jump up on our shoulders.

They brought out two dogs, Ana and Elsa, but we kept waiting for the raccoons. Dan suggested going upstairs to see the other animals, but I wanted to wait for when they brought out this guy. 

The time finally came and we waited to give the little guy a treat and a high five. His little hands were so precious!

After that, we went upstairs where they had a couple wallabies, some cats, and the meerkat enclosures. A worker came over and gave us some treats to feed the wallabies. Precious babies.

They started cuing up to see the meerkats so we said hello to the sleeping kitty before taking off all of our jewelry and completely emptying our pockets before getting in the meerkat enclosure.

The brought us into the enclosure one or two at a time and told us to carefully sit down before giving us a little blanket to cover our laps with before we got to let the meerkats come up and let us pet them.

This little guy is in heaven.

They weren't kidding when they made us empty our pockets. This little guy kept coming over and practically climbing in my dress pocket. I kept having to cover it with the blanket, but he would dig it out and stick his entire head in my pocket.

They loved belly scratches. So cute.

After the cafe, we headed back towards our hotel. Mandy still didn't feel good so she didn't join us for dinner and our final Korean bbq. And, again, it was delicious.

Leaf and beef!

After dinner I hung out with Maddie watching a new show and Dan went out to get some more street food. We jokingly asked for him to bring us back another croffle (croissant waffle thing) and then he did! And it was delicious!

And that is our final full day in Seoul!

Day 6 in Seoul: Hanboks!

 Day six in Seoul our group was kind enough to indulge me in something I wanted to do: dress in traditional hanbok and go to the palace!

I really wanted to do this, for a couple reasons. For one, it's Gyeongbokgung Palace and is a major touristy/historical place. It is also where I was when I first met Mandy! Or at least where I got her first message online. We met while I was on a trip with my friend Mindy (yes... Mindy, Mandy, Maddie... it gets confusing). Mindy and I were at the palace and we had stopped to get a drink. I got a notification while we were waiting for a drink and it was a message from Compatible Partners (the gay version of eHarmony) that someone had seen my profile and wanted to talk. It was Mandy! She was on a choir trip in Ireland and we were both ignoring the warnings from Compatible Partners to not message people who said they were on vacation abroad (cuz it can be a scam). 

The rest is history.

So, I wanted to show Mandy the place where we met. And take cute pictures in hanbok.

I had found a recommendation for a place to rent hanbok (there are so, so many places) near the palace where they a) spoke English and b) had plus sizes (not always the easiest to find). The place is called Daehan Hanbok. You can choose any skirt you want for plus size and you need bigger they have panels to put in back so it will close. They also have a large selection of jackets to fit even my large arms. 

I had also heard complaints online that the outfits smell because they don't get washed between patrons. Ours did not have that problem. I don't know if it is because we arrived at the start of the day or if they wash them between each wearing. Either way, ours were fresh smelling. Even if we weren't by the end of wearing them.

We arrived around the time they opened and it was already soo so hot. But we got there and chose our hanbok skirts. There were so many to choose from! I liked the premium ones that had fancy ruffles, but I wanted to coordinate with Mandy who fell in love with a jewel toned purple skirt so I got a dark blue with gold medallion designs and we got matching jackets (even if I kept accidentally popping the top snap on mine).

Mandy and I also wanted to get our hair done. I was less than impressed with how they did my hair. It was not well done. And the first thing she did was brush my bangs and then couldn't get them in the hairdo so they were just a bunch of limp frizz in front of my face (when usually they are a fluffy semi-curly frizz). And it was already so hot in the hanboks that were were super red and sweaty, lol! But we still had fun taking a bunch of pictures. Though, to be honest, we did not get far into the grounds because we were so hot.

Maddie started to get too hot and wasn't feeling good, but she still looked so fancy!

Also, if the embroidery on my jacket looks a little wonky, it is because I did a little bit of quick editing. I had been told they would put it over our clothes so I had worn a sleeveless dress, but then they told me to take it off... and my bra was HOT PINK and stood out quite a bit in all the pictures. Hence the quick editing. Hey, I'm just glad they had fat sizes!

Aw, look at how cute we are! 

I love how cute Mandy looks in this picture. So sweet! *heart eyes*

Looking off in the distance... all majestic like. 

I think Maddie looks so cute in this picture.

Precious beans! Dan was such a good sport playing dress up with us not just once but TWICE on this trip. And doesn't he just look dapper in his cool hat.

Getting a little hot and sweaty...

More obligatory door lean pictures. This one is right after I accidentally smacked the hair pin Mandy was wearing, pulling her entire head to the side by the hair... oops. Sorry, babe!

You can see in the background more people dressed in hanbok. You can get into the palace for free if you are wearing a hanbok so it is pretty popular. There were a lot of people wearing hanbok.

A regal looking Dan.

We then took some time to cool off in the museum (air conditioning!) before making the short trek back to the rental company where they cheered and said we made it. I think it was funny because we were SO SWEATY and red in the face. But we did it!

On the way out, Mandy found another drum.

We then had lunch at a tiny place close to the hanbok store. We were all hungry at this point and in need of sustenance. However, we were still so hot that I couldn't finish my food... again.

After the palace, we headed back to the hotel to rest. Maddie didn't feel well and Mandy was exhausted after our two weeks of hiking around in the heat. I did some blogging and watched Brooklyn 99 while those two took naps and Dan went exploring. He found the Coex Mall aquarium and had a good time.

Maddie and Dan bought tickets to go see Nanta, a comedy cooking show and they had a blast. It seemed like fun, but Mandy didn't really want to go out and I didn't care about spending the money on it. Dan and Maddie had fun. Dan even got called up on stage.

After the performance, I met up with Dan and Maddie to buy street food. I wasn't hungry, but I wanted to go out so we could try a bunch of things.

Got some tasty skewers.

A tornado potato.

I also got a stick of tteokbokki that was way too sweet and kind of old. Sad day. And I didn't even get a picture.

But we did find some good lemonades and a fluffy pancake that Dan had wanted to find in Japan. He even shared.

We also got croissant waffles which was probably the best thing I have ever eaten. They took a croissant, put it in a waffle iron and then covered it in sugar cinnamon and a little maple syrup. Oh my god... I want one now. 

Then we walked down a cool lit up side street to buy a few more makeup items from Tony Moly (which now has a US website and I'm in trouble).

The next day was going to be our last day of our trip.