OK well I hesitate to tell the story of yesterday as it was quite an adventure and judging from some of the responses I have gotten to the blog it seems as if the impression people are getting is that we are unhappy or stressed. We are not. Life is mostly interesting and stimulating here. We laugh a lot and are just taking it moment by moment. That said - here we go...

So yesterday started off slowly. We hung out in the officetel until about 4. John contacted the owner of the new apartment's son and asked if we could move some suitcases in a day early. We finally got a reply around 4. He said it was fine and that we could do it as long as it was before 8 pm. We scrambled to get ready and left the officetel around 5.

For any of you who don't know- we brought 8 enormous suitcases. Basically the max allowance for our flight. So getting all of them across town will be a challenge. Joe suggested a call van but it would cost 30,000 -40,000 won about 25 -35 dollars. We are so cheap and money is tight having to buy all the appliances and furniture for our new house that we figured out that we could take 2 trips on the subway for like $6. So John strapped 2 suitcases together and dragged those (they all have wheels thank goodness) - I put Olive in the ergo carrier on my back and dragged one and Netta (big girl) dragged the 4th one. Off we went - crazy westerners!

We got down to the station in the elevator (we just figured these out with the stroller). Filled Netta's new T-money card with money for the subway and went to the turnstiles. At the turnstile we discovered that John's card did not have any more money on it and we were out of cash. So John had to leave us there with the bags (the first time but not the last) and go above ground to find money. It was hot and Olive was already asking for FOOO. We realized it was dinner time and told her to hang on.

He finally returned and we got on the train. We made it to our transfer station -already late for the 6:00 meeting that we planned to get the key - and got off the train to transfer. We had a bit of a hard time finding elevators for all the stairs and ended up dragging our very enormous and heavy suitcases up a flight of stairs (crazy westerners). Olive is still on my back and still begging for food. Finally I turned her around and stuck a boob in her mouth and she was much quieter although I was quite exposed.

We arrived at the train platform only to discover that we were on the wrong track and the train we needed was on a different platform and that we needed to go down and up again to reach the right place. We looked over to discover that the train we needed was also packed with people like sardines in a can. At this point I said - OK this is when we realize that we need to go above ground and find a cab for the last part of this trip. John agreed - we dragged our suitcases back down the steps to the elevator and made it above ground.

Finding a cab was a whole other deal. The first driver that stopped just shook his head no after looking at our pile of luggage and drove off. The next few wouldn't even stop. Then one sweet man must have pitied us and stopped and loaded all our luggage into his car which meant that 2 bags went in the trunk and 2 went on the back seat with Netta, Olive and I next to them and John in the front seat. The cab made a U-turn and we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. Like the subway only instead of people this was cars full of people - to be expected I guess. We made it across the intersection - figured out that it was costing too much -asked the sweet man to stop and got out. Of course in that short amount of time Olive scrambled all over the cab and emptied the business cards he had set in the door all over his floor - all the time asking for FOOOO. The cab ride was about $6 corner to corner.

So John decided to call the son and try to delay our meeting. It was not easy but it worked while we stayed with the luggage. Then we found Netta a bathroom and Netta, Olive and I went to find some FOOO. We found some pho and bought it to go - only to discover that it was in a plastic bag so there was no way to eat it without bowls. Luckily I had also gotten some appetizers so we macked those. While we ate a sweet man who was selling papers on the corner brought me a chair and all of us some cold water. Oh the kindness of strangers. Thank goodness for all the nice people.

Refreshed we headed back down to the subway ---stairs again of course. Netta reluctantly accepted some help from a very handsome and chic Korean man with perfect English skills. Then back off to the right platform this time to get on what we hoped would be a less busy train - ha ha!! No such luck. But we decided to try and get on and we did. I went in a different door from John and Netta and could not tell during the whole time if they had made it on the train - I just couldn't see them through all of the people - even Netta's golden hair. During this trip I discovered that in the pho food bag there was a bag of chicken and fed that to Olive to keep her happy - thank goodness.

We made it to our station, got up to street level and John left us again to go and find a phone. By this time I realized it was nearly 8:00 and I had had Olive on my back (or front) for 3 hours - ouch my back was feeling it. But letting her down was a whole other mess - so up she stayed with some entertainment from Netta (yay!). It took John awhile and I saw him go into a realtors right near where we were waiting while he was in there a man came up to us and said "John?" Wow we had been found - yay! Netta went and got John and this kind man with the keys to the apartment went and got his car and drove the suitcases and John up the hill. We waited in the hair salon on that corner - the owner came out and invited us in because it was so hot out. She was sweet giving us cold water and we met her son (about Netta's age). She will be one of our new neighbors - yay!

So John returned without the suitcases - woohoo. Netta, Olive and I never got to the apartment which was a bummer as I really wanted to see it again - oh well I'll see it today when we get the keys.

We ate some street food and headed back to the officetel - exhausted to say the least. We fed the kids and they went to bed around 11. They are still asleep now at 10:15 am. John is off getting our alien registration cards so that we can get cell phones today - yay!

Then off to sign the papers and hand over the money and get the keys - then camping in our new apartment until the fridge, washer, couch, and desk come next weekend. Hopefully we can find beds before then........

Life is good. We are all together muddling through....