Yesterday (March 14^th) Alex left at 700 am to go golfing with some work buddies, so after a late start and a few cups of coffee, I decided to venture out on my own. Seoul is so large that sometimes it can be daunting to figure out what to do. Each subway station is an adventure in itself, and there are all kinds of neighborhoods near each station. After some thought, I narrowed it down to A: finding the French District or B: finding a cat café. …Yes. A café. With cats. I figured that Alex would be more interested in that, so off to France I went.

I absolutely loved Paris, so my hopes were through the roof before I even set out. To be honest, I was expecting the French district (it may even be just the French “quarter” or “area”) to be like “China Towns” in the States. I was expecting FRANCE EVERYWHEREEEEE, and yes, maybe a miniature Eiffel Tower. I was ready to eat at least five croissants and three crêpes. But unless I went down the wrong five roads, it was really just a lot of French cafés and a French international school. It was still nice and quiet, and I heard quite a bit of French being spoken, AND OF COURSE my latte was amazing, but I was a bit disappointed. When we go on the base I feel like I’m back in America, so I suppose I was hoping to be transported to Paris for a few hours. I guess I just need to take a vacation to France.  I will be going back though; there was a cool looking bakery and a wine shop I need to check out.

While drinking my vanilla/cinnamon toast crunch latte, I remembered seeing something on Facebook about a St. Patrick’s Day party. Not having anything else to do, I did a quick Google search and found that the Irish Association of Korea was putting on a little festival from 1300-1800 that day. So, ADVENTURE TIME.

And indeed it was. It was at a station called Sindorim, where lines 1 and 2 meet. I know that doesn’t mean much to anyone, but I had yet to travel on either of those lines. Again, adventure! I had to transfer once, and actually leave the station, so that was weird. But I eventually got to my destination! And had no trouble finding the festivities… it was a game of follow-the-green-foreigner.

It wasn’t the largest crowd, but it was definitely very St. Patrick’s Day-y. I only caught the last two bands, but they were good. I love me some fiddles.

Today we just caught up on some chores and I had my weekly “omg I can’t do this job” session. Although it was shorter than last week’s! Oh, and last week I didn’t cry ONCE. Progress.

I’ve decided I need a mantra. So far I’ve got: “If Britney Spears can make it through 2007, I can make it through 2015” but that’s a bit long. It gets weird with the breathing that you’re supposed to do simultaneously. I’m open to suggestions.