gonna miss this place

This morning, I was out the door early to be at the immigration office all the way across Seoul by 9 am. I made it in plenty of time - way early, in fact. The office manager from work met me there and we got whatever we had to do done. I really don't even know what had to be done. I just had to show them I wasn't staying in the country on the same visa for longer than 30 days. When I come back from Hong Kong, I'll be on a tourist visa again.

I came back in time to get a few things done at work before the crazy Friday schedule began. On Fridays, we have to work back to back classes (just 5 minute breaks in between each one) for six hours. It's not the best day of the week, but today I had a different perspective, since it was my last one. Yay! By the end of the day, I was hungry, as I usually am on Fridays. I told Jason I wanted some good food and he suggested Chili's. There is one just a short bike ride from where we work/live. I rode by it today on the way home from immigration and a stop at the bank and thought about getting takeout for lunch (since I won't be living so close for much longer!), but decided against it. So, of course, when Jason said that, I jumped at the chance. I had a yummy cheddar ranch burger and ate the whole thing with most of the french fries. Mmmm.

My friend Okja called and said they were meeting to hang out near Namdaemoon market, so I met them there after dinner. They were just finishing dinner, then we went to share some dessert at a waffle house. I didn't know there was such a thing as a waffle house in Korea! I'll have to go back there when I'm hungry. We walked around Namdaemoon together, then went to a norebang (karaoke room). I sang my first whole Korean song! I'm so proud. That's a great way to impress your Korean friends, by the way. The Americans usually stick to the American songs. Actually, I can barely sing those, so singing a Korean song is a big accomplishment. The plan was to go to a bathhouse to spend the night, but we decided we'd rather each go home instead and were pretty sure the subway would get us all home before it shut down, so we decided to chance it. We did all make it home. I rode my bike home from the subway, around the park, and there were still a fair number of people, including a group of women in their upper 60s at least, doing their exercises at 1 am! Amazing.

I'm gonna miss being able to go join some friends at a moment's notice in the heart of Seoul and leave at 12:15 and still make it home by public transportation. I'm gonna miss Seokchon lake at night and being able to go whenever I want. I'm gonna miss the city life of Seoul, but I'm gonna gain a lot by moving to Suji, being a more integral part of the church community, and living close to the people I want to create more community with and minister to. Thanks, God, for the great experiences in both places!