What a day!

Well, I had my day all planned out except there was one problem. I remembered the time of Mass wrong. I thought it was at 12pm, but it turns out it was at 11am. So as I was walking into church, everyone was walking out. I was mad at myself, but I had a backup plan. I was meeting my friend Ahyoung in Myeondong and that's where the Myeongdong Cathedral is. So, I went on the subway and got to the Cathedral. However, as 'luck' would have it, as I was arriving there, Mass (in Korean) was also ending. I waited around and was able to get to the homily of the following mass (all in Korean) and then I had to go meet Ahyoung.

She met me with a few other friends in the Seoul area as well. One was Ben-she met him at (MI) Tech and he is in Korea in the military. He's actually going home on Tuesday. Another was Mark-he also went to Tech and is a Korean adoptee teaching English. The other was Alan-he teaches with Mark and he's from England. We went to the Myeongdong noodle shop and had mandu and noodle soup. It was perfect because today was cold and rainy. After lunch we walked to Cheonggyecheon. We decided to get ice cream and I pointed the way to the Baskin Robins. Ah yes, as it turns out, both Ben and Mark knew my cousins Kaitlin and Lauren from Tech too-small (Tech) world. Around 5 we all headed our separate ways-Ben was able to travel for awhile with me towards our different destinations.

I was off to the World Cup Stadium; there are 2 small fields that can be rented behind the big stadium. I met with other adoptees there. I was the only girl and one of the only Americans. Man, those Europeans are SERIOUS about their soccer--and they are GOOD. We were also fortunate/unfortunate to have another set of 5 Korean players on the other small field that needed a team to play against. Fortunate because we were able to play basically non-stop; unfortunate because we were able to play non-stop (tired!!) and because they too were really good. We also had an unfortunate turn of weather events. The rain had mostly let up around 2pm, but it was still quite windy and cold. When I got to my exit, I found that it had begun to rain again. I met the group and then, as other players are trickling in it starts to rain REALLY hard and then all of a sudden the rain turns to HAIL! It hailed for almost 10 minutes!! Then it stopped and the rain let up a bit again. About an hour later, it began to rain and Jes (pronounced "yes" from Denmark) commented to me, I don't know what's worse the rain or the hail. I said, "I think the rain". A few seconds later, it started to hail again! It was crazy.

On my way back in the subway, I noticed an older gentleman wearing a Notre Dame jacket, so I thought I would be nice and say hi. I asked him if he was from Indiana because of his jacket. He said no, Iowa. So we talked for a few stops before I left, but I thought it was a nice thing to do. I thought he might be a business trip worker or just a vacation or something, but it turns out he's been living in Korea for 3 years!

I came back to my room and I took a hot shower. Now I have some homework I've been putting off and then I think I will sleep really well tonight!

Inside Myeongdong Cathedral

Famous Noodle restaurant in Myeongdong

AHHH!!! It started hailing!!

On the field

My new Danish friend, Jes, also camera enthusiast (Works IT for GOAL)

LOTS on the ground! (the blurry splotches is rain/hail water on the lens)

You can see how much is falling under the lights (Sorry for the big dot on the right--water on lens)

Stefano (from Italy and actually I met him in 2009!) and all the hail!