Seoul Day 1

We got to our Hotel at about 7 am and checked in immediately!  We were floored!  And thrilled!  We got to our room, explored it a bit (it wasn't huge), admired the view, took a shower, and took a NAP!  We woke up at about 11 am and started the day much more refreshed.   I know many people wouldn't recommend this but it allowed us to stay up until a decent hour that night and we really didn't struggle with jet lag much at all (thank you God for melatonin each time I woke up in the middle of the night too!).

I will do a quick plug for melatonin - it helped me adjust SO well with ZERO grogginess at all.  For anyone traveling soon - we brought the 3 mg pills that we bought at Walmart and one of those just as I laid down to relax had me dozing quickly with no problems waking up.  I'd even feel fine using it with my kids around, I'd wake up just fine.

OK, so then we ate lunch at the hotel buffet that had a mix of more traditional Korean food and some western food.  It was a good start since we were hungry and didn't have to search far.  The hotel buffets are expensive but they are very good, easy, and not intimidating (you can take things on your plate and try it without committing to a whole meal).   There were several kinds of Kimchi and seafood was prevalent.  The desserts are always interesting in Korea.  You never know what might be inside, but often it's good!

After lunch we went back to the room.  I was a little hesitant to go out until we heard from SWS and I was thrilled when they called soon after we returned.  We were going to SWS to meet Suhbin at 9:10 the next day.  I could now enjoy the rest of the day.

Once we were set with SWS we decided to explore the subway.  We went to Seoul Station and checked out Lotte Mart.  Lots of fun!  We walked around the city a little bit and tried to get oriented.  We knew we weren't going to accomplish a ton that day due to getting adjusted and spending more time than we'd hoped at the hotel, but we got out and explored.  We ate in a little Pho place (which isn't Korean but the weather was pretty miserable and we wanted something warm so we decided to try it).  It was very good.  We also got an interesting appetizer sampler.  We still don't know what we ate but it most of it we liked.  A couple things didn't have much flavor so we didn't eat anymore.  The thing with the claw sticking out was surprisingly good.  I'll have to add some pictures soon! :)

We headed back to the hotel.  It was raining and we were getting tired.  We decided to take a cab back.  At each hotel they will give you a card with their name and location written in hangul - it's wonderful so you can always get back.  And taxis are cheap!  We were so surprised.  I think the MOST expensive taxi ride we had was $14 and that was 40-45 minutes in length.  Amazing!

Back at the hotel we got everything organized b/c we had to switch hotels in the morning before going to SWS.  We re-packed all of the gifts and gift bags in one suitcase so we could access it easily, set out our clothes, got everything set and went to sleep!  I was so excited and anxious about the next day I'm surprised I could sleep.  But we both slept well!