Monday…our last day in Seoul! We’ve had a great time on our trip – even Adam who doesn’t travel well! We plan on coming back in about 5 years. Adam says when the kids are old enough to carry bags LOL….we of course brought WAY too much stuff.
Anyway…Monday at 2 PM we were to go back to KSS to meet with Mira & Finn’s foster families, and to visit Finn again. It was also my last shopping day in Seoul, and the first day after the holiday where all the stores would be open again (if shopping is one of your focuses, do NOT go during Lunar New Year!). So in the morning, I headed back to Dongdaemun to pick up the rest of the hanboks I needed. All in all, I think I purchased 20 of them – 10 for my kids, and 10 for other people. I liked the ones I found in the underground Dongdaemun shopping center best, and I didn’t really have time to explore other stores so I went back there. I picked up several hanboks, but two that I really wanted they didn’t have the sizes I needed. However, since it wasn’t the holiday anymore, he said they could get them. I said I would come back at 6 PM and he said he would have them then. Score! Unfortunately, it took longer in Dongdaemun than I had hoped, so I wasn’t able to make it back to Itaewan. It was unfortunate, since I had 3 name scrolls for people I was supposed to get. So sorry guys! When I went to Itaewan the first time, the shopping center was closed and I just wasn’t able to make it back.
I got back to the hotel around noon, and we planned on leaving at 12:30. It takes about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes to get to KSS, so we wouldn’t be super early this time. We were crossing our fingers that we would get a taxi driver that could find it. It really is a little difficult to find – tucked back on a hill behind other buildings. You have to access it via alleyways. We took the subway to the Suyu station stop and headed out to find a taxi. We found one, and showed him our map and where we needed to go. He said yes, he could take us there. Yay! So we piled in and headed out. We were at a different subway station this time, so the trip didn’t really look familiar. But as we got in the general area of KSS, we knew we were headed in the right direction. He took us to a spot and said this was it. Well, sort of! We could see the KSS building, but we were on the wrong side of the brick wall from it. Ah well, we can walk just a little bit. Taxis in Seoul are so much cheaper than here. In the US, with 4 people getting in, they would automatically tack on a fee. Our entire taxi fare ended up being about 4,000 won, which is roughly $3.60!
We had to walk up the street a little and come around the brick wall to get to the KSS entrance. As we were walking up their driveway, we saw Mira’s foster family standing by their car. The foster father, foster mother, and foster sister were there. They were so excited, smiling and waving. Mira didn’t quite know what to think. I told her who they were and that she could go see them. Such a sweet little thing, she went right up to them and was hugged and talked to in Korean for quite a while. Then we all headed inside.
We went back into the little meeting room and exchanged gifts with the foster family. They brought Mira a beautiful hanbok! She loved it. They also gave her a bunch of little hair clips and pony tail holders. They asked a few questions. I told them that Mira takes Tae Kwon Do but was only a white belt. I told them that she wants to learn Korean and that she has loved our trip. They asked (through the agency representative) if she was around other Korean kids and I told them about our playgroup. I told them that she taught herself how to use chopsticks and that her big brother was still working on that. They seemed so proud of her. She is the first foster child that has come back to visit. I learned that the foster father took the day off to come and visit with us, and that their son really wanted to be there but is now in the army and couldn’t make it. They remembered what a good and easy baby she was, and I told them that she was for us too – right from the start. They repeated over and over again how beautiful she was.
I was trying to get Brett a little involved in this meeting but he didn’t really want to participate. He had said before that he was excited to meet Mira’s foster family, but once we were there, I think he was feeling a bit left out because of all the excitement surrounding Mira. It was like she was famous! Adam said that at one point, Brett appeared to wipe away a little tear. Poor buddy…but the foster family appeared to notice this as well and eventaully got Brett interacting with them as well. He was smiling and happy again. They are such sweet people!
At this point, it was time to go visit baby Finn. The foster family came with us. We headed back up to the room with the little KSS rug. Finn was more awake this time and happy as ever. He appeared happy to see us! We played with him for quite a while, and the foster family played with the big kids for most of that time (they gave the kids coins and were playing games with it!). We had been there for over two hours when they said they had to go. We said our goodbyes to them. They want to meet again next time we come back to Seoul. We finished our visit with Finn, and gave him a bottle. He was obviously tired at this point, it was almost 5:00! So we took him to the nursery to say our goodbyes. That adorable little boy didn’t seem to want us to leave. I put him in his crib, and he whined and reached for me. I picked him back up and he was happy again. They tried to get the nurse to take him. She kept reaching her hands out to him and talking to him (I assume asking him to come to her) and he just held on to me. Awwww…..made it so much harder to hand him over but we had to go and he needed to sleep. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day!
On our way home, we had to change trains at the Dongdaemun subway station, so I went and grabbed the last two hanboks and we headed to dinner. We ate at Bennigan’s again and then had those funky ice cream cones for dessert (they have them at the Seoul Station Lotte Mart). I know it’s bizarre…we were in Seoul an entire week and didn’t eat Korean food once, other than on the airplane and a few things at breakfast each day. There are several Korean foods that we really like…however, many of the restaurants near the hotel were closed for the holiday, and even when they were open, the posted menus didn’t have any of the foods we were familiar with. No bulgogi, no jap chae, no dak gue eh, no katsu (OK that one is Japanese, but still, very popular in Korea I’m told!). There were lots of seafood dishes (me and the kids don’t eat seafood, though Adam does) and lots of stews and such. The menus generally had pictures too, and nothing looked familiar. Oh well, I guess next time we will try to be braver – or at least go with someone who knows what is what!
We spent the rest of the evening packing. I actually was able to get everything packed, and none of the bags were over the weight limit. Whew! It was close LOL.
AWE….big brother and little brother are so sweet together. Have a safe trip home.