we signed up for a 6:50am shuttle bus, but neither of us had an alarm clock because our cell phones wouldn't work. it turns out that my phone will automatically roam in korea, but i'm not sure how the charges would work. i took my phone offline so i wouldn't have to pay for any stray text messages. i wonder, though...i get free roaming in the US...hmmmm. i'm looking into that.

luckily, i woke up at 5:30 an we took a 1:30 hour bus ride to our new youth hostel. and oh, what a hostel it was ;)

kay, first things first:

1) the shower should never be over the toilet. that's just basic. they are two seperate entities. they should stay that way.

2) i shouldn't have to walk through a room with sleeping turkish girls to get to my *private* room

3) people paying $17 dollars a night to live in the middle of seoul should not complain about toilet showers and turkish girls.

4) i love myeong-dong.

we spent he day at the folk village in suwon. it took about 2 hours to get there, all said and done. on the subway, we were entertained by the most interesting people. they just walked into the car, said their piece, packed up, and left all in the space between 2 subway stops. cool.

we saw so many it's hard to remember:

1) blinky-toy man 2) tatami mat-dude 3) religion-lady 4) college money-box-kids (twice, there and back) 5) just plain crazy-guy

we had dinner in yongsan on the way home. since it's known for being the main electronic marketplace, we shopped for a few items. jamie bought this really cool $500 dollar camera. not available in the U.S. yet, it was supposed to only be sold in japan. heheh.

i got an electronic dictionary for a decent price. it's pretty good. could be better, but i'm satisfied.

awsome, awesome district. it looked pretty normal during the daytime. but, when jamie and i got back after sightseeing, things were wayyyy different.

apparently, we were living right in the middle of a night market. go figure. at 10pm, this place was a maze of sidewalk cafes serving up fresh seafood (you know it's fresh when it's swimming at your table), cheap clothing tables, and brand-name knock-offs galore. people told me it would be like this, but i didn't expect to be able to pick-up a "louis vuitton" wallet for under $10. cool. any requests? if you've got the money, i've got the luggage space ;)

we looked around a bunch, but ended up back at the hostel pretty quickly. we were so hot and sticky from the heat that it was into the shower and to bed a little after midnight.