Wednesday was again a school half day because of tests, so I told Graham I got off at 1pm and asked him if we could go to a baseball game. He said he had some things to do in Seoul and was planning to go around 1 or 2pm and then we could go to the game after that at 6:30. I went straight from school to the bank to get some more cash and went across the street to the bus stop where I met up with Graham around 1:30.
This was the first time I was able to use my brand new T-Money card which I bought on Monday, after Graham told me on Sunday I should get one. With the card, a bus ride is 1,700W and you just place it on the little scanner and it beeps and you are good to go. If you pay in cash the ride costs 1,800W. Also, you don't even have to take the card out of your wallet and Graham was saying that women just plop their handbags down on the card readers and it works. Also, with the T-Money card you get a free transfer from bus to subway and subway to bus within a certain period of time, although it might charge you if you ride the train for a while.
Once there, we stopped into a travel agent in the same building as a YMCA hotel for tourists, where Graham made reservations for his summer trip to China, and then we had hours to wander around before the baseball game started.
We walked through the central area and saw city hall, the big plaza where people protest, the police buses waiting for people to protest, the entryway to a famous palace, and a lot of people. Graham decided we should head to Namdaemun market where maybe I could find some sandals for cheap.
Namdaemun is pretty much you're average insane street market, with tons of vendors selling ridiculous stuff, regular stuff, and everything in between. If you look through the photos, you'll see a stand selling just tape, one with an inflatable killer whale, and some fake soccer jerseys. We also got whistled at and yelled at ("Hello! Hello!") by a guy who for some reason thought everyone wouldn't get out of the way of the guys barely managing to keep control of their overloaded carts as they towed them down a hill towards us.
Alas, there were no decent sandals so Graham led me into the Mesa family shopping center, which was just floors of clothing vendors inside a giant building. The most interesting part about this was that three floors were closed and the eighth floor with the food court was pretty much a barren wasteland. Graham said that last time he was there all 7 floors below had been filled with vendors.
We wandered back towards city hall area, and boarded a subway headed for Jamsil and the Sports complex, a 40 minute ride.
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