the rest of the afternoon

Nick and I headed out of Holt and I was trying not to turn into a crying mess again. I know the people on the subway think I'm a nutso.... the crying blonde. (Speaking of blonde, Nick said it's easy to spot me- the only blonde! Makes me love my blonde hair even more!)

We found our way back to the EMart. Somehow we ended up going a different way once we got to the mall but we knew it was in the basement. We got to the EMart with much less trouble this time. The EMart carts are super fun- they are a mix between Ikea's carts and Aldi's carts. They are the four wheel drive carts and can go on the escalators like Ikea, but you have to put in 100 won (about 10 cents) and unlock the chain and then you get your money back when you return it, like Aldi.

We stopped at the Food Court and split a 9 count of chicken fingers from Burger King, it was after 2 and we were hungry!

We got Bates another microphone and some other fun Pororo toys for Ji-uk. Another fun EMart tidbit, you have to pay 500 won (less than 5 cents) per plastic bag. They are big on reusable shopping bags here! I included one in our foster family gift, but had I known, I would have put in more!

After our shopping adventure at EMart, we headed to the National War Museum. Nick and I are experts at navigating the subway now! I even loaded our T Money cards with more won using the machine in Korean!

We went to the National War Memorial, but didn't go in. We checked out the sites and monuments around the building. The Museum itself is HUGE and I knew if we went in, Nick would read every sign and we'd be there until tomorrow when it was time to get Bates for good! Not to mention Nick's feet were hurting from all the walking in his dress shoes and my back was killing me (I have done something to my back and it hurts when we walk a lot. So annoying!) I wanted to see the Memorials cause my PawPaw was actually stationed here in Seoul for a bit. So I wanted to check out the monuments and get some pictures for him.





After the Memorial we headed back to the hotel. In the subway station that is by our hotel was this man who makes name scrolls. I wanted to get one that said "Forever Family". I wrote it our in hangul and we stopped by. The man spoke NO ENGLISH. So there was lots of pointing and hand gestures. We weren't sure what he was saying to us, but we just nodded and smiled.

He started our drawing and a nice woman stopped and asked us what he was writing. I showed her the hangul I brought and she said, forever family. I said yes, is that what he is writing, cause it was WAY different than what I brought. She said yes, he was writing in Chinese Calligraphy and it translated more like "permanent family".
Nick and I thought the language he was writing might be different cause of the hand gestures and what he wrote on my piece of paper. I was so glad the lady stopped so we knew exactly what it was we were getting and make sure it didn't say "stupid Americans" or something silly!

The woman got a cell phone call and walked off and the man tried to ask us a question about if we wanted something else on it. He showed us a sample on another drawing and I said yes, and nodded. I just wasn't sure what I was saying yes too. The lady got back off the phone and came back to us and told us he was putting 2010 spring and signing his name and stamping it with his name chop. Great, just what I wanted. I was proud of me and Nick for figuring this out.
I love the way it turned out, and although it isn't hangul we LOVE it! We are going to have it framed to hang in our house... because tomorrow we will be a permanent family!

We then headed back to our hotel so I could blog about the morning and get the pictures uploaded. Our room, or apartment as the front desk calls it, has a washer and dryer. Last night Nick and I tried to navigate the Korean directions and washed some clothes. I woke up in the middle of the night afraid I would end up having doll size clothes, but no worries- they came out great. When we got back to the hotel we did another load of clothes. And by load of clothes I mean like 4 things cause this washer and dryer are TINY. Its a combo washer and dryer that does it all in one, and the drum seriously holds like two pair of pants!

Then we headed out to dinner. Walking through the city was so fun at night. We saw some more lanterns for Buddha's birthday.Now don't laugh, but we had dinner at Outback! We wanted to eat some "comfort" food as our "last supper" as a family of two. Also at dinner, I told Nick on every April 15th I want to get a babysitter and go to eat at Outback just the two of us. Our dinner was FANTASTIC! It was the best Outback we have ever eaten!!!

I had Nick take my picture in the traditional Korean girls pose. Makes me laugh. Peace.
Tomorrow is the big day, Bates will be in our arms forever. I'm not sure I'll sleep at all tonight. Nick and I were talking today about how much our lives have changed in just one week. One week ago we were in Murfreesboro and had just gotten our Travel Call, this week we have been in Seoul, meeting our son and exploring the land that gave us our son, and tomorrow, we get our boy forever!