Maria Fertility Hospital and Dongdaemun Market

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

It is 4:52pm right now.  Reagan and I just walked in the door from our ventures out in Seoul.  We went to the Maria Fertility Clinic this morning.  Everyone there was really nice and spoke English well.  I had to do blood work and Reagan had some things to do as well.  Now I just have to wait for the third day in my cycle to start the injections. 

When we were done we took the subway to Dongdaemun Market.  This is a HUGE market full of shopping, food, and so much more  If you can make it, I think it's there.  There are floors and floors of shoes, fabric, and clothes.  It can be a bit over whelming.  Reagan was having some difficulties with the heat.  There are tons of little shops to buy towels.  Really nice towels for a good price.  He wanted to buy one just so he could wipe the sweat from his face.  I thought of this cold towel that Reagan's mom has.  When it gets wet, it turns cold, or something like that.  It just so happened when I said that, we walked right into a basket of them.  Then he was happy.

We were hungry so I bought a peach smoothie and Reagan bought tebokki and seafood mixed into it.  Tebokki is rice cakes covered in a hot red paste.  It's really good.  When I was at Dongdaemun with Kristi and Corey, we went to this really small restaurant and had these amazing steamed buns and mandu (dumplings). I looked around at least a hundred street food vendors and restaurants and I didn't see what  I wanted for lunch.  In my mind, I wanted to find that same restaurant.  All of a sudden we walked right into it.  I recognized the lady and the food.  We got three huge steamed buns and mandu for only 3,500 won ($3.50).  In Korea it is not customary to tip.  So we are making up for the money we lost yesterday in the good prices of street food. While sitting in the restaurant an older lady stared at us eating.  She directed us on how to eat and in what order.  It was really nice of her.  It felt like a game of charades. 

We took the subway back to Junggi and Soo's.  My favorite part of coming back to the apartment is being greeted by Jenna and Yuna.  They have the sweetest smiles.   

Although yesterday was a day of lessons learned, I feel completely safe here.  So, mother, we are safe and sound!  So no worries! 

 - 안녕히가세요 (annyeonghi gaseyo) Formal form of goodbye in Korean. 

Dongdaemun Market

Mandu (left) Steamed Buns (right)

Dipping sauce and Sweet Radish Banchan

Yuna (left) and Jenna (right)