What a day...

We've had quite a day today.  Christian woke up at 4am and was ready to call it a day at 8:30am.  I don't think that he will be adjusting to Seoul time before Friday. 

We were due at KSS at 3pm, so we decided to make a quick trip to N Seoul Tower in the morning.  Although we were told that the views were much better at night, we knew that Christian wasn't going to be up for any late night viewing.  Plus, I've heard that it's a popular date spot at night and I didn't want the romantic atmosphere to be wrecked by a 3 year old.  We decided to navigate there by local bus, and the concierge helpfully wrote out instructions ("Bus 03 --> Namsan").   We set out around 9:40am and since the bus station was just across the street from our hotel, we felt relatively confident that we wouldn't have too much trouble.  We got off at the first "Namsan" stop, only to find out that we got off one stop too early!   D'oh!  We didn't feel like waiting for the next bus (they didn't seem too frequent) and it didn't look too far to the next stop, so we decided to walk the rest of the way.  Uphill.  With a 3 year old perched on poor Jeff's shoulders.  After a bit of trudging we found a sign saying, "N Seoul Tower - 2km".  Are you kidding me?!  Unfortunately, there was no other way but up, so we wound up doing a bit of accidental hiking.  I should mention that we passed quite a few people going down, and each time I tried to act completely cool and nonchalant, as if I were some sort of hardcore hiker who chose to go up the mountain rather than a silly person just a few steps away from keeling over. So as you can imagine, by the time we reached the top we were a sweaty, crabby mess!  On the plus side, I did get some good pictures on our way up.

 

We bought our ticket, went up to the observatory, and admired the view from up high.  It is truly impressive, but I can only imagine how much more beautiful it would be at night.

 Anyway, the main reason why I wanted to visit N Seoul Tower was because of their famous "Locks of Love".  Couples put padlocks on the fences at the base of the tower to symbolize their unbreakable love for each other.  As you can see, it is quite a phenomenon.

And we placed our lock among all of the others for our family.  I love the idea that even when we leave on Friday, there will be a little reminder of us there in Seoul for as long as they keep the fence up.

We came back to our hotel using the same bus as before (only getting off at the right spot), and then ate a quick lunch and showered before heading out to KSS.  Thanks to a fantastic Korean friend of one of the families here, we were able to navigate the subway changes and then a taxi to get to the orphanage.   She flagged down the taxi for us and told the driver (who spoke no English) where we needed to go.  Before we left we had been given a map with instructions in Korean, but it was great to have someone else to communicate with the driver. 

So here we are, sitting in the back seat of the taxi, zooming around and hoping we don't get into an accident.  I first started to get a little concerned when our driver stared at the map with a furrowed brow during red lights, and then plugged the address into his navigation system.  Then, when we made a wrong turn and he was shaking his fist at the navigation system, I became more worried.  But then when we stopped three separate people and asked them for directions, I was truly alarmed.  Fortunately, the third person proved to be the charm and we finally made it to KSS and met up with the other family.  The driver was super apologetic about the rather roundabout route we took, although we found out that our official map to the orphanage was not correct.

And then we met Mari and the foster mom.  It was truly an incredible moment, and an experience that I will always cherish.  More later.  However, because I know that if you've read this far you really just want to see our gorgeous Mari Jinah, here's a video of her with the foster mother's older daughter.  I've only been able to hold her for short moments before she starts crying, and every time she looks at Jeff she gets upset :-)  So unfortunately no 'family of four' pictures yet. We've got some work ahead of us.  Totally exhausted physically and emotionally, so I'm going to end this post now and hopefully get more thoughts down later.