Day 58: He Found Me!!!

We all slept in really late today and it felt wonderful! When Brad and I woke up and went outside the apartment, we discovered a really special surprise waiting for us outside the door. There, sitting in the hall next to Brad's apartment doorway, were two little baskets of Easter treats left for us! WOW!!! Here I am, thousands of kilometres from home, in a country where people don't ever give out Easter candy, and staying at a friend's house out in Seoul suburbia, and somehow the Easter Bunny found me!!! :-) AMAZING! (Maybe Santa will find me this December too!)

Andrea later confessed to being the Easter Bunny, but I was thrilled nonetheless at the surprise! My little basket was cool cause it contained both Western and Korean treats - chocolates, skittles, mentos, a small toy rocket, and dried roasted butter squid! (Definitely the first time the Easter Bunny has left me...seafood...in my basket!) :-)

We were originally supposed to go biking in Seoul today but it was so hot outside and we were all feeling really mellow (ie: lazy) that we instead decided to just hang out in Ilsan. Brad, Andrea, Steve and I went to the grocery store to buy ourselves all the ingredients for the ultimate picnic lunch, and then headed to the nearby Lake Park. Lake Park is a huge park right in the middle of the New Town built around one of the largest artificial lakes in all of Asia. The park has fields and trees and flowers and public art and playgrounds and is just a really perfect place to spend a hot Korean afternoon. Lake Park, well actually all of Ilsandong, has a very 'SimCity' feel to it - it's a completely planned city that's only about 20 years old. Before that it was just farmer's fields on the edge of the city - now it's home to tens of thousands of Koreans and has its own subway line leading out to it. We camped out and chowed down on our decadent lunch - baguettes with havarti cheese and roasted chicken, watermelon, and M&M's! YUM!

The park was packed with Korean couples and families out enjoying the perfect spring weather - such a beautiful day. Brad had brought along his frisbee so after lunch we tossed it around for a while, trying very hard not hit passing baby carriages, old ladies, and dozens of small children running left, right and centre! We almost took out some stray children with a rogue frisbee shot a couple of times, but luckily avoided any direct hits!

After our time in the park we went and got some ice cream from Baskin Robbins (there's one on *every* street corner all across Korea) and then wandered around LaFesta for a while where we ran into Kesley. LaFesta is a large outdoor mall - it has a very 'Southern California' feel due to its open-airiness and free-flow design. After the mall we all took a cab back to Brad's for dinner. Andrea made caesar salad (the first I've had in Korea - god I was missing it!) and then ordered some pizzas. We pigged out on our awesome dinner and sat and chilled and watched TV together. It was then sadly after 9pm and time for me to make the great trek back to Shihung City. I said my goodbyes to the gang and then made the 2-hour trip home on the bus and subway. It actually went by fairly quickly, all my connections worked out perfectly, I had a seat the whole way home, and best of all had Fleetwood Mac and Boney M to rock out to on my discman. Most excellent!