Day 123: On Tour With The Irish

So I received a bit of a disappointing email today. It was from one of the directors at Poly Ilsan and he was writing to inform me that there wasn't any openings for me at that school. They had already begun hiring some new people before I had applied and so unless any of them backed out there wasn't going to be any room for me. I was bummed out to hear this because I really liked Brad's school, but it was totally understandable. They had made commitements to people other than me and I respect them for honouring that. Ahh well, it just means that I really REALLY hope that I get the Poly Bundang job!!

I had offered to take Ailish's two friends visiting from Ireland, Barbara and Ellie, into the city to check out some of Seoul's attractions since Ailish had to work all week and I have all this free time. I met the girls around 11am and we headed into the city on the subway. We went for lunch at Subway and then went and hit Insadong head on to do some serious shopping. The girls loved all the stores in Insadong and bought tons of cool little presents for their friends back home. After that we went to Changbeokgung Palace on the English tour. The girls loved the palace and even though I've been there several times now (including just last month with Henry!) I still really enjoyed it.

After the palace tour I took them over to a big Buddhist temple not far from Insadong. I don't remember its name, but it's a magnificent temple that is currently under reconstruction. It's covered in scaffolding and tarp, but it's still a beautiful building. We quietly entered the temple and sat for a few minutes to watch the worshippers pray and just take in the atmosphere. After the temple we wandered back through Insadong and went and had some dinner at Bennigan's. The girls have been having a hard time adjusting to Korean cuisine since arriving so I tried to stuff them full of familiar Western food all day today! Bennigan's claims to be an "Irish/American eatery" so we all fit right in there, and everything on the menu was familiar. It was a great dinner!!

After dinner we cabbed it over to Itaewon to try and retrieve Barbara's lost shoes that she left at the motel (no luck!) and then did a little more shopping. After Itaewon we headed back on home to Shihung to relax for a while at Ailish's. Tuesday nights are solid gold when it comes to television - The OC and 3 episodes of Sex And The City. Right on!! We all stayed up to watch the shows and had a great time just hanging out together. Barbara and Ellie are great fun and super nice girls - I had a total blast hanging out with them today. I hope to see more of them before they leave back home for Ireland next week!