I've always...

...been fearful of losing my way when traveling. Especially when one lives in a country that she is considered a foreigner in - despite living in the country for over 7 years and familiarizing myself a bit with the language, culture, food and aspects of traveling. Slowly I've become accustomed to driving around and, thanks to our GPS, I am more confident with driving further out of my comfort zone. I'm typically a good navigator but when it comes to personally traversing the route myself my internal compass just goes haywire sometimes. Not very comforting indeed. However, whenever I have gotten lost (the GPS, as great as it is, isn't always correct) - I've always managed to find my way back. And I do love a good adventure!

Last Friday evening the family and I drove (well, J drove) to Seoul. A potential fright fest but doable. We've become accustomed to braving the waters of driving in and around the big city a little by little. Parking in certain areas though is beyond a nightmare, so we drive to a somewhat nearby place then taxi to Namdaemun Market. I've heard a lot about the marketplace from so many others around here but this was my first ever visit there. J was looking for some camera parts. He found a couple things and we got a good deal for them. We get home and J tries out the new items. One of the camera parts doesn't seem compatible with the current camera parts he already had. Saturday afternoon. J finally had a chance to call the camera shop guy. He said we could bring the part back on Monday. I decide that the kids and I can take the subway up to there and try to return the camera part for a refund.

This morning marked the full school week off for Spring Recess. The car has been having some issues lately so I dropped it off at Sam's. The kids and I taxi to Songtan Station and plot a course, via the subway system, back to Namdaemun. I've taken the subway less than a handful of times in the entire time we've lived her. I'm familiar with the subway system here but I wouldn't say I'm adept at using it. I had a map (in English) and our tickets. We went on our way. We only had 1 transfer between trains to get to our destination. The kids and I, seamlessly, find our way back to Namdaemun and the little camera shop. I return the incompatible camera part and receive the full refund.

The kids and I then taxi to get lunch at Yongsan and do a little garden shopping before heading back home. We bought lots of seed packets, so the girls and I will have quite a diverse *fairy garden*. We only ran into one little snag taking the subway back towards home but we never strayed from our path back home. Woohoo! The kids (they were wonderful and had a lot of fun on our little adventure) and I had a great day of traveling about. We got back to Songtan Station where J picked us up after picking up the car from the mechanic's.

Now that I'm more comfortable with using the subway/train system here, my next big adventure will be going to the Damdaemun Fabric Market. I can hardly wait!