There's so much to see in the city

One thing that will definitely take some getting used to is the trek to and from our apartment. Our building is a good thirty minute walk from the nearest subway stop. This means that Chaz has to walk it every day as he will need to take the subway to commute to school. I'll also most likely have the trek as my school is a thirty minute walk away (in what direction? no idea...yet). Now, this thirty minute walk is no ordinary walk. Thirty minutes. That's nothing, right?

Wrong.

Walking to the subway stop is no big deal because it's all downhill. Unfortunately, that means the walk back to our apartment is all uphill. And I'm talking no ordinary hill. I'm talking halfway up a mountain. We are the last set of apartment buildings before there is no more development on the mountain. On the upside, we have a gorgeous view, but the walk is proving difficult to get used to. We always return home exhausted and sweating as a result of our trek. We could maybe find a bus to take us up the hill, but we are far too intimidated to try the all-Korean bus-system. At least the subway has stops in English.

Besides the awful trek up our mountain, the subway is incredibly wonderful for getting around the city. Today, Kat took us to Centum City and the Shinsegae Department Store, the 2009 Guiness World Record for largest store in the world. And it was huge. 10 floors (including a basement food court) full of brand-name boutiques selling everything from clothes and shoes to computers and stationary. We found an Apple store (amaaazing! Called A# Shop).



But probably my favorite was the stationary store. Kat said we could find stationary stores that sell cheaper items, but we did splurge on a few cute things. I wanted to buy just about everything! I'm definitely going back for more.

In the stationary area, we also found a friend!



It's Totoro! I remember watching this Japanese movie as a kid starring Totoro, a magical creature who befriends some children. So wonderful!

Then, on the rooftop of the department store, there's a garden/grassy area with a phenomenal view of the city and coastline.



After that, it was the ride on the subway (where we met Drew, a guy from England who is teaching in a new school in Busan) and then the tiring trek up our mountain.