Next Stop, Home

Friday May 8, Day 10

I am out of bed before my alarm goes off, and already packed for home. I store my luggage with the hotel staff and wait for my friend in the lobby.

Side Note: We went to school together fifteen years ago, but have not seen each other in almost ten. She has been back in Seoul for awhile now and is from here originally.

I hop in a cab with her and we go to a restaurant close to where the cable cars load passengers.

My friend orders for both of us, and I am delighted to hear that we are having bibimbap, a meal I hadn’t yet sampled while in Korea. We caught up on life and joked about our days back in film school. She talked about her involvement with an animal welfare group that has its hands full fighting for rights of dogs bred for meat, the Nureongi breed. I am floored that this is happening in 2015. In the last 12 hours Seoul has opened my eyes up to a bigger picture of the world than I’ve had before and I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.

We walk down a path after finishing lunch leading to Hanok Village. This was totally unplanned, and I had not mentioned a thing to my friend, but this was the only place in Seoul that I felt disappointed I had missed. It is funny how the universe works those things out.

I get to enjoy it with a local who had also never been, a really nice moment to have. It is sad to say good bye, but I need to be back at the hotel by 2. We hug each other and promise to stay in better touch.

I make it back to the hotel at the same time as our group and we all leave for the station together. The airport check in goes smooth and I’m comfortably seated in my aisle seat heading to Vancouver.

Confused by the time change when we land, I am unable to answer my mom’s text when she asks when I will be home. The plane has already taken off from Vancouver when I finally get the math right. I’ll be home before 9 pm but it’ll I can’t reply until I land so I turn my phone off and pass out for the flight.

Coming home to Toronto always feels good; I miss my dog, my mom, and my life. There’s that feeling of accomplishment when I return, that’s another 2 checkmarks on my list of life.