Thomsen Young

I was supposed to meet a team member for coffee in the morning. Yet sometimes, when it comes to traveling, there can be miscommunication. On the bright side, I got to see the early morning of the area where we were staying and noticed how this little neighborhood is a popular place for people to go out and socialize late at night.

Most of the stores and restaurants were closed and wouldn’t open until 10 a.m. Yup—you guessed it. It was Sunday morning.

I took a stroll down the alley you see in the featured image so you could get a sense of what it looked like. It was eerily quiet. Cold. So cold, in fact, that every time I wanted to take a picture, I had to take one glove off, snap the photo, and put the glove back on as quickly as possible. I walked to the end of the alley, looking for my teammate, but to no avail. I turned around and headed back to the hotel.

Later, during breakfast, I found out my teammate had gone to get coffee. Apparently, they were having issues with their phone and needed to call their cellular service to figure out why it wasn’t working after arriving.

Speaking of breakfast—my first Korean breakfast was a well-rounded, hotel-style meal that felt hearty. The main plate had fluffy scrambled eggs, a sliced sausage (which I swear tasted like a hot dog), hash browns with mustard, and a warm dinner roll. I started by spreading butter on the roll, then moved on to the eggs and sausage. And without further ado, I added ketchup before proceeding to engulf the sausage like I was competing in one of those famous hot dog–eating contests.

I have to say, the portioning of the breakfast plate was something I hadn’t seen before at a hotel. Honestly, I liked it. Everything was organized, giving you a little bit of what you need without overdoing it. If I’m being super honest, my first thought was, I’ve seen this in movies—you know, those prison scenes in classics like The Great Escape.

Okay, I think I shared way too much information about breakfast. But if you’ve read this far, you now know how much I love breakfast and taking pictures of food. And yes, I’m saying “and” too much, aren’t I? Alright—moving on. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I’m a huge believer in that.

Now that you know this about me, let’s talk about the rest of the day—without giving everything away.

After breakfast, we all gathered in the lobby. Once everyone was ready, our team leader called for three cabs. The night before, we were told the plan was to visit one of the largest Christian churches in Seoul: Yoido Full Gospel Church.

One by one, in groups of three, we got into our taxis and headed out—or so we thought. About five minutes into the drive, our other team leaders noticed that our destination was approaching… way too soon. Around 7:38, we realized we had a problem. Phones weren’t being answered, and communication was breaking down.

Eventually, one of us managed to reach another team leader, but that didn’t really solve much—especially since none of us spoke Korean, and we needed to get back to the hotel. We tried explaining this to the taxi driver, but he didn’t understand.

Then I remembered I had taken a photo of the hotel. I pulled it up on my phone, put it on the main screen, and handed it to the teammate sitting next to the driver, who showed it to him.

He finally understood. That was Part One.