Frustration

I have been looking for a new daily planner since we arrived here in Seoul.  Somehow I managed to misplace mine between MI and here.  I've not had much luck on my own.  Mark asked around at work and a co-worker told him of a bookshop that has a large stationery section and should have what I'm looking for.  So on Sunday, I left Mark home with the girls while I went on my mission.  Mark asked how long I would be and I said, "about 1 hour.  It depends on how long it takes to find this place."  I had a good idea of where I needed to get to, about 15 minutes away from our house.  

Well, I was way off in my time estimation.  It took me an hour just to get there.  First I missed my u-turn (yes they are legal here) and ended up way off course.  Traffic is so bad in this central area of the city that I spent a majority of my time at stop lights.  I finally got back on track and could see the building I needed to get to.  All I needed was to park.  But I turned at the wrong place an ended up way off course...again.  Then I found myself on a one-way street.  I was just about to give up, when I finally found the parking lot.  I took the stairs up one flight to get to the book store.  I was taken back as I opened the door from the stairwell into the middle of this massive book center.  Seriously, the store is about the size of the biggest Super-Duper Deluxe Wal-Mart you can imagine and it was packed with people.  Thank heaven I had a map with the layout of the store.  

I managed to find the stationery section and was able to navigate it pretty well.  I can't even really describe it to you, but its just different from what I expected.  The department was broken up by brand.  So instead of just looking for the planner/calendar section, I had to explore each area before making my decision.  Which wasn't easy.  In true Asian form, everything seemed to have characters on it, and pre-printed doodles on the pages.  I did finally decide on one and checked out quickly.  I also managed to find my way out of the store and to my car with no issue.  Although, somehow I lost my receipt between the check out and my car and then had to pay $5 for parking.  (Most places give a discount, or offer free parking if you make a purchase in their store on that day.)  

After all of that....I was home in 15 minutes.