My first bus ride alone

Today marks the very first day I boarded a Korean bus all by myself. That may strike many people as strange, but when I lived in Seoul the last time, I lived very close to a subway station, eliminating the need for bus rides.

My (un)kind father gave me a terse instruction as to where to find the nearest bus top, and I wondered around the apartment compound to look for it. I probably shouldn't have worn high heel wedges but being the vain person I am, I chose to do so against my better judgment. When I finally found "a" bus stop, I ended up waiting for the bus that went to the direction opposite to where I actually wanted to go, and let go of the one that I needed to board. This mistake resulted in me waiting for the right one for 25 minutes. Even though the heat had died down significantly it was still pretty humid and hot. There was a monitor designed to let people know where the bus was and how long it would take to get to the stop, but it was just blank. Around this time I began to think FUCK EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS. Guess it was my own damn fault that I didn't do enough research, but at the same time the transit website failed to show the part of Pangyo I live in because the map was slightly outdated.
But of course, the bus eventually came. And I got to the rendezvous point pretty late.

My friend was to show me his office and we went around the nearby points of interest. There were lots of dragonflies in the park and they flew around Tancheon (Tancheon means Charcoal River). We then went off to a little square where there were lots of European cafes and eateries. The street layout was quite similar to that of Vancouver, though the cafe we went to was ridiculously overpriced. (I later argued that we pay for the ambience but I still think it's BS.) Afterwards we went to a shopping mall called AK Plaza. It was more of a department store with lots of designer labels and whatnot. There is no way I'll be buying those in Korea; the import tax in this country is completely preposterous.

The incident with the bus schedule made it painfully obvious to me that I will not be at ease without a smart phone. Had I had one, I would've looked up the schedule and other info more comfortably and freaked out less. I'm sure my perspiration was not solely the product of heat.