Today was going to be a very overwhelming day of events. And since I was a little stressed out about today, I only got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep the night before. So, really starting the day off strong.

Here’s what my day looked like step by step. Enjoy!

1. Drag my little suitcase (Emily let me borrow hers) to the bus stop up the road.

• To be honest, it’s hard to mess this part up. But overall, it’s a bit tricky using map apps in South Korea. Fun fact – Google Maps is a little wonky here and not very helpful. I had to shuffle between Google Maps, KakaoMap, and KoreaSubway app to make this entire journey possible in English.

2. Take the 8155 bus to Namtaeryeong Station

• The buses in Hyangnam are quite frequent, so that helps things along. I would be taking a bus for about 50 minutes and then transferring to the Seoul metro.

3. Take train 4 from Namtaeryeong to Myeong-Dong (towards Danggogae)

• I was actually gearing up for this part to be difficult, but then I discovered that the whole thing was pretty easy to navigate. As long as you have your eyes open, you generally don’t have issues when it comes to public transportation. Give yourself plenty of time, and you’ll be fine.

4. Get off at Myeong-Dong and walk six minutes to the office

• I got a little turned around even with Google Maps, so I just stopped and asked a doorman for help. He didn’t speak English, but he was very friendly and looked at my map. He pointed to across the street with a smile, and I said thank you in Korean.

5. Take test shots in the office

• I met up with my point of contact for the office photoshoot, and I spent several hours exploring the office and taking test shots.

6. Lunch!

• The office worker then took me out to lunch which I thought was very generous and kind. We had quite a spread! Korean BBQ is next level. And she even said she was impressed by my chopstick skills! So BAM!

7. Find my hostel

• I booked a little private room at a boutique hostel 5 minutes from the office. Turns out, this area is the shopping district of Seoul, and oh my gosh – it’s a lot. I often saw the same beauty store again just a block away. It’s intense. Eventually I found my way to the hostel. The thing about South Korea (and I suspect a lot of Asian countries as well) is that finding entrances are a bit different than back home in America. Below is a photo from their website. I had to go past the fish tank, up the stairs towards the Korean dumplings, take the elevator to the fourth floor, and boom! There it was.

8. Explore Myeong-dong!

• When I arrived into my room, I really wanted to crash into a nap. But because I wanted to get a good night’s sleep, I forced myself out of the room to kill time. I wandered around Myeong-dong and just stared in awe of the madness. It was a lot of fun, actually. Really cool area especially if you’re wanting to drop some cash.

9. Rest in my room and get some sleep

• While traveling in South Korea, I’ve found the shower situation kind of interesting. I took a video to explain … (sorry, the audio messes up towards the end).

And that was my long, exhausting day in Seoul! But honestly, it was a really great day.