Visitor #2... ALAN from San Diego in Korea :)

I have a friend, whom I met in San Diego about a year ago. Alan was the neighbor of one of my closest college friends, Chanine. We've kept in touch over the course of time, meeting up every so often when I visited San Diego for work. One day a brilliant idea popped into his head that he should visit me in Korea. Being the genius that he is, he bought a ticket and 2 months later, he arrived in Seoul :)
There is really nothing like the feeling of having a friend from home visiting you in your new country. Not only can you show them everything you've learned, but they keep you in touch with reality.
Alan arrived in Seoul on Friday night. Due to my late work schedule, I wasn't able to meet him then, but I arrived in Seoul via bullet train at 10am on Saturday. My friend Lacey joined me on the trip as well to visit her friend Kevin who'd just arrived in Seoul. We met in the subway and went back to the hotel to drop off my luggage. Once in the hotel, he had a huge table decorated in what seemed like a MILLION things that he brought for me... a care package from him, his friend JR, and my friend Chanine... seriously, the most awesome, nicest, kindest people ever! There were DVDs, San Diego shirts, flip flops, fruit snacks, couscous, photos, bed sheets... how he managed to fit all of that into his suitcase is beyond me. I felt soooo special. There was so much stuff. I am so lucky to have such awesome friends. Little things from home remind me that people haven't forgotten about me. It meant so much.
After the opening of the gifts, we headed to Insadong to meet Lacey. While on the subway a nice Korean man decided he wanted to be my best friend. He talked to me for a good 20 minutes and almost missed his exit. I'm always amazed, even in a big city like Seoul how much people want to speak english with you. It really is amazing. ANYWAY, Insadong is such a great street. It has the best tourist shopping that I have yet to find anywhere in Korea, it's gorgeous and they have the Court cake presentations! lol They're hilarious! My brother David and I discovered it during his visit. They take huge chunks of fermented honey and wind up stretching and pulling it and doubling it and making it into like 60,000 hairlike strands and wrap it around some peanuts or almonds. It's delicious!!! And the presenters are so funny!! I tried to take another video of it but my camera ran out of memory. Darn it!
After Insadong, we explored a bit. Our ultimate goal was to go to Seoul tower around sunset time so we just strolled around on our way there. First stop was the heading to the Gyeongbok Palace. I visited there with my brother David, but I guess you can never visit a Palace too many times. It was just as nice this time around as it was the first (with less rain). After our walk through, we went took went to visit the Blue House... the President of Koreas house. The walk there was really beautiful. We passed by some old style Korean houses, a lot of antique shops and cafes. Very nice area. I thought we'd be able to walk around, a tour or something but now. There was very tight security outside so this was about all we got.
After the Blue House, we wanted to find the river. Along our walk, a protest was breaking out. At first we were intrigued, but after we saw old ladies beating police officers, and the riot force come in, we decided, considering we were American that we'd better go. Who knows what it was for but better safe than sorry. After that, we went to the Cheonggyecheon River. We bought a glass of wine and listened to the liveband playing La Bamba and some other spanish music. Wierd? Yes, but VERY enjoyable :) Almost like home. It was so relaxing. Next to where we were sitting (u can kinda see it in the back of the picture), there was a tiny ramp going into the water. There was a little girl walking down it and into the water. On her way in, she managed to slip on the ramp and land flat on her bum. Her father rushed after her and when he got to her, he fell right behind her as well. They were both drenched. The little girl and her older brother started laughing up a storm :) It was a very very cute moment to watch. It was those moments that for some reason, really hit a heartstring. Someday I''ll have that...hopefully... maybe I'll have something like that. We managed to make it to Seoul tower after that. It was a bit of a hike but it was worth it. It was gorgeous. The entire area surrounding Seoul tower is just filled with thousands and thousands of locks. I guess it symbolizes love for a lot of people... best friends, lovers, family. They write a message on the locks and then place them all around. Pretty impressive. Of course me... I'm anti-love lol. I made that clear in my photo lol. It was just amazing how many locks there were. Pictures couldn't capture it (1 cause it was dark. 2 cause the surrounding area was so large). Once we got up to the top of the tower, we had a gorgeous city view of Seoul. It was beautiful. There were windows all around. Written on top were different city names... if you headed that direction for so many miles, you'd get there. There were maybe 25 different major cities in the world. It was very interesting. Of course, I found my favorite one... Italy <3. onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcRtd6gF1vr4yp7VsllOET3ymSg5c_BF4exu_vhDls7MqgJHbwST5dSAeZDGeDmebIa0vAjGOMGfW2VPAGqWYNj_3drXqJd9L1G2JDlT9wmfAwEvObN9pgngyEx-SP6bMcE4MaTQU6j88/s1600/Alan+at+school.jpg">nt?" lol. I guess he's a little taller than they're used to. It was hilarious hearing him being called a Giant. Some of my upper elementary and middle school girls were soooo excited to meet him. They all got so shy. It was pretty cute. "Teacher, very handsome" they'd say. It was adorable. After a long, fun week, the weekend came again. He was leaving Sunday and I was going to miss my partner in crime. But of course I wouldn't let him leave without a proper send off :)
On Saturday, we were supposed to go to a Lotte Giants baseball game, but due to the rainy weather, we wound up bailing on it. We decided to go tourist shopping through Nampodong (the market area). Lots of things to look through. Once the rain became unbearable, we found the cutest coffee shop and took a break. I REALLY liked this coffee shop. Everyone gets their private little cubby. It overlooks the market area (it's on the 2nd or 3rd floor). In each cubby, there are pillows, a flat screen TV, and little table and we just sat around for awhile. The perfect girl friend date place :) When the rain calmed down a bit, we met up with my friend Thom. Thom worked at my school before I did, I am his replacement. It's been great hanging out with him and finally putting a face to a name in all those emails. He went home for a bit, but came back to Korea a few months ago. We 3 decided to go to Busan Tower. We didn't quite make it to the top, but we got like halfway through when we decided to find a place to sit and drink some left over Champagne. However, it was pouring rain. There was one dry bench where we tried to sit, and we were shooed off by some Koreans (apparently that was his umbrellas spot... not for us). What a jerk. We improvised the best we could... Which turned into us putting our umbrellas on top of the vines (which i am assuming create shade because they definitely didn't keep water out). Quite an adventure for sure. Around 6pm, we met up with some of my friends in Seomyeon where we were all going to have a BBQ dinner together. And what a dinner it was!!!!

We started at Donae-Nu, a great BBQ restaurant. We weren't that surprised when we got placed in the 'dungeon.' FYI, people tend to place the foreigners in the corner or in a seperate area... apparently, depending on the bar/restaurant, we're bad for business. Yes, now I know what it's like to be segretated against...however I'm pretty used to it by now. However we had a long table and we were next to another long able of about 10 Korean guys (more on that later). We had a great dinner. My friend Gill, Lacey, and Mary came (Mary brought her friend Cari), and my friend Thom, and Sunny (Sunny is one of my Korean co-workers that I"m close with) and some of Lacey's friends, Gavin and Josh (??). After going through a couple of beers and sojus, some of the boys decided to challenge the other table to drinking contests. Sonny was like "they shouldn't do that. Korean men can drink a lot." lol and she wasn't lying. Who would've thought that the American boys who drink like fish would still lose. There was a couple rounds of that. Then Lacey stepped in. She challenged one of the guys to drink. He said "if I win, I can kiss you." Her response "You can kiss my ass." Well I think she underestimated the amount of beer in that very large bottle (a Korean small bottle is an American large). So the crowd began chanting "kiss, kiss, kiss." lol. She she did it. The rules were that he couldn't stop until she did, and there began the world's longest kiss... a good 8 minutes straight of pure just making out!
It was quite eventful to say the least. At one point, we all (Koreans and foreigners) sat at one table and played the '3,6,9' game that we play in our classrooms. You go around the room counting. When you get to a number that has a 3, 6, or 9 in it, you have to clap. Sadly and Pathetically we never made it pass 20 lol. Who would've thought. The Koreans did better than we did as well! Embarrassing for a native english speaker lol.
After the dinner festivities, we headed to a bar in Seomyeon (the center of Busan) called Fuzzy Navel that had just been redone. We watched the World Cup game there. And it got pretty crazy! The Koreans go crazy over the soccer... especially being in the World Cup. I took a video of what kind of craziness was in the bar. It was packed!! (though it doesn't look like it from the video). There is a picture here of me, Thom, and Sunny. Kinda nice to have us all together. Since i was Thom's replacement at my school and Sunny still works there. I told them I was going to give the picture to our boss lol. NOT! Thought he'd probably be really excited if I did. More pictures were taken and more fun was had. We made new friends, danced around with the old ones. It came to a sad ending however when Korea lost in the World Cup game. Definitely brought a damper on things. So we moved the party to Kyungsun University area where we hit up one of our favorite bars, Kino Eye.

At Kino Eye, the fun continued. More drinks, dancing, talking, laughing, etc. Mary and I found this guy who was walking around with the Korean flag like a cape so we thought we'd indulge in our inner Korean.
Honestly, some of the night was a bit of a blur. I had no expectations of staying up till the sun rose. But I knew that Alan had to catch a 6am train and I was very sad to see him leave. Another great traveling partner. Knowing people who have the same passion in traveling as you do is such an attractive quality! It was great having brunch together and exciting stories of Europe and South America and where the other should go, etc. Definitely got me a bit more amped to see more of Central and South America (of course that's AFTER my European ventures... and Canada travels, and Africa and India travels... and eventually I'll figure out where I want to live and do with my life). :) One can only dream. :)
So we all saw Alan off at 6am. It was sad but we all had a great last night. Rumor has it that he passed out on the train and had to be woken up in Seoul. That's what a whole night of drinking will do to you. My story is that I drunkenly decided it would be a good idea to go HOME (since the subways were running) instead of staying with Gillian or Lacey. So I went to the subway and waited and waited. Well they start running at 6, but it still took like 40 minutes for it to reach where I was (in the middle of the line). So I survived the subway, and hopped on the intercity bus to go home... and of course, I managed to fall asleep on the bus as well. I woke up just as we were entering Ulsan. I hopped off the bus in a sleepy, drunken, daze and searched frantically for the bus going the opposite direction. I finally found one and took the 10 minutes back home... Finally arrived home a little before 8:00. I was MISERABLE! I slept about 3 hours, and then headed to my Sunday writing group. It was quite a chaotic 24 hours. :) But good times were had. Alan, visitor #2, trip= SUCCESS!

It's getting Warmer....

Spring has finally hit full force. Winter took its sweet time, and now it's not only getting warmer, but a bit humid.... which makes for perfect beach weather :) There have been several days in which I've spent soaking up the rays at Haeundae or Gwangalli Beach. Both very nice beaches with tons of half naked foreigners walking around in boardshorts and bikinis, while the Koreans stand around and watch. The Koreans love their beaches and never cease to amazing me (hence the guy to the left).

A few weeks ago, I got to go on a field trip with my students to Fantasia Land... a smaller version of Disneyland (though Everland is in Seoul... this place was pretty small but still fun). I had a great time with my students and co-workers. We took the school bus to Tongdosa area (Tondosa is a famous Temple nearby). We gathered up all the students... around 45 or so. Once inside, they were informed that they could roam around on their own for a bit but had to be back in an hour in time for lunch. Lunch was pre packed for everyone. They took off!! This was the time that I, along with the other teachers decided would be good for a quiet lunch just us... and a few of the middle school girls who stayed behind. I was pretty curious what our boxed lunch would be in the land that didn't eat sandwiches or lunchables. But I was impressed. It was 2 kinds of chicken, rice, kimchi (of course!), and some little green thingies. It was actually still a bit warm and pretty good. And of course pepsi to wash it down.
Once we finished, I had been requested with some of the middle school girls to join them on some rides. I was definitely up for it. I will admit that my stomach/body can't handle some rides like it used to but I still enjoyed them quite a bit. I figured nothing could really be as scary as some of the rides at 6 Flags Magic Mountain in California lol.
We went on several rides. One being the boat that rocks really high back and forth. The picture on the left is my co-worker Iris and some of our middle school girls (along with some other people lol). They were so excited. It was so great to see them all hyped up and to hang out with them out of school. They even spoke a lot of english for me :)
I used to LOVE rollercoasters growing up. Don't get me wrong, I still get a major adrenaline rush from them :) However, it's amazing to see the difference in how my body handles it. When my body twists and turns, it makes me more sore now, I get more nauseated when I ride a lot of loops. I used to do amusement parks like pro! What happened to me? One of the rides we went on, had the most amazing backdrop. I couldn't believe some of the pictures that were painted on there. SOOOOO inappropriate for children! There were a couple different pictures... but for some reason I can't upload them. This is just one. Either this is giving people the wrong impression of what should happen on rides, or I've been missing out! The picture below on the left is of me and Julie (another co-worker). I was a bit nervous about this ride (tho she was a little too excited!). We're in this circle thing and it just keeps flipping back and forth 360 degrees. Uggg! The darn lap bar KILLED my leg!! And the fact that I was upside down for long periods of time... again, can't handle it like I used to lol. We did everything from the haunted houses to the 3D shows to watching live bands play. There are some really great Korean musicans I've noticed. There was a group of 2 guys and 2 girls that were playing like violin, saxophone and other instruments and they were just so awesome!! I think it's so funny how they play so many english songs. People can sing them, but no one knows what they're saying. Wierd since I can't figure out the words to the k-pop songs to save my life. I have fun trying though :) The picture on the right is of Gia (she is the daughter of one of my co-workers). She was sooooo cute! Front and center for the show. Clapping and dancing away. Mmy co-worker, Esther asked me "is it wierd for you that no one is dancing?" Me-- "Gia is dancing" ESTHER-- "Gia is a special girl. Very different from most Koreans. Most Western people dance to live music. We don't." ME--" Why?" ESTHER--" I don't know. I think they would like it if we danced, but no one does." ... interesting. But seriously, watching Gia puts a smile on your face for sure :)
On another note, would someone please tell me when Snow White dyed her hair blonde and grew gigantic boobs? I don't remember either of those things in the fairy tale. In fact, i don't remember her being this seductive at all!! Oh Korea lol.
And one last comment, for all the readers out there whom I know are dying to make a height comment. Yes, I managed to get on all the rides.... but barely (see photo). Again, I'm still short for Korean. But JUST tall enough :)

AFTER the amusement park, I left with my boss and his family to have dinner with them and some friend for the wife's birthday. They're such a sweet family (even if my boss does creep me out sometimes). We had a great dinner, up a mountain in this hidden away restaurant that was right on a lake. It was sooooo beautiful and peaceful and tranquil. This restaurant was known for their duck (which was apparently quite expensive). I'm still picky on the meat thing, but I did try it. It's not bad. But I think my conscious got to me. I can't do it. I stuck to the pork (even though pork isn't my meat of choice (beef) but here in Korea, I've managed to eat a lot of pork at BBQ).
I hung out on the guys side for awhile, talking smack about the World Cup (my boss lived in England for awhile so he was talking about how they were going to crush US... ha ha we wound up tying at the World Cup ). Then I joined the womens side of the table.


Going to bed... write more in the morning

Venturing Samcheok/Penis park and Seoul with my brother

I WILL APOLOGIZE TO MY FAMILY IN ADVANCE. I HOPE SOME OF THE STATUES MAKE YOU LAUGH AS MUCH AS I DID, BUT IF THEY MAKE UNCOMFORTABLE (MOM!) SKIP TO THE MIDDLE.

When David told me that he wanted to visit on the dates that he did, I told him right away "just a heads up, some friends and I have been planning a trip to the Penis park for that weekend. So you're coming... sorry lol." I know that's not usually the first thing a guy wants to hear. But David was a rockstar about it and we went to Penis park for Buddha's birthday. Although, a lot of Korea is Christian, Buddhism still takes up a large portion. I am going to assume that the holiday of Buddha's birthday is a lot like our Christmas. Many things were closed (though not all thank goodness) and people went to visit their relatives in another part of Korea. So we went to Haeshindang Penis Park.

David and I met up with my friends Gillian, Lacey, Christina, Katie and Ryan at 7:45am at the bus station. It was a 4 hour ride so we wanted to get there at a decent time enough to explore. It was long but we mostly slept the whole time. When we arrived, we actually had a bit of a hard time finding a motel. Many were full. Plus, people see a big group of foreigners and get scared, I think. We wound up finding a REALLY nice one. We were happy. We dropped off our luggage and headed to penis park. Samcheok was BEAUTIFUL!! Just the bus ride to the park itself was absolutely GORGEOUS!! (on the right) All along the coast, blue water, green mountains, cliffs, it was amazing.
When we got there, we walked into the park which is was actually at the top of a mountain area. It was a bit of a hike... though it was relatively flat and easy (or so I thought until our hike back!). We walked through and saw a pond in the middle with a couple of frog happily jumping along the Lily pads. So peaceful. We weren't quite sure what to expect, however slowly but surely, the penises started arriving. First little things like on a bench post, then bigger things like statues along the path. Then we got around the top of the mountain area and we had a SPECTACULAR view... of the scenery... and Chinese zodiak penises. All 12 Chinese zodiaks were there. I was born the year of the rat... same as my grandma. There was actually a lot of great detail in these penis statues. I was pretty impressed with the continuity in them all as well as the carving detail alone. Couldn't help but take kodak moment. It was very interesting to see all the people who were there. People of all ages, very old, very young (lots of kids), lots of families. Considering how consenservative Korea is, I was surprised they had a penis park in general... even more surprised that they have a sex park (yes with statues, etc) in Jeju (which I may visit in August). Interesting country Korea is :)
After we passed through the top area, we continued on our journey down the other side of the mountain. Along the way we passed a variety of different/interesting/wierd/disturbing/hilarious/crazy statues... (as seen in photos). There were times that we had decide which way to go (Gill looks like she's not sure which way to head... pun intended, ha ha! I crack myself up sometimes :) yes, I'm a nerd). Then we had to walk down a long pathway of stairs. In the middle of the 2 paths of stairs was like a huge garden with flowers in different shapes and colors. Standing at the top with the blue ocean and green mountains in the background... it was soooooooooooo gorgeous. One of the most gorgeous views I'd seen in Korea I think. It took my break away. That was the view looking down. Once you got past the penises in the distance and looked up, you could just see the bulging penis canon (the canon is the parks trademark I think). It just really isn't something you see everyday. I still laugh as I look at how silly some of these photos/statues are. Who makes these things????
Once we got to the bottom of the mountain, we couldn't help but indulge in even more scenery. The beach was beautiful. The water was crystal clear, the rocks were perfect/gorgeous climbing rocks , and shells all over the shore. David decided he wanted to jump off the cliff. At first I was like 'why not?' then i looked at it... it was pretty big. He climbed up and once he got to the top I started freaking out (yes I do have 'mom mode' tendencies). He wound up jumping but from a lower distance. I got it on video too. Boys will be boys. The water did look refreshing though. It was pretty hot out. Of course, we took a few other photo ops. And yes, as you can tell, I've started taking on the Asian "V" sign in pictures... which I was recently told didn't stand for the "Peace" but for a 'V' as in 'Victory' that was commonly used after the war... a little Korean history there for ya :) We were running late catching the last bus back into Samcheok city, so we had to run all the way back up and down the hill, the way we came, to make the bus. The easy walk was a strenuous run. I am not a good hiker. And I was very out of breath after, but we made it.
We had a really good time. On the way back to our motel, we stopped at an Italian restaurant. No Italian food is as good as the food in Italy, and the Italian food in Korea isn't as good as the Italian food in America, but it was still pretty good for Korea.
HWANSEONGUL CAVE IN SAMCHEOK.......THE NEXT DAY, Saturday, our plans were to explore the Hwanseongul Cave in Samcheok, and then head to Seoul. So we took the bus to the cave. Again, the scenery was breathtaking! So many gorgeous views!! Again, it was at the top of a hill. There was a monorail thing that we could take up the hill but there was a HUGE line and we were on a time limit in order to catch our bus to Seoul. So we hiked it... 2 kilometers or so... all of it was VERY steep. I had a hard time hiking quickly on a not very steep hill... this was ridiculously steep... i seriously almost died!! I thought I was going to faint several times and even got nauseated a bit. I seriously think there is something wrong with me. However... I made it and inside the cave was worth every penny... and it was so cool inside... cool like chilly... which was awesome since I was so hot from the hike. But inside the cave was incredible. Really gorgeous. I'd never been in a cave before. It took us about an hour or so to walk through it (and we didn't even have a chance to go all the way through... but we got the basic idea). We all HAULED all the way back to the bus stop. Those 2 kilometers I almost died going up were a piece of cake going down... it was the dodging in and out of people that was the tricky part. David and Lacey took the lead and retrieved our bags from the storage unit while Gill and I came in next and we all waited at the bus stop ice cream in hand :) Then we took the bus back to the Samcheok station to catch, yet another bus to Seoul where another adventure begins :)

SEOUL. I will start this story by saying, FIRST, that before we got on what was supposed to be a 4 hour bus to Seoul, I had called the hostel that we had booked, and let them know that we would be arriving later than anticipated. I told them we'd arrive sometime after 10. They said they appreciated the call and that they would be waiting when we arrived. Well the 4 hour ride took 6 hours, and it had started pouring rain on the way there. So granted to say, that we were soooo tired when we arrived. We just wanted to find the hostel and kick off our shoes... especially after the long wet walk to get there. Once we arrived, there was a note on the door for us... it said "Welcome Danielle. Here are your rooms, 3 people in 1 room, and the 4th person in another room." and at the very bottom, in small print, said 'please use the code to get in." Koreans commonly use keypads instead of keys for entry. So first I was pissed, because we'd paid a few dollars extra, to be in a 4 person bedroom just to ourselves... and now they were splitting us up? I was not happy. And next, the note was attached to one building, and we couldn't find the key pad. It was raining and chilly, and hungry and we were tired, so we just rang the door bell. Weren't even which door was the entrance (it was a very vague and confusing note). A guy comes out the balcony and starts yelling at us... just starts going off on us for no reason (keep in mind, it's 11:40pm on a Saturday so time/day wasn't even THAT BAD). He kept talking to us like we were retarded and asking us stupid questions which ultimately resulted in him telling us, with no reason at all, that he didn't want our business and to go. He came down, gave me my deposit back and literally slammed the door in my face. I was in shock. NEVER in my life had I been treated so disrespectfully. I was pissed and angry and embarrassed (I was the one who had picked the hostel). We tried to do the right thing and call to say we'd be late, then we get kicked out cause the letter was written poorly and didn't clarify which building/door we were supposed to use??? I will NEVER recommend that place to anyone. We found a motel (which was fine but the point of the hostel was to all be together :( ) and we found a chicken place that was open late. We hadn't eaten since 10am that morning besides little snacks here and there so we were pretty starving.
After eating, it was around 1am. We were exhausted but we'd promised some friends we'd meet up with them. So my Seoul friends met us at the close subway stop. David decided to catch up on some sleep. We had fun just hanging out with the guys and getting a little glimpse of the Seoul nightlife. The one thing that I've noticed a lot about Korea is that you can never tell how quickly time is passing. Whether I'm at school or at a bar... the FLIES. When we walked out, the sun was up... Scary! I'm waaaay to old to be staying out that late lol. ANYWAY.
The next morning David, Lacey and I walked through Insadong area. Insadong is a street known for good shopping. I was impressed with some of the souvenir shopping they had. They had a lot of traditional trinkets that were pretty interesting. Lacey left in the late afternoon and David and I met up with my friend Derold. Derold and I went to college together in San Diego so it's great being able to visit him here. Derold first took us to Dongdaemun, which is another shopping area... more clothes though. David wanted to get some stuff. While he was looking around and trying on things, the employees noticed there was a skateboard. Derold told them that David was professional so they wanted 'a show.' So there, in the middle of the 7th story of this store, David put on a little show. They were very impressed. We both left happy customers. One thing I bought was this set (on the right). Pants and shirt... pajamas like. But read it... SOMETINGS TASTE FAVORITE SOMTTHINGS. 1. The writing is so messed up I can't tell what it's supposed to say 2. Even if the writing was correct, what's it supposed to say???? Just another example of Konglish... Koreans trying to write English. It's HILARIOUS (some kids wear shirts that say Boston, Massachubetts on it HA HA!!!!)
Next, Derold took us to a Shabu Shabu dinner. I'd heard of shabu shabu but had never eaten there. It was very interesting. They put this boiling broth in the middle of the table and you just put everything in there and let it cook. It was delicious!! And very light. At the end, they have noodles and rice and just mix everything up. It's hard to explain, just believe me when I say it was awesome :) We had a great time visiting with Derold. David and I went to bed decently early that night. I was excited that our motel had a bathtub. I told him not to disturb me for 20 minutes while I enjoyed the luxuries of having a quite bath by myself (versus with a bunch of other people at the jimjilbang).
The next day was Monday, our last day of vacation. We went back to Insadong area, but passed through so that we could go visit the Gyeongbokgung Palace. There were a few things I really wanted David to see while he was in Korea... 1. was a Temple 2. was a Palace and some other stuff. We never made it to the Temple :( But I dragged him to the Palace... and he actually really liked it at the end :) We stayed there for a long time exploring the garden, different buildings, taking pictures, and then there was even a Korean cultural museum... free. That was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be too. A lot of history throughout the years. It had a lot of information, pictures, and actual artifacts from several centuries. Things they used to cook with, hunt, write, everything.
After our visit to the Palace, I had originally wanted to visit the Korean Presidents house nearby (called the Blue House), however, we ran short of time. We wanted to buy some souvenirs before we caught our bus. We HURRIED to get our souvenirs. Literally running from one shop to the next getting what we could (I still didn't find postcards... it's so odd to me that Korea has VERY few postcards and they're hard to find). We ran to the subway, hurried through, ran from the subway to the train station (David ran faster and got our stuff from the locker... i lost my breath) We finally arrived at our train platform just in time to watch it pull away... of course. The perfect ending to our day. So we managed to switch our tickets, grab the next train, get something to eat and then headed back to Busan safely and quietly. We both slept on the way. We arrived back at my house around 11pm. We were both beat. Of course I had to work the next day, but it was nice to just relax a little bit. We had a GREAT GREAT time in Samcheok and Seoul. I am so glad he was able to visit me and we had the chance to explore around a bit :)
David had 2 days left. He spent it skating around, going to jimjilbang and just relaxing a bit. Though we'd been traveling around, we hadn't actually had real homestyle Korean food. I didn't want him to leave without knowing what we eat here. So before school one day, we had lunch at a local place by my house. We ordered 3 main dishes (1 being like a soup), and the rest are just side dishes that the Koreans love so much :) It was delicious :) HE liked it... well most of it I think lol. Some of it is still strange even to me. But at least I know how to order and for the most part, what I'm ordering... that's the hard part.
David made it back home safely. I had so much fun with him and was so glad he could make it out. I think he's caught the travel bug... the same one I have. It's an amazing thing. I hope that we are able to take a trip somewhere in the future. There is a big age gab between us so I hope that as the years go by, the closer we continue to get :) I love my brother!!!