So,
it's been a while...again!!! Really I have no excuse :)
I've done a lot since then, tho! I went to South Korea!!!
Seoul and Busan to be exact. It was fun and and I got to spend time
with my friends from training. I prefer Busan and definitely wanna go
back. It was so bright and airy and full of AMAZING coffee shops!!! Big places with 3-5 floors, big comfy
chairs, and free wifi!!! I could live there, seriously. I loves me some coffee shops. I also had the best latte of my life
there :)
Busan really was beautiful with a pretty big beach BUT I saw pics of
it in the summer and it gets CROWDED.
Ugh, I don’t think I could handle it. My friend also tried a bug!! It looked like a cockroach
without the shell. She bought a
cup from this woman on the pier.
In the fish market there were all these people selling them in boiling
cast iron skillets. Gross! So she
scooped it into a cup and gave 3 toothpicks so we could share. Needless to say, the extra toothpicks
were a waste of space. She put one
in her mouth and it immediately came back out between her lips. Then she chewed. EEWWW!!! I feel gross thinking about
it!! Anyway, she said it tasted like nothing and also kind of like a bean. Whatever, I’ve tried some things in
Japan but eating bugs is not on my bucketlist. Anyway, we walked around with the cup and we asked a
stranger what it was. Their
English was poor so we got “baby butterfly.” I almost gagged!
Then later we were told it was silkworm!!! Oh man, I’m so glad I never
ate it!! Would you?
We also got ridiculously lost in Busan and walked around for quite a
while searching for our starting place and trying not to get angry at each
other because we were hungry and lost.
But overall, it was a great place to visit. I’ll be going back.
Seoul was pretty good. I
didn’t do a lot of shopping but my friends went nuts. I did find some great cosmetics and jewelry. In Myeong-dong it’s amazing to see how
smoothly the shopkeepers transition from Korean to Japanese to English. They would be rattling on in Korean,
see my Japanese friends, and IMMEDITELY flip in to Japanese seamlessly. It was an art :)
My beef with Korea (and I’ve said the same about Japan) is that there
is nothing uniquely Korean that shows the culture. And I looked!
But I feel that these places had some great things but others saw how
popular they were and they set up shop with the same things offered so now
everyone carries the same thing and nothing stands out. We walked down any street and there was
a twin or triplet of that same store 100 feet away (or less!). Buying gifts was a tad difficult. It’s not any easier here in Japan,
however, and I’m worrying about what I’ll take back for others.
I also had my first experience in a hostel. 2 actually – one in Seoul and one in Busan. Both were very clean and friendly but
the toilets reeked!!! Ugh – like
backed up sewage! Disgusting! Otherwise, hostels aren’t bad and I’ll
try them again.
I also almost missed my flight!!! The bus that takes you directly to
the airport just stopped running.
We didn’t know it at the time but eventually we asked someone and they
said it’s stopped for now. I was
already waiting 20 minutes. So we
hauled ass to the subway station and asked “information” how to get to the
airport. They told me to take this
train, then this train, then this train, etc. It was too much.
I was freaking out and one friend was trying to find directions and
another was meeting a friend she should have met earlier but couldn’t b/c my
bus was late. Finally, after
speaking with several unhelpful people, I hopped the train, barely said bye to
my friends, and tried not to freak out as I urged the train to move faster to
Seoul station. Seoul station is
huge so I had to go from one end to the other and JUST made it in time (3
minutes) to catch the express to the airport. I made it to the airport, checked my luggage, grabbed food
b/c there’s not food on the flight, and realized that my gate was the furthest
away and included another train ride to that area. UGH!!! I made
it to the place with 5 minutes to spare.
Freakout!! But I made it :)
South Korea was great and I will be going back!
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