IT'S MY BIRTHDAY WEEK... and I am spending it in SOUTH KOREA!! Looking back two years from now, I NEVER would have thought me, of all people, would be in another country!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, mine was a little rough. The only turkey we could find was at Quiznos on a turkey sub, and you best believe that was the best turkey sub of my life (9USD later)! But we are finding that traditions aren't as important as the person you are spending the holiday with. And a BIG shout out to everyone who has sent gifts and cards!! I can't believe how much mail I have gotten over here, it means the absolute WORLD to me that you all are so generous! Trust me, all the packages have come at just the right moment, when I needed that pick me up from home or that reminder of why I am over here. = ) YOU ARE ALL THE BEST!! *You know who you are*cough* Debbie, Kathy B, Aunt Carol, Melissa, Kayloni... MOM!*
To explain my lack of posts, I ran out of free picture room and I sometimes feel that pictures almost make my posts because it give everyone something to look at and then relate to my incessant jabber. But, I think I am just going to go through and delete dumb pictures of what I thought was "cool" at first and then realized that I was just NEW. haha.
To give a quick recap on my last month:
Mungdong Falls - November 3rd, 2012
Mungdong (water)Falls are about a 7,000 ($6.80) Won cab ride away (we weren't exactly sure how to get there, but now we know it's not too far from our house). I don't think we could have asked for a better fall day, it was chilly, but just enough to keep us comfortable on the hike and the sun was shinning through the falls colors, all-in-all... PERFECT! We started off our "hike" on the path provided, and then jumped on the path and climbed on the rocks. We were able to see all the little "falls" trickling down from the big fall and take gorgeous pictures of the different ones (see my Facebook for pictures.) When we finally reached the "fall" it was very...... lacking. We needed to go on a day after rain, but still waterfall none-the-less. After taking pictures at the bottom we climbed the stone path up to the waterfall. You weren't allowed to go out "on" the waterfall, it was gated off by a green fence, but we moosied our way around that fence and sat at the edge of the fall. It was stunning.(later insert pictures here)
After sitting at the edge of the waterfall for about 15 minutes, Scott talked me into climbing the rest of the way up. I am NOT hiker, I LOVE nature. If I know there is something that I will get out of it, I am down, but just wandering up a mountain to see the same thing I just saw (less than I just saw)... Not my thing, but I climbed up there. I even was asked if I was "Miss Korea" on the way up... Nice old man!!
When we FINALLY reached the top, I was DYING, being the biggest baby, telling Scott, "OMG, I THINK I'M DEAD!" OMG WHY DID I LET YOU TALK ME INTO THIS!? .... And come to find out, one of the couples at the top of the mountain could speak English, they heard the entire thing! Just. My. Luck! And that about sums up our climb to Mungdong Falls. It was beautiful, something I had never done in my life and I would do it again in a heart beat! Honestly, one of my favorite places we have been so far.
Geoje Flower Festival - November 10th, 2012
The following weekend, Ellie (our EX Korean teacher... a zillion sad faces!) asked us to come to her house to see the Geoje Flower Festival. I was super excited because I thought we had missed it, but it was also being held that weekend. So we hoped on our #120 bus (everyone smelled like egg salad sandwiches... so I about barfed!) and 40 minutes later we were at Ellie's parents grocery store. Her parents are so kind, her mom will give us present after present of groceries. This time it was cinnamon! I couldn't find cinnamon ANYWHERE so he mom gave us a BIG bag of cinnamon stocks.... they smell absolutely amazing and we "chop" them up as best as we can to get some cinnamon in our tea.Remember me bragging about our amazing weather the weekend before? Well, this weekend was FAR from the same scenario. It was very cold and very windy when we showed up to the festival grounds. Even the flowers weren't impressed. We all really enjoyed the flowers, but it was almost too cold to fully enjoy them. There were tents upon tents of just beautiful flowers, in every shape, size and color.
(Insert flower pictures)
Also, there was an Entomology exhibit. At first, I thought it was just of the insect in South Korea, until we happened upon the spider collection. I nearly fainted thinking that there were all these HUGE spiders living in Korea, and then Ellie informed me that it was from all over the world. That I would not be snuggling up to any scorpions while camping or having Scott kill taranchulas in our house ANY TIME soon. Big relief!!
(Insert bugs pictures)
When we all were frozen to the bone and ready to go eat some good grub, we went back to the grocery store and had samgyupsal (pork belly). Scott absolutely LOVES samgyupsal, it is growing on me. My body doesn't react well to the meat to fat ratio, but again, they were all so kind for having us over and spending the money on the samgyupsal. Eating any kind of meat over here is fairly expensive. Chicken is the cheapest (YAY!!) and beef is by far the most expensive. 1/4th of a kg of ground beef (half pound) is roughly 10USD!
We eat A LOT of chicken and pork... or ramen! = )
After Scott had stuffed himself with all the samgyupsal he could get his hands on, we took the barf bus back to our house and watched WALKING DEAD.... (we have to wait until the Saturday after it premiers in the US, but it is a nice way to spend our Saturday nights together!).
BUSAN - November 17th, 2012
We had officially been in Geoje for a little over three months and had not visited the second biggest city in Korea, Busan (which is only a 40 minute bus ride from Geoje). Friday night, Scott finally MADE the decision that we were going to Busan the next morning.We woke up and were out the door by 1pm. We caught the 1:20pm bus and arrived in Busan at around 2pm. Busan has an awesome subway system, it runs right to the bus terminal. We did not need to us taxis or intercity buses for anything, just used the subway.
First, we took the subway all the way to Haeundae Beach, an expansive sand beach boarding the East Sea. It was too chilly to take a dip, or even put our toe in, but we walked the boardwalk and watched all the people feeding the seagulls! It was nuts to see all of the seagulls be so daring, they would come take the food right out of people's hands!! After watching that for a short amount of time, the fear of being pooped on steered us inward. After wandering around Haeundae, visiting the market and eating Chinese food, we hopped on the subway and headed toward Centum City.
(Insert beach picture)
Centum City is the "Worlds Largest Department Store" according to Guinness Book of World Records. On the bottom floor, Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton line one side, while the raw fish man sold his fish on another. I found that quite comical, myself! Centum City was jam packed full of people! We were able to make it to the H&M store and we bought a few "Western size" clothes. We finally made it all the way up to the 9th floor (they skip the 4th floor... so only 8 floors in total, BUT they were JAM PACKED full of people and clothing racks!) It isn't like the department store we think of in the US, actually different brands rent out square sections of the floor (no walls) so it is really a maze trying to get through the Billibong section to get to the other side to visit the Bear Paw section. Very confusing!
(Insert Mall picture)
We rode the 30 minute subway ride back to the bus terminal and ACTUALLY caught an earlier bus (most people miss their bus from Busan because the bus leaves whenever they fill up... irregardless if you are on the right time bus as your ticket, I guess we were those people!) All-in-all, it was a busy day. It may not seem like much, but we did a lot of walking around and sight-seeing, we slept well that night.
