Unlike most foreigners in Korea, my friend Jessica and I decided to take a road trip. Both of us are avid road trippers back home, so we figured that a road trip across Korean was a once in a life time opportunity. I mean, who road trips across a country like that? Not many people I know. We recruited our friends Simon, Andy, and Marissa.. and we were off! We headed east towards Saraksan National Park, which is the biggest and most famous national park in Korea. The weather wasn't great, but we still had a grand time seeing the sights!
This was the view from our room. It reminded me of some old Korean movie or.. maybe Mulan.
Soraksan National Park also has Korea's biggest Buddha statue. He did NOT disappoint!
Like I said, the weather was a tad dreary, but we still were happy to be with Buddha!
After the big national park, we headed down the coast, making a few stops along the way. We stopped at the Crabtown of Korea (but ate no crab because it was crazy expensive), Sockcho,
and slept in Pohang: the city were Korean dreams go to die. Then, FINALLY, we arrived in Busan.
I'm starting to fall in love with Busan the more I visit it. Not just because of the beaches and beach-life atmosphere, but there's just something about the city so contradictory to Seoul. Before I moved to Korea, people told me that Busan was the San Francisco of Korea while Seoul was the New York. While I don't believe either of those to be accurate, if they were that would definitely explain my attraction to Busan. Here is our group on our first night out in beautiful Busan.
(Lighting 'em up)
and went white water rafting.
Anyone who knows me knows that after a little incident on the Yakima, I have not been a fan of water. So for me to hop on this boat was quite a conquering of my biggest fear. My apologies to my boat-mates for my constant screaming and Negative Nancy attitude. I do have to admit that it was a fun experience!
After a day of outdoor activities, we headed to our pension to take it easy and relax. And by "take it easy and relax", I mean norebong (Korean karaoke) for hours and hours in to the morning light.
This is a shot of some of my favorite people in Seoul: Pex, Alex, Stephanie, Wrayzie (of course), Andrea, Simone and Clodagh. I have no idea what song they were singing here, bu clearly fun was had.
When taking a break from singing, I took to teaching local kids how to high five...
It was a fantastic weekend that followed a fantastic road trip vacation. I don't think I have fully recovered from the amount of non-work activities I've been taking part in lately. I feel like I need to take a break from all the breaks I've been having! This full work week is already dragging by, but I have a lot of events to look forward to. This weekend is the ex-pat festival at the Seoul FC game, so I'm excited to watch some soccer with good friends. Then the next weekend we have a four day weekend (our last of this semester) and the following weekend is... my 25th birthday. I'm not sure what my feelings are yet about turning 25, especially turning 25 in Korea. I don't feel that old. And yes, to me that is old right now. I swear it was just yesterday I was cruising around Maple Valley in my beautiful, red Mustang without a care in the world. Now I'm about to be a quarter of a century old? Time flies. I'm excited to celebrate such a big birthday with my friends here in Seoul, because this is a great group of people I'm lucky enough to have befriended. However, I will certainly miss going to Migos with my family and having drinks with my friends. Perhaps I will just have this birthday be a repeat of 24 and celebrate the big 2-5 next year. That's not cheating, right?
All is well here in Seoul.. I hope the same goes for all of you!
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