This weekend Nick and I took the KTX down to Busan to visit my good friend Erik from high school and spend a day at the beach. The KTX is the Korean high speed rail, we were traveling at 300 km/hr (around 180 miles per hour), it only took two hours to get across the entire country!
We spent the day at the beach collecting beautiful shells, playing in the water, and listening to rock music (there was an international rock and roll festival right on the beach!) There was some sort of gold quartz in the sand so it looked like the beach was glittering with gold, it was absolutely gorgeous. We also partook in a watermelon contest. We wrongly assumed that it was a watermelon eating contest...no...in Korea they make a watermelon drink during the summer that consists of watermelon chunks, pineapple, cherries, and cream soda. They carve the watermelon rind so it has fancy designs and becomes a bowl for the fruity drink. The contest was ACTUALLY to create the most artistic punch bowl. Had we actually known this we might have done better. It was incredibly amusing however.
We had some fun and made some new friends. It was great to see Erik again, I hadn't seen him a few years and it was good to catch up. He gave us loads of tips for living in Korea, as well as some great books on the language and things to do in the country.
In the morning Nick and I walked around Busan on our own for a few hours and almost bought a puppy...we decided against it because of our 50 hour work weeks; we decided it wouldn't be fair to the dog to be cooped up all that time alone, but oh my gosh he was the cutest thing, even Nick agreed, and he doesn't like little dogs. We named him Chewy, he was a Maltese puppy for only 350,000 won (or around $300, which is INSANELY cheap compared to the thousands of dollars people pay to get Malteses in the US). Some of the American teachers here have dogs...I'm still regretting not getting him a little bit. Nick and I have even talked about going back to Busan to get him...but I don't think we will. We have so much going on in our lives, it would be really difficult to have a dog right now. Never mind how would we travel, or bring him back into the States...a dog is a serious responsibility, and someone will for sure provide him a loving home here in Korea. It was very hard to walk away from him though...haha...we actually went back to the pet store twice because we were so compelled to get him.
This afternoon Erik and his girlfriend Charlotte took us to the old town section of Busan where we walked through the shopping district, had some delicious spicy chicken and cheesy fried rice, and then climbed up the mountain to the top of Busan Tower. There was a temple and amazing views on the top of the mountain. In Busan, they only built the city in the valleys of the area and left the mountains untouched, so it is a great contrast of wilderness and urban sprawl. We could see the port from there and it was very beautiful. Then we hopped back on the KTX and came home to Hwajung.
We're ready for another busy week of school!!
awwwww chewy is soooooooo cute!!!! twinkie would probably eat him tho haha. but he's so little!!!!!! awwwww lol
ReplyDeleteso last night mom and dad threw me a goodbye party since it was my last saturday here, bill was going to come with the boys and sonja and ashley were comin on their own, but ashley was rushed to the hospital becuase her appendix burst so she had to go into immediate surgery... it was very upsetting.
yesterday was also my last day of work and that was really sad. it was actually a good work day tho, johnny basically job shadowed me so he would know what to do if he helped dave out every now and then, but it was super busy, johnny and i had to go to a tire place like 6 times in 4 hours... it was insane!!! i miss u guys and can't wait to try and video chat wit u guys lol. love you!!!