Alexis' Adventures in Asialand (but only Korea...was just going for alliteration)

So Alexis was finally in Korea! If you read my last post, you'd know all about our first disaster trip in Seoul, but UMF 2012 was totally worth it and now I can say I was at the first every UMF in Korea. Pretty cool. It's taken me forever to write this because I've been busting my ass finishing my TESOL certification, but now that's (mostly) done, and now you can hear about Alexis and I's adventures in Korea!

Everyone pitches in to cook dinner.

So to pick up where the last post left off, ....well....we honestly don't remember a lot of the normal week. It mostly consisted of taking Alexis out to every kind of Korean restaurant we could think of and making her try everything. One night Casey, Alexis and I went to 10F (probably one of my favorite restaurants) and we got kiwi flavored soju, which happens to be the most delicious flavor of soju ever (and...as Casey and I later found out...also the best flavor of makgeoli). We also went to a Japanese restaurant at one point which was pretty good, but Korean Japanese food honestly isn't much to write home about. We did have some sake in a box that actually wasn't half bad. The rest of the week involved me working while Alexis stayed home and pampered me by being super domestic, and my apartment looked really nice for awhile after that. It was a good thing too, because one night Casey and Caitlin came over and I tried my hand at cooking Korean food for the first time. It was pretty damn good if I say so myself, and the girls made deviled eggs too!

Alexis actually got to come to work with me twice...luckily on days where the kids weren't being terrors. All the kids ran around whispering "yeojachingu, yeojachingu"which means "girlfriend" in Korean. They were all too terrified of her to try talking to her in English though. I showed her how massive Lotte Mart was and we went grocery shopping for actual food since I wasn't living alone for the next week.

Chillin at the office and painting students with gel pens

On Thursday, my director invited Alexis and I out to dinner on Sambok, one of the three hottest days of the summer, for some traditional Sambok Samgyetang! It's boiled chicken with ginsing. It was pretty delicious, but impossible to eat with chopsticks and a spoon. I looked ridiculous. I also got to show off my Korean skills a bit.

Samgyetang! Delicious but impossible to eat...

Felt so good to get it short!

On Friday, I wake up early because I decide my hair is way too long for how hot it is outside. We go to the Franck Provost hair salon in City 7 and I proceed to get treated to the hair cut of my life. I get the most meticulous cut ever (like this lady wanted each strand PERFECT) and then had a cute assistant girl give me a legitimate scalp massage. While this massage is going on I start thinking about how much this is going to cost....$80? The massage was convincing me it was worth it. After getting thoroughly pampered, I go to pay and learn my haircut is only $20! Later, my co-teachers would tell me that's expensive in Korea.... America, sometimes you suck.

...But I still love you!!!!! And I miss your fatty, greasy food....mmmm....I digress....

Most delicious ice cream ever!
And a cute picture Alexis made <3

We grab some ice cream from Baskin Robbins on the way out of City 7 as we waited for the bus to Dogye. Alexis got Vanilla Sky (creamsoda and vanilla I think?) and Shooting Star (raspberry and poprocks) while I got Apple Mint sorbet and Blueberry Aloe ice cream. Apply Mint was a little too minty, but Blueberry Aloe was like the most delicious thing I have ever had in my life.

We went out pretty much every night after work, but we didn't go too hard because we were "saving ourselves for Seoul" (that was Casey's excuse). It was probably a good thing too because at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning we all boarded the bus to Seoul. Per the usual, I slept most of the way.

We met up with Minyoung at the bus terminal and headed to our first destination: Itaewon. We made the smart decision on the way and picked up a T-Money subway card for discounts on the subway fares. It probably saved us a lot considering how much we rode the subway that weekend.

First thing we did when we got to Itaewon? Ate Mexican food! It was damn good too. I still think there are way too many people in Itaewon, but it was inevitable since I had to take Alexis to Namsang Tower and show her the lock I left. Alexis and Casey realized I wasn't lying when we got to the base of Namsang Tower and they saw how ridiculously steep that incline of the hill leading up to the tower was. I still can't believe girls make that walk in heels.

Jump photo!...and other cool shots.

This time we put it INSIDE the heart...

We get to the tower and - would you believe it? - they took my lock off the heart statue. -_-; Apparently there is a sign that says not to put locks on it. Whatever. Alexis and I got another lock and each wrote on it this time. Then we locked it on the inside of the heart. Casey was running around trying to be super nonchalant, but was actually super suspicious. He didn't want us to see what he wrote for his girlfriend OR where he locked it. I respect his privacy. I bet it's something super cute/romantic.

We didn't waste much time, because we had too much to see and do! Caitlin and Minyoung had planned the whole trip out, so we were whisked off to our next destination: Myeongdong!

Got my Binsu bartending license yesterday...body shots!

This place was crazy. We tried shopping, but it was literally like a "where do we start?" sort of shock and awe. And there were thousands of people everywhere. It was pretty difficult just to keep track of the group leaders. We eventually decided to stop at a cafe for a rest and some bingsu (imagine a snowcone mixed with a sundae but...infinitely better. I'm pretty sure I posted about it in my trip to Taejongdae). We had no idea what the drinks were, so we just randomly ordered whatever sounded good. I ordered the "Golden Lighthouse" and it was pretty fantastic. Some sort of wine...beverage. lol. and complimentary cheesecake! Can't beat that!

After a good rest and some inappropriate photos, we marched out of Myeongdong and onto our next destination: Gyeongbokgung Palace. As Caitlin pointed out in her blog, this was mostly just Casey's "artsy photo" time and we were all his models. But it was really cool/crazy to see the magnitude of these palaces. We must have walked for ages and barely covered half of it. It was pretty surreal to see ancient buildings in the foreground and massive cityscapes with giant LCD monitors on the front of buildings in the background. It was like something out of a Samurai Jack cartoon.

I was exhausted from all that walking, so Caitlin suggested we do a little MORE walking and find a Cat Cafe. Well, as expected, Alexis absolutely flipped shit over this idea, so we couldn't say no. We saw some crazy stuff on the way over. A mini Corona parade passed by, blaring music with cute asian girls hanging out of a convertible VW. So Western. We also discovered this confectionary wonder that will blow your mind - ice cream filled waffles. Like -WHAT? So GOOD! And only a dollar?! Casey practically had to drag me away when I wanted seconds.

Ohhhh yes! Ice cream waffles and mexican food!
...and all the other cool stuff we ate along the way.

We then came to the Cat Cafe which, as the name implies, was full of dozens of cats of all sizes and varieties. My favorites were a little flat-faced one that looked like an Ewok and these two cats that, for whatever reason, had one pair of legs shorter than the other. It made them look super adorable! I called one Lil' Lowrider and the other was Scrunchinz. We were probably there for like...forever. So many cats to play with! And Alexis attracted them like a magnet. They began to slowly pile up around her for luvins.

^This cat's front legs are shorter!

After being covered head to toe in cat hair, we cleaned up and decided we were all absolutely famished...so it was off to find some Korean BBQ! We tried a bunch of new kinds including...pig skin, I think it was? Ended up being infinitely more delicious than it sounded and everyone got super full. We decided it was time to kick off the evening right and look for a bar to live it up in. We poked in and out of a few, but none really had the vibe or the crowd we were looking for. As we wandered, we stumbled past a randomly placed Korean shop with cool men's clothes and I was eagerly whisked inside and dressed up like a Korean Barbie Doll (not that I minded). I ended up buying a hat, a shirt and a sweater with some of the money from my first Korean paycheck! I'm not going to lie, I looked pretty studly.

We finally found this bar called Ho Bar (which one? I don't remember. There are like 17 throughout the city) that was pretty awesome and we ended up getting two pitchers of mixers, a bottle of Absolut and a large tra of fruit for like 70,000 KRW? Which is roughly 70  USD. Between the 5 of us, we each only spent like $14? It was a ridiculously good deal. And we all got hammered. I was already a little drunk because I had discovered Family Mart sells flasks of whiskey for $6 and we had been passing that around since early evening. I also discovered Korea has hundreds of flavors of cigarettes, so I bought a pack of Mojito flavored ones and passed the night with a few of those as well.

This is where things got a little fuzzy...

This is the point in the night where we have to find a place to stay. Luckily we had Minyoung with us or we would probably have been wandering the streets of Seoul all night. He tried checking us into a jimjilbang (hold on...I'll explain) nearby but they we're repairing the women's section or something so we had to find another place to stay. Minyoung apparently knew where he was going, so Casey, Alexis and I just kept drunkenly following them. At some point Casey decides to pour water all over me and retaliate tenfold, so we're both drunk and soaking wet, stumbling through Seoul. At some point I think I felt bad and ended up drunkenly begging Casey not to leave Korea...and it came off more like a marriage proposal.

It was beautiful...i don't care what you say.

The hot room. It was pretty gorgeous.

We stopped for some late night food and I had a minute to sober up before we got to the jimjilbang. Now, a jimjilbang is a lot like a resort spa for drunks (not only drunks...but it works out well for us). As long as they aren't full, you can come in without a reservation, pay like ten bucks and spend the night. They give you a wrist band with a key on it and some clothes for the night. You stuff your clothes (that probably smell like alcohol anyway) into a locker and get naked. No one wears like bathing suits or anything. You just get naked and go shower and whatever. The men and women are obviously separate. The bathes for each are on separate floors with the public common/sleeping floor in between.There are three or four public baths of varying temperatures in each bathing area. One is like a cold pool, one is warm, and one is ridiculously hot...but it felt really good. There are also a few saunas the relax in. It was really nice getting some time away from the girls and getting to talk about guy stuff and relax in the hot spas.

Then, whenever you're finished, you put on the clothes they've supplied you with and head to the common area and go to sleep. Apparently the bunkbeds were only for women, and Minyoung and Casey got kicked out in the middle of the night, but I was like "screw it, I don't speak Korean" and just turned over and went back to sleep. The perks of being ignorant =P There were also "hotrooms" and "coldrooms" that you can lay in if you want, but the cold room was too cold for me after the spa and the hot rooms freaked me out because I felt like I would suffocate in an oven, but plenty of people were chilling in both.

P.S. - Random stop at Condomania! Here you can see
condom pops, Anime condoms, and a Pikachu one!

The next morning we get up and go out to the common room where Casey and I grab breakfast and Caitlin treats us to massages from the massage chairs. I observe the common room and there are WAY more people here then their were last night. And I thought WE got in late. It kind of looked like a refuge camp with so many people sleeping everywhere. We showered and changed back into our own clothes and finally headed home. We got lucky and a cafe near the bus station had like 12 different types of massagers: one for feet, one for calves, one for back, etc. It was just what I needed after all that walking!

We grabbed a bus back to Changwon and slept the whole way back (at least I did). There wasn't a whole lot of time for rest, because I had to be back at work on Monday. We woke up early monday because Alexis wanted to try to get in some Korean shopping time, so we went to City 7 again to hunt down some shoes and a bag for her. Finding shoes for Alexis' huge American feet was impossible =P, but Alexis was impressed by my ability to talk to to the clerk (in the most elementary level of Korean ever, but enough to get us what we needed). We stopped for lunch at the Lotte food court and it was the best food court food I'd ever had. Then it was time for work!

At some point in the week we ended up drunk
in front of the Pullman Hotel...this was the result.
...their fault for having an army of white tigers.

We grab the bus to Sangnam, not realizing a string of bad luck seemed to follow from that point on. Alexis and I go to work on Monday and I think "hey! I have an hour off for lunch! I'll take Alexis to this huge department store next to my work!". We went shopping and Alexis bought some cool Korean clothes that the salespeople begged her to wear out of the store so they could show off their wares on an American girl =P. The store was like 6 stories and even had a restaurant and a market inside!

We eventually get back and it's like the school is burning down. Apparently, the two teachers I work for, who each give me their personal half of their schedule, got something mixed up, or I got something mixed up, and I didn't have an hour off after all. So I missed a whole class! Everyone was pretty pissed, but I still had classes to teach, so I just powered through it.

The next day I tried to make up for Sangnam campus blunder at my Dogye campus by cooking for my co-teachers and they really liked my Korean soup! My director didn't deliver my registration card to me herself, so I took that as a bad sign. Then we got chicken with Caitlin and Casey and I got off at the wrong bus stop like 3 times before just taking a taxi to the restaurant. I didn't dwell on it too much since it was Alexis' last night in Korea and we wanted to party hard!

New additions to the crew and some
good ol' fashioned American drinking games.

Party hard we did. We went to Monster Bar and ran into these two awesome guys named Andrew and Jake who have been here for 3-4 years and speak pretty awesome amounts of Korean. We drank quite a bit of makgeoli with them and then headed to IP's for some intense beer pong like true Americans. Everything after that is kind of a blur. We lost Caitlin, Jake and Andrew somewhere, but Casey kept us drinking strong. I remember hitting up a few other joints and getting supremely wasted and deciding just to go home, grab Alexis' suitcase (she left the heavy one here) and get on the bus to the Gimhae Airport. I'm actually surprised I managed all that, because it's really a blur. I just remember getting to the airport, sitting in a chair, and passing out.

I woke up about three hours later, realized Alexis was gone and I was VERY hungover. I stumbled to a bathroom, relieved my stomach of its toxic contents, then went back and passed out again. After about four rounds of this, I was aware enough to realize I had lost my bag somehow/somewhere. I groggily shuffled around the entire airport looking for it and eventually (after composing myself enough) placed a claim at the lost and found before dejectedly boarding the bus back home. I was so bummed the next day at work (I really loved that bag), until Minyoung messaged me and told me he called the airport and they had found my bag! Even all my money was still in it! Koreans are so nice!

Oh...and Alexis made it to Japan safely too =P

For wading through all that, you get bonus pictures!!

Bonus Alexis!!!

Bonus Casey!!

Bonus Caitlin and Minyoung!!!

Bonus Me!!!

And Bonus Me AND Alexis!!!

See you soon!!!!

휴가 - Jinhae and UMF Korea 2012!

On our way to Jinhae!

I'm finally getting somewhat caught up on this blog! I really need to update it more frequently, because I don't even remember what I did the first day of my vacation. Especially because there are no pictures from that day, so let's just assume I did boring stuff like clean and nap and whatnot. I was supposed to meet up with Minyoung for dinner and was planning on probably just being a lazy piece of shit until then (Actually, I was going to work on my TESL certification), but then I get a message from Boram saying she wanted me to come visit her hometown of Jinhae with Kimyn, Irene and her. I was like "Well...that sounds WAY better than what I was originally planning on doing, when do you want to meet up?" and it turns out she wanted me to meet at City 7 in like 20 minutes. Well, shit. I got dressed super quickly and messaged Minyoung that I was heading out to Jinhae but I would still be back at 7 for dinner if that was okay with him. I waited a few minutes for a reply (I only have wifi), but I couldn't wait too long, so I took off without hearing back, determined to be back by 7 pm for dinner.

I got to City 7 and looked around, assuming Boram and crew would be waiting for me on a bench, but I didn't see anyone so I figured that I must have beaten their bus here. Suddenly people in a strangely cube-shaped car start waving at me and I realize, stupidly, that Koreans actually have cars in Korea. They don't have to take the bus everywhere. A little embarrassed, I jumped in Boram's car and we waited for Irene to pull up behind us before caravanning to Jinhae!

Jinhae is...kind of like the Satellite Beach of Korea. It's really pretty and earthy, but I get the feeling that it might be a little on the slow side. Still, it reminded me of home and i was excited to be back by the ocean. Boram took us to her mom's restaurant where we were treated to a feast for kings. I tried talking a bit to her mother, but she spoke about as much English as I speak Korean so I didn't get too far. I was content just hanging out in the kitchen and watching her clean and cut the eel so effortlessly. She had each eel fully cleaned, disemboweled, decapitated and ready for consumption in three strokes of her knife. It was pretty amazing to watch. I wish she could have taught me, but I'm pretty clumsy in the kitchen and I feel like I would have just gotten in the way more than anything else.

I left the kitchen to help Irene and Kimyn set the table with twenty different side dishes and a few bottles of beer and soju. We hardly had room at the table for our own plates with everything we set on it. I pretty much just ate off the side dish plates. Koreans aren't really germaphobes like Americans are.

Boram cooking us eel!

The eel was finally ready and we sat down to eat the easily five pounds of eel Boram's mother prepared for us. Boram cooked most of it while we watched and took shots of soju, but we could only wait so long to eat. It became a perpetual cycle of us eating and Boram cooking more until we forced her to stop and eat some herself. Koreans are way too hospitable. the eel was the most phenomenal thing I have ever eaten in my life. I'll probably never have a meal that good again ever. Until the next time I go back.

After dinner we went down to the seaside and took a ferry out to some unknown local island Boram wanted us to check out. The ride was so relaxing and the view was gorgeous as well. I'll stick in a bunch of pictures of just the scenery. I usually hate scenic pictures, but some of this is just absolutely gorgeous.

We just don't have anything comparable in Florida...

Korean lighthouses look pretty sweet.

Irene just looks absolutely terrified...

We finally got to the island and it was actually a little sad. There was graffiti everywhere on houses because people were being thrown out by the government because they wanted the island for some reason or another. It felt like a ghost town in some places, especially at this elementary school we found. That despondence was immediately remedied by a giant trampoline we found on the playground! We probably wasted a solid hour bouncing on this trampoline, but it was so much fun I can't describe it without sounding crazy. Most of the time, Irene was just curled in a ball trying not to get stepped on. She's so tiny! We realized that we were going to miss our ferry back soon, so we headed back to the boat and enjoyed the peaceful ride back. Obviously, more scenic pictures to follow.

(If you don't think those pictures are breathe-taking, you're a Communist.)

We say our farewells to Boram's mom and head back to Changwon in Boram's car with just enough time for me to make it back for dinner. Boram lets me use her phone's wifi (which is a cool feature on Korean phones I don't think we have in America...) to text Minyoung and let him know I'm on my way. He messages me that he isn't arriving in Changwon from Daegu until 8:30 since I told him I was in Jinhae for the day. I was a little bummed, so I asked the girls if they wanted to get some drinks with me in Sangnam-dong while I waited for Minyoung to come to dinner. They agreed, we stopped by Irene's house to see Tony the cat, and then headed off to beer republic for some overpriced American beers. Yum. At least they only stock stuff like Stella and Hoegaarden and not anything repugnant like Michelob or Icehouse....

Girls going wild at the noraebang...

We drank for awhile until Minyoung came into town, but then he texted me that he was tired and wanted to stay at Katie's. I was quite a few beers in at this point and didn't want to leave so we just agreed to raincheck our dinner date and I headed further down the rabbithole with Kimyn, Boram, and Irene. We went to a few bars/restaurants and then, as expected, we hit the noraebang! I discovered Irene is a phenomenal singer and makes everything everyone else does sound like garbage, but I was really proud of my ability to sing Jason Mraz fairly well while intoxicated, so Boram (also a huge Mr. A-Z fan) and I dueted the 3 or 4 songs of his that were available and even 100% "I'm Yours". That felt like a pretty fantastic accomplishment especially after my epic drunken failure to sing Tenacious D which Katie so graciously recorded. Obviously, there are never any cameras around when I do something awesome.

Lots of Korean army guys at
the rest stop on the way to Seoul.

Soon Boram had to get back to Jinhae, but that didn't stop Kimyn from dragging Irene and I to at least three more bars/restaurants for "one more drink" and we even managed to get denied at a few "No Foreigner" clubs. I managed to haul myself away around 4am and, per the usual, ended up getting onto the bus to Seoul with only an hour of sleep to go pick Alexis up from the airport. The bus ride there was peaceful, but I didn't sleep much, so I was super worried that I would be exhausted for Ultra that night.

I got to Incheon airport an hour and a half early so I spent some time exploring the airport and tracing our route out so that we could hurry on our way to the concert. We would be a little late, but that wasn't a hug deal since I didn't even know the opening acts. I discovered a few cool little treasures the airport had to offer as I waited. On the way to the airport subway, there is a random ice rink set up for kids to skate for fun. There was also a Korean choral group preforming/rehearsing (?) in the airport randomly and they were really good! They also had some funny little bits and I was thoroughly entertained for about 30 minutes. Then I went to go wait for Alexis to get off her plane and, luckily, it came in like 40 minutes early!

Ice skating rink in the Incheon Airport

See what I had to carry?!

Of course, she had all her luggage to move to Japan with her so each bag was roughly 70 pounds. It wasn't so bad on the airport subway, but once we hit the Seoul subway and had to transfer a few times, I was cursing those damn bags and every single stair I had to climb or wrong elevator we went up/down in the unrelenting heat. I was sweating like a far man eating a philly cheesesteak. We finally made it to Jamsil and I couldn't find an elevator to the surface so I had to haul both suitcases up two flights of stairs. From there it took us 15 minutes to hunt down a taxi driver who could take us to our hotel, but we finally got there, dropped our bags and took of for the stadium. After a few wrong directions and taxis driving us to the Olympic Park instead of the Olympic Stadium, we made it to the concert ground and learned that we weren't quite out of the woods yet. Korea was extremely unprepared for it's first Ultra and there were so many superflous and arbitrary lines we had to stand in or didn't have to stand in but thought we did. One line was to claim our tickets, but another line was to trade our tickets in for wristbands....? -_-; Not very well thought out. Plus it was hilarious to see all the Korean girls there in clubbing clothes like long dresses and 5 inch heels. They looked damn good though.

We finally got in for the beginning of Steve Aoki's set and managed to squeeze up toward the middle of the huge crowd of Koreans going absolutely crazy for this Japanese DJ. Steve Aoki alone was enough to make up for all the shit we had to go through to get there. He started at 8 and played for an hour and a half. Then when he called out "last song", he played another 30 minutes. He dropped some new track with Knife Party and a few more UMF exclusives. I've never raged so hard in my life. I have also never seen Koreans go so crazy either...for anything...especially electronic music. Then Skrillex came out and then it was just lights out. People were jumping and screaming and dancing. Skrillex has evolved into an absolutely wild live producer/dj since we saw him last year and his remixes of his own songs were jaw-dropping. We got up to the front at one point, but I had just been going so hard for the past three and a half hours that I had to leave and get some water. I was like 100% drenched in sweat and about 40% of it probably wasn't mine.

After the show we grabbed some Pocar Sweat (Japanese Gatorade) and a kebab before trying to grab a cab. The cabs parked outside the arena were asking 30,000-40,000 Won to take us the four blocks to our hotel. We were like "Hell no". After unsuccessfully trying to grab a cab on the main drag (people were running into the street trying to get cabs and they all just kept driving by...idk why) we just decided to hoof it back to the hotel. We grabbed some bulgogi burgers from a Family Mart and I ate mine in the shower while Alexis just fell straight asleep. We were exhausted. The hotel sucked. There were no plugs in the entire hotel room, so we unplugged the mini fridge to charge our phones, but what can you do? It was a last minute hotel for like 50,000 Won four blocks from the venue and the subway. Not bad.

We left early in the morning fully intending to make the noon bus back to Changwon to get there in time for Caitlin's birthday dinner that night, but we failed to consider that goddamn luggage yet again. We had no idea where we were going and at some point it turned into some old silent movie slap-stick comedy where we ride an escalator down a floor, then see a sign for an exit so we drag the luggage up a flight of stairs only to realize that we're back to where the escalator is that we just rode down. Drenched in sweat yet again and thoroughly fucking sick of Seoul and this 150 pounds of luggage, we finally made it the the bus terminal with minutes left to catch the 1:20 bus back to Changwon and we almost missed that one. It pulled away as soon as we got on.

Caitlin's birthday dinner was awesome. We ate at an Outback...in Korea...and I had a cajun shrimp and rice dish that was a succulent taste of home that I probably wouldn't have the luxury of tasting again any time soon. We all got our own dishes, but ended up eating down of each other's dishes Korean style anyway. It becomes habitual. Caitlin had a wild steak with a gorgonzola cheese topping and a wine sauce on top. It was very rich. Everyone's food was super delicious. We went out a bit after that, but Alexis and I were exhausted so we called it a night soon after that. She's here from the 3rd until the 15th so my nextpost will probably chronicle all that insanity.

Until next time, America! 안녕!

Epic Weekend Act 2: Yeosu and Taejongdae

This is taking me so long to update! I'm so busy, my blog posts are falling behind, so bear with me! The second half of the weekend was a complete adventure. Saturday was the big trip to Yeosu with Casey and Caitlin to check out the World Expo 2012!

Caitlin made me try this ice cream.
Blue raspberry with pop rocks inside!

Casey and Caitlin showed up to my place around 8:30am, but we took the wrong bus to the train station and ended up missing our train at 9:10 that may or may not have been there. After some quick thinking, we hop a bus to the Masan Express Bus Terminal and take a bus to Yeosu from there. I think it actually ended up being a little faster? But definitely not as comfortable. The bus on the way there was a little hot, but it wasn't full, so I got to lay down and nap for a bit. Win.

As soon as we get off the bus, it's pretty much just a matter of Casey using his very broke (but significantly better than Caitlin or I's) Korean to ask the way to the Expo. Turns out, buses are free for the expo. That was a relief, since I had little cash and my MyB scanner was at home. It also turns out that what cost the general population 33,000 Won, and foreigners 10,000 Won, only ended up costing the three of us about 3,000 Won a piece, which was a nice bonus. I thought it looked like Disney World from the outside. They even had little mascot statues at the entrance like in Disney!

The ceiling of the building behind us was a giant screen
with 3D sea life swimming across it. Like a digital aquarium.

She was too cute not to kiss. Don't judge me.

The place was massive. Luckily we got there around 1ish? So there we complained that there were a lot of people and really long lines...but we really had no idea what we were in for later in the day. Basically, if you don't know what the World Expo is (because I definitely didn't), it's an event hosted by a different country every year with different themes so countries around the world can showcase their achievements (and maybe boost tourism). This year's theme was "Sea and Shore" and so much of it had to do with sustainable energy and such projects harnessing the ocean. Some countries just showed off their coastal access and promoted cultural exchange and tourism. The mascots for the event are Yeony and Suny who represent Sea and Shore respectively.

This guy seems pretty happy...

Not going to lie though, a lot of it was wild propaganda. Pakistan did some wild PR campaign that would have made Don Draper proud..basically selling Pakistan as the happiest and free-est place on earth. There were plenty of other really cool countries, though. We walked around and checked out some of the smaller ones without lines first and then got really hungry so we took a break for lunch. Strangely, there wasn't a ton in the way of foreign cuisine there. And what was there was outrageously expensive. So we ate some bibimbap which was a win anyway, because Korean food is still technically foreign to me. Haha. JD - 1 Expo - 0.

Octopus Bibimbap and Makgali!

It had octopus in it and i was curious to try octopus for the first time. It honestly wasn't something to get super excited about. It doesn't have a whole lot of flavor, but has a cool texture..so that aded nice variety to the dish. After lunch we decided to tackle some of the more impressive exhibits and there were some really cool ones. Turkey had a big exhibit with a digital fish pond that had fish that swam away from you if you made any sudden movements near them. So obviously we ran around trying to step on them for awhile. I also learned a lot of cool stuff I didn't know before like how Turkey is really really close to Korea. That explains why I see little kebab stands everywhere.

I can't remember what I wished for...
but I don't think Buddha answered it.

Angola was swelteringly hot inside it's building, but the video was actually really well done and made me want to visit Angola. Plus Angola was the only country that loaded me down with swag afterward. I got a flag, a pin, a hat, a passport...I love you Angola. But of course this somehow lead to Casey and I singing our own Angolan national anthem to the tune of the Kinks "Lola". So the Koreans must of thought we were drunk, wandering around singing "AN-GOLA! G-G-G-G-GOLA! A-N-G-O-GOLA!" It was really catchy and would be stuck in our heads all day. I should write a letter to the Angolan government and tell them to buy the rights to that song from The Kinks.

We were the models for all these African warrior statues.
See the resemblance?

My favorite country was Norway. There was a pretty large line, so we figured it must be awesome. It was pretty cool. We had an interactive video experience that was basically like "We're Norway! And we kick ass at extreme sports!" The country looked so gorgeous, it definitely sold me on visiting. I also learned Norway holds boxes of every type of seed in the world in a warehouse...I guess in case anything ever goes extinct? Kind of reminded me of Titan A.E. so that was nifty.

Standing on said pile of rocks...
The water was up to my knees.

We then decided to head to the opposite end of the Expo where all the exhibits with robots and super crazy interesting sounding stuff was. We got sidetracked by the shoreline because it was so hot out and ended up taking off our shoes to go play in the ocean. Casey got his jeans soaked up to the knee, but they dried really quickly. Caitlin just relaxed on the edge while Casey and I took large rocks and piled them up so we could stand on them...because...I have no idea. But it was fun and relaxing. Then we just ended up stopping again anyway to grab some smoothies to cool down. It was really really hot. I'm a big fan of how Koreans tend to jus throw down mats and take a nap wherever/whenever they feel like it. We saw enough napping Koreans at one point to make it feel like a refugee camp.

That line goes all the way
to the Samsung building.

We didn't get much more accomplished after that because around 4 or 5pm Koreans started rolling in and lines became long line Disney World doesn't even know. So we just messed around until 6-ish, but the last bus left for Changwon at 7 so we decided missing that would be a bad idea. I was a little bummed, because some of the buildings looked wild architecturally. One even had hot air balloons inside that you could ride in the building apparently!

Bonus montage: Taking pictures with Mascots:

New Zealand's Mascot!

Not sure what country this is for, but he's cute!

 So we head home and the bus driver overpacks the bus some how so one lady is just left wandering the aisle with no one willing to get up to give her a seat. So I give her mine and sit on the ground in front of my seat, which it turns out was pretty much where the engine block was, so I was sweating bullets the whole ride...and my butt was on fire. Luckily Casey offered to switch with me at the halfway point and I guess we made a good impression on the people around us. The kid in front of us started sharing his snacks with everyone and the businessmen next to us loosened up and tried out their English. It was a cool public transportation bonding moment for everyone.

Then we got home and decided to get some bottles of Makgali and we drunkenly played Uno for a few hours until the went home and I passed out to get some sleep before Taejongdae the next day.

BUSAN and TAEJONGDAE -

The next day I wake up and grab an early bus to Changwon Station to pick up my friend Hyerim so we could go to Busan together. Of course, I leave my survival kit at home and so I don't have my iPad with all the bus routes and take the RIGHT bus, but it goes down a strange street and rather than see where it ends up (if you're friends with me on facebook, you'll know that last time I tried that I ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere.) I just jumped off, got all kinds of disoriented, so I grabbed a nearby taxi and rode it the whole four blocks to Changwon Station. I was so close... -_-;

I met her at the station and we grabbed a bus to Masan's Express Bus Terminal since it's cheaper to get to Busan from Masan and the Changwon/Masan terminals are relatively equidistant. Luckily, I knew how to get there already since we had gone the day before. Surprisingly, Hyerim had no idea how to get around. I guess I had this assumption that because she spoke Korean fluently, travelling around would be so much easier. But I guess an unfamiliar place is still an unfamiliar place.

This stuff is delicious!

We got on our bus and chatted for a bit. The ride was only like 45 minutes, so that was nice. We got off and had to take the subway from there. I was quickly learning that Hyerim had absolutely no sense of direction and I had to use maps to figure out all our routes. She kept telling me "oh! You are Korean!" and I kept replying "No, I just know how to use a map!" But since I could read maps, and she could speak Korean, between the two of us, I wasn't really worried about us geting lost.

First thing I noticed about Busan: there are lots of really cute, well-dressed girls in Busan. We wandered around Busan for a bit, grabbed some patbingsu, which is pretty much a big bowl of sweet milk shaved ice and fruit and honestly is probably the most delicious thing i've ever eaten.  We went in a few shops, checked out a book store...I learned I read Korean on roughly a 3rd grade level, which is maybe impressive, but Hyerim kept wanting me to get children's books with sticker pages to study my Korean -_-;

After that she took me to the fish market which initially wrecked my nostrils because I had to get used to the pungent odor of the fish market, but it was actually really cool to walk through and see all the fish  alive and swimming, and even some weird things that were like pulsating worms. Imagine an adams apple perpetually moving and that's kind of like these things. Even Hyerim said she doesn't like them. But they had lots of crab and even a sharks head. You can buy your seafood fresh there and they will bring it upstairs and cook it for you and serve it to you, but it was really pricey. I definitely want to do that some day though.

Boarding the boat

Then we took a bus to Taejongdae which is a famous seaside precipice that you can take a boat around (which we did) or you can take a train up to the top of (which we also did). We took the boat first and got to see some beautiful angles of the peninsula and inset caves I wish we could have explored. Being in a boat and on the sea again made me feel really good. Just smelling the salty air in Busan felt like home a little bit. Whenever another tour boat passed us, I would wave at all the people, but instead of waving back they all pulled out their cameras and started taking pictures of me -_-; It was pretty funny though. The whole time we kept asking, what is this crazy looking island in the distance? We actually eventually learned it's called teakettle island. I still don't know what it's for, but if you're in the right place at the observatory on Taejongdae, you can see Japan slightly to the right of Teakettle Island, which I thought was pretty sweet.

Teakettle Island

Posing for Korean tourists

Dicking around on the boat.

We then got off and had to take a car back to the middle of the island. Hyerim had us get into the wrong car -_-; but I honestly probably wouldn't have done much better. We get back to the midway point and stop for water. We had ice cream earlier in Busan, and it was so hot that my melon ice cream and melted all over me, so I skipped out on a second round of ice cream here. Hyerim was smart and got the ice cream in a pouch. It's initially completely frozen and you drink it as it melts. Korean ingenuity. We start the walk up to the train station and I feel like I'm climbing up to Nangsam Tower in Seoul again. This is why Korean girls have such nice legs. The line for the train was huge but I was willing to wait. It only cost 1,500 Won each for a ticket and was better then climbing all the way up and down that steep mountainside. The train was actually super adorable looking.

We took it up to the observatory where I got to see Japan and ate some Toast and Hodugwaja, which is a walnut shaped snack filled with red bean paste usually. It's delicious. We walked around the observatory and found a gallery on the top floor dedicated to some famous Korean actress who visited and took a bunch of cute photos there. I took photos that probably destroyed their original cuteness.

Look how cute we are!

Face it, we're perfect together.

Then we took the train back and ended up missing the stop to the top and had to take a SECOND train, but there was no line this time, so we were good. We got to the top by train, but unfortunately the next mile and 3,895 steps we took were down the cliff-face. Walking down was fairly easy, walking back up was a pain in the ass. I was drenched in sweat and Hyerim was just like "lalala". All the Korean girls there still looked beautiful after that climb and I have no idea what their secret is.

We made that long trek down the cliff-face because Hyerim pointed out a spot to me on the cliff that isn't roped off that where she said people used to go hurl themselves off of to commit suicide, so naturally I had to check it out. It was really awesome. This portion of the day is best summed up as beautiful pictures and a lot of bitching about walking, so I'll just give you the pictures. Enjoy!

We made it! Fuckin' champions!

Standing out on a ledge with the
communications tower in the distance.

The rock layers are really pronounced

The fun before the pain

It doesn't look that high...trust me, it is.

Hyerim was so scared I would fall.

See those dots down there? Those are people.
That's where we went  to pretend suicide.

Epic picture of the cliff

The side of Taejongdae in the background

Exhausted.