Korean 101

I recently started studying Korean. Properly, I mean. I tried to study on my own, but I'm a terrible self-starter and I really enjoy collaborative environments so I knew taking a class would be a better option for me. It is definitely the right choice.

First, I want to introduce a little bit about Korean to you guys because I know you're reading this and feeling pretty impressed with my mad memorization talent and language skills. First thing first the Korean alphabet is actually called Hangul (Korean's don't even actually call themselve korean or the country korea... it's a bit weird if you think about it). It was invent by Sejong the Great a Korean king. He invented a phonetic alphabet because most common people did not have access to the education of the rich. Before this Korea used Chinese characters. Chinese is still used in Korea today, but to a smaller degree than in Japan. It's mostly just used for news papers and when they wanted to save space. Lots of Korean words are derived from Chinese words because of this. Anyway Sejong the Great is on all Korean money and they even have a holiday to celebrate the alphabet. To say the least Korean's are pretty proud of their alphabet. 

Okay, so I know some of you are going wow isn't Korean like really really hard? You must have to remember so many characters, it is an asian language after all. Not the case at all. Korean is phonetic which means all it's characters combine to make different sounds, thus making different meanings, pretty similar to English. And no there are not thousands of characters like in Chinese there are only 29 letters which can be broken down a number of ways. They have consonants and vowels just like English as well. Of course, also like English vowels and consonants can combine and make new sounds which makes even more characters, but I won't get into that. In their more basic form there are 29 characters. 

The reason Korean looks sort of similar to Chinese with the block-y looking 'characters' is because you write Korean in block form rather than in a row. You also read Korean left to right like English. But Terri, what about these block things? What's that about? So basically each block is a syllable. It's easiest to illustrate using a word. I'll use the word love today because it's pretty easy with only two syllables. Love in Korea is salang or sarang: 사랑 so the separate syllables are 사 (sa) 랑 (rang/lang) if you write it out without the blocks it looks like this: ㅅ ㅏ ㄹ ㅏ ㅇ so you can see where the blocks are. Pretty neat huh? Also, when you type in Korean the computer knows when you're trying to make a block and automatically puts the characters into the correct block as you type. 

So there are some rules about blocks... it's a bit confusing and I haven't learned everything yet but basically you cannot start a word with just a vowel you must put either a placeholder or a consonant. The place holder is: ㅇ. You may have noticed I also used it in the word 사랑 in this instance it is at the end of the word. How do I know it's at the end? It's at the bottom of the block. When it's at the end it makes a ng sound, but at the beginning it is silent. For example you cannot write ㅏ (a) you must write 아 (which just means 'oh' in English) but it's pronounced 'a' not 'nga'.

Another thing you may have noticed about 사랑 is I romanized it too ways. In Korean there is no 'l' sound or 'r' sound (actually most Korean letters only sound vaguely like there romanized counterparts, but this one is special). ㄹ is the character in Korean and it can make different sounds depending what is beside it etc. It doesn't make a sound I know how to describe, sometimes you hear it and think L then in a different place it sounds more like R, but often it doesn't sound like either. It is tricky trying to romanize any Korean words or sounds because even though a lot of the sounds in Korean seem similar to the English counter part they will have more than one sound depending what characters they are combined with or depending where they are in the word. For example there is a city in Korea called Busan (부산) which used to be romanized as Pusan simple because the 'ㅂ' sound is somewhere between a 'b' and a 'p' sound, I think it also depends where it falls in the word. Sometimes you also see kimchi romanized as gimchi because 'ㄱ' falls in between the 'k' and 'g' sound, but sound different at the end of words. It gets even more confusing when you add double consonants to the mix. 

Hopefully this isn't a confusing explanation. I want to write this simply without overwhelming everyone, but there are many differences in Korean and English so it takes a little explanation. 

Okay, enough Korean lessons. I want to talk about some of the differences in mean which I think gives interesting insight into Korean culture. First hello in Korean is annyeonghaseyo (언녕하세요) which if you translate it in google is literally hello, but actually in Korean it means (roughly) are you at peace. When you say goodbye there are two ways one for the person staying and one for the person going they both start with annyong, but end differently. Their rough translation is 'go in peace' and 'stay in peace' (there are various other ways to say goodbye and hello as well, but these are the most common).

I know some of you who are familiar with other Asian cultures or other Asian languages may be wondering about polite language and yes, Korean does have polite language. The the greetings in the last paragraph are all polite language. Polite language is used in various situations. Such as, talking to strangers, talking to people who are older than you, talking to superiors at work and etc. You can talk to your friends in informal language and there is a slightly different way to say things or different words to use. Mostly I've learned polite language because it is the safest to use. In certain situations where you are unsure which language to use you should always revert to polite language (I believe). I don't know much about it, but in some instances there is very polite language. 

The very last thing I should mention, that you've probably heard about around the web is Konglish. Now from my understanding (but don't quote me on this) Konglish seems to refer to two things. 1) Badly or Koreanized English translations and 2) Koreanized English words used in Korean. And there are a lot of them. The most common one I hear all the time is 커피 romanized as keopi. Can you guess what it is? Try saying it out loud a couple times. It kinda sounds like copy, right? Well it's not copy... it's coffee! That's right! Korean's love their coffee. There is no 'f' sound in Korean so 'f' are changed to 'p'. Similarly with 'v' so if you say elevator it is 'ellibeiteo'. Another thing that happens in Korean is because you cannot put two consonants together at the beginning of words you have to add a sound in between and sounds often get added to the end of words as well. Bus because 'beosue', sunglasses -> seongeullaeseu. You get the idea. The last thing that happens is Koreans take English words and the meaning changes slightly. I learned that the word 'hunting' has a slightly different meaning in Korean. It means to pick up girls or guys. So I guess you're hunting for guys or girls, I asked my Korean friend about it and she said it isn't as common now, but it sure sounds funny to me! 

So now you (hopefully) know something about Korean. I hope I didn't overwhelm you all with all this information! This is honestly just the tip of the iceberg. Please don't think this is a guide to learn Korean by, this is simply what I know and hopefully it can give people some knowledge about some differences in the languages which makes communication, interesting at times. I want to talk more about other things, but I honestly don't know enough about them to do them any justice! I don't speak Korean well at all. I can say a few words well (which is a great way to impress your coworkers apparently) and I can understand more than I can speak. Right this second I heard my coworker saying something I understood at least two words of. Reading and learning the alphabet is honestly the easiest part of learning Korean, but don't think for a second if you can read the sounds you are going to have any idea what it says. According to my friends who've learned Korean the grammar and verb conjugations are the trickiest parts (I've barely learned basic vocab). 

Personally I think learning a language when you're living in a different country 

(and teaching English) is a great way to connect with the people there, learn more about their culture and have a better understanding of how the kids feel learning English. Also, the kids love it when I can understand their Korean. I've surprised a few kids by answering them when they said 'teacher' in Korean (seonseangee) and I really surprised them today because one of them asked if I spoke Korean in Korean and I said no I don't speak Korean. The students were pretty confused by that one! Haha. 

Okay, really wrapping this up now. I'm enjoying learning a little bit more about Korea by learning the language and plus language learning is fun and useful. I recommend trying to learn the language of the country you're living in if you ever live abroad. Seriously. Do it. Okay, really, that's it. 

Jinhae Gunhangje Festival (진해군항제)

The Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival is world famous, and trust me there is a reason for that. My pictures do not do Jinhae justice at all. There were trees everywhere and they looked amazing.

We had decided the festival was a must to attend and it was definitely the right decision. We left early from Changwon (also a good decision) because we were (rightfully) worried the traffic would be bad. When we got to Jinhae we got off the bus a little before the downtown area on the top of a hill. You could see Jinhae stretching out before you dotted with beautiful pink blossoms poking up between the green trees and the sea in the distance framed by the land nicely (refer to my photos). It was breathtaking. I immediately took a hundred pictures (okay, not that many but I took a bunch). I was really surprised by how many cherry blossoms there were. Everywhere you looked you could see them poking up from between the green trees. All over the hills, down the road and stretching right to the ocean. I hadn't known their would be that many cherry blossoms.

We walk down to the festival and took pictures the entire time. The day was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. My friends had bugged me about wearing my coat and scar and they both came off as soon as I got off the bus. It was warm for the morning too. A perfect day. Finally we reached the famous stream and main festival area. If you google Jinhae Cherry Blossom festival you will see a pictures of the stream. It's got walkways going down both sides, then a bank down and more walk ways along the bottom. It was very green and fresh looking. There are spots were you can cross it on a stone path. The part that makes it really spectacular are the cherry trees lining the top of the bank on both sides so you're walking right under them. It would be beautiful even when they aren't in bloom.

There were also tons of people, even though it was still before 12 pm. There were also lots of food carts lining the street beside the stream making it feel even more crowded. It was impossible not to get a person in your photos everyone was there to admire the blossoms. We walked down the stream, ate some snacks and just enjoyed ourselves. It was really nice, although by the time we got to the bottom we were all starting to get sick of all the people as the crowd was getting bigger the further we went. Finally we went to a cute little park with some really interesting art work and a cute tree fort/platform thing made of large branches (again, see my photos). Another friend who lives in Jinhae met up with us and we decided to go eat lunch. We went to a popular Chinese restaurant and had jjajangmnyeon a popular chinese-korean noodle dish. I also got some dumplings with Lori and they were really yummy and crispy, not like ones I've had before.

After lunch Min had to go to schools so the rest of us walked down to the navy base which was open for the festival. It also had lots of cherry blossoms and was huge. It's very easy to forget sometimes that South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea. There were tons of people at the base to check it out and the option to bus down to the boats and water, but we decided to walk once we saw the line for the bus.

I need to interject here about something. All week at work my coworker told me how I shouldn't go to the festival because it would be sooooo busy and that if it rained all the blossoms would fall off the tree (it did rain and have a little wind storm thursday, but the blossoms were still intact Saturday). She also warned me it would rain... I didn't really believe her that morning, but I checked the weather anyway and sure enough they were predicting rain in the afternoon so I took an umbrella just to be safe... when I got to Jinhae the prediction of rain sounded ridiculous... there wasn't a cloud in the sky. While by the time we got out of the restaurant and started walking down to the navel base there were a few clouds around.

We got down to the ocean and saw that you could go on one of the ships and there was a war memorial set up on the pier (landing strip? Not sure what you call it). There were even a few pictures of Canadian soldiers helping out during the Korean war (or at least we presumed they were Canadian's because there was a Canadian flag). When we realized we could line up to go on the boat for no cost we immediately did. And then I felt it, the first of the raindrops. It was just a little sprinkle then... barely a sprinkle even. I just felt a tiny cold spot on my face or a hand a clear indication it has started raining.

By the time we reached the top deck of the ship it was full on raining. We had really good timing though because they had a little air show just after we got up there. It was cool to feel closers to the planes like that and I hadn't seen an air show in a long time. Unfortunately only two of us brought umbrella's so we were all trying to huddle under the two of them... or some of us anyway.

Since the rain started we decided it was time to go. We started back up the navel base kinda taking our time since the rain was a little off and on. It actually stopped by the time we got back into Jinhae so we were less worried about it at that point. When we got back we attempted to find a bus stop because our plan was to bus home... apparently this was a bad plan. First off, there was an insane amount of traffic everywhere and also a lot of the streets were closed because of the festival. They were using some of the streets as parking and other streets were set up as a market so you couldn't drive down them. We quickly realized all the buses at the stop we were at said 'delayed' so there wasn't much chance of getting a bus there. Instead we decided to walk further up the road, away from the festival to see if we could catch a bus there instead (there were also lots of people at that bus stop).

It wasn't any better. The rain started when we were walking up. First gentle, then it was pouring and we tried to huddle under umbrella's. I gave up pretty quickly it didn't matter which way you went about it there were only two umbrella's and 7 of us so at least 3-5 people were going to get wet. Unfortunately this is not the worst of the afternoon, oh no. It got worse than this.

I think it was around 3:30-4 when we first start attempted to leave Jinhae. We could see the traffic was bad and there were tons of people at all the bus stops. We eventually came to one where we thought we could catch the bus, unfortunately everyone else had the same thought and it was really busy.  The good thing about this bus stop was the gas station beside it so everyone who didn't fit into the bus shelter just stood under the gas station awing. We had high hopes for this bus and planned to dash for it when we saw it turning the corner.

When the bus finally came you could see it was already pretty packed, the windows were steamy and there was definitely a large number of bodies visible. We dashed for the bus anyway, feeling hopeful (or maybe that was just me) and everyone else at the bus stop dashed too. People getting on the bus in Korea is already a little rougher than I'm used to. Korean's do not worry about pushing you, bumping into you and cutting in front of you. Well now imagine that people are stuck in the rain, there only hope to get back to Changwon is this bus and who knows when the next bus will show up, so to say the least it was a little aggressive. You definitely had to be forceful to get on that bus. I attempted at first but when i saw how full in was and how many people were literally hanging off the entrance to the bus attempting to pull themselves on I gave up. Even if I could get into the bus there was no guarantee the bus drive would even let me stay on.  I am happy to say one of our group was aggressive enough to get her way onto the bus. The last I saw of Lori that day was her green jacket getting shoved down the bus by someone else shoving their way on.

The rest of us were abandoned in Jinhae. In a thunderstorm, no less. Oh I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Not only did it start raining, but there was thunder and lightening and then showers. It was unpleasant to be in no matter how positive you attempted to be. I kept trying to cheer Julianne up because she wore a really thin jack, didn't bring and umbrella and got soaked to the bone...well honestly I think we were all soak at this point. Finally I pointed out there was no reason to stand in the thunderstorm and wait for a bus we had no idea when would come and be cold and miserable.

We decided to find a coffee shop or restaurant to sit it. For some reason the part of Jinhae seeemed to be lacking in coffee shops. I'm not sure how this is possible because there are soooo many coffee shops in Korea and you're usually not 5 minutes away from one. Finally we found a Japanese Soba restaurant and one of the girls, Mina, went to check it out.

Oh, I should also mention three of Michael's students were with us for English practice. I think they had quite the experience with the rain and we joked that it was a bonding experience for us which somehow made me feel better.

Of course the restaurant was super busy, but luckily when we walked in a table cleared. It was very steamy inside. Both from the food (mostly noodles and dumplings) and from the damp people. We got warm soba noodles which were perfect for the rain day and some dumplings (Julianne got chicken katsu and then I proceed to eat all her fruit side dishes).

We attempted to dry off in the restaurant but it was hard because there wasn't anywhere to put our wet outerwear to dry it. I think I felt a little drier after, but not that much. After we ate we debated what to do about the buses. We decided to try another bus stop (which had almost as many people and the buses were still super full).

There was an awkward moment at the bus stop where we got confused and attempted to catch a bus we thought went to Changwon, but every time we asked the bus drive they said Changwon, no and we couldn't figure it out until we realized we were trying to catch it on the wrong side of the street.

After this and seeing the bus we had been trying to catch all afternoon go by full again we came up with a new strategy which was this. We would cross the street and catch the emptier bus going into Jinhae, catch it to the end of the line and then just stay on the bus and go back around to Changwon, a long trip, but it was our only option. And yes, we did consider a taxi but they were all full. They kept coming up to the gas station when we were there (earlier) and the owner was checking, but every drive said they were full.

Things were a bit chaotic so when the bus we wanted to catch came we got on, but the Korean students didn't understand what we were doing and they check where the bus was going and then said we had the wrong bus, wrongfully trusting them (although they were right in all other cases) we got off the bus... then realized what had happened and had to wait for the next bus, which luckily (and amazingly) came right away.

Finally on a bus going the right way we were so realized. We actually had seats and everything. It was great. I think after we got out of the restaurant it was around 6:30-7 (forgive me if this time line is painfully off. I can't remember what it was exactly).  We catch the bus to the end of the line without a hitch. While on the bus Michael re-checked the buses and he realized we could catch a different bus back to Changwon rather than the one we were on. So we would by pass the craziness that was the cherry blossom festival (and yes, traffic was still bad at this point).

So we finally got off the bus and had a little confusion about were we should catch the other bus, and also were a little disappointed because we saw the bus we wanted as we were pulling into the bus stop, but then it was gone when we got off our bus. Although my rational mind knew this was a sound plan, I have to admit I was a little worried because what if the bus we wanted didn't show up for another hour and we were stuck in the rain, or what if it never came to the stop or what if it had stopped running? I think at this point getting home was almost seeming too good too be true. I should also mention we were sort of out in the sticks. There was not much around us, just a convenience store and a few other random buildings. I think one was a restaurant.

But I had nothing to fear, the bus showed up pretty soon after we got there and we were some of the first people on the bus. It also seemed like the rain was clearing up while we were at the bus stop it stopped had almost stopped raining. On the bus ride back the bus got really full so we were all happy to get on at the first stop. During the drive back there was a loud explosions sound, apparently more thunder, but it sounded closer and louder than any thunder I've heard (at least in many years) and it I thought it was fireworks near by until I remembered the rain and saw some lightening.

I'm pretty sure we didn't arrive back in Changwon until 10 or 10:30. I honestly can't remember the time. The only thing I wanted to do was change, have a long, hot shower; then drink tea and lay in bed. Julianne and I fantasied about this the whole time we were trying to get home haha.

The day was long and the afternoon was definitely an adventure, we took soo many buses to get home and it took way longer than the 15-30 minutes it should usually take (I'm guestimating here I've only been to Jinhae once before). I'd say the cherry blossoms alone were worth it, but I definitely think I would catch the train back or stay the night in Jinhae next time. It's was sooo crazy. Also, because I've now been to the main part of the festival I think I would just skip it any maybe go durning the week or on a less busy weekend and enjoy the trees, although they only have limited blooming time.

Anyway, it was an adventure worth having and I definitely felt like the group bonded because of it, also I will remember it for a long time.

So that was my latest adventure. I have much more that happened recently I want to write about but right now I'm late for dinner with my friend so I'll save it for next time!!

Jindo Sea Parting and Holi Hai at Haeundae Beach

A few weeks back with our Social Group we decide to attend the Jindo Sea Parting and Holi Hai. Since they were both happening in the same weekend we ended up signing up for a tour with a group based in Korea. It was a really good decision in the end. Not only did we end up going to two awesome festivals in one weekend, but we also didn't have to plan any bus routes or book and hotel which I thin made the whole trip even more enjoyable and it was only 105,000 won so it was a pretty good deal.

The trip start in Jindo then we spent the night in Boseong then went to Busan early in the morning on Sunday. Everyone got to the bus station early Saturday morning... and by early I mean before 9 am, so early for me. We had a 4 hour bus trip to Jindo. It went really smoothly I thought. Although it was awkward with the pee breaks. I went almost every time we stopped, but still ended up having to go really badly at the end of the trip. Still, it was really fun. I sat with Julianne and we get along fairly well so we just chatted or did our own thing the entire time and we were both content.

When we got there we immediately went to look at the ocean. It was a foggy day, but not too cool and still pretty sunny. I guess I should interject here and talk about the festival. Each year when the tide gets really low the sea 'parts' in this one area where there's a kind of sand bar or underwater spit and you can walk across to an island called Modo. The distance is about 3 km.  Thousands of tourists come every year to walk across to the island and enjoy cultural festivities. Sounds pretty neat, right?

So when we arrived the tide was still in and it wasn't much to look at. They have a whole festival when the season for the low tide starts with tons of food, drinks, and cultural activities. There were jindo dogs which is a famous korean dog breed from the area. If you google jindo that's pretty much the only thing that comes up. Apparently they are known for their intelligence, they were beautiful looking dogs too.

We got some boots to walk out into the parting right off the bat, or at least I did and Michael. I wasn't sure what the boot situation would be like inside the festival so I decide I should get something right away. If you saw my pictures then you saw how ridiculous looking these boots were, but they worked great. Despite being thinner than a rubber boot they didn't leak at all and despite my lack of belt looks to attach the suspenders to (I wrapped them around my thighs) they stayed up really well. And everyone was wearing them looking ridiculous so it really didn't matter.

We wandered around for while, not sure how far the festival went or what to do first. People kept offering us samples of seaweed, turmeric and booze which we happily accepted. I found out that jindo is famous for their turmeric, not a spice I usually associate with Korea. We tried to find the dog show that was supposed to be happening, but ended up getting distracted by food and a ssireum (korean wrestling) demonstration. Julianne and I found  some yummy Japanese food with eggs, some cabbage, batter of some sort, bbq sauce bacon, octopus and various other tasty things. It wasn't like anything I'd had before, but it was so so delicious. I forgot what it's called, but I'd have another one in a heart beat.

We also found puppies when we were walking around. Jindo puppies. They were extremely soft and cute looking. Really adorable faces  and super relaxed, but friendly little guys. There were a ton of cute Korean kids in the pen to add to the cuteness. Jackie and Julianne kidnapped one little puppy and smothered him with love (not literally, but almost). The puppy was sooooo soft and sleek. I was in love. I sorta want a jindo dog if I were ever to get a dog, but my friend said they were expensive so it probably won't happen. Still, they are beautiful dogs.

They also had singing, dancings, skits and activities like painting. We watch a few of the performances. They were all pretty awesome, there were girls dancing and singing in traditional costumes, a short, but funny skit of a mean guy and his servant teasing him then drummers playing traditional music in traditional costumes and last soldiers doing army drills to k-pop songs and dancing a little sexily which was hilarious. I think my friend took a video. We got some visors when we were at the performance and wore them like all the older ladies around us, they were difficult to keep on until we realized we had forgotten to fold one of the flaps down.

After watching the performances we went and found some food. I got a gukbap which just means soup and rice which is a type of traditional korean meal (I think) it was a beef soup with a bunch of veggies and rice in the soup which I hadn't had before. We also had some magkoli, a korean fermented rice wine. It is delicious, I recommend trying it if you can get your hands on some. So tasty. This stuff was especially 'smooth' as my friend put it.

After food we wandered around a bit more then it was finally time for the sea parting. Everyone got their awesome thigh high boots on and we followed the crowd out into the water. The water hadn't gone out completely so it was really great that we had the boots because it allowed us to just wade through the parts where there was still water. Although I felt sorry for the people had chose to wear their own shows or boots.

It was pretty cool being that far out in the ocean. It kinda felt like you should be on a boat or small island, although at the same time it took me back to hanging out at the beach at Deep Cove when the tide goes out really far. It felt both very familiar and strange at the same time. The scenery was beautiful. It was foggy still, but the sun was starting to get lower and looked hazy through the softened sky making everything feel a little surreal. There were boats off in the distance and the water seemed to merge into the sky when you let your eye go that far.

There were thousands of people at this event, lots of them foreigners. For all of us from Changwon it was definitely strange seeing that many foreigners in one place and hearing that much English spoken. Normally in Changwon if you're in a group over ten foreigners that's a lot, but at this festival the foreigners were definitely in the thousands. It was fun to see the stuff some people dressed in to. Someone was dressed as moses (of course) but I didn't see him. I did see a couple dressed like waldo and another one dressed like the guy from the Steve Zissou from the Aquatic life, although I don't know if that's what they were going for.

My favourite part of this festival was definitely walking out for the sea parting. I found out after why they do the walk and I thought it was really sad, but beautiful. Apparently there's a story about the island Modo, that it used to be inhabited with tigers, well there was a family living there and the tigers drove them away except the grandmother who stayed on the island. Well another creature (I forgot what it was) felt bad for her and showed her a route to get off of the island were the water was shallower. She followed the route to find her family, but because she was weak and old she couldn't make it all the way across. Luckily her family was also looking for her and walking along the same path, unfortunately she collapsed before they got there and ended up dying in her family's arms. So to this day Korean's walk from both Modo island and Jindo and they meet in the middle. They take two different coloured ribbons from each side then tie them in the middle. ribbons looked really cool stretch out into the spit of land. And yes, this is the story of the old lady and tiger statue I posted... in case you were wondering.

When we were doing the sea crossing there were tons of older Korean's out on the beach harvesting seaweed and lots more out along the sand bar harvesting clams. They didn't seem to give a shit when the guy announced that the tide was coming in. Lots of them brought bags and were filling them and as it's isn't a one time phenomena I had to wonder if they came every low tide to collect seaweed and clams.

After we finished the walk, which I unfortunately never made to Modo we had some time to kill before our bus left so we hung around the food tents and got some snacks. Julianne and I split a giant deep fried squid which has apparently become a thing here. It was pretty tasty, like a giant calamari  on a stick, but spicier and whole. The other people in our group wanted food from Turkey's booth (there were international food booths) but the line was really long so we ended up giving up on that. Still, we all went away happy and full.

After the sea parting we hopped on our bus and headed to Boseong where we would stay the night. Boseong is apparently really famous for their green tea and beautiful landscape. We were just staying the night then moving on so we didn't have time to spend a lot of time there. The trip from the festival to the hotel was about 2 hours, why so far you ask? Because we wanted to get closer to busan so we wouldn't have to travel so far in the morning when we were all sleepy, thus allowing us to sleep in more as well.

The hotel we stayed in was fairly nice and luckily we were able to pick our group for the hotel room so it was just everyone in our group, plus two other people who got assigned to our group. Since the tour we'd singed up for had over 200 people going from different cities in the country it was a little crazy at the hotel. They only had the convenience store open by the time we got there (sometime after 9 pm) so it was crazy. We all wanted to get some proper food in us, but only thing they seemed to food-wise was instant ramen. I know that doesn't sound really appealing to most westerners, but instant ramen is different in Korea. First off, it is a little bit higher quality and second it just tastes better and they have lots of different kinds. It's also really popular. Like I've seen Korean's in the grocery store with huge flats of their favourite ramen. So that's a thing here. I didn't get ramen in the end, because I wasn't really that hungry and needed to get some rest for our 6 am wake up call.

Back in the hotel room, after surviving the crazy line, getting some juk (rice porridge) then realizing I needed to go back to the convenience store to heat it up I finally got to relax, drink and beer and discuss the day with everyone. It was the perfect end of a long, but very memorable day.

The next morning we were up at 6 am to leave at 6:50 for Busan since we needed to be there before noon for Holi Hai. Luckily the night before Sujin and I had made hard boiled eggs so we ate those and then got back on the bus, there was a lot of busing this weekend, yet some how the bus ride was pretty relaxing and not that stressful (for me anyway). I think it's because Korean buses are really comfortable with nice comfy, large seats. My friend told me that Korean's like to sleep when they travel so I think that could explain the comfortable seating.

The bus ride was pretty fun. As we left Boseong we drove by some of its famous valleys and tea fields. It was so beautiful in the misty morning (mist was a thing this entire trip). It looked like another world from the crowded cities full of high rises and neon lights. Korea is like that. One minutes your looking at rows of apartments and the next your watch rolling hills and fields go by. It's kind of awesome. Anyway, this was one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Korea. The valley seemed endless and untouched. Apparently it's known for it's beauty and I definitely need to go back there.

When we started to get close to Busan the trip coordinator brought out some face paints and some how Jackie got roped into painting everyones face (she was the only artist in the group... I still owe her a beer for that one!). Most of us went for neon coloured dots, but I also got some swirls added into the mix. It looked pretty festive. Everyone had been instructed to wear white for the festival so the colours would show up better. And you should definitely 100% wear something you don't care about staining cause the amount of paint you get on yourself is insane, especially if you're like me and keep heading back into the crowd.

I was really excited to be going to Haeundae beach because it is a really famous beach in Korea and super popular in the summer. We all agreed after we got there that we would be coming back like everyone other weekend. Seriously. It was also so warm I had brought a sweatshirt I didn't want in case it was cool, but the temperature got up to around 20 that day, possibly a bit higher. When we arrived at the festival they gave us a pack of colour powder to throw and apparently rub all over everyone, and a free samosa and drink. The samosa's were really tasty.

We had a bit of time to kill before the festival started so we just hung out by the water, of course we all had to test how cold the water was. It was pretty cold. After eating, Jackie, Dave, Michael, Sujin and I all decide to go to the convenience store, unfortunately when we got there the line was huge with all people wearing at least one piece of white. I guess everyone else had the same idea. We finally gave up waiting or we were going to miss the opening of the festival. We got back just in time. I was so relived.

There was a count down and everyone threw chalk in the air at the same time. It looked really pretty. I wanted a picture, but honestly I doubt it would've shown up the well and I didn't want to get powder on my camera. The powder was scented so when everyone threw their powder in the air the whole area smelled like perfume or flowers. It wasn't a bad smell at all, but I'm not sure what it was.

After the powder throwing was when the fun really started. There was dj and people were just hanging out, dance and throwing powder at each other on the beach. Unfortunately I didn't know to save some powder and threw all mine at the beginning so I had no powder to throw on anyone, but that didn't seem to stop people from throwing powder at me.

It was really funny because my friends and I were off to the side a bit so we ended up only getting each others powder on us and we all had the same two colours: green and yellow. So at the beginning I only had green and yellow powder on me, but ended up with every colour under the sun by the end of the day. Some of us wanted to hang out and dance while others wanted to chill on the beach. We attempted to enter the crowd with everyone, but it fell apart pretty fast. I went back in for another round and it was pretty fun, just dancing and laughing and having some random dude rub paint all over your face... yep, that was a thing. I ended up with far more paint and powder on me than in the beginning. Also, for some reason people kept starting conga lines and every time I got swept up in it.

Finally I escaped the crowd and the endless conga lines. I hung out in the beach for awhile and for some reason decided it was a good idea to run into the ocean with a jackie and another girl... I will admit that beer and soju may have played a part in this decision. One thing about Korea that I still find a bit strange is public drinking is not illegal so you can just have a beer at the beach... quite a few people were doing this. It was pretty cold, but really refreshing...expect when it was too cold and I was gasping for breathe for about 20-30 seconds, that wasn't really that fun, but after was good and it was nice to get some of the paint off, especially my face cause it was getting hard to move the face muscles.

After the ocean dip everyone was pretty cold and we left the beach not long after. We changed and scrubbed our faces in the bathroom with mul tissue some girl was kind enough to give us. Finally, we went and got some yummy bibimbap and soup. I think it was around 4-4:30 at this point and our bus wasn't leaving until 6. Since most of us were tired from the early morning we decide to go catch a regular bus back to Changwon. I was pretty happy with this decision because I was about ready to fall asleep.

Michael and Lori opted to stay behind because they wanted to check out a lighthouse, I was tempted to join them but my tiredness won that time. The other guy with our group had already left with some new friends for India food. The rest of us headed home. We all just really wanted hot showers and sleep by this point, although I did feel a bit guilty to leave the beautiful sunny day behind me and when I got back to Changwon it wasn't nearly as warm. I realized this when I jumped off the bus in my shorts and tee shirt and immediately regretted not putting on tights and a sweater.

Surprisingly my biggest worry about the colour not coming out of my hair was unfounded it washed out beautifully, although I still washed it twice to make sure and rinsed it extra well. I don't know if you can tell from my photos, but my hair and face got the brunt of the colour attack.

In all it was amazing weekend. The Jindo Sea Parting festival was definitely an amazing phenomena to see. Even though I'm an island girl and I've seen some pretty awesome beaches that was definitely and unique experience and the festival just made it more fun. Holi Hai in Busan was a crazy, colourful mess and I loved every minute of it. Plus Haeundae beach is my new favourite place and I just want to spend the whole summer there soaking up the sun there. I will definitely do more of these types of festivals they make this year in Korea so memorable and it was a great way to bond with my friends here and create some really lasting memories together. Oh gosh, this is sound cheesy I better finish up here. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this post and it sheds some light on how Korean cultural events are hosted. I hope to go to some more awesome things in the coming months. Apparently spring and summer is the time of festivals for Korea. I'm excited for the summer season! 

Back to Work and a New School Year in Korea

In Korea the school year starts in March, which makes a whole lot more sense than having the school year start in the middle of the year (September). Why not have it start at the beginning of the year instead? So when I got back from Seoul on the 22nd I didn't have classes for the week. It was just planning for lessons and the teachers getting reorganized... which turned out to effect me a whole lot more than I thought it would...

So I guess this is a yearly thing, but the teachers get new positions at the start of the school year. Some teachers who specialize or are older will stay the same, but it seemed to me a lot of the teachers got moved around. For example, two of the PE teachers (who happened to share the office with the English teachers) got switched to being homeroom teachers which basically means they have a classroom and class that is theres rather than teaching a bunch of different classes.

We got new English teachers too, two in fact. Luckily, most of the English teachers stayed the same, but two of the teachers from the previous year left, one was on maternity leave and the other got a job at a different school. It was unclear if she was moved their or she chose a new position, I felt like she was moved there. Also, they changed my co-teacher. Previously she'd be a grade 3 homeroom teacher who was actually an English teacher, but they assigned me an English teacher instead, the 4th grade teacher and only male English teacher. So far he's been really nice and helpful although I haven't really had any problems or anything for him to deal with, outside of work that is. Plus I have a pretty good network of friends now so I mostly go to them when I need things.

The other new teacher is the 3rd grade teacher and until I actually started working with her I wasn't even sure if she spoke English. I now know that she does speak English, just not every much. She seems to understand more than she speaks and she's a really good teacher her control in the classes is impressive I can probably learn a thing or two from her. Unfortunately it's all in Korean.

The principal of the school also left, he got a new job closer to his family, so we had a giant dinner for him and the other teachers who were leaving. It was mostly a retirement dinner for one of the staff but everyone was expected to come. I, of course, didn't know about it until that morning. I felt very underdressed, as usual. We went to a fancy buffet at the convention centre and pretty much stuffed ourselves.

One thing I found strange about the evening was they did all the speeches, gift giving and thank you's at the beginning of the evening rather than the end. My favourite part was when they showed a powerpoint of pictures showing the teachers life, her classes and her hobbies (travelling apparently) and when they sang and played the violin for her. It was definitely a nice affair.

The food was pretty awesome too (you guys know I've gotta talk about the food, just a little). There were different section in the buffet with Japanese, Korean, Indian and Chinese foods, there was also a BBQ area and a lot of italian style appetizers and desserts, also tons of macaroons for some reason. Although everything was really tasty I couldn't help but notice that the western food was not particularly anything special. I don't know if I was just being picky, or it didn't meet my expectations, but I couldn't feeling it was good food, but not great food as the restaurant implied it should be. I definitely still ate a lot though, I mean when am I going to go to a place like that again? Probably never, at least not in Korea.

The next week we had a first day ceremony for the first grade students, it was really cute. The parents all came and watched the kids sing a little and a video clip about the schools cafeteria... yeah, I didn't really understand that one either... there were a bunch of other speeches and stuff, but they were in Korean, so yeah.

The next day was time for classes to start and due to some confusion on my coteachers part I only ended up have two days of class that week and 4 days this past week so this week will be my first full week of classes. So far the new teachers are working out well and my new schedule, although not perfect is pretty good. Also I'm short an hour so I'm going to be doing an English language magazine/newspaper thing with the grade 6 students, or those that volunteer for it. I was really excited about it last week, but my co-teacher once again messed up and had to move the location of the meeting at the last minute. I was in class until two and the meeting was also at two so I rushed over to the room we were meeting in only to find some different teachers there.

I went back to the office all worked and frantic about missing it and realized my co-teacher left his cell phone in the office, so just as I was trying to decide if I should go look for him he turned up in the office and said not to worry about it. I guess the first meeting was over after about 10-15 minutes. I had a whole plan that would take an hour for the meeting so I was surprised he finished so quickly and honestly, it didn't sound like I missed anything. Oh well, this week I'll have it again and this time I told him he needs to start 10 minutes later, no way I'll miss it again!

The last thing I want to talk about here is the parents ceremony, I have no idea what it is called. I think that the school presents the curriculum to the parents or something? I honestly had no idea what was going on, but I was told I didn't have to attend, so I was waiting in the office just working on my own stuff and my co-worker called and said I was needed in the gym, knowing whatever was going on was starting soon I hurried over there and found the other English teachers by the door, the directed me inside where all the parents were sitting and watching a presentation or something. I got placed in a spot against the wall on the side of the gym and as I stood there it dawned on me we weren't just watching we were standing in line.... uh oh.

Backing up a little now, I just want to say I had no idea about this event, nobody told me about it earlier in the week or anything like that. Then I got to school that morning and everyone was dressed up (a sure sign that something was going on) and they told me about the meeting(?), but didn't say I needed to attend. Of course I hadn't dressed up that day either, I was just wearing plain clothes. So when they called me to the gym, not knowing what was going to happen I grabbed my coat too (the gym is usually kind of cold) , my giant, puffy, red coat.

And there I am standing in line when we slowly start to move towards the front, which only confirms what my greatest fear was. We are going to go up and stand in front of all those parents. And there I was in my stupid puffy red jacket, cause you know, I didn't already stick out being the only foreigner in the room, but my jacket also had to be huge and bright red! Well, thank god there was no talking involved because a) I can't speak Korean anyway and b) I wouldn't've been able to get the words out at that point. I felt so self-conscious and embarrassed. If only I'd thrown on the blazer I was thinking of wearing... if only... maybe I can dump the coat somewhere and nobody will notice... expect all the teachers standing behind me and every parent in the row beside me... so I ended up going up there (with a group of other teachers) and giving my bow after they said my name, because apparently that's all I had to do, in my giant, red puffy coat.

After the other teachers apologized for not letting me know about it, the one teacher seemed surprised I would've dressed up, even though I'd previously dressed up for other events which I thought was strange and I'd told her that I liked dressing up before... anyway, it all worked out in the end, but I was a little traumatized, it's definitely an adventure being here some days. Especially because people forget to tell me things pretty much every week, but I've gotten used to it and I try to just be as flexible as possible, no matter the situation. Like, the night they forgot to tell me their was a work dinner and I almost went home... I think my new co-teacher is still figuring out the job so he hasn't got everything down yet, but I'm sure things will get better and it's not really that bad finding out there's a surprise free BBQ dinner... really not that bad at all.

Okay, so there's a rather long update for you. I think that's pretty much everything, for now. I'm sure there's some other things I forgot to talk about, but this is my second blog post tonight and I'm getting tired of typing now. Please excuse the typos here, I know there are some, I took my glasses off half way through writing this so I can only mostly see them. Anyway I have lots more cool things coming up soon that I'll write about after they happen, this weekend I'm going to two different festival which are going to be awesome! So I promise, more from me soon! :)

Seoul Part 3: Hongdae

So this will be the last instalment of my trip to seoul and I'll be moving on to more resent events, finally!

Our last full day in Seoul we visited a popular university neighbourhood. We had a couple reasons for going there. First, it's kind of trendy and targeted towards young people so it's fun to visit. Lots of cute stores, funky coffee shops and yummy restaurants. Second the You Are Here Cafe is in Hongdae. This is a cafe started by a Canadian couple who lives in Korea and makes funny youtube videos all about living there and a website called Talk to Me in Korean who try to help people learn Korean. The cafe was really large, but felt kinda empty. People did come and go as we were sitting there, but it wasn't especially busy. I really hoped to see one of the owners, but alas they were not there that day.

Before we hit up the You Are Here Cafe we went to a Sheep Cafe because it is the year of the sheep and all. The sheep were outside the cafe in their own little pen. They were really cute, but more interested in licking salt and eating than us. Still, it was really fun to visit with the sheep and take some pictures. We also got really yummy waffles for breakfast from the cafe too. It was really cute and the tea was good.

It also ended up raining that day which was disappointing, but we spent most of our time in cafes and restaurants anyway. I wanted to go to this one dumpling restaurant we knew about, but unfortunately when we tried to find it it was gone or possibly being renovated, we weren't sure. After this we tried to find a ramen restaurant Julianne wanted to show me. Eventually we found it with the help of google. It was amazing. It looked like an authentic Japanese ramen bar inside, complete with the small, narrow restaurant and counter. We both got pork ramen (I think, it was just the regular one) and we also got gyoza's which are a kind of japanese fried dumpling that I love. The gyoza's were far superior to any other gyoza I've ever ate. The filling was tender, flavourful and hot. The outside had a crispy rectangle attached to it which tasted delicious and just the right amount of crispiness on the dumplings. They more than made up for the failure of the dumplings from the previous night.

The ramen was equally amazing. The noodles were the perfect chewiness and the broth was salty and rich. Everything about that meal was awesome. I loved it and I will definitely return next time I'm in Seoul. Since it was raining again when we finished lunch or more like afternoon meal we headed back to the hostel. Also, we were both pretty stuffed and just ready for a rest.

The next day would be our return to Changwon, but since we had a lot of time before our train we decided to check out the War Memorial which was basically just a museum mostly about the Korean war. I found it really fascinating there was information from the people who were effected by the war, to the allies who helped to war heroes to the clothes, the role of women, famous war stories, weapons and planes, pretty much everything related to war was presented, especially the Korean war. It was a stark difference from our wimpy memorials with just a could of statues and plaques, it was also a stark reminder that North Korea is not that far away and for many older Koreans the Korean war was a reality.

After the memorial we attempted to find Itaewan, which is the foreigner district in Seoul, first we walked in the wrong direction for awhile then we finally checked a map and realized we needed to walk in the opposite direction. We finally made it there and spent a bit of time wandering around aimlessly which was mostly my fault because I just wanted to find some salt and vinegar chips, but hadn't really been able to find anywhere that sold them. Other than eating a really yummy gyro Itaewan was not that exciting to me. I did see a dumpling place I want to go back to, but nothing else really stood out, unless I'm really missing something from home that I can only get there I doubt I'll visit again. After that we got our stuff and caught the train home. It was relaxing and we remembered snacks and water this time. And when I got home it was time for a long, hot shower and lots of rest.

The highlights of the trip that really made an impact on me were definitely the touristy things that we did, the delicious ramen in Hongdae, the sheep, the palace and Seollal celebrations, Myeongdong, Namsan tower, the studio Ghibli exhibit  and the war memorial. In all it was really good trip and I definitely hope to go back to Seoul again before I leave Korea, perhaps in the fall at the end of my trip I'll make another visit, or when I have a long weekend.

Seollal in Seoul, part 2

So I know I've been a bad blogger and haven't finished my blog of Seoul, but here is part two! I will try to fit all the high lights into one post this time rather than like 3 or 4 haha.

Our second day in Seoul we went to Gyeongbokgung palace which turned out to be crazy busy, strange since it was also Seollal day or not strange at all since the palace was free that day. Probably because they wanted to give at least some of the staff the day off.  I was not actually prepared for how large the palace grounds were. For some reason I'd always imagined it as just the huge main building and a few other smaller ones around, but no, it never seemed to end. It was huge and beautiful, full of the traditional Korean architecture I've seen at some of the other historical sites I've visited. See all those wonderful pictures I've been posting on facebook guys!

We wandered around the grounds for awhile, saw the palace and various peoples house and buildings. There was a beautiful little pond in front of Chuirojeong pavilion which is huge, according to me friend you can go in it in the summer but it was closed off while we were there. Being on the palace grounds also felt like an escape from the endless city because they were large enough that you could almost forget where you were. Also, the mountains towering around the palace in the background made it feel even less like it was in the city. 

After we wandered around and looked at some more buildings and gardens we went to the Korean Folk Museum which is pretty much just your standard museum. It had history of Korea, a contemporary exhibit about jeans and a bunch of celebratory stuff for Seollal. which we approached the museum there were tons of white tents set up for various things. You could buy traditional snacks, make crafts for the kids and get your fortune told, we by passed the tens because they were really busy. First, we found a cute little imitation town which I think was supposed to show Korea before the Korean war then we went to see the folk museum. On the way in we passed a bunch of giant drums set up outside the palace and a sign saying there was going to be an activity at 1. I think it was around 11:30 when we went in? Or 12? I'm not sure, but we definitely came out after the drum show started, but it was still really really amazing. 

The loved seeing how past people in korea led their lives, all the artifacts from their daily life and what they did for fun and so forth. I don't really know what to tell you about the museum it was pretty much your standard type. They did have a really cute exhibit of sheep for the year of the sheep, it was probably one of my favourite things it was so simple, but so interesting. It had different depictions of sheep and they talked about its signification in Korea society. 

I ended up spending way more time in the museum than I intended. And around the time the show outside started I was busy watching a video of traditional Korean weaving, which looked really cool and I happened to like weaving and textile arts. So finally after reminding me of the time Julianne and I headed out the see the drummers, luckily we barely missed anything. The drummers were amazing, I took some videos I'll have to post later. It was so intense and the drummed so fast. Everyone was really engaged with the performance (for the most part) and enjoying themselves so it made the atmosphere really great.

After the museum and palace we were both pretty hungry so we went to find some food and walk towards Cheonggyecheon river. Unfortunately because it was Seollal a lot of restaurants and businesses were closed so we ended up grabbing some food at a convenience store along the way. Next we headed down the river, which was a beautiful walk towards the subway station to go to another part of Seoul. the day before Julianne's friend had told us she had a bunch of old clothes sitting outside of her apartment she was trying to get rid of. Excited at the prospect of free clothing we both agreed to stop by and take some of the stuff off of her hands. It was a good decision. Not only did I briefly see Lotte World or at least the building its in, but I also got a cute dress and skirt.

After we hit up another grocery store for supplies for the evening. We decided to get a few snacks and drinks, luckily the day before we planned for the chance we might not be able to find a good place to eat by buying ramen cups and drinks so we were basically set for the evening.

The next day we went to the I'Park mall for the Studio Ghibli exhibit which was so so worth it in my opinion, despite the 15,000 Won entrance fee. They did a really creative and beautiful job of bringing the movies to life. It made me so happy to be there. After we found lots of open restaurants (thank god) and had some delicious tteokbokki which is really famous korean street food. We had it at a restaurant and with free fried rice, gosh that's a mouth full! It was delicious and cheap so that was awesome. After that we went to a market and I desperately tried to find some different shoes, without any luck. Julianne has size 10 feet (I believe) so finding shoes in Korea is basically impossible for her.

Since we'd had a little bit earlier start that day and I was feeling sluggish I suggested we go back to the hostel and rest for a little bit then go out for dinner and visit the Namsan tower. So fast forward through our resting we decide to try out this chinese restaurant in Myeongdong because I saw soup dumplings on their poster and I was desperate to try them (Julianne's version of events may differ slightly in that she may claim that I talked about dumplings the entire time, but really, I swear, it wasn't like that!)

Well unfortunately, as these things go, the dumplings turned out to taste pretty bad. i don't want to say they were the worst dumplings I'd ever had, but they were pretty high on the list of bad dumplings... they tasted like they'd been in the freezer for awhile, ie no flavour at all and the wrappers had tears in them, which if you know anything about soup dumpling this is the ultimate faux-pas. You cannot, I repeat, cannot have holes in the wraps. All the freaking soup pours out before you even get them to the edge of the steamer basket. So sad. The last problem was the soup itself. It was also pretty tasteless. I know I sound awful, but soup dumplings are special, like they are really special dumplings. They are like little meat-y, liquid-y jewels of flavour in your mouth. I have only had them one other time, in Vancouver, right before I left. I made Jon find a dumpling shop with me and it was amazing. So happy and delicious and omg. I just looked back and realized how much I just wrote about the dumplings... so this is awkward and I'll be moving on now.

Although the dumplings weren't great the rest of the food was pretty yummy. After eating we headed to the Namsan tower. It was really cool. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the line, going on the gondola was pretty fun. It is definitely worth going up Namsan at night because seeing the city lights and just how far Seoul stretched out was pretty amazing. I loved it up there and despite all the people it still felt really peaceful and happy. I wanted to go up the actual tower too, until Julianne told me it was 25,000 won (about $22 can) so never mind on that. We just went up the hill that the tower is on, not the actual tower. I do plan to go again next time I'm in Seoul and if I can afford it I'll probably go up the tower and I will also probably walk up the hill rather than the gondola, but neither of us could handle it after being on our feet for three days straight and walking everywhere. After that we called it a night because it was already getting pretty late we almost bought ice cream up there too, until we realized how expensive it would be then decided to get ice cream at the GS25 (popular Korean convenience store) which we never ended up getting.

The next day would be our last full day in Seoul and we were going to Hongdae! A popular university district. But that, I'll save for a new post because I just realized how long this one is... why do I need to describe everything, I don't know? I guess since I went on this trip almost a month ago my recall is getting a little foggy and I feel like adding in all the details. Anyway, last post about Seoul is on it's way, I swear! Then I'll have some posts about the graduation for the grade 6 students, and the first day for the grade 1 students and some other stuff, when I remember what it is.... I swear some other cool stuff did happen. I'm just tired now and blanking. 

Seollal in Seoul part 1

First, I want to comment that it has been six months since I came to Korea (in October!) Wow! Can you believe it? I can't. At the beginning it felt like I had eternity in Korea, the whole year stretching out before me and now it kinda feels like wtf I still want to do/see so many things! Where did all that time go I had 6 months ago?! Where is it? So yeah, I am stoked that I only have 6 months till I get to be at home on the wonderful island with my family and friends, but I'm also super sad that in 6 months I'll be leaving this awesome country and all the wonderful people I've met here, that will be really difficult.

Okay, so moving on to Seollal and Seoul! First, I guess you're wondering what Seollal is. It is Korean new year. It happens at the start of the Lunar calendar much like the Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese new years do. It is a time when Korean's go home to spend time with there families and eat yummy Korean foods. They also wear hanbok which is the traditional Korean clothing. They are really pretty looking. So for new years because everyone needs to travel home and it's an important holiday. The day before and the day after Seollal are also national holidays (at least I think that's why? Correct me if I'm wrong about this guys!) This year Seollal was on a Thursday which meant I got the Wednesday and the Friday off as well, which leads perfectly into the weekend giving me five days off! 

So, I did almost go to Japan for this holiday with some different friends, but I decide for the sake of the bank account that Seoul would be the better trip. I was very happy with my choice. I went with my Canadian friend Julianne. We booked a hostel near the Seoul station (so it would be easy to get around) and decided the KTX (railway) would be the fastest and most comfortable way to travel and to us North American's it is fast, I think it took around 3hrs, maybe just under? I wasn't sure. It was super easy to book too. You just go online and book everything for the train you want and then take the information in with your passport to the ticket office on the day of your departure and they give you the tickets. So easy! 

The train also had clean washrooms, comfortable seating, wifi (but only if you downloaded the app which I couldn't get on my phone for some reason) and snacks if you wanted to eat something. The only mistake I made the first day was forgetting to bring water so I was really thirsty by the time I got to Seoul. Seoul was pretty empty when we arrived because everyone was busy heading home for the holidays. The train station was crazy though, in both Changwon and Seoul station. So many people traveling that day. 

Our hostel was really cute and had kind of a school theme. I liked the hostel immediately, it had a really home-y, comfortable feeling and the staff was really helpful and friendly. In order to save money we got one room with a double bed which was perfect for us. The only thing I would've changed for next time was getting the bathroom attached to the room because the bathrooms in the hostel were down the hall and really really small so you had to either hang your clothes on the door and risk getting them wet or leave them outside and risk someone seeing you. And no, you couldn't walk down the hall in a towel because in Korea they just use hand towels, not the giant ones we're used to. 

The first day we were there we quickly dumped our stuff at the hostel and went in search of food. We decided to try a popular Japanese fast food chain called Lotteria it is owned by a huge company that has pretty much everything, it's huge in Asia. The burgers were tasty as fast food usually is and after we took a rest at the hostel and then went to meet Julianne's friend. We ended up eating again then going to Myeongdong which is a really popular shopping area. It is insanely crowded with stores, mostly clothing, beauty and shoes stores, but some other things thrown in for good measure. It is a shoppers dream. Also, when I say beauty stores I mean there was one every other store... it was actually insane. There were beauty stores for one brand (usually more than one in that area) then there were also beauty stores for multiple brands...but they were usually the same brands as the other beauty stores that were for brands... so you basically had the same beauty products everywhere. 

Plus every time you walked by the beauty store there was a girl trying to get you to come in. Lots of them had free samples, but you only got them if you went inside. I managed pretty good self control and only went in one (which happened to be having a 1+1 sale on my favourite hand cream!) After the craziness of Myeongdong we were exhausted so we went back to our hostel via subway and got some snacks then holed up with some television and food to prepare ourselves for Gyeongbokgung the royal palace in Seoul!