Six days in South Korea

Note to fellow travelers: Beijing airport freaking sucks. I was delayed more than an hour both times I flew through there. Avoid it if possible.

Anyways it’s amazing how this s alliteration thing is working out for me hahahahha.

Korea was great! I did so much; let’s see if I can remember everything.

Stuff in general: it was great to walk around and see the celebrities that I know from music and TV! I took some pictures of adds b/c I was like “I know that guy! Oh and I him too! And her! I know her!” I blew a lot of Edwin’s Korean friends away with my knowledge of Kpop (and Kdrama) I also got me some boy band paraphernalia! (about $15 worth)

And also I have found out that I now say we when I refer to Singapore…. I think it’s similar to how I call where ever I’m going to sleep home. Anyway Edwin called me on every time, so I will try to kick the habit before I hit Africa (holy crap that’s in a week!!!!!)

Anyways on Tuesday I arrived and took the bus out to DongTan (Edwin’s town). The bus ride reminded me a lot of the Japan. The country is similarly wooded and green with rice patties popping up out of nowhere. If there had been more hills I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the 2 countries. I was taken back to Edwin’s apartment, where I rested up until he got of work. He called me on his way back home and asked me if I wanted Korean bbq. My response was possibly over excited. And filled with excited cussing. Needless to say my diet in Korea consisted of over 70% meat. I enjoyed every minute of it!!!!!! (actually not true I had one yucky meal at the Palace)

After we hung out and walked around one Korea’s many, many lovely parks. I mean really it’s called the Republic of Samsung (b/c Samsung is everywhere and owns everything) but I think land of a-pretty-park-around-every-corner is more fitting. One park had synthetic frog chirping though and that spooks us a bit (as in we thought it was creepy that it was fake).

On Wednesday I woke up really late (12!) sat on the computer for like 10 min before I was collected for lunch at the nearby mall, Metapolis. I spent a few hours in a Holly’s (super cute coffee store chain) while Edwin went back to work. When he got off in the evening we shipped off to Seoul. We meet up with his girlfriend Yaewon for dinner in MyongDong(sp???) Anyway MyongDong was a super cool shopping area where all the tourists come. There where boy band carts. You can boyband anything out there. The thing that surprised me the most were the boy band socks. SOCKS!!!! Anyway I bought some posters as I mentioned before. Not that anybody who reads this (my future myself included probably) I got some TVXQ!/DBSK/tohoshinki posters, a TVXQ! Hoe min poster, a JYJ poster, a SHINee poster, and a bunch of super junior ones(Edwin bought these for me). I was really excited that Super Juniors new music video came out while I was there. Youtube’s homepage was all kpop it was GREAT!

On Thursday Edwin and I went out to this fort and trekked about taking pictures and exploring. It was really cool! There was a mountain (a really small one) in the back and we climbed all the way up. The view was great. There was also this massive Buddha and that was Super cool! We didn’t bring anything to drink so we had to leave and get drinks then come back again. By the time we got drinks I was so thirsty that I downed an Aquarius all at once. We cleaned out that stores stock of Aquarius, b/c like everyone I have introduced the drink to Edwin got hooked.

For lunch we had the best damn pork I have ever had outside a shao long bao!!! It was sooo good!

Friday was my big day of solo exploring! Edwin was very accommodating and responded to my anxiousness at going around by drawing me many maps, and writing detailed instruction for how to get places. Very nice of him! So off I went via bus and subway to Gyeongbokgung Palace. I spent most of the day there taking pictures of everything (especially doors), there was also a museum that was free so I went to that after the palace. My favorite things were as follows:

 1) the lotus pond

2) all the really pretty doors

3)the old stamps and seals

Anyway lunch at the café there was ucky! Getting back from the palace was the hardest part of the day. First off it took over 45min to catch the bus back. It was rush hour, raining and I was left by THREE buses.  I almost took a taxi out of sheer frustration. Finally Yaewon (Edwin’s girlfriend) came and gave me some coaching, and then I knocked out a few Koreans and got on the damn bus. I also got a little lost on the way back from the bus, but I made it back in one piece and that’s all that matters!

Saturday: Edwin and I went to this other area of town for a tasty tasty breakfast of pancakes eggs, and hash browns! So good! Then we hit up the indoor (well half indoor) amusement park Lotte World. In many ways it was a BLATANT rip off of Disneyland, and nowhere near as good (but still fun). I think my favorite ride there, Atlantis, might actually be a ride from Seaworld…. Well actually my favorite ride was probably the GyroDrop. It was high, I mean HIGH! The drop didn’t really scare me except right when we first got let go, but the anticipation did hamper my enjoyment of the view the first time around. Also, when the ride falls you get hit with this huge wind while you’re in line, and it felt really nice. Dinner was more Korean BBQ, and a short hangout in MyonDong for some more boy-band paraphernalia.

Sunday we had breakfast, and picked up some FREAKING DELICOUS kimbap (oooo how I want more….). Then I got on a bus to the airport and left. I had so much!