This past weekend included a Monday off work in honor or Korea's memorial day. In the spirit of embracing all that Korea has to offer a group of us used the long weekend to journey to the complete other side of South Korea to the beach town of Busan.
Heidi and I began the trip on Friday night by packing at my apartment and going to bed early in preparation for the early wake up time in the morning. We had to catch the train, you see. And not the bullet train that gets you to Busan in two hours but the slow train that is half the price and takes over double the time.
We were stoked though because the saved money meant extra things for our Thailand trip in a little over a month.
Maybe Heidi anticipated how annoying a five hour train ride would be...I didn't. I was tired, it was cramped, and it got pretty hot. Needless to say, I complained. As a result, I supplied Heidi with a candy for each complaint...she got a few.
Highlight of the train trip was indeed the scrabble game, in which, Heidi should have won but the words "forky" and "weeny" earned me over a 100 points and I took the win.
Other highlight, my Korean is BEAST. This little girl stared at us half the ride. Eventually we started talking. We managed to ask the 5 or so Korean questions I know and then used our phone for a few more translations. We were so cool we were supplied milk: Heidi's allergic and I don't like it. But we managed to fake drink it well :)
Sunday, we got up early to hit up the Taejondae cliffs. The girls--Anna, Heidi, and I--were running quite late and feeling guilty because we knew Duncan would be on time. He was..just at the wrong stop, which was a considerable distance from the right stop. It got us girls out of feeling bad and became a good laugh. Upon arrival, Anna tripped off a giant tiki-like statue and messed up her ankle (that's 1 accident).
Taejondae was awesome. Beautiful cliffs, Red-pointy statues, pebble beaches, blue water, views of Busan, catch-em-and-eat-em fish restaurants, and an imagined view of Japan. We had a blast. And it was just great to spend it together.
Perhaps, the best part. We swam in the freezing cold water at the pebble beach and jumped off a rock. I got bit, Anna scraped her thigh. (count 'em that's 3 accidents now).
We headed to Haeundae Beach next. Not necessarily my scene. I definitely outgrew the stupid-drunk-college-student scene back in fifth grade...oh, wait I never really entered it. It was interesting to observe and to be thankful I was not part of it. Heidi and I enjoyed tanning and chatting. Later, she also enjoyed watching me hurt my hand (see other blog). That would now be 4 accidents FYI.
We ended the night at Fuzzy Navel for dinner. The group of us hadn't eaten pretty much all day, so this dinner was legit. We filled ourselves on cheese fries, nachos, quesadillas, burritos, and more. It was great conversation with great people. I'm pretty glad to have befriended this crew.
We then joined up with some other ladies--Lauren and Kayse--and had some fun at Gwangalli beach at night. It was absolutely beautiful. And it was lots of fun to get to spend some time with Lauren and Kayse as we hadn't gotten to see them much.
Monday, we said goodbye to Duncan. That was sad but I'm sure it was infinitely more sad for him. After all, his compliments to me include "pretty smart girl" and a group "awesome". In my mind there's commas between it all: awesome, pretty, smart, girl.
We then went to a Buddhist temple. But before we saw the temple...we shopped. That was awesome. Heidi got these cool pig statues, Anna got Buddhist bracelets, and I got flower pots. We were happy. It was set on these beautiful cliffs overlooking the ocean. Gorgeous. It was filled with beautiful rock formations and brilliantly blue water. We were all amazed. I mean talk about pretty.
As beautiful as the views and the temple were, it still hits you while you are standing there that this place is a place of worship for many: worship to a false god. I think we all made that realization while we were there and found ourselves a little heartbroken despite the beauty.
After enjoying the views and discussing our heartbreak a bit, we moved onto a lighter activity in the form of Gwangalli beach. We'd had our fill of the over-populated foreigner beach and moved to the not-such-a-typical-tourist beach we saw last night. It was great. We laid out in the sun, Anna and I swam the length of the beach (well the length of the buoys), we played Frisbee in the water, and we got annoyed with stereotypical douche bag foreigner guy (another story for a more anti-foreigners post).
During a game of ultimate Frisbee with said douche bag, I may have injured my finger even further...that's now five accidents.
We spent most of the afternoon there with a few others--Lauren and Kayse again!--and then headed to lunch. It was this great little restaurant where we chowed down on burgers and chicken sandwiches. We did a terrible job on this trip at eating regular meals so the few we did have were absolute heaven! And we got to spend our time laughing about the trip and re-quoting are favorite moments!
Then we journeyed home. Another 5 hour journey home. 5 hour journeys with tired people are awesome. This journey was awesome. We laughed, we cried, we slept...we cherished our friendship. We ate peanut butter sandwiches that Heidi had been hiding all weekend.
Trip Summary: AWESOME!
Trip Quotes:
1. "I'm going to be angry at you for 30 seconds."
2. "You're a pretty smart girl."
3. "You can prevent accidents if you are cautious."
4. "Nailed it."
5. "The average person needs 13 hugs a day."
6. "Chemical compound boy."
7. "I feel like a thousand lightening bolts are hitting my back."
8. "You've had peanut butter and bread this whole freakin time?"
Favorite Trip Memories:
1. Anna falling off a tiki statue in front of loads of Koreans.
2. Being the only ones swimming in the pebble beach.
3. Punching Duncan.
4. Frisbee, frisbee, and frisbee.
5. Heidi making us late to meet up with Duncan.
6. Spending time with awesome people.
Sadly, in finally finishing this I realize why I wish I journalled or blogged quicker. I know I'm forgetting some top moments and quotes...but let's just say it was awesome. And let's just hope someone in the crew remembers.
Heidi and I began the trip on Friday night by packing at my apartment and going to bed early in preparation for the early wake up time in the morning. We had to catch the train, you see. And not the bullet train that gets you to Busan in two hours but the slow train that is half the price and takes over double the time.
We were stoked though because the saved money meant extra things for our Thailand trip in a little over a month.
Maybe Heidi anticipated how annoying a five hour train ride would be...I didn't. I was tired, it was cramped, and it got pretty hot. Needless to say, I complained. As a result, I supplied Heidi with a candy for each complaint...she got a few.
Highlight of the train trip was indeed the scrabble game, in which, Heidi should have won but the words "forky" and "weeny" earned me over a 100 points and I took the win.
Other highlight, my Korean is BEAST. This little girl stared at us half the ride. Eventually we started talking. We managed to ask the 5 or so Korean questions I know and then used our phone for a few more translations. We were so cool we were supplied milk: Heidi's allergic and I don't like it. But we managed to fake drink it well :)
Sunday, we got up early to hit up the Taejondae cliffs. The girls--Anna, Heidi, and I--were running quite late and feeling guilty because we knew Duncan would be on time. He was..just at the wrong stop, which was a considerable distance from the right stop. It got us girls out of feeling bad and became a good laugh. Upon arrival, Anna tripped off a giant tiki-like statue and messed up her ankle (that's 1 accident).
Taejondae was awesome. Beautiful cliffs, Red-pointy statues, pebble beaches, blue water, views of Busan, catch-em-and-eat-em fish restaurants, and an imagined view of Japan. We had a blast. And it was just great to spend it together.
Perhaps, the best part. We swam in the freezing cold water at the pebble beach and jumped off a rock. I got bit, Anna scraped her thigh. (count 'em that's 3 accidents now).
We headed to Haeundae Beach next. Not necessarily my scene. I definitely outgrew the stupid-drunk-college-student scene back in fifth grade...oh, wait I never really entered it. It was interesting to observe and to be thankful I was not part of it. Heidi and I enjoyed tanning and chatting. Later, she also enjoyed watching me hurt my hand (see other blog). That would now be 4 accidents FYI.
We ended the night at Fuzzy Navel for dinner. The group of us hadn't eaten pretty much all day, so this dinner was legit. We filled ourselves on cheese fries, nachos, quesadillas, burritos, and more. It was great conversation with great people. I'm pretty glad to have befriended this crew.
We then joined up with some other ladies--Lauren and Kayse--and had some fun at Gwangalli beach at night. It was absolutely beautiful. And it was lots of fun to get to spend some time with Lauren and Kayse as we hadn't gotten to see them much.
Monday, we said goodbye to Duncan. That was sad but I'm sure it was infinitely more sad for him. After all, his compliments to me include "pretty smart girl" and a group "awesome". In my mind there's commas between it all: awesome, pretty, smart, girl.
We then went to a Buddhist temple. But before we saw the temple...we shopped. That was awesome. Heidi got these cool pig statues, Anna got Buddhist bracelets, and I got flower pots. We were happy. It was set on these beautiful cliffs overlooking the ocean. Gorgeous. It was filled with beautiful rock formations and brilliantly blue water. We were all amazed. I mean talk about pretty.
As beautiful as the views and the temple were, it still hits you while you are standing there that this place is a place of worship for many: worship to a false god. I think we all made that realization while we were there and found ourselves a little heartbroken despite the beauty.
After enjoying the views and discussing our heartbreak a bit, we moved onto a lighter activity in the form of Gwangalli beach. We'd had our fill of the over-populated foreigner beach and moved to the not-such-a-typical-tourist beach we saw last night. It was great. We laid out in the sun, Anna and I swam the length of the beach (well the length of the buoys), we played Frisbee in the water, and we got annoyed with stereotypical douche bag foreigner guy (another story for a more anti-foreigners post).
During a game of ultimate Frisbee with said douche bag, I may have injured my finger even further...that's now five accidents.
We spent most of the afternoon there with a few others--Lauren and Kayse again!--and then headed to lunch. It was this great little restaurant where we chowed down on burgers and chicken sandwiches. We did a terrible job on this trip at eating regular meals so the few we did have were absolute heaven! And we got to spend our time laughing about the trip and re-quoting are favorite moments!
Then we journeyed home. Another 5 hour journey home. 5 hour journeys with tired people are awesome. This journey was awesome. We laughed, we cried, we slept...we cherished our friendship. We ate peanut butter sandwiches that Heidi had been hiding all weekend.
Trip Summary: AWESOME!
Trip Quotes:
1. "I'm going to be angry at you for 30 seconds."
2. "You're a pretty smart girl."
3. "You can prevent accidents if you are cautious."
4. "Nailed it."
5. "The average person needs 13 hugs a day."
6. "Chemical compound boy."
7. "I feel like a thousand lightening bolts are hitting my back."
8. "You've had peanut butter and bread this whole freakin time?"
Favorite Trip Memories:
1. Anna falling off a tiki statue in front of loads of Koreans.
2. Being the only ones swimming in the pebble beach.
3. Punching Duncan.
4. Frisbee, frisbee, and frisbee.
5. Heidi making us late to meet up with Duncan.
6. Spending time with awesome people.
Sadly, in finally finishing this I realize why I wish I journalled or blogged quicker. I know I'm forgetting some top moments and quotes...but let's just say it was awesome. And let's just hope someone in the crew remembers.
No comments:
Post a Comment