This past weekend the girls and I headed out of Gwangju for a fun trip to Busan. It's always nice to get away from the normal Gwangju happenings for something new and exciting. Danielle had mentioned that there was talk about going at the beginning of the week. Of course, we were all excited and on board for a get away. I got off work around 7 pm and headed to meet up with Danielle at her place. We waited a bit for Kelsey and Bess and then we were off to U Square. We bought our bus tickets but had to wait for a later bus because the rest were all sold out. So, we sat down and ate food. The unfortunate thing here of not speaking Korean, is never knowing if you are getting ripped off or not. We ordered some sweet and sour chicken and were charged 10,000 won for it. Nothing on the board stated a meal cost 10,000 and the guy definitely just laughed at us. Which leads us to believe, we were taken advantage of.
Anyway, we got on the bus and immediately fell asleep. These buses are so comfortable with their reclining seats and all. We arrived at our destination of Busan around 1 am. We were welcomed with rain... We found our motel, which was a HUGE improvement from the Love Motel in Seoul. This place was clean, the man was super welcoming at 1 am and the rooms were really nice. Danielle and I shared a room and found a nice mat to put on our bed to make it more comfortable. We woke up the next morning and took our time getting around, it was vacation after all. We went to Starbucks for a coffee and some breakfast before beginning our day. After the delightful breakfast, we headed to the Subway station so we could go to Haeundae, where the beach and aquarium were located. We must have looked confused because the cutest ajumma came up to try to help us at the ticket machine. Of course, we couldn't understand her, but she was all smiles and giggles. She came back with another guy who said hi to us. They both just stood there until we got our tickets. We were about to walk away when the Ajumma put her arms around Danielle and I. We realized she was trying to give us a hug, so we hugged her back. We headed to what we thought was the right train, but we were on the wrong side. So we had to come back upstairs and pass the cute Ajumma again. Of course, this time I got my camera out and took a picture with her, and she got a picture with us on her cell phone. I call that a win.
Our first stop of the very rainy day was the Busan aquarium where we met up with Kelsey's friend Heather. It was really pretty cool place. The shark tank was pretty epic as well. I'm very excited to shark dive there in the next few weeks. At the end of the aquarium they have the smallest cages ever. Inside the first was 2 lions, a small little trough for them to drink out of, a few logs and each other. Thats it. The next one had the same set up but with 2 tigers. The most depressing thing ever. I just don't understand it. We then ate a massive lunch at Bennigan's across the street. It was delicious. We didn't do any beach activities due to the weather, so instead we headed a huge mall and went to Spaland. I was a bit worried about what Spaland would be like, given my last traumatic experience with an attempt at a spa day. This place turned out to be incredible. It was a bath house, but a very upscale one. We didn't stay in one area too long, just so we could check it all out. There was an outdoor foot bath, which was pretty cool in the rain, they had different sauna rooms, like the dream room, or the wave sound room, the hammam room. Some of the rooms were over 100 degrees. After the super hot rooms we would go sit in the ice room. Which obviously felt amazing. Upstairs they had a relaxation room, where you could sit in comfy chairs and watch tv. The tvs were all taken up, but we stumbled upon this fantastic little room with massage chairs. There were enough chairs for all of us girls to get a massage. We spent 30 mins in the chair, relaxing. We decided we had enough of the bath house and got around to head out.
Saturday night was the soccer match Korea vs Uruguay. We went to the Busan World Cup stadium to watch the match with a few thousand Koreans and a bunch of foreigners. It was an amazing time, just being in a place with so many excited people. We had a blast watching the game, drinking, making new friends and memories. Following the Korea match, at 3:30 am was the USA game. Of course, we couldn't just go home and sleep knowing that USA was playing. We attempted to find taxi's which proved to be a challenging task at 1 am, we assumed they would be lining up waiting for people to leave the stadium. We were wrong. Eventually, half of us got one. This driver was insane, he enjoyed yelling GO USA and slamming on his brakes. Which was funny at first, but a few of us were about to pee our pants as it was. We went to a bar to watch the game and hang out. I was definitely starting to get tired and the smell of alcohol at 4 am was not a pleasant thing. But it was fun nonetheless. Again, it was sad that USA AND Korea lost...
We made it back to our motel around 6:30 am to get a few hours of sleep. It didn't work out so well for Danielle and I. There was the most annoying dog barking for at least 2 hours straight. So, the sleep thing didn't really happen as I would have liked. We also got a call telling us to check out at 12, so sleeping more was out of the question. Sunday turned out to be pretty sunny, so after buying our bus tickets home we headed out to try to enjoy the sun in a park. Of course, as luck would have it, after we got off the subway.. it was raining. We decided to have a quick look at the Fish Market before heading to a different area. The Fish Market was so cool, so many different kinds of fish all in one place. Definitely a new experience! We made our way to a new area of Busan to meet up with another friend. After wandering for a bit, we came across this over decorated coffee place, complete with purple decor and all. It was fantastic and our waiter was so sweet and luckily spoke English. The menu was all in Korean. He did well recommending a Green Tea Mint Chocolate Chip smoothie, which I got. It was probably the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.
We eventually got a bus at 7:30 pm and headed back to Gwangju. It was a really fun weekend away, but also very exhausting. The weekends are way too short. School on Monday was a drag. The kids were loud and wouldn't listen, I was super tired. It just doesn't go well together.
On another note. I find it hilarious that my one Kinder Brenda tells me she is scared of me. Today all 6 kids were together to do a worksheet. Dan and I both were yelling at the kids to sit down, mainly Brenda and Samuel (who I've been stuck with the past month). When it was time to separate again, Brenda and Samuel were telling me they didn't like me, cause I yelled at them. But they liked Dan. I said Dan yelled at them too and they said "yes but Megan Teacher is scary when she yells." I love it, seeing as the rest of the kids are scared of Dan cause he can carry them out of the room and put them in their place and he has a louder voice than me. With the younger kids, they apparently find me more scary than Dan? Either way, its entertaining. 5 minutes later, they loved me again. haha
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