Busan

Forgive me for not writing as much lately, but I feel that a picture is worth a thousand words.

We took the night train down to Busan, arriving around 4:30am. It was very early and we all were hungry. We found some food and walked around. Then, we went to the beach to see the sun rise. It was really awesome.

View from 3rd floor of Jason's parents' apartment building.
SunriseBusan at night - it's so beautiful

JongWoo's dad took us out to eat at this amazing buffet. It had crab legs, a sushi bar, pizza, steak, pasta...basically everything plus a huge dessert bar. It was easily the best meal we had there. Ralf, JongWoo, Aeryoung, Simon, Chiara, and me at the Busan Aquarium. It had some really messed up looking fish. There was everything from seahorses to stingrays to sharks.
Bulguksa Temple - an hour outside of Busan

We seriously ate this...and other freshly diced fishies.

Pretty flowers :) on the bus tour of Busan

Fish Market

Cherry Blossoms & Jazz Make A Lovely Sunday

Cherry blossoms have bloomed and spring is here. Everything is so much prettier and calmer with the trees in bloom.
After we saw the cherry blossoms, we ate dinner in Hongdae. I should have taken a picture of the food. It was a huge pot of vegetables and beef, which was rather difficult to eat. Then, I had a waffle with ice cream. Yummy!

After the lovely dinner and dessert, we went to a jazz bar called Club Evans. The music was okay. I was falling asleep and could hardly enjoy it. I'm sure I'll go back there eventually for a full night of jazz.
I also picked up my chonggo drum on Monday. It's beautiful!
Check it out!

A Grand Adventure with Gilles

The plan was to go to Grand Mart and buy food. Then, we kind of passed it and kept going. Soon, we were at the Han River. We made it that far, so we kept going to the World Cup Stadium. We could see Sky Park (291 plus a few extra steps upward), so we just continued. There was a sign for Haneul Park, and obviously Gilles wanted to keep going. It really was a lovely adventure. Gilles and I explored lots of Seoul by foot. It feels like I walked forever. At least I wasn't wearing heels. That would have been really really bad.

World Cup Park

Funny poles in the park
I wish I had a picture of the sign in hangul.
Pretty flowers in the park
Stairs to Sky ParkHaneul Park - there was NOTHING

FOOD - this one will continually be updated

Tonkatsu - cutlet of some type. This one is pork, with a ball of rice, cabbage and dressing, soup, and radishes.

The yummy delicious bulgogi that cooks on a platter on our table. It really is the best bulgogi I've ever tasted.

Chicken cooked with veggies - very yummy broth
at the end of the meal, you usually add rice or noodles

Omurice - thin layer of egg with fried rice inside

Hawaiian pizza - sweet potato, cheese, almond slivers, random pieces of fruit and a handful of pineapple chunks



Fish head in soup -- Busan trip

Shabu shabu - here, there are two different broths with vegetables (mushrooms, lettuce, onion...) you bring it to a boil, and then you add the thin slices of meat to cook.
Here, we have duck and pork, I think.

Ice cream at the Red Mango. You add fruit toppings and sauce. Sometimes, cereal is an option.

This is samgyeopsal. We cook the meat in front of us. This particular restaurant is all you can eat... so you cook the meat and eat it by wrapping it in lettuce with kimchi, rice, or whatever you like.



Remember the pictures of the seafood...

Bulgogi
I forget what this is called, but it's kimchi and tofu
Fruit platter

Everland!

JongWoo, Aeryong, Simon, Janna, and I went to Everland. It's a theme park with a basis of the 50's. There's also a section that is supposed to represent The Netherlands. It's hilarious. Simon made fun of all the spelling errors and literal translations.

There were also very bizarre Japanese people. This is how they dress on a daily basis, I think. At least that's what Aeryoung says.
It was a lot of fun. They even had a small zoo with tigers!!
This was the newest ride. It's all wood and has the steepest angle of any rollercoaster in the world. I believe the angle is 77 degrees. Unfortunately, it was closed the day we went, so we couldn't enjoy the pure terror that would have surely ensued.