Busan

I'm back in Seoul again! I came up from Busan yesterday and then spent the rest of the day with my cousin, Soojin. It had been seven years since I last saw her when she visited Corvallis and we had a good time catching up, talking about college, and checking out a famous outside shopping area that attracts lots of tourists. The stores sell a number of things from clothes, jewelry, pottery, to random accessories. My cousin and I both love shopping and had fun roaming around to each store, even though it was super hot and crowded.

After a long day of shopping, she took me to a cute coffee and dessert shop..this was our dessert after our huge dinner. 

Back when I was in Busan, I spent a day with Gabe! My mom and I met him, his mom, and his sister for lunch and then went shopping at one of the biggest malls in Korea (I know, lots of shopping). We also went by the beach and walked along the shore. After all this speaking Korean and meeting a ton of family, I was more than excited to hang out with a friend! 

With mom at the beach. Below is the view of the city from the beach. It looks super cloudy but the weather was perfect for walking on the beach, even at night!

After lunch and the beach, we went to a chimgeelbang, a Korean sauna. There were at least six different rooms as hot as 160 degrees, and you go in, lay down, try to endure as long as you can, and sweat buckets. The picture above is me and Gabe in the salt room which was about 110 degrees--one of the less hotter rooms, but still scorching for me! Right after sitting in one of the rooms, you step into the ice room, which feels amazing after roasting in the sauna. We repeated the process about five times and I got better at enduring the heat. It sounds weird, but it was so fun and one of the things my mom insisted I  experience in Korea.

With my mom in the ice room. Please appreciate the lamb ears we made, also a Korean tradition in the saunas! For people in Oneighty, don't they remind you of Min? He was that little boy who was amazing at guitar and wore the ears around while we were at the sand dunes. I saw an older kid at the sauna wearing the same ears who looked just like him!

While I was staying at my grandma's in Busan, my mom also took me to a fish market where people sell fish, crabs, and other random creatures (some still swimming around in tanks) that didn't look too appetizing at all. I watched one lady catch a eel, snake looking thing and cut it up while it kept squirming around..it kept moving around in the bowl after it was all cut up too. It stunk like fish hardcore.

It was definitely a different, smelly experience but its cool to see parts of Korea that are the opposite of the city.

Me with the umbrella my grandma told me to use to keep from getting tanner. More later! I'm going to see Jessica soon and I'm excited to see her after two years!

Gangneung Adventures

An update on the last two days..

We made a stop at the Pyongchang ski resort. It's obviously not used for skiing during the summer but we rode a cable car that's open year round and went sight seeing. This place apparently attracts lots of people because the lodge at the top of the ride is one of the famous settings from the popular korean drama, Winter Sonata (one that my mom and I were addicted to)!

In the cable car..

We also went to a water park! There were lots of rides with inner tubes, wave pools, and one ride in particular called the Tornado that made steep drops and twists--my personal favorite. So much fun! It reminded me of you guys back at home and I kept thinking that it would be so much fun coming here with the youth group. But speaking of water parks, Wild Waves is soon!

My aunt treated my mom and I to a massage and facial at a day spa today. It was my first time doing anything like it and I loved it! My mom practically wanted to live there. The lady kept massaging my neck though and I had to use all of my self-control to keep from laughing.

Here are some pictures of my aunt's art. She's an art professor at Kwandong University and we got to check out some of her work displayed at the school..she's obviously the only one who got the artistic genes in the family.

I feel like I've been talking about eating a lot since I got here..but this is me and my mom eating lunch at a famous spot in Gangneung.

This was tonight's dinner that my aunt's friend treated us to. Not meat! I was super excited.

Just Peachy

Who ever knew I'd spend time at a peach farm in Korea? Random, but true. My aunt took us to a friend's place out in the country where we BBQ'd and ate peaches all day long. Her friend had built several houses for people to stay there and we hung out with her friends watching movies, hiking, watching movies, and taking Korean yoga classes. I got to catch up on some sleep too and I finally feel like I'm not functioning nocturnally.

This is me, my mom, aunt, my cousin Jay, and my aunt's friend's daughter named Julia in front of the house we stayed at the peach farm.

But this is all yesterday news!

Today we drove to Pyungchang, the place where the 2018 Olympics will take place! On our way here, we stopped for lunch to have what is apparently the classic Korean soup to treat hangovers. Don't worry, it wasn't because I've been going crazy over here. But if you guys thought the cow stomach and intestines sounded gross..today's soup's specialty was cow blood. Cooked cow blood is what I would describe as flavorless, melt-in-your-mouth, dark, squarish chunks floating around in the soup. I wish I had stopped to take a picture! I wouldn't go as far as to say I loved it but I did enjoy it! I would have liked it a lot more if I hadn't been thinking the whole time..is there any part of cows Koreans don't eat?

A quick note about eating here..since I'm only staying for two weeks, my family wants me to experience all the best restaurants in each town so even if I'm not fully recovered and digested from the last meal, we sit down for another feast. For tonight's dinner, I ate my weight in meat. Everyone's literally trying to stuff me until it's physically impossible for me to pick up my chopsticks. Bryan, if you're reading this, I'm really hoping you'll be up for another couple days of raw food/detox dieting with me when I get back.

Not that it's related at all, but did you know that Koreans have heated toilet seats? It's a pleasant surprise and makes for quite a different experience! :)

I'll be in Pyungchang for another couple nights then I'm off to Gangneung!

Off to the Motherland

After eleven slow hours of watching movies, eating airplane food, and sleeping uncomfortably, I've made it to Korea! I'm obviously a noob at flying internationally because the blanket, pillow, and slippers welcoming me to my isle seat at 51D were luxuries I did not expect that literally made my day.

I'm currently staying at my grandma's house in Seoul with my uncle and his family. As a warm welcoming, they took me out to dinner to what is apparently my uncle's favorite place to eat. When they served cow intestines and stomach as the main course, something that I can promise did not look very appetizing, I thought of all you guys at home who would be really turned off by this Korean delicacy. I can already picture some of your faces who think tofu, seaweed, and weirdly textured food is gross. But I'll have you know that I gave it a go and I loved it! It tastes a lot like chewy chicken!

Driving here is not a joke. For those of you who make fun of my driving in Corvallis, I can guarantee that pedestrians would be in serious danger if someone put me behind a wheel here. The streets on the way to the restaurant were lined with bakeries, food shops, boutiques, other stores worthy of window shopping, and tons and tons of people walking around at 10pm going about their business. They definitely do not know the meaning of crosswalks.

I do feel slightly out of place here, like a fob wannabe. This trip was definitely not on my original things-to-do list the summer before college but i'm ready to make the most of it. Other than having my own TV to watch unlimited movies on the plane, seeing my mom again and part of my dad's side of the family was definitely the highlight of my trip so far. One day down, 17 more to go! Tomorrow I'm going to my aunt's house in Gangnung to stay for a couple days and I'll get to see some of my cousins.
More later!