Nothing says "Spring is here!" quite like Cherry Blossoms and Korea's Tetris-Style Parking Lots

So, I went for an innocent walk around Gwangalli Beach with some friends earlier today to look at the thousands of beautifully bloomed cherry blossom trees in the area. Jesi and I were walking along, minding our own business, talking about the weekend and whatnot when we realized that Jessica and Lisa had fallen a block or two behind us as they had stopped to take a bunch of pictures with cherry blossoms. So, we decided to wait in a nearby playground for our friends to catch up. While waiting, I got to looking at this apartment complex parking lot. Cars were parked neatly in their designated spots along both sides as expected, but then there were a few cars parked in a single-file line in the middle of the lot, directly behind many of the cars parked on either side. Just as I was pointing this out to Jesi and wondering how some of the cars could possibly be maneuvered around the others, a middle-age Korean man began pushing one of the cars in the middle row several feet forward to allow enough room for him to back out of his spot. We suddenly realized that all drivers who park in the single-file line in the middle of the lot, leave their cars in neutral so other drivers can politely move their cars out of the way when needed. Two things instantly came to mind. 1.) Wow, Korea is overcrowded! 2.) It's like a giant game of tetris in real life! Some things are just plain weird. This was/is one of those things.

Weekend Trip to Daejeon

Kathryn (my girlfriend, for those who are out of the loop) and I recently took a train-trip to Daejeon (South Korea's third largest city) to see what we could find and experience. We hopped on the KTX, which is Korea's speed train that connects the countries largest cities and major tourist destinations, around 8:30am Saturday morning and arrived in Daejeon at 10:30am. We instantly hit the jackpot as we approached the information desk at the train station as the woman behind the counter could understand and speak English quite well and she was excited to tell these two ignorant foreigners all that her beloved city had to offer.

We took the woman's advice and spent Saturday afternoon by first taking a city bus tour and then checking out the Daejeon Expo. We really enjoyed our time at the interactive science museum and made plans to come back the next morning to take in the planetarium and biosphere. We woke up fairly early Sunday morning and decided to go check out Daejeon's World Cup soccer stadium which was only a 5 minute cab ride from our hotel. The outside of the stadium was nothing spectacular and we were beginning to feel a little disappointed when we realized one of the entrance gates was open. So, after looking at one another briefly and shrugging our shoulders simultaneously as if to say "what the heck?" we walked in and quickly found our way inside the stadium and down onto the field! Apparently Daejeon's pro soccer team had a game the day before and some townspeople were inside cleaning up the celebratory toilet paper and what not. We walked around on the grass (if you've ever been to Korea you know that grass is all but extinct in the country) and took some photos pretending to be Korean soccer stars. Then, as planned we experienced the planetarium and biosphere. Both were really cool. But, the highlight of the trip was our 4 hour adventure in ZooLand. We were absolutely blown away by the unique animal cages (some of which allowed Jaguars to walk directly over our heads and allowed small monkeys to walk tight-rope style accross a rope from one cage to another)but most of all we loved the safari. We hopped on a small bus with about 30 Koreans and rode into a special section of the zoo/theme park. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by bears. Then a few minutes later we drove into the tiger section of the safari experience. Followed by the African sections where we literally got within 3 feet of a dozen male lions with nothing separating us but the thin glass of the safari bus windows. It was awesome! Our trip to Daejeon was a resounding success!

China (Day 3)

The highlight of my trip to China was undoubtedly the tour of the Forbidden City and Great Wall of China. Enjoy the photos.

China - Day Two (Morning)

I jumped out of bed at 6:00am on day 2 of my trip to China to put an abrupt halt to the ringing wake-up call, which is just as annoying in China as it is in the states. Korean beds are a lot like sleeping on pavement, so waking up early to get out of the first comfortable bed in which I've slept in over 6 months wasn't exactly my idea of a vacation, but I quickly reminded myself that I was in China and my sleepiness turned to anxious anticipation to explore more of this fascinating country.

First up on today's agenda: A trip to China's Summer Palace.

We walked around the palace grounds for a couple hours, soaking in the beautiful landscape and trying to wrap our minds around the ancient history on display before us.

Next up: A tour of a Chinese Jade Factory.

Jade is China's most cherished stone and judging by the obscene number of jade sculptures, jewelry, and other forms of artwork on display in Beijing's jade factory there is plenty of this green gold to be found. We had the opportunity to watch the sculpters do some jade carving. There attention to detail, artistic abilities, and steady hands are a sight to see. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that this tour was much more of the strategic variety as opposed to experiential, as the tour guides reserved the majority of our time for shopping in the jade factory gift shop. After inspecting a couple price tags it didn't take long for me to turn from "shopper" into "photographer."

China - Day One

Woke up early Saturday (January 24) morning to finish packing, grabbed a light breakfast, and joined a group of friends on the Airport Limousine (a bus that transports travelers to and from the airport in Busan). We met up with the Kangsan Travel people who would be responsible for getting us to Beijing and showing us a good time during our 3 day trip in China. Waited around the airport for a couple hours then boarded the plane and had a smooth, uneventful flight (about 2 hours) to Beijing. The Beijing airport was HUGE! I'm confident the entire town of Ellsworth could have fit inside the airport with room to spare. Then we met with the Chinese tour guides who worked in conjunction with the Kangsan travel folks from Korea. Our Chinese tour guide called himself "Jerry" How. He was born and raised in Beijing but spoke English quite well, except he had the funniest way of saying certain phrases. His accent definitely added a dose of humor to our trip.

After manuevering our way through the gigantic airport, we boarded our tour buses and headed straight for phase one of our sight-seeing adventure, a group of temples near downtown Beijing. As anticipated, it was cold but we were prepared (I even wore Korean man-tights under my jeans). We walked around the temple grounds for an hour or two then headed to our first authentic Chinese food restaurant where we ate Peking duck (a very tender sliced duck meal served with soy-sauce, rice, vegatables, and some other dishes which were unidentifiable). We quickly learned that every Chinese meal also comes with a 1-liter coke, 16-ounce bottle of water, kettle of hot tea, and two 20-ounce beers.

With our bellies full, we then headed to our 5-star hotel (The Loong Palace Hotel and Resort). This place was amazing! It was a huge hotel with hundreds of statues, a big marble spiral staircase, dragon fountain, and decorated with Lunar New Year lanterns and lights. As we wandered around we found an olympic size swimming pool, shuffle-board tables, billiards room, bowling alley, buffet-style restaurant, and lounge bar. We felt like the Beverly Hillbillies.

Dropped our luggage off in our room and headed straight for the pool. They informed us that we needed swimming caps so of course I bought the ugliest one they had. Swam around for an hour or so, then joined a group of friends for some drinks and charades before hitting the sack.

Trippin' on the Weekends (part 2)

Hopped over to Songdo Beach on Sunday afternoon. It was cold and windy but I was itching to get out of the house and do some more exploring. Walked along some cliffs and watched as a flock of coast-guard helicopters attempted to extinguish a small forest fire in the distance.

Trippin' on the weekends

The last couple of weekends, I've done some more exploring of the outer edges of Busan. Recently stumbled upon Taejongdae Island. It's a hiking area on the eastern side of the city. Went for a ride on a weird looking "train" that looks like something out of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Took some pictures of a "Jayuland" (a whacky looking amusement park), then watched the sunset. (Hint: Click on the sunset picture to get a better view.)

Happy New Rear!

2009 (the year of the Ox according to the Korean Calendar) is here!

Hosted a New Year's Party at my place with some friends from all over the states and Canada, then we made our way to the bar district for some late night festivities. After a night full of celebrating, dancing, and dart playing something didn't quite feel complete. So we did what anyone would do at 5:30 in the morning on January 1st. We stumbled into a nearby Norebang for some strobe light flashin', tamborine crashin', Korean-style karaoke! Apparently, the excitement of the night eventually hit us like a ton of bricks. Half of us fell asleep in the Norebang.

Merry Christmas!

Spent Christmas with a group of good friends I've made during my 5+ months here in South Korea. We had a potluck dinner at my place and went to a Norebang (pronounced "No-ray-bong": Korean karaoke room) on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas day, I talked to my family on the computer and got to watch them open gifts via webcam. Then, everyone met at my place again for a white elephant gift exchange (I'm the proud owner of a used bunk-bed ladder!), went out to eat at a huge buffet-style restaurant nearby, and played a bunch of boardgames to round out the holiday (Scrabble and Yahtzee - thanks Grandma & Grandpa Choitz!)