A Journey Out West

This past week we celebrated lunar new year here in Korea -- aka: 설날. aka: 3 days off of work

The original plan was to head down to the Japanese friends. Unfortunately ferry fares were quite pricey leaving me and my budgeted self with Korea to travel. At first, I was not all that pumped. Thankfully, though, my fabulous friend (friend in korean is 친구 -- pronounced chingu) Krystal who came to the rescue. She whipped out the Lonely Planet on Korea (our BFF) and we conceived a general plan. We would gather a group (Me, Krys, Jay, Jon, and Zach) and we would have an adventure.

So the plan went as follows:

1. Bus to the Western area of Korea, the city of Gwangju first.

2. Now over to Yeong-am to hike up to a spectacular bridge we saw a picture of in our BFF book

3. Finally to really go coastal and hit up Mokpo, about the opposite side of Korea of Busan

It was super fun. We took an unreal amount of bus trips, had some great accommodation, loads of beautiful Korean views, happy Korean families staring at us, and an excessive amount of norae-bang fun.

Below you will find some of my favorite photos from the trip.....

Jay on the bridge we hiked to. We certainly underestimated the hike. It was quite snowy/icy. We were not wearing the appropriate hardcore snow-hiking shoes nor did we have emergency supplies. Let's just say we basically slid our way back down the mountain before the sun went to bed.

Definitely worth the hike!

Yeong-am

In Mokpo, we had nice temperatures and a fun little boardwalk where we spent the afternoon flying kites. Well....attempting to fly them.

Zach, Jon, Krystal, and myself.

It was harder than it looked!

Cute little ones!

Happy year of the rabbit friends.

"Welcome to Korea! Do you have bofrand?"

Here in Korea, there is a trend. It's called "having a boyfriend". The basic lifestyle of this trend contains several different aspects. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3...

1. Wearing the same clothes down to the underwear. This may entail a groundbreaking amount of creativity. Sometimes, a couple will go so far as to find the fabric from a girls outfit and try to create it on the guys outfit. As for the underwear, don't you panic. They have his and hers undergarments stores on every corner. For your convenience. If you happen to get in a relationship on two blocks ago, you will soon stumble upon the next underwear store so that you will be able to get your first couples items.

2. Holding hands so tightly that people that would normally need to go through them, must go around the couple. Or else they might be clothes-lined by a couple of Korean lovebirds. Just yesterday I had to duck waiting on my train because a stubborn little set of linked lovers would not simply allow me through the crowded subway.

3. Sticker photos. If you know anything about love, you know the deal isn't sealed until you've spent some serious time in the sticker booths. These booths are great for getting really cheesy portraits for you to cherish for many years to come. My favorite part about these booths is that you can wear all of the crazy wigs and hats. The only problem is that you really can't go by yourself. Thankfully, I got to go with a bunch of my girlfriends a few weeks back. But of course, it is always ideal to have your man by your side.

The thing is, all of this really just keeps me quite humored. It makes me laugh that every time I meet someone who speaks English, their first question for me is if I have a boyfriend are not. Seriously?! I am 7,000 miles away from home and the most interesting thing to know is if I am in a relationship. As I sat and pondered this spectacle, I was reminded of a quote from the fabulous Pride and Prejudice....

"What are men compared to rocks and mountains?"

I suppose having a boyfriend isn't all that bad, but I am sort of enjoying the whole exploring the unknown for the time being.