Busan – Part 1

My friends and I decided to go to Busan, a city in the far tip of the Korean peninsula, before it got too cold! We first made our way to Seoul Station, the absolute hub for metro traffic in Seoul! It’s a gigantic station. (remember to click the pictures to see them bigger!)

There are idols on huge billboards here. We thought it was funny that TOP from Big Bang was saying “Hola” (we really wanted to hear his deep voice speak Spanish!) 

Anyway, after Kristen and I met up with Marissa and her boyfriend (who came to see her off…what a great guy!), we headed to the KTX loading center in the station.

For those who don’t know, KTX is Korea’s version of the bullet train. It got us from Seoul to Busan in a little under 3 hours. The inside was pretty standard, nothing too special.

The train started perfectly on time, it was great. And then we were on our way to Busan!

None of us had ever been (including Marissa, who’s been teaching here), but we were incredibly eager!

The view on the way there was beautiful. We got lucky and caught the sunset! There were lots of farmlands, mountains, and clusters of cities and towns the whole way there.

Finally we arrived at Busan after a while!

As soon as you walked out of the station the air felt fresher. You could tell the ocean was close by. It was so amazing to get a big, deep breath and feel the breeze from the water! Right out of the station, they had a huge welcoming statue/fountain.

Really cool. Lots of people ask me if it’s identical to Seoul. No, Busan isn’t identical in size or style…it’s a very big place, but it’s not as crowded or stacked as Seoul is. It also had a different feel from Seoul…it’s hard to describe, but it seemed more calm and laid back in Busan, which I really loved.

As you can tell by the pictures, high rises aren’t completely swarming the entire area. We walked for just a little bit and found our motel (just a street away from the ocean!) and settled in for the night. For anyone interested in going, we stayed at Big Apple Motel. The rooms were really great!

They had a hilariously effective way of draining the water from the bathtub/shower and sink, but it wasn’t a big deal. We actually loved it, it was so funny. Aside from that, everything was wonderfully clean.  (also, the room comes with a huge tv and a computer with internet. No wifi.) We headed out to find a bite to eat and ended up at one of the few open places, a Chicken and Beer place.

The chicken was delicious, and we skipped on the beer. We then headed back to just chill out in our room and eat some snacks we picked up at the GS25. Then we woke up at around 7am the next morning to hop on a bus and go to a jimjilbang (찜질방). I’d wanted to go to one for quite some time now but had never had the chance. These are public bathhouses with a bunch of other sauna styled rooms. Since one of my friends wasn’t really comfortable going to the public bath section, we settled on the saunas instead!

It was so much fun! They had an oxygen room (extremely peaceful…I almost fell asleep!), an ice room, which was my favorite one. It was probably around 34degrees Fahrenheit in there, but it felt awesome.

There were two hot rooms, one that wasn’t that bad and one that felt like hell. It was terrible, but also awesome. You started sweating the instant you walked inside. I couldn’t take pictures of the inside of them, use of phones wasn’t allowed and it was too dark to take pictures anyway.

We had an awesome time at the jimjilbang, and we left at around noon. We still had a ton left to do that day! After our time there we went next door to the trick eye museum. It was so fun! I won’t put a ton of pictures up, just a few. It’s a fun, interactive photo place~

The inside is just a bunch of different places to take pictures with the trick paintings or setups!

And after we spent a while here, we headed back to our motel to get some lunch and then go to Haeundae beach.  Here are some photos of the area we were in while we were walking to the subway station~

I’ll stop this entry here because it’s getting a bit long. (also because it’s 12:31am and I have a presentation tomorrow morinng!) Please stay tuned for part 2 entry of my Busan trip!

Midterm week....

Next week is midterms week, so I've been bogged down with writing papers and working on group presentations. I haven't been able to go out much and do anything aside from eat, so I don't really have much of an update to give. ㅠㅠ

Tomorrow after class, though, two of my friends and I will be heading to Busan! So after the weekend (and my Monday midterm) I will have an update!

So until then, bye bye~!!! I hope you all have a good weekend and (if you still have any left) good luck on your own midterm exams!

Lord Sandwich and Dance Class

Today I met up with Kristen for lunch after her KLI class let out and we decided to go to Lord Sandwich. It's right down the road from SK Global and my friend KaylaAnn who was here last year said she loved the place, so we decided to check it out.

By the way, as you can see, the weather is finally getting better! It's nice and cool outside now. Anyway, this is the outside of the building. SK Global, my dorm, is literally just a hop, skip and a jump behind this building. From the outside it looks sort of like a jail so we had no idea what to expect.

I knew going in the prices would be high, as I was told by a girl in one of my classes, but the food was absolutely amazing. First of all, the inside of the building is completely different from the outside. Whoever designed this interior and building needs an award.

They even played classical music while you ate, it was awesome. I wish I could buy this place and make it my home! If I ever become a millionaire, I'm keeping this design in mind, haha. Anyway, Kristen and I both decided on a steak sandwich and iced chocolate latte. First we were brought our drinks.

Ice chocolate lattes here are essentially iced hot cocoa...delicious. Then, finally, our sandwiches. It was so, so heavenly.

It seriously was amazing. It tasted so good, and the greens they used weren't those regular lettuce greens. These were legit. And the steak was exactly like a steak back home Seriously, it was expensive, but I ate very well. The sandwich was big, too.

As you can see, we destroyed our meal (except for the tomatoes cause ew). Kristen and I sat in a really cool place with a huge photo next to us.

Anyway, it was really fun to eat there. Then, I decided to go along with Kristen to a dance class. It's a Kpop dance class and it was absolutely fun. I've never really danced before, but I wasn't half bad. This class the teacher had prepared a routine to G-Dragon's "Crayon", a super fun song.


It's probably not most people's cup of tea (at least my family reading this back home), but I happen to love the song and the dance was so fun to do. The class was taught in Korean, but extremely easy to understand. I actually had to think about the language to really notice they weren't speaking a language I understood. The teacher was awesome, too. She was so natural with her moves, I was impressed. Every so often she'd translate a lyric, but every one she did I already knew what it meant in Korean. It was a nice gesture though, haha.

I'll probably be going back every Monday because it was so fun! Today was a pretty good day, and my Busan trip starts this Friday! So for now...I'm off to work on my papers that I have to do for midterms. Ahh...

Lucy Hair

Okay, I’d gotten bored of my hair. Very, very bored. I was nervous to try and get it done here in Korea because of the language barrier and I’d heard some horror stories about Juno Hair, which is supposed to specialize in foreign hair. After searching online, I found good reviews about a place in Sinchon, Lucy Hair. Since everything I’d heard had been simply praise (and they were in my very own city!) I made an appointment and just a day later, I was sitting in the chair. (I was using my Samsung Galaxt tablet to take pictures, sorry! The color is a little misleading~)

It’s a nice interior, very welcoming.

A very nice man did my hair. His name is Dennis (Dennis 아저씨~ㅋㅋ) and he was spectacular! He was very charming and fun to work with. I brought in initial things I wanted, but ended up just trusting him on what twist he wanted to run with.

He added the color (red highlights with a darker brown base), which took a while, then let me sit. After, another man washed my hair and then Dennis did a special treatment to my hair. They also took off the edges of the color that may have gotten on my skin. Then, they washed my hair a second time and started the cut.

I absolutely love how it turned out. My hair originally was pretty boring (my old color had faded out), and I was in desperate want for some bangs to come back to my life! So before and after:

I really love it, it’s something new for me and it feels great! I think I look good, too, which is a plus! Haha! Anyway, I had my appointment set for 11am and walked out at around 1:30. The color, cut, treatment, etc…everything I’d gotten done to my hair was only $150. A full color/highlight, and trim! I was sure it would cost more! And I paid in cash, so I got a discount…about $7/$8 off!

This place is absolutely awesome and the best salon experience I’ve had! The staff was inviting, spoke English well, and had amazing techniques. I’m extremely impressed. They did a top knotch job for a wonderful price. If you are in Sinchon, make sure to find Lucy Hair and get your hair done!

Korean Findings~

So since I don't have much to talk about today (I spent the entire afternoon writing a paper. I finished it and I feel confident!), I figured I could talk about some things in Korea that I've bought or found that I really enjoy. But first...

There's some color on the tips of the trees! Hooray! Autumn is my favorite season and I'm incredibly sad I'll miss it back home. The smell of burning leaves, hoddie weather, crisp air....ahh, I miss it so much! Hopefully this means it's coming for Korea, too~

Anyway, some fun things in Korea that you either have to get or do!

• Korean Socks

Korea has some of the best socks I've ever seen! They're cheap, widely available  and totally adorable to a painful degree. These are only a few I've bought so far. (I've had my eye on a pair that had manta rays on them for a while...)

As a person who's completely enamored by cute things, Korean socks were like a gift from above. They even have funny socks.

Yep, Gangnam Style socks. They were only 1,000won....a little less than 1USD! So hard to pass these up when you pass by street vendors selling them.

• Pony Brown

I've just recently been opened up to Pony Brown, a brand of super adorable stationary supplies. They have a really cute style of art and love bright, vibrant colors.

They were cheap and the little notebooks are thread bound, making them really easy to write in. The pens are some of the best I've ever written with, too. And of course, insanely adorable. Girls, go find this brand and stock up! The message on the back is even just as cute!

• Sticker Booths

Oh my god...sticker booths should be a thing in America! They are so fun and no matter what, you look good!

I've yet to get a very big one, which I want so badly, but I will sometime! I'm so addicted and I've only done it twice. Despite being very quick and sometimes confusing, they're really a blast with your friends~

• Food

That's a pretty broad section...but I've had some amazing foods in the past few days! first of all, Korean Krispy Kreme. They are no joke here.

They even have themed donuts! The pumpkin ones (as I was told by the friends who ate them) have a pumpkin jelly-like filling. I took a taste and it was so delicious...they had so many flavors. My favorite, by far, was a Hazelnut...something. I don't remember the whole title.

Yep. Nutella in a donut. It might be the most delicious thing I've ever had. I'm gonna get it again soon. When in Rome, right? Haha. Well, when in Korea...do as Koreans do! And they do donuts so, so right. The next is somewhat similar. Some people might not know this, but Korea doesn't have a separate type of foods for breakfast like in the West. It's hard to find a good American breakfast here!

This, though, was so amazing. It was at Tomo Cafe again in Sinchon. It came with the half waffle, scrambled eggs, sausage/bacon, a banana, and a salad. It was so heavenly I thought I would cry! Tomo Cafe does it so well, I was very impressed! I've heard that Butterfingers is a supposed AMAZING breakfast place for westerners, so I'll have to check that place out soon and report back. Now back to Korean food!

I had 도시락 (doshirak) for dinner tonight. It's Korea's version of a bento box. I got 소고기 (beef) and tonkatsu. It came with a side of sweet pickles (YES!), pickled...something yellow, kimchi, and rice. The beef tasted like my mom's pot roast back home...so tasty! It was really good and incredibly cheap. It was about 3,500won. I'll be eating here again soon!

• Advertisments

I must be used to midwestern, not-cool advertisements because Korea has the COOLEST!

This was at the COEX mall, and I was so excited to see it! I've never seen anything Zelda this big before in my life, so I made my friend stop and take a picture of me with it, haha! They also have Kpop idols as big as walls, too.

It's Junsu (Xiah) from TVXQ/JYJ. They had a whole wall of the JYJ guys playing Nintendo DS, I just took a photo of Junsu because my friend loves him and I had to show her. But you see stuff like this all over. I've seen so much Big Bang and CNBlue advertisements that are the size of my bedroom back home!

Anyway, those are some fun things that have happened or I've seen lately!