Jimmy and I spent the first two weeks in September in Korea...it was an amazing trip! Here we are by some rice fields with the sunset in the background. We had such adventures on our trip...I'll recount some of them here, but please check out my pictures on flickr. I've labeled most everything so you can see where we went and what we did. I've tried to include some stories there too, because it's easier to recount what happened on the trip with pictures! :) But here are some basics...We left Las Vegas on September 1st. We flew from Vegas to San Francisco where we had about a five hour layover. We were travelling with Jimmy's Mom and Dad - they went out with us, but stayed in Korea for a month. Anyhow, while in the San Francisco airport, I am talking to Sun (Jimmy's Mom) and notice that her diamond is missing from its setting in her ring...panic ensued! Jimmy and Al (his Dad) head back to the security checkpoint because Sun is certain she had it before security and I tell her to check through her bags. You see, when we came through the security checkpoint they stopped Sun and asked to see some things in her bags - she had packed all kinds of foods because Al doesn't eat much Korean food, so she travels with foods he will eat. One of these things being a sausage - like a summer sausage - you know the kind you get from Hickory Farms? It was like that - packed in her carryon. So, she had to pull out the sausage at the checkpoint and then repack things - anyway - I thought her diamond could have come loose during that and fallen into her bag. Sure enough she saw something sparkling down in there and found the diamond - the trip was not ruined and the sausage was pronounced a lucky sausage!
Finally we board the flight to Seoul - this flight was twelve and a half hours. Whew! It actually went by fairly quickly and without any major events.
We flew Korean Air and the flight attendants are the cutest things ever! They wore suits and had the cutest accessories. Here's what they look like. They were really nice. We ate beebimbop on the plane, which is rice mixed with meat and veggies. It was yummy! We also watched movies, listened to music and tried to get a little sleep. I wathced the Sex and the City movie and was disappointed in it!Anyway, once we landed in Seoul, Samchun (Jimmy's uncle) was there to get us! We were supposed to stay at the Dragon Hill Hotel, but when we discovered it was actually on the military base (Al is retired airforce) we had trouble getting the car onto base and ended up driving into Osan instead.
We stayed in Osan for a couple of days. One of the highlights for me there was the shopping. This is what the streets look like.
You could go into these shops all along the streets and buy fun stuff. My favorite purchase here was a knock-off Ed Hardy belt (Jimmy keeps telling me not to tell everyone it's a knock-off because no one would ever know). Anyway - you're supposed to barter at these shops and everyone was so disappointed in me because I paid $18 for my belt (a real one would run about $90) rather than the $16 everyone thought I could have gotten it for. After a few days we headed further south to Busan - this is where all the family is. We had the best time. I loved meeting the family I hadn't ever met before and reuniting with the family that I had met before. We did so much while we were there. We stayed mostly with Unni (Jina) and Opa (Cheulwoong) and their family. They are Jimmy's cousins. Here's a photo of them.
They were such great hosts and showed us so many beautiful sights in Korea. They really opened their home to us and made our trip so incredibly memorable! While we did too much to recount it all here, I want to include a couple of photos and snippets of what we did. I'll start with the never-ending day...we left the house at about 8am and didn't return until 3am the following morning!
Gyeongju National Museum
The museum was awesome. It held a lot of information and artifacts about Korean history.
Shilla Millenium Park
The park was like an amusement park, but had cool cultural and historical information about Korea. Koreans are big on their culture - it is really neat to see that!
Gyeongju World Culture Expo Park
This place had lots of interesting things to do and see, but Sunmudo was my favorite - that's the photo here. We all took a Sunmudo class - that's our instructor in the middle. It was so much fun. It's a Kprean martial art...but it is mostly relaxing (like tai chi) with some kicks and fighting moves. It was great!Cosmos
Cosmos are a native Korean wild flower, and Jina's favorite! We stopped to take pictures in them!
Gyeongju Imhaejoen Site
This was such a beautiful place - the photos really don't do it justice. It is a historical site, built for the Silla Royal Family. We walked around the park and took in all the sites...then we stayed for a while to listen to a rock concert that was happening at the park. Afterwards it was time for dinner and...Karaoke
Karaoke is big in Korea, but they don't do it in bars like we do in the states...they have Nodi Bongs (singing rooms). So, you karaoke privately with your party. It was fun! There was about one page worth of English songs so that Jimmy and I could sing too! This ended our wonderful day of sightseeing.We did so much while we were there, I can't describe it all...but here are a few more highlights.
Haeundae Beach
Jimmy, Minsuk & Me at Haeundae Beach...check out the city in the background!Yongdusan Park
Al, Sun, Jimmy & Me. Busan Tower is located at this park - we went up in it and saw the city lights below us. It was pretty cool!The Countryside
This is grandma and grandpa's grave. We visited and paid our respects. It was really beautiful out there.Haeinsa Temple
Haeinsa Temple was built in 802. It was very peaceful to be there. There were multiple buildings with Buddhas like these in them. You can go in and pray in any of them. A Day at the Beach
Minju, Jimmy, Minsuk, Me, and Yealin. Our trip home was long - we flew from Busan to Seoul in about 45 minutes...then waited in Seoul for about eight hours! Once on board the flight back to San Francisco (which was shorter this time - only 10.5 hours) all I wanted to do was sleep, but could not! When we finally got to San Francisco, we circled for about 20 minutes before we could land. We headed through customs, rechecked our bags and hopped on our flight to Vegas...we got there as planned but our luggage did not!! We were a little freaked out, but the airline found the luggage on the next flight and brought it out to our house by about 9pm that evening. I had a hard time getting back into a schedule - I couldn't sleep at night - I was up until 3am or 4am, and then getting up at 5am or 6am - yikes! After about a week I settled back in though.
We had so much fun and built so many beautiful memories together on this trip. It was amazing to visit another country and see firsthand their culture and history. I would love to go back again some day because I am certain I only saw just a glimpse of the beauty of the country. Don't forget to check out my photos on flickr for more of my stories. Anyounge Gehshipsheyo (Go in Peace)!
