Summer Vacation

 

So normally I am pretty careful about how I spend my money as there is usually some big expense that pops up when I least expect it and I am paying off my student loans.  But since this was my last week with Greg and the fact that I have had a lot to deal with recently, I decided to just have fun and enjoy my vacation.  I had a blast though I won't deny that it was bittersweet as I knew at the end of the week Greg would be flying back to America.  So I was determined to enjoy it as much as I could with Greg and friends.  I have to say I do miss the guy. T.T 

 

 

So the first weekend of my vacation we went and played screen golf after dinner (mentioned in the last entry) with Tony and Amber and this time I didn't get hurt.  We went to Changgyeonggung Palace/Changdeokgung Palace (we seem to have accidentally gone to two palaces that are really close together) which is Greg's favorite palace of the four palaces.  I have only been to Gyeongbukgong Palace before this.  The reason we both like this palace is because it is the one palace that has a lot of nature in it and we both like to enjoy nature.  Plus there were a few stray cats there that caught my attention. ^.^  But seriously, it was a nice palace. 

For the most part, it was just like Gyeongbukgong but what makes Changgyeonggung/Changdeokgung Palace Palace unique is it's Secret Garden.  Granted the garden isn't very secret but it is a place you can only visit by going on a tour.  The tour was only in Korean at that point but that was okay as I just wanted to see it.  It was really pretty but I have to say my initial reaction was "Where the heck are the flowers?"  This made Greg laugh because he had had the same reaction the first time he had come to the secret garden.  Usually when you think of a garden, you think of flowers, but this garden only had a few wild flowers. Still the ponds, trees, and old temple like buildings were pretty cool.  Though I didn't like the fact that sand kept getting into my shoes. 

Greg also baked me strawberry filled cupcakes that weekend which was nice.  And then proceeded to keep me up till 5:00 A.M. despite knowing I had to get up at 7:00 AM to return home to go to Daejeon Beach with Chris.  But that's okay because I enjoyed talking to him.  Even if he does frustrate me from time to time. :P  Anyway, Greg spoils me and sent me home with a down-feather blanked and a few more things that he won't be taking back to America, including nice towels and an iron and ironing board to keep my cosplays in good condition.  Like I said, I'm spoiled.  ^.^

Anyway, I rushed back home and quickly got ready and ate something before Chris and I had to rush to the station I had just came from to go catch a bigger train that would take us to Daejeon Beach.  Chris paid for a nice hotel so we were right on the beach.  Sadly, I wasn't able to get any extra sleep on the train because of a kid kicking the back of my seat, so I spent the day running on two hours of sleep.  We ate lunch first because we couldn't check into the hotel until two and walked along the beach for a bit.  It was a bit of an overcast day but still wore sunscreen.  We checked into the hotel and then went to enjoy the water.

This was my first time swimming in the two years that I have been in Korea.  The water was pretty cold at first and I had to keep moving in it but I am glad that I went in.  I found out that Chris was scared of crabs which was ironic because on the next day, before we left, a crab decided to show itself to her.  But that made leaving easier.  I have to admit I was a bit uncomfortable at first as I was one of the few girls on the beach wearing a bikini without a shirt over it.  I definitely got a lot of stares, especially since I was also a foreigner. 

 

Anyway, two groups of teenage/college aged boys decided to use Chris and I as their punishments for losing games.  The first boy had to come up to me and shake my hand.  The second set of two boys had to ask us which one we thought were cuter.  Which, by the way, was mean to us as we didn't want to be put into that position.  Thankfully, there were two of us and so Chris picked the one I didn't pick to make it fair.  Though we actually did end up answering them honestly.  We saw one of those groups burying each other in the sand later, which did amuse me.  There were also a couple of high school girls who talked to Chris and we saw them later, and it seemed to me that they were looking for trouble.  Then there were the Bali guys who came up to me asking for a picture together with me.  I just let them because I knew they would leave sooner if I did.

Anyway, eventually we left and went to Popeyes for dinner as neither of us had eaten there before.  It wasn't too bad.  We walked around for a bit and saw people shooting off mini fireworks and heard some music from a street fair.  I bought a few bracelets there, some matching pearl butterfly ones for my sister, mom, and me, and got a bracelet for Chris, too.  There we bought some snacks and alcohol to go back to the room.  Now, I was planning on watching TV and having a drink but basically right after I opened my drink I realized I was going to crash so just told Chris to finish it if she wanted and ended up passing out.  Granted, having been up all day with only two hours of sleep, I'm not surprised I fell asleep so quickly.

The next day, we walked along the beach for a bit before we had to leave.  We wrote hello in the sand in a bunch of different languages.  I ran to get the camera which is when the crab decided to show up.  Poor Chris.  Anyway, we quickly took the pictures as the tide was rising and erasing our words and then we headed to the train.  I relaxed the rest of the day because Greg was hanging out with Tony that night and I figured I could use some sleep.  I read a lot of Percy Jackson that day which was great because I really enjoyed that series and finished it soon after break finished.

The next day, Wednesday, Chris and I went to Hongdae and checked out the Trick Eye Museum.  It was really cool and Chris took some great pictures of me.  I think my favorite one is me riding a bike with the angel wings.  Anyway, basically there are paintings or things set up that you stand beside or sit in or whatever and you take a picture.  Then when you look in the picture, it looks like you are a part of the picture.  It was really cool and they had all kind of themes including some ancient Chinese themes and famous paintings.  We got some drinks which gave me brain freeze a lot as we took a break. 

After the museum, there was the Ice Museum right next to it and it came with the price of the Trick Museum so we went to check it out.  But it was too cold!  I was in short summer clothes as it was really hot that day and it was basically walking into a freezer as it has to be cold because of the ice sculptures.  I was trembling so hard that I couldn't take any pictures and I'm really glad it wasn't big as we quickly walked through the entire thing then left.  The we searched for food but all the food places that we wanted to go to were closed until later that day.  We eventually found a standard burger place and ate before looking for churros and a coffee place that Chris liked.  The churros place was under construction so that was sad, but Chris got her coffee before we headed back home.

Then I went home and packed for Greg's place and headed off to meet him as it was his last day working in Korea.  We had chicken skewers with Tony and it was really weird but the Korean lady in the group next to us actually went to KCP International, the same school that I went to while I was living in Japan.  Talk about a coincidence.  Anyway, I talked a bit in Japanese, and we actually had like four different languages going on, English, Japanese, Korean, and Tony threw in a few random French phrases.  Definitely an interesting conversation and I found out the skewer lady also knew a little Japanese.  I spoke a lot of Japanese this week to be honest.  A lot more than I have in a long time.  Anyway, Tony and Greg said their goodbyes and Tony was off to finish his packing as he was going to Thailand for his vacation.

 

So, Greg had done most of his errands earlier in the week but he had a few last minute errands to run on Thursday.  We packed up one last box and mailed it home.  Then we went to the bank and he closed his account after sending home the rest of his money and withdrawing both dollars and won to last him till he gets home and for the trip.  Then we ate lunch at Robert Burgers, his favorite burger place here in Korea.  After that, we grabbed our stuff for our trip and dropped some stuff off at Amber's place before heading to the train station.  At this point, we are kind of running late.  Anyway, we are about to get off at Seoul Station and a kid hands Greg a picture of the two of us that the kid had drawn of us as we all sat on the train.  It wasn't a very flattering picture, but still was an interesting experience.

We should have booked tickets in advance, but we weren't really prepared so we had to wait a few hours till the next train that had seats going to Gyeongju.  So we got some pizza and played cards while Greg charged his phone. We arrived pretty late but the lady was nice enough.  She showed us our room and the convenience store where we could get some food.  I bought her a ramen because she had to stay up late for us.  At this point, she realized I spoke Japanese so spoke Japanese to us instead of Korean.  Poor Greg was excited to be able to speak Korean and instead she just kept talking to me in Japanese. :P

Anyway, on the first day, we headed out to Bulguksa Temple.  It was a traditional Buddhist temple with lots of nice Buddha statues.  Sadly we couldn't take pictures of them but that is okay.  Greg got the chance to meditate for a few minutes since he is a Buddhist.  Greg also bought me this pretty read hand fan since my blue butterfly one had broken.  I still need to fix it .....  Anyway, we enjoyed the temple.  It was relaxing though a bit hot.  We had just missed the bus to Seokguram, a Buddha in a cave and the reason we actually came to Gyeongju, so we checked out the nearby Literary Museum of Kim Dongni and Park Mokwol. 

There was a video of an interesting story at the museum that caught our attention but was a little confusing so Greg downloaded it and read it to fully understand what had happened in the story.  From what I understand, two dragons fought and bled which is how the place got its name.  Two strong men were friends and they fought over some women and everyone was sleeping around.  And the jealous woman killed the pretty woman and ran away which cause the men to fight forever.  Or something like that.  It was interesting.

Then we finally get on the bus to Seokguram Grotto but the path was all curvy and I started to get motion sick cause I had to stand and hadn't eaten in a while.  So before we went to the grotto, we grabbed a quick bit to eat.  I had udon.  Anyway, we had to climb a lot of stairs to get to Seokguram and there were some kids there on a school trip.  A lot of them said hi to us.  Well we got to the top and we were both pretty disappointed.  We were expecting to go in a cave and see a Buddha,  Instead it was barely a cave and there was glass blocking the Buddha from the outside world to preserve it.  To be honest, I liked Bulguksa better.  Seokguram was kind of a let down after all the anticipation. 

After Seokguram, we headed back to the guest house where we met up with Greg's friend, Sang, who was a nice guy.  He was nice enough to drive us to dinner.  We went to a meat restaurant and enjoyed the meal.  Then we had to head back because we had to get up early as the husband of the guest house lady offered us a free private tour.  When we got back, a German guy named Carson was there and he would be joining us for the tour.  Carson was a nice guy.

Anyway, we had to get up at 6:00 AM for the tour but it was definitely worth it.  The owner showed us all sorts of little Buddhas that people would normally miss and wall carvings, too.  There was one Buddha that he showed us which women would come to as they wanted to have children.  There was a spot that was the place with the first grandfather of the area fell from the sky.  He also showed us the spot where a huge temple once stood and it took 93? years to build it.  The temple was then destroyed in a day when China invaded.  The owner also played a song for us on his ocarina.  Overall, it was a pretty good tour. 

We went back and took a nap after having to get up so early in the morning.  The internet wasn't working so IT people came in and out of our room for a bit.  This was the point where the woman owner started to become a little too pushy for my liking.  She kept telling us over and over that we had to go to Yangdong Historical Village.  I don't mind suggestions, but she was really pushing it.  We ended up going because we didn't have anything better to do after we turned off Greg's phone as he couldn't turned it off on Thursday as it would cancel his service a few days too early.  But it was annoying having her ask over and over again, what are you doing today? When are you going to be back? etc. 

 

 

Anyway, it is basically one of the oldest villages in Korea and still has the traditional thatched roofs and food frames.  What made it interesting to me was the contrast of the traditional with the modern as there were TV satellites right next to the houses.  These traditional houses were actually lived in.  There were a lot of flowers and stuff there, too.  I saw lotuses for the first time ever.  Their leaves are huge and it was really cool because that day had been raining and the water had pooled in the leaves and would roll around the leaf in beads when you touched them.  I even saw my favorite flower, the Stargazer Lily, randomly hiding behind some leaves.  There were also some flowers where their petals took on two dominate genes instead of one.  That was pretty cool.  We also saw cows with horns.  One Korean lady tried to talk to us and was telling us how smart her two sons were.  One of them went to Seoul University and the other son went to Harvard. 

We followed a rougher trail which ended with us being a little lost but we just back tracked and eventually found the village again.  I have to admit, near the end my anxiety was starting to get spiked a little.  We ended up going to the main street as it was the quickest way back to the entrance where the bus was.  We barely got to the bus stop in time.  We had just sat down when the bus pulled up for us to go home.  We were lucky as the bus only comes once an hour and there was only one more bus after that point.  We headed back to the guest house where we met up with Carson again.

We asked for advice on a restaurant as we were being moved to a love motel named Aroma as the guest house lady overbooked the last day.  She took us to another meat restaurant and then proceeded to worry and tell us which foods Greg could eat.  Now, Greg has a lot of food allergies which he told her, but we also mentioned that we had been here for two years.  Greg knew how to order and all that and knew what to ask the waiters.  It was kind of insulting how much she didn't trust us to do something that we had been doing for two years.  We even told her it was okay but she ended up coming back three times, saying I got you a discount, are you sure you are alright, you can only eat this meat, you have to cook the meat this way .... and so on.  She finally leaves, only to come back with spare keys in case Carson had forgotten his at the guest house.  Talk about controlling. -.-

Greg made a point that she was probably really desperate for money and used to working with Japanese guests since she speaks simple Japanese.  I'm not sure if my Japanese or her Japanese was better.  Anyway, the point he made was Japanese girls would expect to be treated like that and she acts like a protective dorm mother.  But she doesn't understand how to deal with the more independent Europeans and Americans who don't mind suggestions, but then want to make their own decisions and do whatever we want.  Either way, she kind of made me feel uncomfortable and I avoided going around her as much as possible and let Greg do most of the talking. 

We ended up staying in a love motel called Aroma that night since the guest house was overbooked that day but the owners paid for the room so it wasn't an issue.  Then we headed back to the guest house for breakfast before heading back to my place to give Greg some books for his trip.  I did a little cosplay fashion show for him since I hadn't tried on my new Anna cosplay.  We both enjoyed it though I'm a little sad that the blouse and vest of the Anna cosplay are a little tight and hard to get on.  I'm going to have to be really careful getting it on and off or I will rip it. 

To finish the vacation off, we went to dinner with Sujin at Jason's place.  The food was excellent and there was this Mini M wine that I really liked and kept drinking ... I think I got a little tipsy as I was getting sleepy and took me a little more time to think.  Anyway, it was a little hard as it was my last meal with Greg, so I was kind of emotional at that time.  Jason gave us the meal free as a going away present for Greg and an expectation that Greg will see him again in New York and help him out.  I like Jason a lot and he has a really good restaurant.  After that, Sujin took us to a coffee shop then we parted ways with her.  Greg had missed the last bus so Jason offered to take him to the airport early in the morning.  I helped Greg finish packing and then we went to the station where I had to say goodbye.  I knew I couldn't have stayed the night as I had work in the morning and I wouldn't have gotten any sleep.  It was definitely a hard goodbye but I hope he does well with his family busy.  And with that, my vacation and my dating relationship with Greg (though we intend to stay in touch and remain friends) ended.