Playing in Pusan

This weekend is Chuseok (Korea’s version of Thanksgiving) and so I’ve had a nice long weekend. For the first half of the break, I went with 3 friends to Pusan. Pusan is along the southern coast of South Korea. It is one of the larger cities in SK. I had never visited this scenic city before and really loved it! The goal of our trip was just to relax, and relax we did! We got in late Thursday night and walked along the beach. We enjoyed a nice pizza dinner on a patio overlooking the pretty water and bridge. We spent some time at a deserted amusement park and admired a massive art exhibit scattered along the beach.



Friday we enjoyed smoothies at Smoothie King and then walked from the beach near us to another one about 2 hours away (it looked WAY closer on the map). Once we got to the beach, we ate delicious Indian food. While we were at Haeundae Beach we ran into two other families from our school. Korea is such a small place sometimes!! After lunch we did our cultural trip for the day and visited Beomeosa Temple up in the mountains by Pusan. The mountains created a beautiful contrast to the interesting architecture. Then we went to what Lonely Planet dubbed “Asia’s largest sauna” and spent several hours in the jimjilbang that can hold up to 2000 people at once! We finished the night with sushi, ice cream, and another long beach stroll.



Sat. was another lazy and random day. We perused markets and gawked at the endless seafood for sale during the morning. Random as always, Kirsten N. bought herself a funky black wig to blend in more with the locals. Midday two of our group members departed and Kirstin E. and I headed out for another temple. This one was tucked into a cliff side and was absolutely gorgeous! Tired from our “long” day of sightseeing, Kirstin and I spent a few hours in yet another jimjilbang soaking and napping. Then we met up with a Korean friend, Hoon, who I hiked Mt. Fuji with a month ago. He went with us to a Thai dinner and then brought us to his brother’s house for a family gathering. It was a fun bilingual meal after a meal (as much as we insisted we were not hungry, Hoon’s mom and sister-in-law kept bringing the food!).


Sunday was actual Chuseok. While Koreans gathered with family, I stuck to my friends. Most places in Korea are usually closed on Chuseok, so we stuck to the beach and orchestrated a picnic with another group of coworkers. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Coffee Bean was still open for the caffeine-deprived tourists for breakfast. Then we played volleyball in the ocean and bummed around on the sandy beach for a few hours eating Korean fruit. After taking in all the sun our skin could handle, we read in a Starbucks and relished the view until it was time to train it back to Daejeon.


Since I arrived back to Daejeon, I have been slowly getting myself ready for classes again. I have had one of my soccer girls who is an OCK (out-of-country kid) staying with me the last day. We’ve been having fun making pancakes, cooking, playing soccer, and watching movies.

All in all, a good vacation. Do I really have to go back to work!?!

Check out my facebook album with some more pics from my trip:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121487&l=ce0e4&id=4702163