Happy Chuseok

Well, it looks like Sunday is my day to update lately.  I got home yesterday (Saturday 9/25) from a great trip to Busan.  The first day there, we arrived to pouring rain and strong winds so I was a bit pessimistic about the weather for the rest of the trip.  We were able to spend Wednesday afternoon relaxing at the hostel, taking in the scenery, and visiting the Busan aquarium so all was not lost.  I also got to see Mo who went to college with me since we were both staying at the same hostel, and we all went out for dinner around the Kyungsung University area.


Luckily, we woke up Thursday morning to gorgeous sunshine and milder temperatures, perfect for hitting Haeundae Beach!  Our hostel, Chan's Guesthouse, was in the perfect location, right in the middle of Haeundae Market, less than a 5 minute walk to the biggest beach in Busan.  The beaches are located on the Sea of Japan so they are not huge, and the water is super salty.  The water temperature and waves were fantastic.  It's funny because the only people swimming were foreigners who were clearly vacationing.  The Koreans on the beach were fully clothed taking pictures of themselves (per usual) or swimming in their clothes which is just weird.

First day of beautiful weather at Haeundae Beach

View from other end of Haeundae Beach

 After spending the day swimming and lounging around Haeundae, we headed to Gwangali Beach to catch sunset by the bridge and check out the fish markets.

Gwangali Beach with Gwangali Bridge in the background

Gwangali Beach starting to light up in the evening

So this is what we saw when we walked into the fish market we chose for dinner.  Jaehee from our hostel wrote down suggestions for types of fish to get so we showed the woman the paper and she dumped some fish in a bucket.

Our dinner flopping around in the bucket

Our dinner on the table

 Then, the nice lady led us upstairs with our bucket where she dumped the fish in another tank for the chef.  We were seated in an adjoining room (with traditional korean seating, on the floor) where we were served all of the side dishes.  Then our plate of very fresh (literally) sashimi came out with the fish we had chosen downstairs.  After dinner, we wandered around the little amusement park, and then headed back over to the Kyungsung area.  We went to a bar called Long Island Iced Tea which was the best decision ever because the bartenders put on shows throwing bottles and fire.  It was a solid night topped off by a little norebang (karaoke room) of course.

Our favorite bartender (Alvin?) throwing some fire

Overall, it was a fantastic trip filled with basking in the sun, swimming, spending time with friends, meeting new friends, and eating lots of delicious food.  Jaehee and Chan, the two people who ran our hostel took us all to a little Mexican stand that had the best burritos I've had yet here in Korea.  It was really authentic and local with lots of little post its written by people from all over the world who have visited for some tacos.

Post its at Taco Senora

Delicious burrito in Busan

To top off Chuseok break, we went out in Hongdae last night once we were back to Seoul.  We went to Bar Zen again and then headed over to Cocoon (after reading about it online) which also happens to be the "Sexy Party."  The place is ridiculous.  I wish I had pictures to show what it was like inside.  It's basically just a huge club inside and people are jammed in there shoulder to shoulder dancing like crazy.  It actually turned out to be a lot of fun, and I had another early bedtime of 6am.

The Sexy Lady Party at Cocoon

Well, I'm off to catch up on the new episode of Glee.  Back to school tomorrow!