The Westin Chosun Beach Busan

... 8221; &#8220;SO FAST&#8221; that I honestly was a little doubtful. &#8220;It can&#8217;t be THAT good&#8221; I figured. So my first ever solo travel experience in South Korea went like this:<br><br>Me: Donghae?<br><br>Bus man: no no.<br><br>Me: Gangneung?<br><br>Bus man: 5 minutes. Gate 2.<br><br>SO EASY. The goal was to get down to Donghae where my friend Dan is living and working and then head farther south to the city of Busan on Saturday. I ended up having to go ...

Flights I booked ahead from the start of the trip ended in Tokyo.<br>(To make it to Japan you need to show an exit ticket though... whatever the mean)<br>From now on, most border crossing will be by boat or by land, so that I took a ferry from Fukuoka to Busan. It takes about 6h.<br>I don't believe Busan has much to offer so after making it through Korean immigration I jumped in a bus which took me to Seoul in 4 hours of crazy driving and under heavy rain.<br>

... who wanted to go, plans wer cancelled due to lack of flights and accomodation. Apparently, everyone else in Korea decided to go to Jeju as well, that long weekend...<br><br> <br><br> So! I could have just planned on relaxing those days, but then I got an email from Rachel in Shanghai on Friday. "Hey! So it looks like I won't be going anywhere next weekend afterall. Come to China!" And I said...."SURE!!" My co-teacher and ...

... just see you *t 3. C*ll me when you get there *nd we'll get t*xi's *nd meet up." He lets most things just roll right off of his b*ck. Nice. After some quick teeth brushing, *nd * shower, we c*ll the c*b service on b*se with pre-p*cked b*gs from the night before, in h*nd, re*dy to w*lk out the door, bec*use yes, they come th*t quickly. "WHAT YOU NAME?!" "Chris", I s*y. "WHERE YOU GOING?" I reply, "Kuns*n Bus st*tion." "OKBYE!" (s*id just like th*t ...

... to make it two! <br><br><br><br>Last year, I learned a lot about myself--I'm going to make a list of some of those things right now...are you excited???? ....ok well, pretend, and read on....<br><br><br><br>One of the most important things I've learned is how to get closer to family and friends even though I'm so far away. I feel like distance has allowed me to put aside my old habits, and really listen and enjoy the people I care about the most. I ...

... dinner with one of my Korean co-teachers and her friends. The Seaman's Club usually only serves to the U.S. Military, their families, or those who pay $250/year to be a member. On Thanksgiving, they open it to the public, and have a Thanksgiving buffet. It was pretty decent. Of course, I can't eat the gravy, stuffing, rolls, or the green bean casserole due to being glutarded... Still getting used to that... I can ...

... and our principal. It was good fun as we slugged back the Soju and got to see our bosses with their hair down. I was not going to go but am happy I did. This week Matt, James and I are going to brainstorm for all the things we want to do while in Korea. As I think about the fun things I've done over here I realize that I have been here for nine months, the blink of an eye in the infinite amount of time I have to continue the journey. -Thanks for reading

... city and walked to our hostel, past lots of neon on the way to Mr Bongs place. Its a small hostel, run by a lovely guy Mr Bong. In typical Korean style the house has one main room which serves as the tv room, office, internet access, dining, sleeping quarters etc, all done in this one room. It was a small and cosy place and very nice. We basically just dropped our stuff and headed out for a walk around. We had a lovely ...

... 24th 2007) Btw, just in case you think I have difficulty counting with three digits, I don't. Days 98, 99 & 100 were spent in Japan (see the next entry). · Blue is as good as it gets After being met off the bus from Seoul (yep, Nick surprised us and was the first thing or person we saw as we stepped off the bus from Seoul) we were brought to some sort of Seaman's Club (Busan, remember, is a big port/sailor ...

... were staying next to us; the parents both spoke good English and the kids were fascinated enough by our skin to entertain us for a good long while - the son had a book based on Park Ji Sung's childhood diary which he painstakingly (and very cutely) translated into English for us. As fascinating an insight as this was to Man Utd's "star" player, we were still extremely happy when morning came. After a quick breakfast (last night's leftovers) Mr Kim gave us a lift ...