From Flashing Lights to Tradition korean Men on Horses

Puja and I finally decided to go into town on Saturday night with a few friends and wow what a surprise that was! I was not expecting this scenic city of Cheonan to have such a lively and NICE downtown area. We went to a bar called bar Groove which all us Epik teachers invaded to say the least and we had a blast! We also walked by waaaay too many shoes I wanted to buy! And Guess what Wally? They have princess cafe here too!!





So on Sunday we went to the Korean Folk Village, which I had a blast at. According to Wikipedia the Korean Folk Village is a living museum type of tourist attraction in the city of Yongin, a satellite city in the Seoul Metropolitan Area in the province of Gyeonggi in South Korea. The purpose of Korean Folk Village is to display elements of traditional Korean life and culture. There are multiple sections to the park. There are numerous replicas of traditional houses of the different social classes (peasant, landowner, yangban) and the various regions. The park also has a traditional street market, restaurants, and showcases of traditional wordworking and metalworking techniques. There are performances of traditional dances, equestrian skills, marriage ceremonies, and recreational activities. An amusement park section (which i didnt get to go to) has rides and games, an art museum, a sculpture garden, a Korean Folk Museum, and a World Folk Museum which highlights traditional lifestyles from around the world.

It was a great opportunity to really get a feel of authentic Korean culture. A few favourite moments include Puja being approached by two random Korean men who were dying to attempt some English, watching a badass traditional Korean dance and of course the young korean guys doing stunts on horses!!! Overall the trip was awesome and tiring! A special thanks does however have to go out to Taylor who lent me his SD card since I was brilliant and left mine in my computer..Doh! But anyways he trusted me to take pics for the both of us, which was good so I got to use my SLR finally. I'm so forgetful lately! I'm constantly forgetting my name tag that I'm required to wear everyday...but luckily Puja reminds me lol.

We had a few people tell us how lucky we are to be going to Busan cus it's apparently the place to be! So I can't wait!...Also, it's got significantly warmer a few days after we arrived, all the snow is gone it's like 11 degrees at night! and Busan will be even warmer =)

27hrs, the Flu and Korea

Before I begin to explain the title...I'll go into a little detail as to how I even got here in the first place. I've always loved to travel and this love has flourished immensely in the past 3 years. I graduated university with a degree in health in june 2008. Not really knowing what I wanted to do career wise I decided I would teach abroad for a year. I knew a few people who had gone to South Korea to teach and tehy loved it so I decided this would be the best option for me.

Ok so a few months, a ton of applications and some slight anxiety later I was boaring flight on it's way to south korea. We had a stop over in Tokyo, which surprisingly had a very unimpressive airport, and this was when I began to feel sick! Once we boarded the plane in Tokyo I fell asleep and I soon as I woke up I started to Puke. Luckily my family friend Puja is travelling with me and she took care of me. But it was a 4 hour plane ride which was pretty much hell all the way to Seoul. To make matters worse once we got off the plane I had to take a 3 hr bus ride to Dankook University in Cheonan, and of course I was puking the entire way. By the time we arrived I had lost so many electrolytes I thought I was going to faint.

On a positive note, the university is very nice. The dorm rooms are very clean and we have internet in our rooms. So yesterday I was still nausous but the puking had stopped and I am happy to say today I am feeling back to 100%. I would have to say my favourite thing so far is how friendly everyone from around the world is. It's a wonderful experience to be in South Korea and yet get to meet people from all corners of the world. Also, EPIK has been very helpful in getting us all set up and started. They have helped us set up bank accounts as well as cell phones, which we will recieve on Thursday next week. As much as I am enjoying Dankook University, I am excited to head to Busan. Even better is that we have met so many other people who are heading to Busan as well! Ok I guess that's good for now. I'll blog once more when I'm in Busan! Hopefull I can keep up the blogging!

O and here is a video of some Korean drummers that performed at the opening ceremony: