June Adventures - Crossing Things Off My Bucket List

I have had such a fun, busy month! I even took a road trip! Read all about me crossing shit off my Korea bucket list by clicking "read more."

weekend #1; road trip: I started the month with a great first week of only three days - one day off due to the election and one day for Memorial Day! For the long weekend, I went on a roadtrip (check) with some friends from Ulsan (about 40 minutes away via bus). Andrea has her international drivers license and rented a car! It was such a great time. Road trips are one of my favorite things ever. There's just something about being on an open road and singing along to good music. We headed to Namhae Island which is also called "Treasure Island" in Korea. There wasn't any treasure but there sure was a lot of rice! Rice fields on rice fields on rice fields - it was very interesting to see. There was also soooooooooo much garlic everywhere. We spent two nights on the island and it was wonderful. One night, we saw these old Korean ladies dancing on the beach so we decided to go and dance with them. They fed us spicy mushrooms and bought us soju and it was seriously such a fantastic time. Before heading home, we stopped in Geoje Island for lunch. I will never get over how great food in Korea is.

weekend #2; jen phan comes to korea: A girl I went to high school with, Jen, loves everything about Korea and decided to take a vacation to Seoul. I met her and her friend in Seoul. I was waiting for them outside of their hotel at the the local convenient store and it's very common for people to sit and have beers outside the convenient store. There's just about always a table and chairs outside every store. Anyways, there were these two guys drinking and invited me over to their table. Korean people are so nice to you especially if they want to practice their English. So, I enjoyed a nice cold beer with some funny Korean guys while waiting for my friend to arrive. They didn't get there until about midnight but they wanted to go out so I took them to the place that never sleeps - Hongdae! We went to a foreigner bar/club and I helped them bring in their vacation with a bang. The next day was a little rough so we treaded lightly and hit up a casino (a nice check off my Korea bucket list). You need a passport to get into the casinos here because gambling is illegal for Koreans. There were pretty much no slots and it was all card games so I sat back because I'm too cheap for card tables. The weekend was fun and I'm glad I was helpful for Jen. Her and her friend actually came to Yangsan a few days later and got to meet some of my students! They were soo shy, it was adorable!

weekend #3; boseong and damyang (check and check!!): I signed up for a day trip to the largest green tea fields and the largest bamboo forest in Korea! June is the best time to go to the green tea fields (Boseong) because it is apparently the greenest the fields get out of the entire year! It was a great time and very cool to see. It started to rain but that didn't stop me from hiking to the top and taking a scenic route back down. 

Next, we headed to Gwangju Memorial. Recently, in the 1980s, there was pretty much a massacre in the city of Gwangju. The army killed students and other innocent people because they opposed the government. It's actually a really interesting topic/event and the memorial center was very informative and insightful. 

Last on the list for the day was the Damyang bamboo forest. It was fantastic! I had both green tea and bamboo ice cream on the trip and let me tell you - bamboo ice cream kicks every flavor in the ass! It is surprisingly but seriously the best ice cream I have ever had! I also bought some bamboo soju which tastes a lot like mead (honey wine that you can buy at a meadery in new hampshire!). Very tasty! Most foreigner organized trips are based out of Seoul but this one was based out of Busan, which was totally convenient for me! It was great.

weekend #4; daegu: I'm going to Daegu tomorrow with MJ (one of the ladies I meet with to help with her English), which is another check off the bucket list! I heard that this specific city is really hot. I can't imagine what that means because it's been so freaaaakingggg hot here! It should be fun though. This last week of June has been great and swift. The last Friday of each month, we do cooking class. Jen actually brought two tubs of Fluff with her for me when she came to Korea. So for cooking class, we made Fluffernutters! It was really great to share with the kids and explain to them that Fluff is made in the city I'm from. It was a great time and the kids loved it!

random: Some of the boys come to school with their nails painted and it's totally okay - especially if they have a sister? So strange.

One of my favorites - Kevin!

My boss treated me to a pedicure, a full body massage, and a facial this month! What a great lady. I also had tiramisu bubble tea this month! I cannot get over how delicious it was!!