Hello everyone, let me start this off with saying I'm sorry it's been so long! I didn't forget about you all I've just been busy and then when I would have time honestly I just wasn't feeling it or was too tired to. Now that it's been a month plus since my last entry, I'm pretty sure this is going to be a long post to say the least.
So a lot has happened in the past month. Logan and I have been here now officially for 3 months and if you think that seems fast you have no idea how we feel! I swear I still have moments where I pause and think to myself "wow, I can't believe I'm actually in South Korea.....on the complete opposite side of the world where I NEVER in a million years thought I would be!" It's still pretty cool over here and we are still enjoying it, especially all the exploring we're getting to do. A few weeks ago we went on a day trip into the middle of Seoul and just got off the subway and started wondering around. We found the American Consulate and also stumbled across pretty big palace grounds but we didn't find that until it was starting to get dark so we're saving going in for another day trip sometime. The coolest part about the trip was we were stopped by another foreigner and his girlfriend and asked if we knew where a province called Itaewon was. Well I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before here but we have actually been there a few times so we could actually help them!!! Haha now I know that doesn't sound like a big deal but oh my gosh I was so ecstatic when we were able to tell them which subway lines and all to take to get there! It's the first time where we weren't the one's lost and trying to figure out where to go and were really able to help someone else, felt pretty cool! The weekend after that we ended up at the aquarium that is in this huge mall, it was pretty cool. Best part was they had this area where you put your hands into a tank and these little fish came up and nibbled at your fingers cleaning them. It felt so cool and weird, I loved it! We also found a huge puzzle at the mall and bought that to bring home and having something else to do besides play the few games we brought and watch things on line. A lot of you might not know this but I LOVE PUZZLES!! haha I mean love them, when I used to go visit/stay with my great grandma I would go wonder around the place and work on or help people with the different puzzles they had out around the different lobbies and lounging areas. Once I get started it's pretty hard to get me to step away and if I'm able to I can work on them for hours at a time and not even realize that hours have passed. Poor Logan didn't realize exactly what I meant by I LOVE PUZZLES! haha We first said we were just going to separate the edge pieces out the first night and then start the next day well of course I couldn't stop after separating so I started working on it and the next thing I knew the outside was put together and some of the inside and about 4 hours had passed! In the end we ended up putting this 1000 piece puzzle together in a little less than a week! It was great, I can't wait to get another one! Anyway, the week after that we went down to this area called Suwon. It has this great wall type thing that you can walk and surrounds the original city and also has old palace grounds inside the city as well. After getting lost a few times trying to get there we finally made it and walked some of the wall, ended up not doing it all because of time and the fact that it was all the same, and also went into the palace grounds to walk around. It was pretty cool seeing the buildings and how old royalty lived back in the day!
Ok so after all that excitement, this past weekend was our big vacation trip to Taiwan we had planned and had been counting the days down until we were going! Don't read too much into that last sentence when I say big vacation trip I'm not talking like a week long trip or anything. Our trip was actually only a Fri-Sun trip so Logan could leave and get his passport stamped again for Korea but the exciting thing was that WE had planned this trip all our selves! We had a lot of suggestions about where to go for a short cheap nice trip and looked into a lot of those places but Logan ended up finding a site for Taiwan and we were pretty much sold right away. No one had suggested we go there or stay here at this place, we decided on this place all by ourselves and planned the trip purely by looking up the area to see what was around. Sounds silly I know but we were proud of ourselves and excited that it was our first trip out of South Korea since being here.
Anyway, we left Friday early evening and landed around 9:30pm in Taipei, Taiwan and made it to our hostel around 11pm. We were a little worried about getting to our hostel because on the website they said that after the cab ride actually finding the hostel was the hardest part. Well we just must be amazing at reading directions because we didn't have any trouble at all finding it. The guy that checked us in, Coke was his name, was super nice and after we arrived informed us that we were actually not in the main building with community bathrooms and lounge but had upgraded us to the other building where we had our own nice room with its own bathroom. No up charge or anything and we were even on the top floor which I love just because I hate having people living above me. The best part besides having our own bathroom though was the BED!!! Oh my gosh this was the most comfortable bed that we had slept on since being in Asia it was like being back home, even better than you get in some hotels!!
Ok ok so enough about the hostel and the bed and all. So after checking in we went right around the corner that our hostel was on to a night market that was there, and I mean right around the corner not even 2 minutes to get there. This was my first time in a night market but of course with Logan living in China before he is far from a night market virgin and he was ecstatic about having one so close and just the street food that would be in it. The market was AWESOME there were all kinds of little shops up and down both sides of the street and little stands in between them selling all kinds of stuff. You saw shoes, clothes, TONS and TONS of jewelry, purses, art work, and of course souvenirs and not the cheap plastic crap you get at the over priced shop in the airport! All this stuff was pretty well made and for the most part cheap too. Then there were also the little stands or even big tarps in the middle of the street dividing the 2 sides where individual people sold all kinds of stuff too. One thing Logan taught me, which was great, was that most of the stuff you could even get cheaper than what they ask because they like and expect people to haggle!! I did it a couple of times but the first time I did I totally walked away with a little high. I mean come on if you looked at someone in the states and said "ehhh actually that's a little more than I was wanting to spend but thanks." they'll just say ok and walk away, here they actually pull out a calculator and say "ok ok well you seem like a nice person how about this?" then show you a lower price! If that's still too high you can even sometimes get them to go down even lower, it's awesome! Ok so besides all the shops with "stuff" there were also all kinds of food stands. Now this is what Logan has been looking forward to and has mentioned several times since moving over here because South Korea is not like he expected and does NOT have what he calls street food. I'm not sure I've seen more of a variety of food options when it comes to little food stands than I did there. You could get a whole squid skewered on a stick and cooked, any and every part of a chicken, meat kabobs, quail eggs, etc. Logan's favorite were the stands where you got an actual whole sweet potato skin and all that had been cooked and you just ate it like an apple or something and of course the dumplings. I will agree with him on the dumplings, they were nothing like what we get here and they were great! My favorite were the fruit stands, they had little fresh fruit stands with like at least 10 different kinds of fruit on them and you could just walk up and choose as many slices of fruit that you wanted. They would then cut it up into little bite size pieces right there and give it to in a bag with a toothpick and you could eat while walking around! Some of the fruit they had I had never even seen before and it was all so cheap that it was a GREAT way to try new things. We ended up getting a bag of fruit with 12 different bite sizes pieces and at least 4 different kinds all for about $1!!! It was all so fresh and good, I LOVED IT!!! I completely understand now why Logan was so disappointed about the lack of street food here now and agree with him that it kind of sucks! haha Anyway, we ended up staying out that first night until about 1:30 looking around that market before heading back to the hostel for some rest.
Saturday we woke up early already having agreed that we needed to make as much as possible out of our short trip and were out on the street again by 9am. Shortly after leaving the hostel we stopped to study the map for a second to figure out how to get to the subway when a nice older gentleman stopped and asked us where we were going and if we needed help. His english was great and he was so nice, he showed us how to get there and then asked us where we were from and told us to have a nice day and good luck on our adventure! This might not seem like that big of a deal but something like that really hasn't happened here in Korea and in fact it's hard to find or get people to speak to you in english sometimes so the fact that this guy just came up and asked us if he could help really made our day and made us feel really welcome. After getting to the subway we took it to the Taipei zoo where we were some of the first ones in after it opened that morning. We decided after going to the zoo here that we were going to try to go to a zoo every where we go so we were excited to see how this one compared. This zoo was great it was so beautiful that at times you forgot that you were looking at a zoo exhibit, some of them seemed like you were in a forest just watching the animals. I think maybe the zoo here in Korea was a little more impressive but the zoo there was definitely more pretty. After spending about 5 hours there we jumped back on the subway and headed to Taipei 101, the worlds 2nd tallest building that just recently got out done by a building in Dubai, pretty cool! We timed it to where we saw the city during the day right before dusk then at dusk and a little even at night time, it really was pretty. You could go to an observation floor inside on the 88th floor and then you could go up to the outside observation deck as well which was on the 91st floor. You could really see just how beautiful Taipei was from up there, mountains everywhere and very lush and green! Next we rode the extremely fast elevator down where our ears popped a couple times and jumped on the subway AGAIN and headed to Taiwan's largest night market. Now I thought the one we had seen the night before was big but WOW that was like a little alleyway compared to this huge market. We're talking several street blocks just full of people and shops and food! That last one was awesome but this one was AMAZING and turned out to be a perfect spot to pick out some gifts for people back home too! Also turned out to be the area where Logan decided to pick out a very pretty jade necklace that he lead me, and the woman selling it, to believe was for his mother but turned out was actually for me! :) It's beautiful with lots of little jade beads going up it and then a big jade ball that hangs in the middle with a few black strings that have little tiny clear crystals on the ends hanging from that. I love it and it's the first real piece of jewelry he's bought for me! :)
Ok so back to the market, at this point we had been on our feet going for over 12 hours and our dogs were barking BUT we were not done yet! We ended up finding this absolutely beautiful prayer temple that we of course had to stop and look around in. I don't think I've ever seen more vibrant beautiful colors together, we're talking blues, reds, greens, and of course tons of gold. It was amazing and we're so glad we had a chance to see that also before heading back. Shortly after looking around that we surrendered to our feet and decided to head back to the hostel. By the time we got back to the hostel we had been on our feet for 15 hours straight!! We were exhausted but totally felt like we had made the most out of our full day and were very happy with everything we saw!
Originally we had planned on getting up on Sunday and going to check out a temple or something easy before heading to the airport but sadly I woke up sick on Sunday. We ended up sleeping in a little and taking our time getting our stuff together, mostly because it was hard for me to move I felt so crappy, and just headed to the airport. While riding the bus to the airport Logan and I talked about our short but fun trip and both of us agreed that we will have to go back again sometime because there's just so much more to see and it's just so pretty. We even mentioned the idea of maybe looking into moving there next year to teach instead of staying here. That's a little ways away though I know and we definitely have a lot to consider and have other options to look into also but we both just loved it there! The people were all super friendly and seemed more willing and able to speak english with you, it was beautiful everywhere, there were tons of things to do, and as silly as it sounds it smelled MUCH better!! haha A lot of the times we were found ourselves saying oh my gosh that smells good not oh no hold your breath hurry!
*SIGH* So that's about everything big that we've been up to this past month, I know it's a lot! Like I said earlier though we are still obviously having a good time and we're both happy to be here. I hope you have all enjoyed catching up with me and I promise I'm going to work on this updating more often thing! :) Next I just have to work on updating pictures on facebook.....yeah one thing at a time, one thing at at time! ;)
Much love to you all,
S
So a lot has happened in the past month. Logan and I have been here now officially for 3 months and if you think that seems fast you have no idea how we feel! I swear I still have moments where I pause and think to myself "wow, I can't believe I'm actually in South Korea.....on the complete opposite side of the world where I NEVER in a million years thought I would be!" It's still pretty cool over here and we are still enjoying it, especially all the exploring we're getting to do. A few weeks ago we went on a day trip into the middle of Seoul and just got off the subway and started wondering around. We found the American Consulate and also stumbled across pretty big palace grounds but we didn't find that until it was starting to get dark so we're saving going in for another day trip sometime. The coolest part about the trip was we were stopped by another foreigner and his girlfriend and asked if we knew where a province called Itaewon was. Well I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before here but we have actually been there a few times so we could actually help them!!! Haha now I know that doesn't sound like a big deal but oh my gosh I was so ecstatic when we were able to tell them which subway lines and all to take to get there! It's the first time where we weren't the one's lost and trying to figure out where to go and were really able to help someone else, felt pretty cool! The weekend after that we ended up at the aquarium that is in this huge mall, it was pretty cool. Best part was they had this area where you put your hands into a tank and these little fish came up and nibbled at your fingers cleaning them. It felt so cool and weird, I loved it! We also found a huge puzzle at the mall and bought that to bring home and having something else to do besides play the few games we brought and watch things on line. A lot of you might not know this but I LOVE PUZZLES!! haha I mean love them, when I used to go visit/stay with my great grandma I would go wonder around the place and work on or help people with the different puzzles they had out around the different lobbies and lounging areas. Once I get started it's pretty hard to get me to step away and if I'm able to I can work on them for hours at a time and not even realize that hours have passed. Poor Logan didn't realize exactly what I meant by I LOVE PUZZLES! haha We first said we were just going to separate the edge pieces out the first night and then start the next day well of course I couldn't stop after separating so I started working on it and the next thing I knew the outside was put together and some of the inside and about 4 hours had passed! In the end we ended up putting this 1000 piece puzzle together in a little less than a week! It was great, I can't wait to get another one! Anyway, the week after that we went down to this area called Suwon. It has this great wall type thing that you can walk and surrounds the original city and also has old palace grounds inside the city as well. After getting lost a few times trying to get there we finally made it and walked some of the wall, ended up not doing it all because of time and the fact that it was all the same, and also went into the palace grounds to walk around. It was pretty cool seeing the buildings and how old royalty lived back in the day!
Ok so after all that excitement, this past weekend was our big vacation trip to Taiwan we had planned and had been counting the days down until we were going! Don't read too much into that last sentence when I say big vacation trip I'm not talking like a week long trip or anything. Our trip was actually only a Fri-Sun trip so Logan could leave and get his passport stamped again for Korea but the exciting thing was that WE had planned this trip all our selves! We had a lot of suggestions about where to go for a short cheap nice trip and looked into a lot of those places but Logan ended up finding a site for Taiwan and we were pretty much sold right away. No one had suggested we go there or stay here at this place, we decided on this place all by ourselves and planned the trip purely by looking up the area to see what was around. Sounds silly I know but we were proud of ourselves and excited that it was our first trip out of South Korea since being here.
Anyway, we left Friday early evening and landed around 9:30pm in Taipei, Taiwan and made it to our hostel around 11pm. We were a little worried about getting to our hostel because on the website they said that after the cab ride actually finding the hostel was the hardest part. Well we just must be amazing at reading directions because we didn't have any trouble at all finding it. The guy that checked us in, Coke was his name, was super nice and after we arrived informed us that we were actually not in the main building with community bathrooms and lounge but had upgraded us to the other building where we had our own nice room with its own bathroom. No up charge or anything and we were even on the top floor which I love just because I hate having people living above me. The best part besides having our own bathroom though was the BED!!! Oh my gosh this was the most comfortable bed that we had slept on since being in Asia it was like being back home, even better than you get in some hotels!!
Ok ok so enough about the hostel and the bed and all. So after checking in we went right around the corner that our hostel was on to a night market that was there, and I mean right around the corner not even 2 minutes to get there. This was my first time in a night market but of course with Logan living in China before he is far from a night market virgin and he was ecstatic about having one so close and just the street food that would be in it. The market was AWESOME there were all kinds of little shops up and down both sides of the street and little stands in between them selling all kinds of stuff. You saw shoes, clothes, TONS and TONS of jewelry, purses, art work, and of course souvenirs and not the cheap plastic crap you get at the over priced shop in the airport! All this stuff was pretty well made and for the most part cheap too. Then there were also the little stands or even big tarps in the middle of the street dividing the 2 sides where individual people sold all kinds of stuff too. One thing Logan taught me, which was great, was that most of the stuff you could even get cheaper than what they ask because they like and expect people to haggle!! I did it a couple of times but the first time I did I totally walked away with a little high. I mean come on if you looked at someone in the states and said "ehhh actually that's a little more than I was wanting to spend but thanks." they'll just say ok and walk away, here they actually pull out a calculator and say "ok ok well you seem like a nice person how about this?" then show you a lower price! If that's still too high you can even sometimes get them to go down even lower, it's awesome! Ok so besides all the shops with "stuff" there were also all kinds of food stands. Now this is what Logan has been looking forward to and has mentioned several times since moving over here because South Korea is not like he expected and does NOT have what he calls street food. I'm not sure I've seen more of a variety of food options when it comes to little food stands than I did there. You could get a whole squid skewered on a stick and cooked, any and every part of a chicken, meat kabobs, quail eggs, etc. Logan's favorite were the stands where you got an actual whole sweet potato skin and all that had been cooked and you just ate it like an apple or something and of course the dumplings. I will agree with him on the dumplings, they were nothing like what we get here and they were great! My favorite were the fruit stands, they had little fresh fruit stands with like at least 10 different kinds of fruit on them and you could just walk up and choose as many slices of fruit that you wanted. They would then cut it up into little bite size pieces right there and give it to in a bag with a toothpick and you could eat while walking around! Some of the fruit they had I had never even seen before and it was all so cheap that it was a GREAT way to try new things. We ended up getting a bag of fruit with 12 different bite sizes pieces and at least 4 different kinds all for about $1!!! It was all so fresh and good, I LOVED IT!!! I completely understand now why Logan was so disappointed about the lack of street food here now and agree with him that it kind of sucks! haha Anyway, we ended up staying out that first night until about 1:30 looking around that market before heading back to the hostel for some rest.
Saturday we woke up early already having agreed that we needed to make as much as possible out of our short trip and were out on the street again by 9am. Shortly after leaving the hostel we stopped to study the map for a second to figure out how to get to the subway when a nice older gentleman stopped and asked us where we were going and if we needed help. His english was great and he was so nice, he showed us how to get there and then asked us where we were from and told us to have a nice day and good luck on our adventure! This might not seem like that big of a deal but something like that really hasn't happened here in Korea and in fact it's hard to find or get people to speak to you in english sometimes so the fact that this guy just came up and asked us if he could help really made our day and made us feel really welcome. After getting to the subway we took it to the Taipei zoo where we were some of the first ones in after it opened that morning. We decided after going to the zoo here that we were going to try to go to a zoo every where we go so we were excited to see how this one compared. This zoo was great it was so beautiful that at times you forgot that you were looking at a zoo exhibit, some of them seemed like you were in a forest just watching the animals. I think maybe the zoo here in Korea was a little more impressive but the zoo there was definitely more pretty. After spending about 5 hours there we jumped back on the subway and headed to Taipei 101, the worlds 2nd tallest building that just recently got out done by a building in Dubai, pretty cool! We timed it to where we saw the city during the day right before dusk then at dusk and a little even at night time, it really was pretty. You could go to an observation floor inside on the 88th floor and then you could go up to the outside observation deck as well which was on the 91st floor. You could really see just how beautiful Taipei was from up there, mountains everywhere and very lush and green! Next we rode the extremely fast elevator down where our ears popped a couple times and jumped on the subway AGAIN and headed to Taiwan's largest night market. Now I thought the one we had seen the night before was big but WOW that was like a little alleyway compared to this huge market. We're talking several street blocks just full of people and shops and food! That last one was awesome but this one was AMAZING and turned out to be a perfect spot to pick out some gifts for people back home too! Also turned out to be the area where Logan decided to pick out a very pretty jade necklace that he lead me, and the woman selling it, to believe was for his mother but turned out was actually for me! :) It's beautiful with lots of little jade beads going up it and then a big jade ball that hangs in the middle with a few black strings that have little tiny clear crystals on the ends hanging from that. I love it and it's the first real piece of jewelry he's bought for me! :)
Ok so back to the market, at this point we had been on our feet going for over 12 hours and our dogs were barking BUT we were not done yet! We ended up finding this absolutely beautiful prayer temple that we of course had to stop and look around in. I don't think I've ever seen more vibrant beautiful colors together, we're talking blues, reds, greens, and of course tons of gold. It was amazing and we're so glad we had a chance to see that also before heading back. Shortly after looking around that we surrendered to our feet and decided to head back to the hostel. By the time we got back to the hostel we had been on our feet for 15 hours straight!! We were exhausted but totally felt like we had made the most out of our full day and were very happy with everything we saw!
Originally we had planned on getting up on Sunday and going to check out a temple or something easy before heading to the airport but sadly I woke up sick on Sunday. We ended up sleeping in a little and taking our time getting our stuff together, mostly because it was hard for me to move I felt so crappy, and just headed to the airport. While riding the bus to the airport Logan and I talked about our short but fun trip and both of us agreed that we will have to go back again sometime because there's just so much more to see and it's just so pretty. We even mentioned the idea of maybe looking into moving there next year to teach instead of staying here. That's a little ways away though I know and we definitely have a lot to consider and have other options to look into also but we both just loved it there! The people were all super friendly and seemed more willing and able to speak english with you, it was beautiful everywhere, there were tons of things to do, and as silly as it sounds it smelled MUCH better!! haha A lot of the times we were found ourselves saying oh my gosh that smells good not oh no hold your breath hurry!
*SIGH* So that's about everything big that we've been up to this past month, I know it's a lot! Like I said earlier though we are still obviously having a good time and we're both happy to be here. I hope you have all enjoyed catching up with me and I promise I'm going to work on this updating more often thing! :) Next I just have to work on updating pictures on facebook.....yeah one thing at a time, one thing at at time! ;)
Much love to you all,
S
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