Safe and Sound

I'm back in America finally!
Actually I've been back for 2 days. I wrote up a big summary of my thoughts and feelings and such toward Korea and Korean people, and about the things I learned while I was there, but it's not really something I feel I want to post here. Actually towards the end of my trip I was just tired from all the constant traveling and really wanted to go home, and now that I'm back I really miss Korea. Here there's school, and registering for classes, and moving into an apartment, and being responsible...not that these things are bad - they're just more stressful. Thanks to my friends and family for keeping up with me while I was in Korea - it was really great knowing that I wasn't all on my own and that I could hear from you even though I was so far away.

한국 친구들에게: 제가 한국에 있을때 진짜 즐거웠고 미국에 돌아오기 싫었어요 ㅋㅋ 근데 어쩔수 없어요...졸업도 해야잖아요. 다음에는 교환학생으로 다시 갈 수 있길 바래요. 지금 전공하고 대학교 바꾸는중인데 아마 다음해 갈 수 있어요. 그때까지 기다려주세요 ^_^ 아님 미국 놀러 오세요~ 놀아줄께요! 그리고 밥 사주신 친구들 진짜 고마워요. 미국에 오시면 맛있는거 꼭 사줄께요.

I met Kyoungmin's family on Saturday, went to mass Saturday night and had a pretty interesting conversation about Koreans marrying foreigners and moving out of the country, and how that's one of the reasons that there are more guys than girls in Korea by a significant margin. We traveled together to 강원도 (Gangwondo) and stayed with Kyoungmin's Uncle there. We swam in the river Sunday, and went whitewater rafting Monday after which I did some bungee jumping (see the video below). Today I played some soccer with middle school students and Kyoungmin's younger brother EunCheol at a park here in 수원(Suwon). I didn't even have to speak Korean, and we had a good time (our team won HA) but it was super tiring and hot, and I definitely needed the shower I took afterward.

I have about a week left here in Korea, and I'm rapidly thinking of all the things I couldn't do or want to do before I go back to America. I wanted to visit Japan before I went back to the US, but it would be pretty expensive and difficult, plus I'm tired from all the traveling I've been doing here, mostly because my backpack is stuffed to the brim and packing all my stuff is becoming exceedingly difficult. Tomorrow I go to Seoul to pick up my other bag and drop off a lot of the stuff I won't need during my last week here in Korea (I was able to get it locked up at the guesthouse I stayed at so that I don't have to carry everything all over Korea during my big trip). I'll try to post soon to start wrapping up and overviewing this trip - look forward to it, it'll be INTERESTING!!


Thinking back, this was kinda crazy but really really fun. It's the equivalent of jumping off of the 22nd floor of a building attached to a giant yo-yo. Hey, 고진감래 ^_^


Rafting on the 한탄강 which was a blast! We stopped at a couple places and went swimming to take a break from the hard work, and even got to do some cliff diving! The cliff was only like 5 meters up though


The awesome crew of people I hung out with in 강원도. We had a lot of fun together!

I'm in Daejeon now, and have been spending some time with my friend Moon who came to Georgia Tech as an exchange student last year. We played tennis, went bowling, played ping pong and went out for coffee with his girlfriend, and even went hiking up 계룡산 (gyeryongsan) which means chicken-dragon-mountain. I'll miss Daejeon - I had a nice time here, but I'm going to 수원 (Suwon) tomorrow and gotta finish this traveling while I still have the adventure spirit. I have a pretty fun story about hiking at 계룡산 and the people we met there, but I'm afraid it won't come out well in writing. Ask me about it when I get back to the US

I had a great time in Daegu with my friend Bohyun and spent my time recovering from the crazy rock festival and eating good food with a lot of Bohyun's friends. I also got to wash my clothes, shave, and SLEEP IN A BED whooo. I also met a guy who's exactly one year younger than me to the day - we both really love music and spent some time playing piano and guitar, and went to karaoke together.

I'd like to take a second to recap on my trip up until this point, maybe to give perspective, but also so that I can remember since I have a pretty bad memory.

June 20 - Arrival in Seoul, spent a day with Yeseul's family before moving to my home stay family's apartment. Travel around Seoul, visit friends, visit universities, practice ping pong, and learn Hapkido.
July 6 - Move houses from my home stay family house to the Beewon Guesthouse
July 10 - Leave Seoul for Ulsan
July 14 - Spontaneous trip to Haeundae which turned into a 2 day trip for me
July 16 - Return to Ulsan to retrieve all my stuff which was at Henry's house
July 17 - Go to Busan to stay with Josiah, party with foreigners in Busan
July 18 - Day trip to KyeongJu with my friend Heejin
July 19 - Trip to Jeju island to stay with Yeseul's Uncle
July 22 - Return to Ulsan to see Henry during his short work vacation
July 23 - Return to Busan to visit some friends I met in Atlanta
July 24 - Spontaneous trip to Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival
July 27 - Travel to Daegu to hang out with Bohyun and his friends
July 29 - Leave Daegu to go to Daejeon
July 31 - Awesome hiking experience and spontaneous party with people I don't know at KAIST university
August 1 - Travel to Suwon to see Kyeongmin's family and go white water rafting.

Sorry no pictures this time - I've been so exhausted from constant traveling (notice I moved to a new place almost every day) that I didn't really remember to take any pictures of the experience in Daegu and Daejeon.

Incheon Rock Festival (with pictures) part 2

I mentioned the crazy dance parties. Evidently I can dance pretty well after I've had a little to drink, and I learned some breakdance steps from the guys here. We made one of those big dance circles and kept throwing people into the middle of it - also the DJs were really really good

The swimming pool was actually a wakeboard ramp and slider with a landing area, and they had a competition during the day on Saturday. It was so awesome, and I wanted to try it out but they wouldn't let me. I did get to stand on top of the slider and hang onto the rope to get flung across the landing area though.

The bassist from this really good Japanese band. It was kind of amazing how even though the Japanese people couldn't speak Korean, it didn't really matter because you don't have to understand all the words in music to enjoy it and understand the feeling behind it.

The demo session tent - you could plug up to an amp, play with their electronic drumset, whatever you wanted. It was really fun. Oh yeah, and I want this guitar - it has no body.

Actually one of my least favorite bands of the place, but they did put on a good show. I didn't take any pictures of my favorite band because I was swimming while they performed. The lead singer came and jumped in the pool with us hehehe

Incheon Rock Festival (with pictures)

The Incheon Rock Festival was by far the greatest part of my trip here in Korea. Even though it was completely spontaneous, and I couldn't go with any of my friends I made friends with the people working in the stores there and with the people in tents close to mine. I'm continually amazed by the kindness of the people towards a white guy they hardly know - I became friends with the MC of one of the stages here, and he kept getting me free alcohol and making me participate in fun little events in the swimming pool. I met my favorite singer of the festival pretty briefly, but the guy was really kind also. The guys in the campground woke me up in the morning with breakfast and took me out to dinner on Saturday night, and the people working at the Jager bar hung out with me on Sunday night and taught me some Korean drinking games - I finally went to sleep in my tent around 7:00am when the others headed off to the subway to get back to their homes. I got so much free stuff from the festival that I couldn't fit it all in my backpack, and I got sunburned kinda badly so when I carry my backpack around now it's quite a painful experience.

펜타포트에 다닌 분이 내 블로그 읽고 있으시면 정말 감사합니다~ 이 삼일동안 정말 즐거웠고 행복했어요 특히 경민한테 나랑 놀러 와서 진짜 고마웠어요. 연락하고 또 봅시다~ 화이팅 ^^

My awesome friend Kyoungmin, who came to hang out with me. We had an awesome time, and got all sorts of cool prizes for participating in the swimming pool events!

The main stage of the place. This was during the performance of the band 넥스트 (NEXT) - I was usually with the big crowd up front at the main stage concerts, but I hurt my ankle on Friday and was feeling kinda trampled Saturday night so hung back and took some pictures. There were so many people, and even the people at the very back (almost halfway to the next stage) were dancing to the music and having a good time.

My favorite part of the weekend, jumping around on this float in the swimming pool while bands performed on that stage in the background. There was a bar nearby too, and at night they brought out a DJ and a tap of Jägermeister with little plastic shot glasses.

This guy was trying his hardest to sell these cute little towels for 5,000원 but he got shot down so much. I felt bad for the guy, so shouted some inspiration hehe.

The main stage area. There were so many people during the large concerts that they actually set up a fence near the front just to separate the people who were packed into the front like sardines from the other people further back as a space-generating technique. It worked really well, surprisingly. Oh yeah, and I saw the Deftones perform here on Saturday night, and got one of the drummer's sticks! Bet you're jealous haha (just kidding).

Incheon Rock Festival

This is a completely spontaneous trip. Two days ago I heard about this rock festival, and yesterday morning I left from my kind friend's house in Busan, rode the subway for an hour to the bus station, rode the bus 5 hours from Busan to Incheon, rode the subway 30 minutes and took a shutle bus to finally get here around 3:30pm. This place is a blast, and I already know most of the people who work here, which is a really good thing - I'm actually writing this post from the t-shirt shop on a cell-phone internet connection. Anyway, I can't check my emails for a while, and it'll probably be until Monday before I get back to civilization. I'm camping here with my small tent and camping kit until Sunday, rocking out all night and dancing - after all the concerts finish for the day the DJ's come out and there are like 3 dance parties at each stage. There's also a swimming pool that we're going to dance in tonight - it has a slide and a place to jump off of even. Will post awesome fun pictures sometime Monday or Tuesday ^^

A really cool place along the coast of 제주 (Jeju), but I forgot the name, mostly because I had gone hiking earlier in the day and slept in the car. This place gets pounded really hard by waves, but still has a quite unique rock structure. There's a kinda philosophy of Jeju that goes "Rock, Wind, Women" because they're the three most numerous things in order. It's quite true, and kind of happy because of its simplicity.

After climbing 한라산 (Hallasan), just about the most refreshing thing you can do is eat some ramen noodles. We trekked something like 3.5km, and it took us 2.5 hours because of the steep grade of the path. Climbing down was almost twice as fast, but still pretty tiring. I climbed this mountain on Monday with 삼촌 (my friend 예슬's uncle) and then fell asleep intermittently for the rest of the day because I was so tired. When I left 제주 (Jeju) on Wednesday, 삼촌 was still tired from the hike. When you climb up to this point, you can see 한라산 (Hallasan) in the distance, but you can't actually climb it because it's too steep and dangerous - and a volcano.

I was kinda popular in 제주 (Jeju) - these people just came up to me and asked if we could take a picture together. Also, you might notice that even though we're at the beach almost everyone is wearing legit clothes. It wasn't like this everywhere, but Korean style is definitely a bit more conservative than in America.

We rented this awesome 4-wheeler in 경주 (Kyoung-Ju) and had a heck of an awesome time just riding around fish-tailing, and so forth. I let 희진 drive for a little bit, and she almost hit a parked car...........

Rocks piled up at the Buddhist temple in 경주 (Kyoung-Ju). Evidently you make a little stack of rocks and then say a prayer over them, so that as long as the rocks stay your prayer may be heard (maybe I misunderstood the explanation, but it was the feeling I got from it) ^^

I really should update more often, but I've been without Internet for a while while I was in Busan. I spent some time hanging out with friends in Busan, checked out a small amusement park where I was like a celebrity to all the Korean high school kids, visited Kyoungju with my friend Heejin, rode an ATV, visited a Buddhist temple, saw a Korean opera, rode the train back to Busan, checked out the party scene in Busan with the English teacher I was staying with, and found this neat cocktail called a B&B which I think my brother would both enjoy and approve of.

It's Monday now, and I've been on Jeju island since Sunday. My plan was to rent a scooter and drive over the island visiting all the places I wanted to go to, ride a jetski in the ocean, and go scuba diving if possible, but they won't let me rent a scooter without an international drivers license so my plan was kinda ruined. So yesterday I went to the beach wearing my 젊은이 t-shirt and made some friends while enjoying the sand and the cool ocean. I met my friend's uncle there and I'm staying at his house here. The place is really nice!

I went for a run yesterday around the house, and saw none of the big city stuff like in Seoul and Busan. The people living up the street have a watermelon farm, and the people next door are growing mandarins next to the house. Actually the man I'm staying with is a farmer here, and has been here for his whole life. He says he went to China for his honeymoon, but it was terrible so he came back to Jeju and hasn't left since. This morning we woke up early and went to Hallasan (the volcano in the middle of the island). The wind was at our back almost the whole way up, and the sound of running water kept us refreshed for the really difficult climb to the top. All of the streams you see on the way up are super clean and drinkable (not that I drank from all of them) and cold like it just came out of a refrigerator. Also, the path is strewn with volcanic rocks and once you climb past a certain point there are no more big trees to give you shade. Once you reach the top of the path, there's a small store that sells ramen noodles and hiking equipment, and a whole lot of other happy/semi-exhausted-looking people sitting around taking a break. Eating ramen noodles up there was the most refreshing feeling!

I haven't found wireless internet on the island yet, but I'll post some pictures as soon as I do ;)

I added new photos to my Facebook Album!
페이스북 사진첩 업데이트 했는데 밑에 링크를 클릭해봐 ^^
한국 친구들한테 - 블로그를 다 영어로 써서 미안해~
Facebook Photo Album

I've been staying in Ulsan with a friend and his family for a little while now. They're sooo kind and good to me, and have been taking me to some really cool places here like a super old famous Buddhist Temple (they're Buddhist), my friend's university here, and their "garden" which is a kind of a farm out in the country which was all built by their uncle. I've been talking a lot with people about happiness in life, and I'm starting to understand why so many Korean people move to America to live. I'm not sure about women, but men have to get hired into a company between the age of 28 and 30 or else they're out of luck. So up until that time there's a lot of pressure on students to study hard and do nothing else, and to do things to build their resume. It's hard to get a job, and even harder to be independent from your parents like in America, and since independence is hard to attain, students are also heavily pressured by their parents' influence and hardly have a chance to think about happiness or where their heart truly lies.

Here I see people in their 60s and 70s every day going to work, because there isn't a good public welfare program in Korea. Parents work most of their lives supporting their children, and then hopefully have their children provide their retirement later on. There are some homeless people here, but unlike homeless people in America, they don't confront you or try and talk to you to get money, they just sit there looking pathetic and hope you decide to give them something.


Lots of people play this game called Jok-Gu, and we saw some old people playing it so I tried it out with them. It's like volleyball but with your feet and a lower net - really fun! They were really excited to have a foreigner play with them and gave me beer and watermelon~

There's a forest here in Ulsan of bamboo trees. We had some fun climbing around hehe - it's like climbing the rope in gym class because there's nothing for your feet to grab onto.

We took a spontaneous trip to a beach in Busan at night, and didn't have a place to sleep, so we tried being homeless for a night and sleeping on some benches. Mosquitoes ate us alive, and we couldn't sleep much, but I think I got like an hour.

The awesome fish market in Nampodong, Busan. It's like going to the aquarium but it only costs you money if you're hungry!

A quick sampler of the fish market. I didn't take too many pictures because I felt kinda awkward just going around like I was in an aquarium, but it really does kinda feel like the best free aquarium ever.

We made a sand highway with underpasses, tunnels, and a soccer stadium here on the beach! It started as Hwanyeong's sculpture of my face, then we dug 6 tunnels underneath it and kept digging. There's also a hole that doesn't go anywhere - that's our nuclear silo.