yooooooo
just got back from a hard day of studying, well it went more like woke up at noon had the best 13 hour rest of my life after a week of staying up late studying to... STUDY SOME MORE but I think I got a lot accomplished. before studying I put up some facebook photos of China, kind of funny since I don't have any of Korea up yet... then studied Chinese Politics pretty well. Got most of the example questions done except for the long essay which I think I can do pretty easily because I have good notes on that question. Then checked out a DVD room for the first time, you can rent a room and watch a dvd in it for 11,000 won, it was pretty sketchy actually probably wont be doing that again anytime but I watched Gran Torino which was pretty cool because it was like I was HOME!! especially the last part when he's driving down lakeshore. It was weird because then when I got back outside I was in Korea again. Movies/Movie theatres are weird like that.
Tomorrow Caitlyn and I are off to myong dong to studyyyyyy and maybe look in H&M :-)
October 16, 2009
October 15, 2009
October 13, 2009
Today was a great fall day!
Woke up for Political systems of the world and the class was alright then went back to my room to do some homework, which was soothing for some reason today. Then I went to Korean class and got to go back to my room because my ROK-US relations class was cancelled (extra time for us to study for our midterm on thursday). Did some tasks I had to finish then met Caitlyn and Dan at starbucks before the International Festival meeting where every country makes a table to represent its self. I'm the sub representative for the US table. Weird to be surrounded by Americans even if it was just for a small period. there are about 11 of us working on the table. After the meeting we left to find it POURING rain and thunderstorming outside. That kind of sucked. oh also at the meeting they gave us free drinks and I took this green one just because I didn't know what it was, I took a swig and there was like JELLY stuff in it. Found out later that it was an Aloe Vera drink, so not only is it good for sunburns but also drinking? Kind of tasted like gross grape jelly. yeah so I didn't like that much. Caitlyn and I stopped for dinner and I had a roast beef sandwich which was good but the Cherry Coke I had with it tasted like cough syrup-YUCK. two bad drinks in one day.
Also got a package from Mrs Duncan!! :-)
I'm checking to see if I can get Beyonce tickets, everything is in Korean since the English selling tickets closed or something? They said I could get them at the door maybe so we'll see how that goes. hopefully awesome.
Woke up for Political systems of the world and the class was alright then went back to my room to do some homework, which was soothing for some reason today. Then I went to Korean class and got to go back to my room because my ROK-US relations class was cancelled (extra time for us to study for our midterm on thursday). Did some tasks I had to finish then met Caitlyn and Dan at starbucks before the International Festival meeting where every country makes a table to represent its self. I'm the sub representative for the US table. Weird to be surrounded by Americans even if it was just for a small period. there are about 11 of us working on the table. After the meeting we left to find it POURING rain and thunderstorming outside. That kind of sucked. oh also at the meeting they gave us free drinks and I took this green one just because I didn't know what it was, I took a swig and there was like JELLY stuff in it. Found out later that it was an Aloe Vera drink, so not only is it good for sunburns but also drinking? Kind of tasted like gross grape jelly. yeah so I didn't like that much. Caitlyn and I stopped for dinner and I had a roast beef sandwich which was good but the Cherry Coke I had with it tasted like cough syrup-YUCK. two bad drinks in one day.
Also got a package from Mrs Duncan!! :-)
I'm checking to see if I can get Beyonce tickets, everything is in Korean since the English selling tickets closed or something? They said I could get them at the door maybe so we'll see how that goes. hopefully awesome.
October 12, 2009
Well dad left today but this weekend was pretty crazy,
Saturday we went to this place that was called Ice Bar or ground sub zero or something and it was a bar where everything was made of ice and they give you jackets and gloves and you go and drink something out of an ice block and there was music playing. nice to say that I went there but probably wont go back.
Sunday was jam packed with seoul seeing
Started off with a "traditional korea village" where we walked around and played games, saw exhibits and enjoyed the nice weather. Then we went to north seoul tower where you can see all of seoul (the day wasn't that clear but it's still very impressive). After that we went to meyong dong which is where the shopping district is and we ate lunch there. THEN we went to insadong and browsed some more then we went to my favorite place in seoul, the river and walked to the beginning of the river up the street to watch a fountain show then we went to the korean palace museum (a smaller version of the forbidden city). After that I took him to the worst part of seoul, Itaewon where all of the foreigners go, gross. haha just kidding. sort of. FINALLY we had dinner with my korean buddy Hyungjung and we had barbeque. Lots of walking around and activity but Im pretty sure dad got a full seoul experience (minus tapoke from the street vendors, oh well.).
Today was alright, had class then went to Hongik University area with my friend Caitlyn to sit at a coffee shop and study in a different area for a while, didn't work to well teh people watching was too good. BUT something really cool that happened is that we saw some guys on the street that had stayed in the same hostel with us in China so that was really neat, we exchanged numbers and maybe we'll see them again (they are Canadians teaching english).
Now it's time for some homework, I have a midterm on thursday... yikes!
Saturday we went to this place that was called Ice Bar or ground sub zero or something and it was a bar where everything was made of ice and they give you jackets and gloves and you go and drink something out of an ice block and there was music playing. nice to say that I went there but probably wont go back.
Sunday was jam packed with seoul seeing
Started off with a "traditional korea village" where we walked around and played games, saw exhibits and enjoyed the nice weather. Then we went to north seoul tower where you can see all of seoul (the day wasn't that clear but it's still very impressive). After that we went to meyong dong which is where the shopping district is and we ate lunch there. THEN we went to insadong and browsed some more then we went to my favorite place in seoul, the river and walked to the beginning of the river up the street to watch a fountain show then we went to the korean palace museum (a smaller version of the forbidden city). After that I took him to the worst part of seoul, Itaewon where all of the foreigners go, gross. haha just kidding. sort of. FINALLY we had dinner with my korean buddy Hyungjung and we had barbeque. Lots of walking around and activity but Im pretty sure dad got a full seoul experience (minus tapoke from the street vendors, oh well.).
Today was alright, had class then went to Hongik University area with my friend Caitlyn to sit at a coffee shop and study in a different area for a while, didn't work to well teh people watching was too good. BUT something really cool that happened is that we saw some guys on the street that had stayed in the same hostel with us in China so that was really neat, we exchanged numbers and maybe we'll see them again (they are Canadians teaching english).
Now it's time for some homework, I have a midterm on thursday... yikes!
October 10, 2009
This has to be quick but I've had some great highlights this weekend!!
First off, for those who don't know, Hank came to visit me! we still have one full day left together so should be good.
Insadong yesterday we saw the NEW JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER!!! no joke, and I don't want to brag but I totally knew who he was just by seeing him. I'm impressed with myself,
ALSO today went to the DMZ. that's right people. Two very exciting things happend
A) I CAUGHT A FROG!! I caught a frog in the dmz. And I kissed it (no prince for me..)
B) was in NORTH KOREA. we were in a building and on one half it was in North Korea and the other half in South Korea.
pretty boss.
sorry I'll write more about china later but we're getting bbq now soooooo too bad for you.
First off, for those who don't know, Hank came to visit me! we still have one full day left together so should be good.
Insadong yesterday we saw the NEW JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER!!! no joke, and I don't want to brag but I totally knew who he was just by seeing him. I'm impressed with myself,
ALSO today went to the DMZ. that's right people. Two very exciting things happend
A) I CAUGHT A FROG!! I caught a frog in the dmz. And I kissed it (no prince for me..)
B) was in NORTH KOREA. we were in a building and on one half it was in North Korea and the other half in South Korea.
pretty boss.
sorry I'll write more about china later but we're getting bbq now soooooo too bad for you.
October 8, 2009
Saturday
We got our wakeup call at the appropriate time and excitedly started dressing. Our Chinese roommate asked us what time it was then got out of bed and went to the bathroom. I left to see if I could find some breakfast (which I never found) and never saw him again. Caitlyn came to the lobby to tell me that he told her to “tell your friend I give her my best” and he seriously peaced out of the room and we have no idea where he went because I didn’t see him leave the lobby and he left the room and it was also 5:45am I guess we’ll never know…
It was me and Caitlyn and another couple. The tour was supposed to leave at 6:20 but he rushed us out to the van at a little past 6 (good thing we were early) and then went to 4 other hostels. We were packed into this tiny tiny van, there was no leg room at all and some American girl teaching English was freaking out “im claustrophobic” blah blah. Caitlyn and I planned on putting up a Brittish front and asking her if she was American “you are slightly obese and have been complaining a lot”. So basically we found the reason why the American nationality is being tarnished around the world. Anyway, we stopped at some corner where this man gave everyone in the bus breakfast (well everyone except Caitlyn and I we think maybe because we were supposed to have gone a day earlier) and we met with another small van and a huge coach bus, of course the American girl starts flipping out wondering why she isn’t on the big bus. She even had the nerve to talk to one of the people in charge of our tour- this small Chinese girl- complaining about the space. She’s obviously never been on a rowing team. She didn’t switch and we got to ride with her for the entire 3 hour trip.
We stopped halfway and were able to get lunch (a banana some bread and water) we were in the country in China it was pretty sweet. There were a lot a lot of mountains and farms and stuff. I took some pictures.
When we got to the Great Wall we had to wait for the other van and bus to catch up and we saw a bunch of touristy stuff like hats and tee shirts and stuff. I also got to use a squatting toilet! Seriously it was a highlight. Our group was huge so when the tour guide was talking no one was paying attention and I couldn’t even hear him. Something about the cable cars or walking the whole way, of course we wanted to walk the whole way so we figured we’d just follow the crowd. We started making our way up to the wall and the steps were SO steep. It was pretty much like “is this seriously going to be it for the whole way? But the wall was sooooo awesome and vast and it was crazy just looking at it and being like “this is the great wall of china. Weird.”
We finally got to the great wall and there was a map we thought the tour guide had told us to go left so we turned left (the crowd had magically disappeared) and then started walking, we saw two people from our group so we felt pretty sure of ourselves. We started getting weary halfway to the first tower when NO ONE was following us. We took some pictures and turned around. Thankfully it was a good thing that we turned around or else we would have been lost on the great wall. Would have been a good story but thankfully one that I don’t have to tell.
The wall was amazing, we met a bunch of people on it like boys who graduated from Notre Dame, one who’s major was Mandarin so he was talking to all the Chinese people and the other one’s major was Poli Sci and Econ but he said he wanted to write and that he had two blogs going. The wall was so great and it was funny because at every tower there would be old women saying “beer, coke, water” I saw some people getting beers every once in a while but refrained. (by the way I’m wearing gap flip flops during this whole hike). We also saw this family of 2 small blonde kids and a mom and they were funny because the kids were just running up and down the wall and the mom wasn’t out of shape but they had a lot of energy. We kept leap frogging them because they would stop for water then run ahead. Eventually about halfway through the hike we noticed that the kids were being lead by an old Chinese woman with their mom trailing behind. THEN we hear the blonde kids start spitting mandarin like it’s their job to this woman. THE KIDS WERE FLUENT IN MANDARIN. Seriously they couldn’t have been older than 7. I turned to the boy from Notre Dame and asked him how he felt knowing that he spent his whole college degree on something the 7 year old could easily do. It was funny.
Also we met a boy from florida and his roommates who were studying in Hong Kong but mostly everyone was teaching English or traveling.
On the great wall I saw 4 lizards which I wanted to try and catch but was in the middle of a conversation each time I saw one and I didn’t want to look weird lunging toward something on the ground so I didn’t do it. We also so a lot of millipedes which I eventually picked up and Caitlyn and I put it on our hands and took pictures (facebooookkkkk). At the end of the 10k hike there was a zipline to a boat that would take us to our parking lot. OF COURSE we did it (after I took a picture of the Notre Dame boys shot gunning a beer which I’m not sure how I feel about but anyway…) The zipline was really cool. Caitlyn also took a video of that and it’s on facebook. I’m tagged in it so it should be kind of easy to find. Then we took a boat and that was nice, but it was a pretty short ride. A small van took us to the restaurant that we were eating at and we had a really really good meal with chicken something, fried noodles, rice, cucumber salad and some other stuff. I was completely stuffed by the time I was done so Caitlyn and I walked around for a bit waiting for the buses to leave and saw THE BIGGEST SPIDER EVER. It was huge. Black with green and it was so so so big. Caitlyn took a picture but didn’t put it up, the real thing was probably way more impressive.
The bus ride back was alright, took less time because of traffic (only 2 hours) we got back pretty tired even though we had slept most of the way and we went out to find some food. This time when we got food at a restaurant I ordered some chicken but wasn’t really that sure what it was so when it came, just fried chicken I was like “oh this will be fine” I took a bite and it was just fat cartilage grossness so I spit it out thinking it was bone then took another piece that was exactly the same, then another until I realized I had ordered FRIED chicken FAT. It was funny, so once I knew that it was supposed to be like that I ate most of it, there were also fried peanuts that were interesting but some of the pieces weren’t that bad, it was when the fat was hard that it was kind of gross.
On the way back to the hotel Alex suggested a short cut down some side road that we thought went through so we ducked in to a dark alley, and it didn’t go through it turned so we just kept following it as Caitlyn said, “when we die this is going to be one of those things when people read about it and say, ‘Why would they go down the dark side street in the first place??’” Don’t worry I didn’t die and nothing bad happened, it was just small houses with people running around celebrating their communism, we saw a table of 4 old guys gambling and a lot of cooking outside and talking, almost everyone was by a TV watching the celebrations in Tian’amen square pan out so that was pretty cool and then when we emerged on the other side I knew where we were! That was cool because I lead us straight to the hotel and I felt special. Then we went to sleep.
Still 2 more days left!
We got our wakeup call at the appropriate time and excitedly started dressing. Our Chinese roommate asked us what time it was then got out of bed and went to the bathroom. I left to see if I could find some breakfast (which I never found) and never saw him again. Caitlyn came to the lobby to tell me that he told her to “tell your friend I give her my best” and he seriously peaced out of the room and we have no idea where he went because I didn’t see him leave the lobby and he left the room and it was also 5:45am I guess we’ll never know…
It was me and Caitlyn and another couple. The tour was supposed to leave at 6:20 but he rushed us out to the van at a little past 6 (good thing we were early) and then went to 4 other hostels. We were packed into this tiny tiny van, there was no leg room at all and some American girl teaching English was freaking out “im claustrophobic” blah blah. Caitlyn and I planned on putting up a Brittish front and asking her if she was American “you are slightly obese and have been complaining a lot”. So basically we found the reason why the American nationality is being tarnished around the world. Anyway, we stopped at some corner where this man gave everyone in the bus breakfast (well everyone except Caitlyn and I we think maybe because we were supposed to have gone a day earlier) and we met with another small van and a huge coach bus, of course the American girl starts flipping out wondering why she isn’t on the big bus. She even had the nerve to talk to one of the people in charge of our tour- this small Chinese girl- complaining about the space. She’s obviously never been on a rowing team. She didn’t switch and we got to ride with her for the entire 3 hour trip.
We stopped halfway and were able to get lunch (a banana some bread and water) we were in the country in China it was pretty sweet. There were a lot a lot of mountains and farms and stuff. I took some pictures.
When we got to the Great Wall we had to wait for the other van and bus to catch up and we saw a bunch of touristy stuff like hats and tee shirts and stuff. I also got to use a squatting toilet! Seriously it was a highlight. Our group was huge so when the tour guide was talking no one was paying attention and I couldn’t even hear him. Something about the cable cars or walking the whole way, of course we wanted to walk the whole way so we figured we’d just follow the crowd. We started making our way up to the wall and the steps were SO steep. It was pretty much like “is this seriously going to be it for the whole way? But the wall was sooooo awesome and vast and it was crazy just looking at it and being like “this is the great wall of china. Weird.”
We finally got to the great wall and there was a map we thought the tour guide had told us to go left so we turned left (the crowd had magically disappeared) and then started walking, we saw two people from our group so we felt pretty sure of ourselves. We started getting weary halfway to the first tower when NO ONE was following us. We took some pictures and turned around. Thankfully it was a good thing that we turned around or else we would have been lost on the great wall. Would have been a good story but thankfully one that I don’t have to tell.
The wall was amazing, we met a bunch of people on it like boys who graduated from Notre Dame, one who’s major was Mandarin so he was talking to all the Chinese people and the other one’s major was Poli Sci and Econ but he said he wanted to write and that he had two blogs going. The wall was so great and it was funny because at every tower there would be old women saying “beer, coke, water” I saw some people getting beers every once in a while but refrained. (by the way I’m wearing gap flip flops during this whole hike). We also saw this family of 2 small blonde kids and a mom and they were funny because the kids were just running up and down the wall and the mom wasn’t out of shape but they had a lot of energy. We kept leap frogging them because they would stop for water then run ahead. Eventually about halfway through the hike we noticed that the kids were being lead by an old Chinese woman with their mom trailing behind. THEN we hear the blonde kids start spitting mandarin like it’s their job to this woman. THE KIDS WERE FLUENT IN MANDARIN. Seriously they couldn’t have been older than 7. I turned to the boy from Notre Dame and asked him how he felt knowing that he spent his whole college degree on something the 7 year old could easily do. It was funny.
Also we met a boy from florida and his roommates who were studying in Hong Kong but mostly everyone was teaching English or traveling.
On the great wall I saw 4 lizards which I wanted to try and catch but was in the middle of a conversation each time I saw one and I didn’t want to look weird lunging toward something on the ground so I didn’t do it. We also so a lot of millipedes which I eventually picked up and Caitlyn and I put it on our hands and took pictures (facebooookkkkk). At the end of the 10k hike there was a zipline to a boat that would take us to our parking lot. OF COURSE we did it (after I took a picture of the Notre Dame boys shot gunning a beer which I’m not sure how I feel about but anyway…) The zipline was really cool. Caitlyn also took a video of that and it’s on facebook. I’m tagged in it so it should be kind of easy to find. Then we took a boat and that was nice, but it was a pretty short ride. A small van took us to the restaurant that we were eating at and we had a really really good meal with chicken something, fried noodles, rice, cucumber salad and some other stuff. I was completely stuffed by the time I was done so Caitlyn and I walked around for a bit waiting for the buses to leave and saw THE BIGGEST SPIDER EVER. It was huge. Black with green and it was so so so big. Caitlyn took a picture but didn’t put it up, the real thing was probably way more impressive.
The bus ride back was alright, took less time because of traffic (only 2 hours) we got back pretty tired even though we had slept most of the way and we went out to find some food. This time when we got food at a restaurant I ordered some chicken but wasn’t really that sure what it was so when it came, just fried chicken I was like “oh this will be fine” I took a bite and it was just fat cartilage grossness so I spit it out thinking it was bone then took another piece that was exactly the same, then another until I realized I had ordered FRIED chicken FAT. It was funny, so once I knew that it was supposed to be like that I ate most of it, there were also fried peanuts that were interesting but some of the pieces weren’t that bad, it was when the fat was hard that it was kind of gross.
On the way back to the hotel Alex suggested a short cut down some side road that we thought went through so we ducked in to a dark alley, and it didn’t go through it turned so we just kept following it as Caitlyn said, “when we die this is going to be one of those things when people read about it and say, ‘Why would they go down the dark side street in the first place??’” Don’t worry I didn’t die and nothing bad happened, it was just small houses with people running around celebrating their communism, we saw a table of 4 old guys gambling and a lot of cooking outside and talking, almost everyone was by a TV watching the celebrations in Tian’amen square pan out so that was pretty cool and then when we emerged on the other side I knew where we were! That was cool because I lead us straight to the hotel and I felt special. Then we went to sleep.
Still 2 more days left!
October 5, 2009
Holy Cow, what a weekend. Going to China with Caitlyn, Sean, Alex and Dan was one of the craziest I don’t even know what’s going on weekends ever. I guess the best way to do this would be to break it down into days so we’ll start on Wednesday. Also I should note that Caitlyn and I had thought about booking a night in Incheon which is the town right by the airport, it’s a fishing village so it’s right by the sea and has some beaches and a LOT of seafood. Like real seafood such as octopus and yeah I don’t even know… anyway.
Also, as a side note for those who are really busy/ just didn’t know before but this weekend was the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. On the news you may have seen tanks upon tanks and soldiers marching around everywhere. Seriously. It’s legit. also for anyone who was wondering they really do turn off facebook and blogs in China. ANYWAY.
Wednesday
I get back from my classes, thinking that I would have a great night packing and lounging around. I stop by Caitlyn’s room on my way to my room and she says “you’re ready already!?” and I’m like huh? Then I realize that she had packed and was getting ready to go somewhere. Then I realized that when she said that Incheon was “booked” in a text message earlier that week she had meant that she had booked it not that Incheon was full. Lucky for everyone I’m good at changing my plans so I told her I’d be ready soon, went back to my room and packed then Caitlyn and I headed for the bus to take us to the Incheon airport where we would get a taxi to take us to the hotel (it was supposed to be about a 5-6 minute drive by taxi).
First we went to the bus but could not for the life of us figure out what bus we were supposed to get on (the bus system in seoul is straight up impossible) so after two phone calls to local Korean’s we finally find out what bus to get on (this is after I had gotten onto a bus asking if they were going to Incheon when they started driving away with me still on the bus and Caitlyn sitting at the corner, her direct words upon what she was thinking at the time are ‘well, there she goes.’ Honestly she didn’t even try to stop the bus she just watched it drive away but with my quick thinking and and mad Korean skillz I got the bus to stop sheer meters away and got out. Don’t worry it gets better.) While waiting for the bus we drew a lot of attention to ourselves a local man kept telling Caitlyn, who was sitting on her luggage, that if she kept eating the mixed nuts she was eating that she would break her luggage. She didn’t think that was funny but I did. Then another local boy informed us that we should cross the street and get the bus going in the other direction because it would be a lot faster. So we crossed the street and got on the bus to the airport. We get on and not much happens until we get to the airport and get off the bus. Then we are swarmed with taxi drivers trying to get us to get in their taxi. We had to get in the one taxi that was going to Incheon so we give him the address. Lucky for us he knew some English and we were excited to see Incheon and our hotel. So we’re driving, then we keep driving, then we’re still driving and Caitlyn and I are starting to get a little nervous. I call Dan one of the boys going to Korea with us because the boys booked a different time for their flight so we had to choose a meeting spot in China. He of course chose some supermarket which HELLO we don’t know where the heck it is and says that we should meet at 4pm our flight came in at 11ish so I didn’t care but there’s came in at 2 so I was a little nervous for their time constraints but didn’t give it much thought so we said we’d meet there at four.(we didn’t realize but their trip cost about $100 less than ours. Jerks). During the call Caitlyn kept poking me and so finally she told me that our taxi ride was taking way way way too long and usually the taxi drivers take a long time so that we can pay more but it was getting ridiculous so then we start sort of freaking out thinking maybe we are going to be in the next bim bim bop meal and the taxi driver is like ‘no no no no no you got off at Gimpo airport not Incheon airport’ so turns out Caitlyn and I got off at the wrong airport then it cost us a crap load of money to pay the taxi driver which was pretty funny because at least we didn’t die.
Our hotel was straight up awesome. We had a Jacuzzi bath and a sauna thing and a TV and two beds and wooden floors and it was amazing. The town was so cute. There were boat harbors everywhere and the sea looked like something from Maine. The beach wasn’t something you’d go swimming off but we went on it at night and collected some shells. We had a nice traditional Korean meal equipped with octopus tentacle things and such. It was very quaint. We ended our day but watching “Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist” a movie on the TV. And excited for our trip to China the next day!
*Moral of the day- pay attention to what bus stop you’re getting off at because it will cost you a lot of money if you don’t.
Thursday
Woke up about a billion times because this DAMN ROOSTER kept crowing. I was determined to find this rooster and seek revenge. So after an early early wake up call I grabbed my camera and headed for the beach. (I had sometime before our shuttle left). I found that stupid rooster and I took a picture because seriously that rooster caused a lot of pain. The beach was stunning though. It was well worth it waking up early just to see it. We got into our shuttle and got to the airport where we found out that OUR FLIGHT HAD BEEN CANCELLED. No joke. And I never got an email or anything. But don’t worry. We talked to this girl at a desk who I’m pretty sure was an angel I put all of my faith completely in this girl. She got us on another flight that was scheduled to leave at 12:25 (The boy’s flight left at 12:50 and they thought it was very funny that we had gotten up so early when they got up later than us and still had to take the subway to the airport). We made it through security check with our trusty Chinese visas and went to our gate. We decided to get some food so we went to a japansese restaurant where I decided to try this rice drink? Bad choice. There were literally junks of rice floating around in it, looked like someone had eaten and backwashed in some water and then gave it to me (although I know that didn’t happen because I poured it from the can myself) so that was interesting. No one was on our flight it was pretty much deserted except this one group of traveling musicians who had dreads and a lot of tattoos and were all cool and stuff. Sort of I mean I don’t know they couldn’t have been that good because they were traveling in economy and they seemed just as nervous about going to China as us. Anyway. We get to China and breathe a sigh of relief we had finally made it!! I could now officially say that I had been to China. All of the excitement quickly vanished when NONE OF THE TAXI DRIVERS WOULD TAKE US TO OUR HOTEL. We found out that the street our hotel was on was blocked because of the military parade. Frustrated and very tired we had to figure out a way to call the hotel. We couldn’t use cash for the telephone you had to use some magical card that we couldn’t find until some man came up and made us buy one and then they lady at the desk (who is my arch nemesis) told us that we couldn’t come to the hostel we had to go to New Dragon hostel and wait there until the streets were open so they could come pick us up and she told us to find someone to write in Chinese the address to give to someone in a taxi. Of course I start running around the airport and NO ONE not even the official security guard helper whatever would come and help us so we were screwed on that note so we went back outside and one of the people directing the taxi’s told one where to go and he took us there. On the way to the hotel we saw a tank with soldiers!!! A real Chinese tank. Very exciting. By this time it was about 4:10 and I wanted to get to the supermarket as fast as we could (we had absolutely NO way of communicating because the phone’s didn’t work and we had no idea where they were) so we get to this supermarket at about 4:30 and wait scared that they had came and left. We waited for 30 minutes then gave up. Caitlyn and I really wanted to go to Tian’amen Square to watch the celebrations. So we went back to the hostel just to check to see if they were there. They weren’t so we started walking down the street, and who do we see but those three boys walking with their luggage. The sun was setting and our goal was to get to Tian’amen Square by the sun set so we could watch the flag ceremony (stupid us obviously this wasn’t going to happen but we were ignorant at the time so just go with it). We RUSHED them to the hostel so they could put their stuff down and they were discouraged to hear about having to wait until late to go to our hostel.
Together the five of us started to walk toward Tian’amen to find the streets blocked by authority figures. Literally could not even pretend like we were going there. So distressed that we couldn’t show our support for communism we bought some Chinese flags and waved them around for a little while, until we found a restaurant. Suddenly I realized I had really been craving duck. I mean I’d had it before but I don’t remember what it tasted like and some crispy duck sounded like exactly what I wanted. At this point we were sitting in front of a church that was lit up with a bunch of tourists everywhere when these two girls approach us and ask if they could take their picture with us. I was SO SO SO thrilled. I had heard that this happened but in real life having random people come up to you to take a picture with you is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. So I offer to take the picture with both of them in it then make them let me take a picture with my Camera. Then ANOTHER group of people (this time older) come over and ask for their pictures with us too. Feeling like celebrities we went into this restaurant thing and we got duck (Caitlyn got a salad because she’s a vegetarian). And some Chinese beer (yingsang or something?) I actually got a coke because I thought I would die of tiredness. The duck was good and the restaurant was nice the waitress was very good at English and we had a good experience. Then we made it back to the New Dragon hostel. While there we looked at their tourist stuff and saw that they had trips to hike 10k on the Great Wall. We were really excited and booked a trip for the 5 of us for tomorrow morning. The bus left at 6:20 so we knew that waking up would be rough but we scheduled it anyway just to make sure that we would be able to do it. Since the same owner for New Dragon was the owner for Forbidden City Hostel the bus was going to come and pick us up at Forbidden City in the morning. The New Dragon Hostel also had a bar in the basement and everyone who was waiting for the Forbidden City Hostel and so we got some drinks and then met some cool people which was fun, Caitlyn and I went to go buy some shampoo and soap. And a toothbrush for Dan who was brilliant and forgot one and when we went outside we could hear the fireworks from Tian’amen square which was really cool. When we came back we found that our spots had been filled with about 5 girls which was pretty funny so we went and sat somewhere else so as not to disturb the boy’s and whatever they were doing but I was exhausted anyway so I basically fell asleep on the couch until the van for the other hostel was came. We got into the van and made it to the hostel after a little hastle and making fun of some girls teaching English in China (from the United States, they were easy targets. Those English teachers are trouble.) Caitlyn and I finally got into our room and fell down to sleep.
The room was 2 bunk beds and we had it to ourselves so we both took a bottom bunk and had our stuff lying everywhere.
Right when we had gotten to sleep we hear the door open and a Chinese boy walked in with a huge suitcase. Completely dillusional with exhaustion I whisper (well it probably wasn’t much of a whisper) “Caitlyn, it’s a BOY!” and she’s says “Hey we reserved the top bunk for you” the boy was like “what?” then he started fooling around with the light switches. I have no idea what time this happened at but I had consumed absolutely no alcohol and I still had no idea what was going on. “Do you want me to turn off the light?” Said Caitlyn. “I’m Chinese.” Said the boy. “Ok, but do you want me to turn off the light?” “CHINA.”
And with that Caitlyn turned off the light and the boy climbed into the bed above mine and we all went to sleep.
Friday
6:20 am.
*knock knock knock*
“CLARE WHAT TIME IS IT!?” I look at the phone that my alarm had been set on and it says 7:30am. We hear Alex’s voice from outside the door, British accent and all “what you haven’t woken up yet!” We open the door to see Alex standing there laughing at us then we say “5 minutes!” and he walks away. While trying to figure out what the heck is going on we hear another voice “Excuse me, we cannot wait 5 minutes we have a tight schedule to keep you can come to the great wall tomorrow we are leaving”. And then they left.
Apparently tour guides are very strict about schedules to the Great Wall even though everything else in China, literally, is “unclear”.
Devestated, I tell Caitlyn, that we might as well go back to sleep, my plan B for basically anything, and then we sleep until 10am. Getting up we decide that missing the Great Wall tour was NOT going to ruin our day, we could do it tomorrow and today we were going to go to the Forbidden City (now called Palace Museum) and Tian’amen Square. Taking a nice warm shower was the highest on our list at the moment, that was until we turned on the water to find it FREEZING FREAKING COLD. Literally, not luke warm but CHILLED. Horrified but in desperate need of a shower I washed my hair and scrubbed myself. Coldest thing ever. While Caitlyn was in the shower I turned on the TV and found the news on an English channel, watching the news in English from China may have been one of the most interesting things ever. They were talking about the parade and how everything was on display, showing the leaders from the night before it Tian’amen. Very interesting. After the shower we head out, for real this time, on a Chinese adventure. So with new hopes we head off. Me with my map and we successfully make it there (they literally are 3 blocks away from our hostel). The Forbidden City was awesome. So so so, pretty. And once again, people were taking picture of me and Caitlyn, this woman literally had Caitlyn pick up her child and had us pose with her. So funny and SO awesome. People were taking pictures of us with their camera phones and other pictures and we would find that when we would look over and see people trying to take a picture of something we would move out of the way and the camera lens would follow us. That doesn’t happen in Korea so I’m pretty sure there is a huge inside secret that we are just missing out on, like they’ll plan to show their children these pictures of us when they become closer to super power status or something. Anyway, nothing like paparazzi to get your self esteem up.
We had lunch before going to Tian’amen Square at a small kind of dirty restaurant but the food was so good! I hate to say it but I for sure like Chinese food more than Korean food. Tian’amen Square was everything that I could have ever wanted it to be and more. Seeing that picture with my own eyes was pretty much the 2nd best thing that happened to me that trip. Dunno why but it was very exciting. We also saw the floats from the parade and could watch the parade on the TV with all the new and exciting military equipment that they had paraded around and such. Everything was SO crowded but so worth seeing. We thought about going to the temple of heaven so we tried to find it on our map but then gave up and went to a market where they were selling scorpions on sticks literally still alive and moving. Also sea horses and such things like trinkets and cards (I bought a set of Mao cards. Pretty cool). Wow. So then…
We got back to the room and waited for the boys (who were supposed to return by 7) and decided to get some food. This trip to get food was definitely not as successful as the night before. I accidently ordered fried chicken fat. It was pretty funny and I still ate a good amount of it. We shared plates and sean and dan ordered duck AGAIN. So that was fun. We walked around a food market for a while to find more speared insects, a lot of meat, and fruit and also, I kid you not “Sheep Penis” GAG. Speared also. Walked away from that one. The night ended with saying goodnight to our roommate and falling asleep (this time with a wake up call) until our trip to the great wall.
Kind of tired of typing now since I’m up to 3,300 words and on my 6th page on Microsoft word. I’ll write about Saturday, Sunday, Monday soon.
COMING UP!!!
Great Wall-Summer Palace-highway experiences. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!
Also, as a side note for those who are really busy/ just didn’t know before but this weekend was the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. On the news you may have seen tanks upon tanks and soldiers marching around everywhere. Seriously. It’s legit. also for anyone who was wondering they really do turn off facebook and blogs in China. ANYWAY.
Wednesday
I get back from my classes, thinking that I would have a great night packing and lounging around. I stop by Caitlyn’s room on my way to my room and she says “you’re ready already!?” and I’m like huh? Then I realize that she had packed and was getting ready to go somewhere. Then I realized that when she said that Incheon was “booked” in a text message earlier that week she had meant that she had booked it not that Incheon was full. Lucky for everyone I’m good at changing my plans so I told her I’d be ready soon, went back to my room and packed then Caitlyn and I headed for the bus to take us to the Incheon airport where we would get a taxi to take us to the hotel (it was supposed to be about a 5-6 minute drive by taxi).
First we went to the bus but could not for the life of us figure out what bus we were supposed to get on (the bus system in seoul is straight up impossible) so after two phone calls to local Korean’s we finally find out what bus to get on (this is after I had gotten onto a bus asking if they were going to Incheon when they started driving away with me still on the bus and Caitlyn sitting at the corner, her direct words upon what she was thinking at the time are ‘well, there she goes.’ Honestly she didn’t even try to stop the bus she just watched it drive away but with my quick thinking and and mad Korean skillz I got the bus to stop sheer meters away and got out. Don’t worry it gets better.) While waiting for the bus we drew a lot of attention to ourselves a local man kept telling Caitlyn, who was sitting on her luggage, that if she kept eating the mixed nuts she was eating that she would break her luggage. She didn’t think that was funny but I did. Then another local boy informed us that we should cross the street and get the bus going in the other direction because it would be a lot faster. So we crossed the street and got on the bus to the airport. We get on and not much happens until we get to the airport and get off the bus. Then we are swarmed with taxi drivers trying to get us to get in their taxi. We had to get in the one taxi that was going to Incheon so we give him the address. Lucky for us he knew some English and we were excited to see Incheon and our hotel. So we’re driving, then we keep driving, then we’re still driving and Caitlyn and I are starting to get a little nervous. I call Dan one of the boys going to Korea with us because the boys booked a different time for their flight so we had to choose a meeting spot in China. He of course chose some supermarket which HELLO we don’t know where the heck it is and says that we should meet at 4pm our flight came in at 11ish so I didn’t care but there’s came in at 2 so I was a little nervous for their time constraints but didn’t give it much thought so we said we’d meet there at four.(we didn’t realize but their trip cost about $100 less than ours. Jerks). During the call Caitlyn kept poking me and so finally she told me that our taxi ride was taking way way way too long and usually the taxi drivers take a long time so that we can pay more but it was getting ridiculous so then we start sort of freaking out thinking maybe we are going to be in the next bim bim bop meal and the taxi driver is like ‘no no no no no you got off at Gimpo airport not Incheon airport’ so turns out Caitlyn and I got off at the wrong airport then it cost us a crap load of money to pay the taxi driver which was pretty funny because at least we didn’t die.
Our hotel was straight up awesome. We had a Jacuzzi bath and a sauna thing and a TV and two beds and wooden floors and it was amazing. The town was so cute. There were boat harbors everywhere and the sea looked like something from Maine. The beach wasn’t something you’d go swimming off but we went on it at night and collected some shells. We had a nice traditional Korean meal equipped with octopus tentacle things and such. It was very quaint. We ended our day but watching “Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist” a movie on the TV. And excited for our trip to China the next day!
*Moral of the day- pay attention to what bus stop you’re getting off at because it will cost you a lot of money if you don’t.
Thursday
Woke up about a billion times because this DAMN ROOSTER kept crowing. I was determined to find this rooster and seek revenge. So after an early early wake up call I grabbed my camera and headed for the beach. (I had sometime before our shuttle left). I found that stupid rooster and I took a picture because seriously that rooster caused a lot of pain. The beach was stunning though. It was well worth it waking up early just to see it. We got into our shuttle and got to the airport where we found out that OUR FLIGHT HAD BEEN CANCELLED. No joke. And I never got an email or anything. But don’t worry. We talked to this girl at a desk who I’m pretty sure was an angel I put all of my faith completely in this girl. She got us on another flight that was scheduled to leave at 12:25 (The boy’s flight left at 12:50 and they thought it was very funny that we had gotten up so early when they got up later than us and still had to take the subway to the airport). We made it through security check with our trusty Chinese visas and went to our gate. We decided to get some food so we went to a japansese restaurant where I decided to try this rice drink? Bad choice. There were literally junks of rice floating around in it, looked like someone had eaten and backwashed in some water and then gave it to me (although I know that didn’t happen because I poured it from the can myself) so that was interesting. No one was on our flight it was pretty much deserted except this one group of traveling musicians who had dreads and a lot of tattoos and were all cool and stuff. Sort of I mean I don’t know they couldn’t have been that good because they were traveling in economy and they seemed just as nervous about going to China as us. Anyway. We get to China and breathe a sigh of relief we had finally made it!! I could now officially say that I had been to China. All of the excitement quickly vanished when NONE OF THE TAXI DRIVERS WOULD TAKE US TO OUR HOTEL. We found out that the street our hotel was on was blocked because of the military parade. Frustrated and very tired we had to figure out a way to call the hotel. We couldn’t use cash for the telephone you had to use some magical card that we couldn’t find until some man came up and made us buy one and then they lady at the desk (who is my arch nemesis) told us that we couldn’t come to the hostel we had to go to New Dragon hostel and wait there until the streets were open so they could come pick us up and she told us to find someone to write in Chinese the address to give to someone in a taxi. Of course I start running around the airport and NO ONE not even the official security guard helper whatever would come and help us so we were screwed on that note so we went back outside and one of the people directing the taxi’s told one where to go and he took us there. On the way to the hotel we saw a tank with soldiers!!! A real Chinese tank. Very exciting. By this time it was about 4:10 and I wanted to get to the supermarket as fast as we could (we had absolutely NO way of communicating because the phone’s didn’t work and we had no idea where they were) so we get to this supermarket at about 4:30 and wait scared that they had came and left. We waited for 30 minutes then gave up. Caitlyn and I really wanted to go to Tian’amen Square to watch the celebrations. So we went back to the hostel just to check to see if they were there. They weren’t so we started walking down the street, and who do we see but those three boys walking with their luggage. The sun was setting and our goal was to get to Tian’amen Square by the sun set so we could watch the flag ceremony (stupid us obviously this wasn’t going to happen but we were ignorant at the time so just go with it). We RUSHED them to the hostel so they could put their stuff down and they were discouraged to hear about having to wait until late to go to our hostel.
Together the five of us started to walk toward Tian’amen to find the streets blocked by authority figures. Literally could not even pretend like we were going there. So distressed that we couldn’t show our support for communism we bought some Chinese flags and waved them around for a little while, until we found a restaurant. Suddenly I realized I had really been craving duck. I mean I’d had it before but I don’t remember what it tasted like and some crispy duck sounded like exactly what I wanted. At this point we were sitting in front of a church that was lit up with a bunch of tourists everywhere when these two girls approach us and ask if they could take their picture with us. I was SO SO SO thrilled. I had heard that this happened but in real life having random people come up to you to take a picture with you is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. So I offer to take the picture with both of them in it then make them let me take a picture with my Camera. Then ANOTHER group of people (this time older) come over and ask for their pictures with us too. Feeling like celebrities we went into this restaurant thing and we got duck (Caitlyn got a salad because she’s a vegetarian). And some Chinese beer (yingsang or something?) I actually got a coke because I thought I would die of tiredness. The duck was good and the restaurant was nice the waitress was very good at English and we had a good experience. Then we made it back to the New Dragon hostel. While there we looked at their tourist stuff and saw that they had trips to hike 10k on the Great Wall. We were really excited and booked a trip for the 5 of us for tomorrow morning. The bus left at 6:20 so we knew that waking up would be rough but we scheduled it anyway just to make sure that we would be able to do it. Since the same owner for New Dragon was the owner for Forbidden City Hostel the bus was going to come and pick us up at Forbidden City in the morning. The New Dragon Hostel also had a bar in the basement and everyone who was waiting for the Forbidden City Hostel and so we got some drinks and then met some cool people which was fun, Caitlyn and I went to go buy some shampoo and soap. And a toothbrush for Dan who was brilliant and forgot one and when we went outside we could hear the fireworks from Tian’amen square which was really cool. When we came back we found that our spots had been filled with about 5 girls which was pretty funny so we went and sat somewhere else so as not to disturb the boy’s and whatever they were doing but I was exhausted anyway so I basically fell asleep on the couch until the van for the other hostel was came. We got into the van and made it to the hostel after a little hastle and making fun of some girls teaching English in China (from the United States, they were easy targets. Those English teachers are trouble.) Caitlyn and I finally got into our room and fell down to sleep.
The room was 2 bunk beds and we had it to ourselves so we both took a bottom bunk and had our stuff lying everywhere.
Right when we had gotten to sleep we hear the door open and a Chinese boy walked in with a huge suitcase. Completely dillusional with exhaustion I whisper (well it probably wasn’t much of a whisper) “Caitlyn, it’s a BOY!” and she’s says “Hey we reserved the top bunk for you” the boy was like “what?” then he started fooling around with the light switches. I have no idea what time this happened at but I had consumed absolutely no alcohol and I still had no idea what was going on. “Do you want me to turn off the light?” Said Caitlyn. “I’m Chinese.” Said the boy. “Ok, but do you want me to turn off the light?” “CHINA.”
And with that Caitlyn turned off the light and the boy climbed into the bed above mine and we all went to sleep.
Friday
6:20 am.
*knock knock knock*
“CLARE WHAT TIME IS IT!?” I look at the phone that my alarm had been set on and it says 7:30am. We hear Alex’s voice from outside the door, British accent and all “what you haven’t woken up yet!” We open the door to see Alex standing there laughing at us then we say “5 minutes!” and he walks away. While trying to figure out what the heck is going on we hear another voice “Excuse me, we cannot wait 5 minutes we have a tight schedule to keep you can come to the great wall tomorrow we are leaving”. And then they left.
Apparently tour guides are very strict about schedules to the Great Wall even though everything else in China, literally, is “unclear”.
Devestated, I tell Caitlyn, that we might as well go back to sleep, my plan B for basically anything, and then we sleep until 10am. Getting up we decide that missing the Great Wall tour was NOT going to ruin our day, we could do it tomorrow and today we were going to go to the Forbidden City (now called Palace Museum) and Tian’amen Square. Taking a nice warm shower was the highest on our list at the moment, that was until we turned on the water to find it FREEZING FREAKING COLD. Literally, not luke warm but CHILLED. Horrified but in desperate need of a shower I washed my hair and scrubbed myself. Coldest thing ever. While Caitlyn was in the shower I turned on the TV and found the news on an English channel, watching the news in English from China may have been one of the most interesting things ever. They were talking about the parade and how everything was on display, showing the leaders from the night before it Tian’amen. Very interesting. After the shower we head out, for real this time, on a Chinese adventure. So with new hopes we head off. Me with my map and we successfully make it there (they literally are 3 blocks away from our hostel). The Forbidden City was awesome. So so so, pretty. And once again, people were taking picture of me and Caitlyn, this woman literally had Caitlyn pick up her child and had us pose with her. So funny and SO awesome. People were taking pictures of us with their camera phones and other pictures and we would find that when we would look over and see people trying to take a picture of something we would move out of the way and the camera lens would follow us. That doesn’t happen in Korea so I’m pretty sure there is a huge inside secret that we are just missing out on, like they’ll plan to show their children these pictures of us when they become closer to super power status or something. Anyway, nothing like paparazzi to get your self esteem up.
We had lunch before going to Tian’amen Square at a small kind of dirty restaurant but the food was so good! I hate to say it but I for sure like Chinese food more than Korean food. Tian’amen Square was everything that I could have ever wanted it to be and more. Seeing that picture with my own eyes was pretty much the 2nd best thing that happened to me that trip. Dunno why but it was very exciting. We also saw the floats from the parade and could watch the parade on the TV with all the new and exciting military equipment that they had paraded around and such. Everything was SO crowded but so worth seeing. We thought about going to the temple of heaven so we tried to find it on our map but then gave up and went to a market where they were selling scorpions on sticks literally still alive and moving. Also sea horses and such things like trinkets and cards (I bought a set of Mao cards. Pretty cool). Wow. So then…
We got back to the room and waited for the boys (who were supposed to return by 7) and decided to get some food. This trip to get food was definitely not as successful as the night before. I accidently ordered fried chicken fat. It was pretty funny and I still ate a good amount of it. We shared plates and sean and dan ordered duck AGAIN. So that was fun. We walked around a food market for a while to find more speared insects, a lot of meat, and fruit and also, I kid you not “Sheep Penis” GAG. Speared also. Walked away from that one. The night ended with saying goodnight to our roommate and falling asleep (this time with a wake up call) until our trip to the great wall.
Kind of tired of typing now since I’m up to 3,300 words and on my 6th page on Microsoft word. I’ll write about Saturday, Sunday, Monday soon.
COMING UP!!!
Great Wall-Summer Palace-highway experiences. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!
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