Back!

After a whirlwind of March, I am back writing on the good ol' blog. I had guests for 3 weeks. It was great! An overview....My friend Nicole from grad school came over her spring break for 16 days. It was nice that she was here over 2 weekends so we were able to leave the city. We went to another city, Busan, which is on the east coast of Korea. We took the KTX there, which is a high speed (bullet) train. It travels 300 km/hr (approx. 180 mph), so we were able to cross the country in a little under 3 hours (South Korea is about the size of Indiana). Busan is on the East Sea, so it was beautiful. We walked on the coast and had some Korean style seafood (seafood baked into a pancake). It was really good! The restaurant owner talked to us for at least an hour about Korea, traveling, and life. He spoke really good English. We stayed overnight there and walked around the city the next day. Here are some pictures of Busan....

I got to see a lot of things I hadn't seen yet when Nicole was here. We went to a Korean Folk Village, which was great. There were traditional performances like tightrope walking, a seesaw routine (women on either side propel each other into the air and do flips), Korean traditional dance, etc...it was very interesting. They also had a lot of shops and restaurants.
Nicole was able to see where I teach and meet some of my students, as well as the teachers I work with. We all went out to dinner and drinks when she was here. Nicole was also able to participate in noraebang (a MUST-see in Seoul). We stayed out until 6:30 am on St. Patty's Day (there is an enormous Irish population in Seoul) haha, just kidding.
It was great experiencing the city with a good friend. And to top it off, now Nicole is thinking of coming here to teach this summer for a year. Assa! (remember, that means "awesome" in Korean) Here are some pictures of her visit....