Korea - where dreams really do come true

Korea. Korea is everything. I love Korea. And now that I have been there, I can say it with much more confidence - I really love Korea.

There are a lot of reasons I love Korea: The language (its flowy, and round and its pretty to listen to and its fun to speak). The fascinating history and the politial situations of past and present. The food. The music. The dramas. It's all good. And I love it.

When we first got to Seoul, it was VERY overwhelming - which is weird because it was actually SUPER quiet. The airport was basically silent. (In China and Korea, you're not really supposed to talk on buses or subways or things like that. When we do, everyone looks at us like "you loud Americans" but, the thing is, in China the Chinese are just as loud, if not louder! So, I had kind of assumed the same thing for Korea and I was very wrong. Korea is silent and we, even when we whisper, are actuallythe loud foreigners....even just on the escalator.)

Our hostel was designed to be similar to that of a traditional Korean house and it was so nice! But, most importantly, it was SO warm! (Not only do they have indoor heating but, because their heat comes from the floors, when I crawled out of bed I had heated floors to walk on (which also helps explains why they used to sleep on mats on the floor).)

Seoul. We chose Seoul as the city to visit on this trip because, well, it's Seoul but also because we had a bunch of stuff that we had been wanting to see there. We had been dreaming of climbing Namsan tower, shopping in Itaewon, visiting the war memorials and lots of other things - none of which we actually did. What we did do though was cafe hop, ate real bibimbap (its rice, veggies, meat and an egg in a stone bowl and you mix it all together and then it cooks while you're eating it and its SO good), ate real ddukboki (rice cakes that are the most delicious.), toured an old Korean village, toured an old Korean palace, shopped in Gangnam, saw the Han River, had Korean barbeque, went to Dunkins ( I had my first dunkin coffee and BAGEL that I have had since I came to China) and walked down the

street of stars (kind of like the Hollywood walk of stars but they're giant statues of teddy bears that are decorated to represent different Kpop idol groups). We did see Namsan but only from afar. So, mostly we ate. We ate all of the Korean food that we have been eating in China and America but it was real Korean food and it was so much better. And when we weren't eating Korean food, we ate the western food that we can't get in China ( we ate this stuff that tasted just like mac and cheese but was made with ddukboki...YUM.) When we weren't eating, we were walking. We walked all over Hongdae, Gangnam, Myeungdong, Anguk and other districts of Seoul. We listened (and sang along) to our favorite Kpop songs playing in the streets. We saw our favorite people looking down at us from huge billboards and advertisements (and also on cups, magnets, playing cards, key chains, pillows, etc...Korea REALLY loves their celebrities). We rode the subway (which was a nice treat after all the taxis and buses we take in Lin'an). We got to see and experience all of the things that I have been watching, reading about and loving for so so long! It was like a dream! It was so fun!

Thankfully, because I didn't see most of the things that I had been planning on, I will be sure to go back. And next time it will definitely be for longer than 4 days.

But until then, I'll be in Thailand.