3 weekends worth of fun!!!

So (that 'so' was for my sister who as observantly informed me that I start a lot of paragraphs with a 'so'), I have been lax again and not updated the UK about my last three weekends!!! Sorry this is going to be a bit brief.

Weekend 1:
I actually went to Busan on a sunny day, and it turns out it is a great place with the right weather and when things are open. This day made up for the terrible, rainy day I had in Busan earlier on. The fun began at the very beginning when we encountered the tiniest sink in the world:

For our first port of call, we went to the modern history museum and learnt all about Busan, mainly about how the Japanese had oppressed the Koreans. However we managed to make this stop more upbeat by getting excited over the mini village they had:

 Then we went to the UN cemetery and saw all the graves and memorial fountain.

This is the Canadian memorial statue, the amount of national flowers  signify  the amount of unknown soldiers found.

We also got to see the changing of the guard:

After that we hit the beach!!!

 When it started to get dark we went to the largest department store in the world, its a Lotte department store and has a Guinness World Record!

On the night we all went on a night out and had a cracking time and introduced my friend's friend, who was visiting from England, to drink in a bag!

The next day we were going to go to the baseball  game with our local team, the Samsung Lions (that's right, everything is Samsung!), but it was sold out. So instead we decided to go to Duryu Park, where by chance there was an amateur baseball game on, so we stayed and watched that. We actually saw someone get hit in the face with a baseball at full speed but was fine! On the evening we went to a hookah bar, where they serve nice wine and cheese(both of which are hard to find in Korea).

Weekend 2:

This weekend was a pretty good weekend activity-wise, on the Saturday we went to an amusement park which is pretty close to us called Woobangland (or E-world). It was amazing and the highlight of the day was when one of my friends lost his hat on the roller-coaster -epic!!!

These were electronic and you could ride them!!!!

This was pre-coaster, before the hat was lost!

Me on the swinging ship!

Mystical smoky drink!

I met the Hulk and got all shy!

My friend's friend jumped off this tower!!!

Trick art seems to follow me!

Must be love!

On the evening we went for a lovely meal for one of my friends leaving the following weekend, and also for one of my friend's birthday. It was lush and I have been back to the same place a couple more times because it was amazing.

After that we went to see the new Johnny Depp film, Dark Shadows!

The following day I got to experience a Korea wedding which was a little different from a western wedding. All colleagues are invited to as Korean wedding and so we got there and it was in a massive building called the Prince Rooms, which is where there are many rooms and photo rooms, so numerous couples can get married at the same time. Guests are required to give money to the couple at Korean weddings, but my work paid for us. We went up to a photo room to see the bride getting her family photos, and she was nice enough to let me have a photo with her as well. She looked gorgeous:

 Then we went down these stairs to the room where they got married, which had a little catwalk type thing and the flower baskets hanging from the ceiling, that lowered during the ceremony. The groom walked down the aisle and did some bows, as did the parents of both sides.

 

The close family members wear the Korean traditional dress called a Han-bok. 

 

The bride then descended from the photo room. During the ceremony, people do not make any effort to stay quiet, people were talking, on their phones and wondering in and out of the room throughout.



After the ceremony a close family friend stood a very short distance away from the couple and sang at them. I thought this was quite strange, but what added to the situation was he was singing 'This is the Moment' (from Jekyll and Hyde for those of us who love musicals) in Korean. What was even better is that he was so nervous that the performance took a hit, and so later on, when there were less people, they did a second take which went much better. 

Another mystical drink in waterfall form!

The cafeteria

After this, there were a lot of photos, one of which I was in as they get everyone in one massive picture! There was also a few attempts at getting a photo of the bride throwing the bouquet to a designated recipient! That's right no brawl for the bouquet! Then everyone went upstairs to eat at what I can only describe as a very nice cafeteria, the food was lush but a bit of a strange situation for a wedding. I think all the different guests from all the different wedding go to the same room? 

The couple in their Han-boks in the cafeteria!

 While we were eating the family members go with the couple to do a traditional wedding ceremony in their Han-boks. So then after you eat you go home. It is a very short experience, I think I was out the house about two hours, but it was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed.

After that I met with my friends for a little dinner, which was lovely.

Weekend 3:

This was the weekend I had been dreading, one of my closest friends was leaving on the Sunday, so I slept over her house for the last two nights. On the Saturday we all went to the army base, they were doing an open day for people to go and see the vehicles, there were also traditional performances with swords and even some Zumba to watch!!!!

Traditional sword performance.

In his element!

An 'oo' reaction from nearby Koreans!

Fire engine!

The Americans feeling right at home

I don't think the soldiers do Zumba in the field but it was fun to watch! The food was amazing, especially the corn on the cob, sounds strange but I don't think its as nice in Korea. Then we went for a delicious meal at a Shabu-Shabu place, where you basically boil everything in a pot in front of you. You get very thin beef strips and it cooks in the water, it was lush!


On the way to the restaurant we passed a parade in honor of Buddha's birthday, which is on the 28th (so we get an extra day off-woop!). It may have severely slowed our taxi ride, but it was worth seeing:

It actually breathed real fire!

Then the day was upon us, my friend had to go and we took her to the airport early in the morning. After that I got some sleep and then went on a shopping trip for some retail therapy. I also got the chance to go to a cat-cafe for the first time!!!!That's right- a cafe where you can just pet some cats while your there! Then more eating at that nice restaurant!!!! Just when we were going to wonder round downtown aimlessly, we stumbled across a live singing competition along with performances from (apparently) semi-famous groups! It was amazing! I love Korean pop!!!

So that concludes my last three busy weekends! Apologies for the terrible spacing, but me and technology do not mix and it's the best I could do! I hope you enjoyed it! Lots of love back to home!!!