Osaka can, in fact, be done in a day. Had I worn appropriate footwear I really would have checked everything off my list and have been off to Kyoto for Friday, but I opted for flats and that was not the brightest idea so my advice for you if you’re just here for the pictures…
Japan ii: The first night
We checked in around 8 PM at J-Hoppers Hostel in Fukushima after a 70 minute ride on the JR line from the airport. I thought that we had all booked spaces in the mixed dorms, but my friends had gone ahead and booked a triple room for themselves. J-Hoppers offered me a space in the…
Japan i: Fly Peach
Getting to the airport for my mini-break (sorry – “summer vacation” from Wednesday – Sunday) was perhaps the easiest and least stressful travel-related thing I’ve ever done. Last Wednesday I slept in, did a load of laundry, rocked Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred, packed, and took the subway to the airport. From the time I…
WW iv: Busan, Beer, Beach, Birthdays
I always get excited when there’s a reason to celebrate. To me, a special occasion is a festival, a new pair of shoes, real cheese at the grocery store, good wine on sale, quality mushrooms, and good people. Save a new pair of shoes, I’ve been celebrating a lot lately. Some fantastic people have had…
Weekend Warriors iii: Typhoon Nangka
I’d like to preface this post with the fact that we have been VERY lucky in Busan. We have had some rain and high winds but even that has not deterred us from heading to the beach and swimming in the rain. Living in Hwamyeong, we truly are Weekend Warriors. We live in a bubble…
Losing weight in Korea
The Korean diet is SO healthy…not! While on a bus the other day a friend and I started flipping through timehop and then through old photos on Facebook (“ohhhh my gosh BABY KATE!” was the reaction). My birthday (coming up August 6th where I’ll go from 27 Western age to 30 Korean age) is…
Rubber Ducky, you’re the one!
photo courtesy of Ondong Kim After a wonderful morning seeing ancient tombs, a beautiful observatory, dressing up in traditional clothes, and walking through gardens and fields that went on for miles it was suddenly lunch time. I expected to have to board the bus again and venture 20 minutes or so to our next destination….
Gyeongju – fit for a Queen
This past Saturday I had the opportunity to travel to Gyeongju with some passionate history students from Dong-A University in Busan. They’re our friend Joe’s students (from G’s birthday yachting experience) who wanted to share their Korean pride, culture, and history with Koreans and foreigners alike. This trip was an absolute steal at KRW 50,000…
Naked and Afraid: Korea Edition
Get ready: today’s post has 50 + pictures. No, not nudie pics as the title might suggest – we’ll get to that later, though. I had planned on heading out to the beach yesterday. Blanket, towel, water, and sunscreen in tow, we headed out to Haeundae early Sunday afternoon to pick up a cell phone a…
PNU to Haeundae – Weekend Warriors II
Birthdays in Korea are a little bit more special – especially the first ones away – since we’re not surrounded by family and lifelong friends. Our new friends become our family quickly, and we try to make each other feel as special as possible. For G’s Birthday, we had a whirlwind weekend starting off at…
Weekend Warriors part I
“You’ll never see so many sunrises as you will in South Korea.” The past two weekends have been an absolutely wonderful blur. The first weekend was full of restful nights and international foods, and this past weekend was late nights and later departures. The CU on Friday nights (yes, a convenience store across the street…
The Universe
It’s almost as though Amy Schumer, Bill Nye, and the lovely gals from Broad City got together to write a sketch for me this past weekend. Just as I had written about missing the comforts of home, “the universe” decided to send me some things I’d been missing. Last weekend I met a fantastic young…