Week 35, 36, 37 & 38: Studies and Travel
Hello everyone! So for the past couple of weekends, I have been traveling to places near my city of Gyeongsan. I went to West Daegu with some of my teacher friends and got to ride this motorcycle/bike type of transport and it was actually really fun. This would be a great way to commute for work and I wish it was in the States. Honestly, it could already be in the States but I haven't seen one yet so maybe I'll see them more often now that I've seen them here. After riding the motorbike thing, we stayed for the sunset and ended up having a picnic at a near by lake. The sunset was absolutely amazing and beautiful. I added pictures down below!
After my Daegu weekend, the following weekend ended up being an extended long holiday weekend. In the month of September, Korea has this holiday called 추석 (Chuseok) which is basically like an American Thanksgiving. Most families will travel to the grandparent's home and celebrate. However, because of Covid, many people didn't travel far or limited the amount of people they saw. My host family went to their grandparents. However, I decided to end up traveling with some of my friends because I didn't want to inconvenience my host family by them having to entertain and translate everything for me. I know they wouldn't have minded but I just didn't want to add the pressure of me being there so I thought it was best to leave them and travel with my friends. My friends and I decided on visiting Busan, which is the second biggest city, with Seoul being the biggest city. Busan was amazing! I think it is my favorite city besides Gyeongsan. While in Busan, I did a lot of shopping for clothes. The weather is slowly turning into fall so it's starting to become sweater weather, which is my favorite season of all. We also visited a lot of cool street vendors and sea markets. We went to one of the biggest sea markets and ordered live fish and scallops. They filleted the fish right in front of us and cooked everything fresh. It was pretty cool to see that. Anyhow, Busan was amazing and I will visit again.
Anyhow, for the month of October, I will be quite busy on the weekends because I will be traveling basically every single weekend. My three closest friends and I all have our birthdays in October and there are two holidays in October that give us two weekends that are extended weekends so we decided to travel to far places in Korea and explore more.
One of the places we have already traveled to was Gangneung city which is really far up north. We visited this place, because we thought they had an amazing paragliding scene but turned it it was closed. even though we travelled all the way up north just for this, it was worth it because the actually city was amazing. We ended up finding this mountain coaster and sky luge activity which was pretty amazing. It was kind of like go karting but going down a really steep slope. We also met this amazing taxi driver who ended up waiting for us to be done because the mountain coaster and sky luge is about 45 minutes outside of the city so he said it may have been hard for us to find a taxi on the way back. The people here always and constantly surprise me with their kindness. I also tried live octopus for the first time, it was interesting but the suckers kept sticking to my tongue and cheeks so it was also very weird. We ended the night by setting off fireworks which you are able to buy at a gas station store right by the beach. I’ve added videos of these so enjoy!
This coming weekend, I am heading back to Busan and will actually do the paragliding event. We’ve booked our reservations and I’m so excited for it! Also, we decided to go all out and will be going to an Omakase which is basically where I go to a sushi restaurant and they decide what to serve, kind of like chef’s choice type of thing. I’ve never done this so it will be an experience for sure!
Aside from travels, not much has changed besides me studying for the MCAT...again. Because I decided to renew my Fulbright grant next year, when I come home in December for a couple of months, I will have to take my MCAT in January so that I can apply to medical school during the 2022 year. The MCAT is offered internationally, but unfortunately South Korea is not one of those countries. I would have to travel to Japan or Taiwan to take the MCAT if I were to do it abroad and that seems quite difficult with Covid-19 still present so I need to take it when I'm back in the States.
Well that is all for now! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy back in the States or wherever you are! Here are the pictures and videos from the past couple of weeks :).
