Annie & Heather do Hong Kong!

Alright, I've been working diligently on this blog post at work for the past week! haha

Finally..here it is...

It’s been some time since I’ve last written. Christmas came and went, as did New Years, Presidents’ Day, and Asia’s most important holiday, Lunar New Year. Last time I wrote I was at the 7 month mark. Today, I’m almost at the 10 month mark! I only have 67 full days left here in Korea and I’ve started to reflect on my time here, plan my next steps, and finish up any unfinished business.

December flew by! I celebrated Christmas with my close-knit group of friends. We all spent the night together on Christmas Eve so that it would feel more like being near family when we woke up the next morning! We made a lovely Christmas breakfast then showers were in order as well as Christmas tunes and movies! Our turkey dinner that we ordered from the same place as Thanksgiving arrived and we began the snaking and making of the eggnog! We had a beautiful dinner complete with plenty of red wine. After dinner, we were lazy and watched Home Alone.

I opened my gifts from home on Christmas Eve and I loved all of them! A huge thanks to anyone who sent me a Christmas gift! J

 Jeremy’s replacement, Leslie, arrived on the 27^th and stayed with me for two weeks. Getting a new co-worker is always exciting but having one leave sucks.

My Crazy Korean family! 

January – One week later, we all celebrated the New Year! We had to work on New Year’s Eve until 10:00 o’clock so after we got off, we headed straight downtown, popped champagne, and began the partying! Joel and I had decided to go on a ski trip with a large group of people that weekend so we left early around 1:00 am to catch a bus. It was a 4-5 hour trip up to the ski resort outside of Seoul and all 4-5 hours were spent, by most, drinking heavily. It was a party bus!

Once we arrived, we slept, then got up around 11 the next day and hit the slopes! It snowed all day and I must say that I was pretty impressed by the skiing in Korea. Their slopes are comparable to what we have in West Virginia; however, ours might be a little better. After skiing all day, we got back to our hotel room and hit up the hot tub! After the hot tub, a couple of the guys were dicking off in our hotel suite and ended up shattering the glass shower door. Needless to say, there was a huge mess of glass and some blood to clean up. Wild times! Later we had a big pizza party and I eventually passed out around 4 am. The next day I opted out of skiing and instead hit up the hot tub until the bus was to leave around 6. I was exhausted by the time we got back to Daegu, but overall it was a good weekend.

High-One Ski Resort outside of Seoul.

February – Lunar New Year was on the 2^nd, 3^rd, & 5^th of February this year, or also sometimes called the Chinese New Year. On the 2^nd, Heather, Karissa, and I headed to Hong Kong! Heather and I planned to go to Hong Kong together back in December when I found out she would be visiting and I had the next week off from work. Karissa finished her contract at the same time our vacation was starting and Hong Kong just so happened to be her first stop on her 5 week journey through SouthEast Asia! Therefore, we all partied together! I got a great deal on a flight from Busan roundtrip for less than 200 USD! Heather and I arrived earlier than Karissa and we were also staying in a different hostel than her. So, when we arrived, we made our way to our hostel at ChungKing mansions, which was pretty nice after we got up to the 12^th floor away from all the sketchy Middle Eastern men! We then headed out to get some food. Many places were closing early because of the upcoming holiday so we settled for some Sushi at this cool Japanese place.

Thursday the 3^rd – The next day we decided to check out Macau since we had gotten some rest the night before. It was a lovely day trip. Macau is a former Portuguese colony in Asia and people there today still speaking Portuguese AND they speak Chinese. Seeing a blend of these two very different and distinct cultures was quite unusual. It brought back some great memories from my trip to Portugal! We arrived by the ferry, which took about an hour, got through immigration (yes I got another cool stamp!) and then proceeded to the ‘older’ more historic part of town. We did a walking tour and it was practically identical to Portugal! The buildings, the architecture, even the sidewalks were the same! We also ate my favorite, Portuguese egg tarts! Soooo gooood! We had lunch at a Portuguese restaurant checked out the casino and fancy hotel area on the bus and then headed back to Hong Kong for the parade! We lined up for the parade nearly 2 hours before it started with some drinks. It was so crowded, comparable to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York. It sucked. People were pushing and shoving constantly, I had to pee really badly, and the parade took almost another hour of waiting to finally reach us! The parade itself also sucked. It was very disappointing. It was more like a local parade or something; we didn’t get to see any of the cool Chinese dragons that we thought we would be able to see. We decided about half way through that we should have just watched it on the TV from our room. After the parade fiasco, we got something to eat at this Chinese diner type place. The food was pretty good but it was extremely busy so the service sucked. Oh well….we walked Karissa back to her hostel and then went to bed.

View from the peak. 

Friday the 4^th – This day we decided to go over to Hong Kong Island because Hong Kong itself is divided into 3 or 4 different main islands that are very close to each other. Hong Kong Island is where the people with money live and where the downtown area is located. We first grabbed an actual American breakfast at this one café and then I got to ride on a double decker bus for the first time in my life! It was pretty awesome. We went to Victoria Peak, which is the highest point, and took in the wonderful views of the city. We took the double decker back down and this time I sat in the very front which made for an awesome view. We explored a bit by foot when we got back to the Center city and then went to the Botanical & Zoological Park where we saw all different types of monkeys and such. We had lunch at this great Kebab place and then we took the ferry back across the harbor to our side of town. Next, we went to this awesome market close to where we were staying and I ended up getting some cheap crap. We were probably there for a solid 2 hours. After that, we headed back to the hostel and met up with our ‘neighbors’ or the guys who were staying next door to us in the hostel, whom we had also met earlier that morning. They were all from Brazil and were traveling around Asia. We decided to all go to the fireworks together and as we were leaving we ran into this Brit named Andy that was also staying at our hostel and he tagged along with us. Before going back to the hostel, Heather and I had hit up the bubble tea stand, which we frequented 2 times a day, at least, every day we were there. Therefore, by the time we had picked out a spot to watch the fireworks, I had to piss like a racehorse. However, everything was barricaded off and I ended up begging and pleading with a police officer to let me use the bathroom at the Sheraton, he agreed and I ended up having to run UP an escalator that was going DOWN! I nearly face planted but I made it. After my return, we watched the rest of the fireworks and then afterwards we got something to eat with our newfound guy friends at some restaurant nearby.

Victoria Peak - We love Hong Kong!

Hong Kong from the ferry!

Two of our new Brazilian friends. 

Annie in Asia!! 

Next is where things start to get a bit hazy. We returned to the hostel, got ready to go out, and then headed to meet a friend of Heather’s at some nearby bar. By this point our party size had grown to 10 and we ended up ordering a bottle of Vodka. I remember playing the bartender role and making drinks for everyone. Only problem with this picture is the fact that I was throwing back my vodka like I was drinking soju in Korea (which is half the proof of vodka). After we finished the bottle we all headed over to Hong Kong Island in cabs. There, we ended up at some club and danced the night away until I noticed Heather was nowhere to be found!! Needless to say, I panicked, ended up getting a cab home around 4 and Heather was in the bed next to me the next morning, safe and sound, when I woke up hung over, drooling on my pillow around noon. How she got home cannot be discussed, as well as some other details of that night!  It was definitely one of the wildest nights I’ve ever had. I made some great memories and now have some great stories. ;)

Special Mickey Fountain! 

Special Disney Train

Saturday the 5th was a rough morning to say the least, I made Heather go out and get me some McDonald's, which in my opinion, is a great hangover cure. I withered in bed for about an hour before getting up, showering, and preparing myself for our magical day to come! Before we had left the hostel, our British friend Andy came over and hung out while I pulled myself together. He also decided to tag along with Heather and I to Disneyland! Karissa didn't go and instead did something else in the city. Heather and I decided, it was about high time that we make our way over to Hong Kong Disneyland! The theme of the day was, "Fuck Buddha, we're here to see Mickey!"And a grand adventure it was!  The convenient Hong Kong subway shuttled us over to Disneyland, you have to change trains at one stop and the train that took us into Disneyland was a special Disney train with everything Disney! It was pretty cool. As we were coming through the entrance area we noticed this really cool fountain before the gate area. It was a whale that was blowing water out of it's blowhole and mickey mouse was surfing on the water. The coolest thing about this fountain was the fact that it actually moved up and down and looked like mickey was surfing! Next, we collected our tickets and when we entered the park, we each got a chocolate golden mickey coin! Nice touch! Disneyland HK is not as big as the other Disney's. It only has adventureland, fantasyland, tomorrowland, and main street. We first started in adventureland. It was crowded so instead we went to fantasyland and the first ride we went on was the carousel. It was fun, as usual, and then we took the train from fantasyland around to main street where we did some shopping. It was getting a bit chilly so Heather and I bought matching hoodies! :) We had fun exploring the shops and I also bought some pins and pencils for my collections! We then debated on whether or not Andy and I should stage a proposal in front of the castle to see if we could get VIP treatment for the rest of the day. Earlier Andy and I had agreed to marry for visa purposes and just switch places however, Andy is already a dually! Brat. haha

Here we go! :D

Our special golden coins!

Mickey Ice Cream Bars!

Main Street Station.

After roaming around main street, we were headed to tomorrowland when we got distracted by the lighting of the castle. It wasn't nearly as spectacular as the lighting of the castle at home but was still magical nonetheless. At that point in time, I can remember thinking, 'wow I'm lucky to be here with my best friend and our newly found Brit!' :) Happy times! Next we rode space mountain. This was Heather's first experience so she was scared. However, it turned out to be kinda crappy. It didn't really go that fast, didn't have any sudden drops or sudden death turns, and the music was kind of lame. Some weird sci-fi music. Andy said the best one is the one in Disneyland Paris. I told him I'll have to check it out and let him know.... Afterwards we decided on a mickey mouse ice cream bar to make up for our disappointment of space mountain. Then, we noticed that all the lines were practically gone so that's when we went to town...we headed back into fantasy land where we did 'it's a small world.' I actually liked it better than the one at home. Every room is separated into different continents so there is some sort of organization to it. It also featured characters from Disney movies as well, which I thought was cool. After that we rode the tea cups! The tea cups in Asia are much smaller btw. We had a hard time fitting the 3 of us in 1! After that we walked back through adventureland, making our 2nd trip around this park, and jumped onto the Jungle Cruise. It also just so happened that the boat we got on was named AMAZON ANNIE! Hah! It's like it was meant to be or something! Very exciting. The jungle cruise was very similar, it did have some differences though and our tour guide did a good job of making us jump out of our seats at some points. There were however no dole whips in this adventureland. :( The food of the day consisted of us craving some western food and so we took a detour in tomorrowland and ate pretty cheap at what would easily be compared to Starlight Ray's Cosmic Cafe! We took pictures in front of the castle and the entrance. Anytime we asked an Asian family to take our picture, they all got out their camera's as well and took our picture. They tend to do this often, always wanting pictures with or of Western people, but, this was Heather's first experience with it, so her reaction took me for a good laugh!

We love Asia, and matching hoodies!

The day was slowly winding down and on our way out we wanted to do some more shopping and browsing however, as we were coming down main street at the park closing hour, everything was practically shut down!! I couldn't believe it! Usually they keep all that open because people usually shop then. I still don't quite understand this...I guess maybe Hong Kong Disneyland isn't interested in making money??? The way this park is advertised throughout Hong Kong and on their tourism website tells me that maybe they need more business....hmmm....here's a thought...keep your shops open when everyone is on their way out!?! Common sense is lacking in Asia...this just happens to be a prime example.
Leaving was sad, we didn't get to ride every single ride, but it was a different experience and fun nonetheless. The fountain was performing some type of water show to music when we were walking out so we sat by that for a while before catching the train back to the city. Overall, taking the whole experience into account, I wouldn't say that it was better than the Disney at home, just different. I'm glad I got to see another Disney. My dream is to make it to all of them. Tokyo will not happen this time around while I'm in Asia though, it's far too expensive, maybe next year or on my next trip to Asia. :)

The types of characters that you can have your picture with in Asia!

Once we got back to the hostel, Karissa was there waiting for us so we all hung out for a while and then headed out to find dinner. We ate at this awesome place called Mr. Kebab and the owner himself was actually from Turkey! He made us the world's best hummus and kebabs. Him and his son were also trying out a new pizza recipe with this special sausage from Turkey and he was kind enough to share his pizza with us! Such a nice guy! After that we headed back to the hostel, Karissa went back to hers, and Andy, Heather, and I hung out for a while before he went home and we crashed.

Sunday the 6th we slept in a bit, woke up, and had to check out, we left our bags, met up with Karissa and then went back over to Hong Kong island to do some shopping. Heather had 2 more days in HK and Karissa also had an extra day but, since it was my last day, we did what I wanted to do and that was of course...SHOP! Living in Korea I'm very deprived of any good shopping or any successful shopping at that so, it was a real treat to be able to hit up H&M and a few markets and other fun stores before leaving HK. I was actually able to purchase a pair of jeans that I can fit over my thighs and ass. Therefore, the entire trip to HK was a success! :) Once we got back to our island we met up with Andy and went to have one last bubble tea. It was so delicious and I truly miss it! We checked out Andy's new hostel and heather decided that she would stay there instead of Karissa's hostel for a night. Shortly after that it was time for me to catch the bus back to the airport! It was sad saying goodbye to Heather. It had been such an awesome 2 weeks with her! It was strange saying goodbye to Karissa because usually when we travel somewhere together, she's right there on the plane next to me! I've spoken with her recently and she seems to be having a pretty sick trip around SouthEast Asia and I will see her again on March 10th when she returns to Daegu for one night before heading back stateside. :) Saying goodbye to  my new british friend/hubby Andy was also kind of a downer. He was a really cool guy and should be in the states in July by the time I return so maybe I'll see him again sooner rather than later! Overall, Hong Kong has been one of my favorite trips while in Asia. Hong Kong is like Asia's New York City. The majority of the time I felt like I was home in New York City or something. It's very multicultural and has just about everything you'd expect from a big city. Definitely a must see in my opinion. A genuinely fun time! ;)

I had an overnight layover in Beijing and then an early flight to Busan the next morning. Sleeping in the airport wasn't much fun but it was definitely worth saving 400 dollars on airfare! I got back with no problems and no delays. I even made it to work on time! :) I remember starting to feel bad around 4 pm at work that day and then next thing I know..I'm in bed with a fever for almost 3 days! I had to take my last 2 sick days from work, so let's pray I don't get ill before I'm finished here! I went to the doctor and who knows what I really had, frequenting a medical facility in Korea is always risky in my opinion, you just never know if you are really going to get the medicine you need.  I probably had SARS or the Asian Bird Flu..whatever it was...it was awful and I haven't been that sick in a long time.

Since then, I've been busy the last couple weeks of february in planning what's next and such. Emily, Leslie, and I went to Busan for her birthday last weekend, it's weird being the informative now. I much preferred being informed about Korea, now it's the other way around, I'm informing others! As for what's next, back in January I started looking into doing a CELTA certification, basically a teaching certification, so that I can teach ESL anywhere in the world. I do enjoy this job and it helps me to travel the world, which is what I'm interested in doing at this time in my life. I found out right before I left for Hong Kong that I had been accepted to take the course in Valencia, Spain. Heather helped me weigh out the pros and cons and whatnot and I decided to accept the offer. Soooo after I finish my contract here on May 4th, I will leave Korea and head to my favorite place in the world, Spain. I will be there May 6th-June 3rd taking the course and then I plan to travel for about a month before returning to the states on the 29th! :)

My time here in Korea is winding down and I still feel like I have so much to see and do! Ah!

I promise at least one more blog post before I leave this otherworldly planet to head back to western civilization! ;) Thanks for reading thus far, should be quite the interesting summer so stay tuned!