BUSAN for Halloween/Fireworks Festival/ Eeeeemily's Birthday...

 Photo credit: Kristen Kay Photography &  Kristen's Blog

BUSAN! I love Busan! I love my Daegu people...so what is the best senario? Go to Busan with all my Daegu people and meet up with some awesome Busanians! AND of course my dearest cousin Kristen came as well! :) AND I met up with my old childhood/growing up/high school/everything friend, Adam! All of these things equal up to a weekend of success! 

We all met up on Friday night, and booked into our hostel. Minus the extreme headache of booking and paying for 13 people in cash, this hostel ended up being a VERY successful place for use to stay. It was perfect for us. We had 2 rooms to ourselves with the exact number of beds. It really was perfect. We didn't have to disturb any other travelers. Also, it was extremely close (as in 1 block away) to the Kyungsung/Pukyeong University Area (KSU), which is where we spent a lot of our night life time. Friday night we explored this area and got to meet up with some Busan EPIK teachers that we had met during orientation. There was a roof top on our hostel that we were enjoying with some local Koreans, until we were kicked off...not too surprising. Koreans find foreigners much louder than we really are. It is not uncommon to get "shushed" multiple times a day.

One of my highlights of the night was keeping Kristen up until 4 am! Here I am, basically an old lady and I kept the young one out late! :) It's very easy to stay up extremely late here... We even found a random pole in a club and Kristen had a little twirl around it, which we of course sent a video of to her sister... I'm really glad that Kristen came and got to meet all of my really awesome friends and vice versa! 

The next day, we didn't have plans, but someone suggested the Jjimjilbang, and we all jumped on board! Busan is home of the mecca of all spas- Spa Land. Spa Land consists of 22 spas fed by two different kinds of all- natural spring water pumped up from 1000m. underground, and 13 distinctively themed Jjimjilbangs and saunas, and an open air foot spa. You split up into genders and enjoy the baths that they have there. This is an experience because you are instantly thrown into a room with dozens of naked Koreans scrubbing every last bit of skin that they have. Erin, Emily, Sian, Kristen and I made our way around the different pools that had different water temperatures. Some were really hot and some were extremely cold. After the baths, you put on provided pajama like clothes and can mix with the male gender in the themed saunas. They have all sort of relaxation places. There are recliners, sleeping mats, televisions, massage chairs, and a foot bath. 

After the sauna, we went back in the pools and then took a long shower and got ready. They provide all the necessary things too, like shampoo, conditioner, blow dryer, lotions, combs, and anything else you really need. This was good because at our hostel, we would have been sharing 13 people to one shower. This way a very large chunk on us got clean and didn't have to use the communal shower. We spent a good 4 hours there relaxing and it was wonderful!

It was needed because we knew that we were about to throw ourselves into hundreds of thousands of Koreans and the firework festival. (Afterward I have learned there were 1.5 million people in attendance at this festival) It was madness to get to the fireworks, and we didn't have the best spot, but I will still go ahead and say, THIS WAS THE BEST FIREWORK SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN! By far... I can't even explain how awesome they were. And I am very proud of the quality of fireworks that my Peabody, small town USA, has every 4th of July. This being said, I hadn't seen most of these varieties  They even had some flying bird fireworks at one point. 

The most amazing part of that evening, was that I did not take pictures. I had my camera but because our spot was not that awesome, I decided I was going to just enjoy the fireworks. This was probably the first time EVER that I have not worried about taking pictures. It probably helped that Kristen was there and I knew she would at least get one shot. Sooooo... I stood there for the 1 hour firework show in awe, and absolute amazement. Such a great moment...

After the fireworks, we knew that the metro was going to be absolute madness, so we waited over an hour to go back. This hour was not enough. We were still fighting tons of people to get on the metro. It was such an experience...There was no personal space in the slightest. I was being propped up by lots of short ajummas. I'm not sure if my feet were even touching the ground. I now know what it was like to be birthed. That was basically what happened. When a Korean women next to the door realized that we were trying to get out, she grabbed my arm and just pulled me out! It was madness! It was something that needed to happen though, and we knew that it would soon be over and done with. It really was such an experience though...

When we finally made it back to the hostel, we changed into our Halloween Costumes and headed out on the town, which happened to be across the street... As for my Halloween costume... We were emoticons. I wanted to make something that was from this year, and had something to do with my time in Korea thus far... These emoticon Pusheen cats make their way into our facebook conversations all the time. I ended up making the costumes so that I would have a little bit of artistic-ness in my life. I'm desperate for it at this point! ahaha
I used form board, and a gray blanket and air foam to get the colors. Emily had a birthday one since it was her birthday weekend, and I made Sian the one with chopsticks. I think they turned out great! We had to pose for many pictures and heard numerous times that our costumes were peoples favorites! YES! Goal accomplished! This was my first Halloween where I actually tried on a costume...

Also, I got to run into Adam in Busan. He was quite the popular guy... I was trying to have a conversation with him and we were interrupted at least 5 times from Korean girls wanting to take their picture with him! I'm pretty sure it was because he was showing quite a bit of skin on the legs... :)

 I found a picture of Adam and I at high school graduation! Funny that 10 years later we are running into each other at a Halloween Party in South Korea...Who would have thought??
It really was a great weekend full of laughter, great friends and family. I did have a scary few minutes which I blogged about earlier that involved my wallet! 
If there is a next year in Korea, I will be camping out on the Busan beach for hours to make sure that I have a perfect view of the fireworks and can take some EPIC photos! I will never forget these fireworks and Korea you get 2 thumbs up. Well played Korea, well played...