Yesterday I went to Busan with Dave and some new friends. It was fun to play tour guide for the day. I also got to take them to my favorite place in Busan, the burial mounds! These mounds are the graves of ancient kings. Probably.
Yesterday I created a Facebook page for my blog. It got 82 likes in less than 24 hours. I feel happier than this guy…
I REALLY want to have a giveaway, but I need your help. I need 100 likes on the Life Outside of Texas Facebook Page first. Please come by and like my page. And if you have a page, please let me know. I’d love to “like” it!
This picture is of a street food vendor near my apartment. She is making hoddeok, which is my absolute favorite street food in Korea. It’s kind of like a pancake stuffed with cinnamon, sugar and seeds and then fried. So fattening, but so delicious!
Her cart also sold fish cakes on a stick and silkworm larvae, which you can see in the photo below.
One of my favorite times of year in Korea is when the trees go from looking barren and dead to this…
Hey, y’all! I’m finally back in Korea after what felt like the longest day of travel in my life! I woke up two days before my flight with a pretty nasty sinus infection.
All I wanted to do today was rest up, but it’s our day for the cleaners to come. Dave, being the awesome guy that he is, made signs this morning and taped them to the bedroom door.
I have so many things I want to blog about, but I have been so busy doing said things that it doesn’t leave me with a lot of time to blog. Please be patient while I get healthy and then I will get this thing back up and running.
As my nephew was watching TV, he lifted his head, looked at me and asked me this question…
Parker: When are you going to leave?
Me: Back to Korea?
Parker: [Nods head]
Me: On Tuesday. Why?
Parker: Because I don’t want you to go.
Awww
On our second day in Japan, we took the ferry to Miyajima. I was told that the island was a must see, but that the only way to the island is by ferry. I was really nervous because I suffer from motion sickness. Fortunately, the ferry trip only lasted about 10 minutes. We were able to use our JR rail passes on the train to the ferry station and on the ferry so we were really happy about that!
The island is famous for its Floating Torii gate. It gets that name because during high tide it appears to be floating in the water. We had a nice view of the signature orange gate from the ferry. Click on the photos below to see the full size image.
One of the first things Faith and I noticed about the island were the wild deer roaming around. Be warned. They are not as sweet as they look!
This deer wouldn’t take no for an answer as this man ate his fishcake on a stick. I’m fairly certain I found it much more amusing than he did!
Back in January, I spent a few days in Japan with my friend, Faith. Faith and I met two years ago at our EPIK orientation and have been friends ever since. We both really wanted to see Hiroshima so off we went!
On the plane to Osaka, we sat next to a Korean high school student that was going to Osaka all alone. She was really sweet and carried around a notebook. She asked everyone she talked with to write down their names. She wanted to take a picture with us so I took one too!
Being from America, I’ve gotten used to paying for food on planes if I want a snack. Even on a budge airline (Air Busan), they provided us with a meal… and our flight was only 1 hour 20 minutes.
When we got to Osaka, we immediately made a beeline for the bathroom. We were not prepared for what we saw there. It was amazing!
We headed straight for the train station to get our Rail Passes. To anyone planning to travel around Japan a bit, I HIGHLY recommend getting a Rail Pass. They must be bought outside of Japan so plan accordingly! Japan is expensive — especially transportation! The rail pass covers any JR train, bus or ferry so we definitely got a lot of value out of our rail passes.
The train from Osaka to Hiroshima was so nice!
Once we got to Hiroshima, we headed straight to our hostel. We were really happy with our hostel! It was really conveniently located and easy to get to. We booked a private room for 2 at J-Hoppers Hiroshima and we slept on mats on the floor. It was surprisingly comfortable!
After we dropped our bags at the hostel, we went exploring around Hiroshima.
We found a really great restaurant. We had fried rice and fried dumplings and it was all amazing! The owners of the restaurant had a little boy that was so adorable. He spent a lot of the night pretending to be shy and then coming to entertain us. And when we left he shrieked “Byyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” at us.
Finally made it to Houston to see Dave!
I love my family! It’s so good to be back for a visit. I miss them a lot when I’m away. I’m staying with my brother and sister-in-law while I’m here. My nephew has been kind enough to turn his room into my hotel room.
I got a text from Mendi (SIL) before I got on the plane yesterday saying she was cleaning my room. I told her to be sure to leave a room service menu. To my surprise, she did. When I opened it up, it was blank. Hahaha
I’ll be in Texas until mid-March, then it’s back to Korea with my love.
Life Outside of Texas 