China #1: Arrival + Tiananmen Square + Zhongshan Park

So begins my series of posts about my trip to Beijing!! It was a really fun trip and it was really nice just being a tourist again. The last two countries I've been to (before China) have been for living, so this is the first time in a while that I've just been a tourist! It was nice! Alright, here goes:


Warning: I'm going to include some details that may not interest you, but just in case some comes to get info off my site, I want to give as much as I can.

DAY 1:

Our trip began on Wednesday night after Kami and I got off of work. We took the bus from Tongyeong to Seoul and ended up getting there around 3am. We were pretty tired, but excited too. Then we took a taxi from Seoul to the airport and arrived to the airport before most of the workers. We were zonked and then the news that our flight had been delayed did not help. We were supposed to depart at 8:10am and it was pushed back to 2:00pm due to weather in Beijing. Our first thoughts were ones of exhaustion. We figured we'd need to find a bench at the airport and plant ourselves there for 6 hours. Little did we know, that wouldn't be the case. If you ever get the chance to fly China Southern Airlines, I definitely recommend it. Once we found out our flight was delayed, we were informed that we'd be bussed to a hotel where we could rest before our flight. We were quite shocked. Can you imagine this happening at home? I can't! So it ended up that we were able to nap comfortably in a nice hotel for a few hours before we departed for Beijing. It was a nice surprise since we were so tired from our midnight trip to Seoul.


Anyways, we finally departed, feeling rested and excited. We arrived to Beijing within just a few hours and just prayed we wouldn't have to be quarantined. Since all of the Swine Flu stuff, China makes sure you're quite healthy before entering their country. We both passed and finally stepped foot into China!

And where was our first stop...you guessed it!! Starbucks!! Yummy!

When we arrived in Beijing, it was raining quite hard so we were a bit worried that it would be like that for our whole trip. Thankfully, it wasn't! After we got to our hotel, we went looking for a place to get some dinner. And what is your guess for that?? McDonald's of course! Please don't think we were just being typical American tourists that only go to American places...we actually don't have Starbucks or McDonald's in our South Korean town. Anywho, after a delicious meal, we headed back to our hotel to prepare for the next day of being tourists!

DAY 2:

Our second day in Beijing was a busy one! Our first tourist stop was Tiananmen Square. Some of you may know about this, but I didn't know much before I went. I still don't know too much...except for what my guide book and Kami told me. The guidebook called it the "center of Communism"...and Kami told me about a protest against Communism that took place there in the 1980's. I gathered from both sources that lots of history took place in Tiananmen Square. Essentially, this was a huge square packed with tons of people. There was a memorial building you could go into but we chose not to since the line was insanely long. We did take some pictures though...of course! Here are a few:

After walking around the square, we headed over to the Forbidden City...which is just across the street. Before entering the Forbidden City, we walked through Zhongshan Park. It was quite a pretty place. Here are some pics:
Ok that is all for this post. More to come!!

Oedo (way-doe)

A couple of weekends ago, Kami and I went to a nearby island (Geoje) in order to take the ferry to Oedo. Oedo, a privately-owned island, is like a big botannical garden. It's huge and there are all kinds of flowers. I have been wanting to go for a while, so we headed that way.

Once we got to Geoje, we had to wait a bit for the ferry, so we walked around to see some pretty sights. These next few pictures are actually on Geoje, before our departure to Oedo.

On the way to Oedo, the ferry took us up-close and personal to a rock island. I'm sure it has a name, but I am not aware of it. It was pretty neat. There's also a little video so you can check it out!

It wasn't a long ride to Oedo from Geoje and we were excited to arrive...I was at least! Here are pictures from the island. I think they're pretty self explanatory!

It was a good day and as always, we were happy to get out of Tongyeong! Kami and I are heading to China for a little vacay tomorrow, so I'm super excited!! We'll be in Beijing for 5 nights/6 days. I can't wait...and I don't have to much longer!! My next blog should include lots of pictures from Beijing!! Talk soon!

July 4th at the Beach

I know this is a little late, but hey, better late than never!

For the 4th of July, the foreign teachers headed to an island off of the coast of Tongyeong named Bijindo (bee-jen-doe). Our friends had been there before, but it was my first time, so it was pretty exciting! Here are some pictures of Bijindo!

Some of the foreign teachers on the ferry to Bijindo. I know you love my hat!! Don't deny it! When in Korea...

Pulling up to the island!

The map, just in case we got lost!

They even had an English sign to welcome us!

The beach!! So pretty!

There weren't many people there so it was great!

The foreigners braving the chilly waters!

While we were waiting for the ferry home, I took this picture. I think it's pretty!

On the way home, we saw the other side of the island...who knew there was a little town there!

All in all, it was a great trip! We didn't have fireworks, but spending the 4th at the beach was still wonderful!

More to come!!

Yokjido

Last Saturday, Kami and I headed out to an island off of the coast of Tongyeong for the day. It was a little muggy and rainy, but it was still nice to get out of town for a bit. Lately the air here has been GROSS...so muggy and humid. I think they call this monsoon season, but hopefully it'll be over soon. It's been raining so much and I'm not really enjoying it.

Anyways, back to Yokjido (yoke-gee-doe)...it was about an hour and 15 minute ferry ride from Tongyeong and it was quite a large island...well bigger than I was expecting. When we arrived at the island, we took a bus all around the island so we could see it all. That took a good while, so after that we just walked around a bit and then got the next ferry home. There wasn't a beach or anything, so we didn't have too much to do there.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Here is a map of Yokjido and surrounding waters. We were on the big one at the bottom and I'm pretty sure we took the red line all of the way around the island.

Here is our old school bus that took us around the island.

Some views of the islands...can you see how dense the air is?

A random statue of buff men in short shorts.

On the ferry ride home.

In other news, I'm getting SOOO excited for our trip to Beijing. Only 3 weeks to go! I got my guidebook in the mail today, and Kami and I are going to get our visas tomorrow! I can't wait!!

Random Happenings #2

I haven't been ignoring you all, I promise. I just haven't been too into taking pictures lately...shocking I know! Here are a few I've taken though, so enjoy!

A few weeks ago, Kami's musician friends had a concert in town, so we went to check it out. It was right next to the water...such a beautiful place we live in! Kami did a song during it, but I know she'd kill me if I posted a pic of her. Ha.

Here's the band. They were fun to listen to.

Here are some views of the water. I never get tired of looking at these.

On a totally different note, there is a student at ILS that is soooooo cute. He's in Kami's class, but we all enjoy seeing him! Yesterday, we look at little video of him so you can enjoy too!

Again on a totally different note, in less than a month, Kami and I will be in BEIJING!!! Whoo-hoo!! We're so excited! We're heading there for our summer vacay and we'll be there for 6 days and 5 nights! Man, I can't wait!! If anyone has any 'must-dos', just let me know!

That's all for today! Just wanted to say hello!