Not a whole lot has happened since my last post. I celebrated New Years (kinda), had my vacation from work (kinda) and visited Seoul (really). The week following Christmas I had off from work for my holidays but I had spent most of it sick in bed, dying from a number of aliments. Nothing good really came from this time aside from the Fleury family poutine Danielle made me. Due to my illness I couldn't participate in a number of exciting activities, one of which being a 27 hour long snowboarding trip to somewhere up north. I was pretty bummed about this as you can imagine. I can only pray that I will be able to get out there and give it another shot some day soon. Another exciting event I was forced to miss out on was New Years eve which also kinda sucks when your sick. Fortunately I have good friends and a great girlfriend who were willing to sit the night out with me. Instead of the normal hijinks's we went to Hyundae beach and watched a light show which was fairly spectacular. The fireworks themselves were nothing to write home about (figuratively) but what really amazed me were these little paper lanterns that were lit up and floated through the air and out to sea. I imagine all these charred lamps will be fairly bad for the environment, but it looked cool. Still sick we got one celebratory pint and than called it a night.

Come Saturday I was feeling semi-well and decided that it was time to visit my friend Hee-ya in Seoul. Despite what many of you may think, Hee was born and raised in Korea and than immigrated to Canada when she was 12 years old. I met her during my first class of university and we have been friends ever since. To make a long story short, after graduating she found employment with a Korean NGO so she has moved home to pursue this career opportunity. Fortunately for her she has her family here, and fortunately for me, I have her here. So anyways, Danielle and I woke up early Saturday morning, jumped on the KTX train, an ultra fast bullet train, and were in Seoul within 3 hours. Hee showed us around town for most of the day, focusing on a statue dedicated to Admiral Yi Shun Shin, a famous naval hero to Koreans, and Gyeongbok Palace, the central place where the kings of the late Joseon Dynasty (1392ish-1910ish) oversaw internal affairs and governed their kingdom. We also enjoyed a Korean soup not far from the Palace which sported a delicious chicken that had been stuffed with rice and vegetables and cooked in a ginseng broth. Afterward we went for a touristy type walk around an area called Insodong, which is famous for its preservation of the traditional Korean lifestyle while blending it with a type of modern tourism. Here we found a delightful little semi-outdoor tea shop. After Insodong we began to walk home when we decided that it might be worth our time to check out some fountain/river that runs throughout Seoul that had recently been cleaned up and renovated. This river had been the source of life for many of the poorer citizens of Seoul during the last few centuries and it is now a monument to this. It was fairly neat with its stepping stone trails, water fountains and light shows. But this point I was absolutely frozen and I could not believe the amount of people that were just hanging out at this river, taking photos and being sterotypical Korean tourists. Ready to head home to Hee-ya's we jumped on a bus and took off. That night Danielle and I stayed in a Sauna. It was a no frills, public hotel kind of place where you essentially go and sit in saunas and hot tubs until your ready to fall asleep than you find a spot to lay down and you do. It was perhaps one of the most relaxing sleeps of my life, even if I did spend it on the floor. The next morning I went for a hot tub and fell asleep in the tub for 45 minutes! Poor Danielle was sitting outside waiting for me all this time. Feeling bad for her we decided to get some breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. Shortly there after we said our goodbyes, boarded a bus to Seoul station and the KTX back down to Busan, thus completing our first adventure to Seoul. Be sure to look at my photos if anything needs to be clarified, I do tend to ramble on after all.