Busan Weekend

On Friday I had to go near city hall (which is a 15-20 minute bus ride from my house) and drop off some cookies that Dallas made for a bake sale on Saturday. I ended up spending about 30 minutes talking to my friend as well, so I didn't have time to go downtown and look for shoes, which was original plan. Oh well, it's always good to catch up with people you haven't seen for awhile. The only bad part was that I forgot my headphones, so I couldn't listen to music during the bus trips. I did, however, get to see a bunch of old ladies planting flowers. When I walked over to take a picture of a tulip, I heard them talking about me and understood a little bit of it, so that was fun.

On Friday night, I met Dallas and Jayden at Cafe Bene for coffee and we taught Jayden how to play Catan. We didn't really get to finish the game because the cafe closed while Jayden and I were tied at 9 points and Dallas was at 7. Hopefully we will get to play again before Jayden has to go back to school. On Saturday, our original plan was to go to Busan and watch a baseball game - it's on both mine and Dallas's list of things to do. Unfortunately, it was pouring down rain. We decided to go to Busan anyway and just kind of wing it. I like spending time with these 2, but I don't like aimless weekends unless I know that's the point. So when we got there we found a hotel and dropped our stuff off. The lady wouldn't let us check in until later, but she held a room for us, and let us put our bags in the office. She also yelled at me for wearing flip flops because it's too cold for them. We had lunch at Lotte department store - Jayden and I had pho and Dallas ate salad and something else that I can't remember. Jayden is a bottomless pit and can eat constantly, so the question "are you hungry" came up about a million times during the weekend.

 After lunch we went shopping and to a bookstore. Dallas got kind of mad at us because he thought we were acting sulky about going shopping etc. so we all sat down in a coffee shop and talked about what we were going to do for the rest of the day. I said I wasn't mad, but I needed a plan of some sort - even if that plan was taking naps or whatever. We decided to look for a game cafe. Jayden found one online that was close to us and we decided to start walking there. On the way, we saw this thing called Disco PangPang. It's a ride that's a big circle (no handles or seat belts) with a circular bench around it. You sit on the bench and they spin it around and also bounce it up and down. People fall off the bench and roll around in the middle. Dallas and I talked Jayden into going on it - he said it was really for kids (middle school and high school students were the only other people). The worker who ran the ride asked us lots of questions through Jayden and then made fun of us - but he made fun of everyone. It was really fun, but I got a blood blister on the inside of my hand from holding on to the rail so tightly. At one point we popped up so high that my shirt flew up. After that one of the middle school girls brought over her little blanket so I could cover up. It was both sweet and embarrassing.

Us on the ride before it started.

After that, we found where the game cafe used to be, but it was no longer there. That happens all the time in Korea - a store you like is one day there, the next day gone. Next we saw an arcade and went in there for a bit. They didn't have a lot of fun games, but we played some air hockey. Jayden had never played before. Dallas and I both beat him.

Boys playing air hockey

Then we found a cat cafe and went in and played with cats for about an hour. We tried to find a puppy cafe, but the one listed was really far away and didn't have a phone number to call. The cats were fun, but none of the them were super cute or nice, except one who fell asleep on Dallas's coat. It's a money maker though because you pay $7 to go in and hang out with the cats. Included in the price is a drink (we all got peach iced teas), but there were tons of people in there so I think he makes a pretty decent profit.

This grey one didn't move from this post the entire time we were there. He was really soft though.

The rules - the pictures are awesome.

Sleepy cat - lots of them were asleep since we went late afternoon. I'm guessing they are more animated earlier in the day.

This is the one who sat on Dallas's coat and purred with me. He reminded me of our old cat Taylor.

Dallas became friends with this one, who reminded me of our old cat Bart. The markings were very similar.

Then we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant. We all sort of split dinners - Jayden got a pizza, Dallas and I got curry (his was veggie, mine was beef). Ours tasted very similar except mine had more cinnamon. The place was really nice and also gave us free lassis which had maybe a coconut/yogurt flavor. After dinner we went to another coffee shop and played card games. We taught Jayden Go Fish, Egyptian Rat Screw and BS. Then we walked in circles for a little bit trying to find Thursday Party, which we had seen earlier. We played beer pong - Jayden and I lost to Dallas by one cup - again! But then I won 2 games of darts, so that was fine. We stayed there and chatted for a little bit, then went back to the hotel. They watched some Transformers while I talked to my cousin for about 30 minutes. Then we went to sleep.

Pizza and lassi

Curry

Naan. The bread tasted very similar to the pizza crust. Luckily I liked both of them.

I woke up pretty early because it was loud outside and bright. I tried to go back to sleep and managed for little bits of time, but then just gave up and played on my phone until everyone woke up. We tried to get Korean porridge for breakfast, but the place was closed so we went back to Lotte department store. It was weird because hardly anyone was eating yet and most of the places were still setting up. I couldn't really decide what I wanted, so I ended up sharing random stuff with Dallas - we had salad (which had a semi rotten mango piece in it), a "pizza" chicken breast with shredded cabbage on it, a teriyaki chicken skewer and potato wedges inside half of an acorn squash. Nothing was really bad, but nothing was really good either. It also sparked a semi debate because Koreans called an acorn squash a sweet pumpkin, but Dallas wouldn't really believe me that we didn't also call it that.

After eating, we went to a coffee shop and played Uno for awhile and talked and tried to figure out how to spend the rest of the day. It wasn't raining, but it was a little bit chilly and it was almost noon by that time, so we didn't really want to get on a bus to another city because it would have just been a waste of time. We tried to find a puppy cafe, but the one close to where we were was closed for renovations. We ended up walking around a market area near Busan Tower. Parts of it were interesting and nice, other parts were just crowded. One lady got made at me because I picked up a hat to look at it and walked away when she told me the price. Jayden wanted a snack so we stopped in the middle of the market and he got dokbokki and Dallas got mandu and shoved one in my mouth because they don't understand that sometimes when I say I'm not hungry it's because I'm not hungry.

Statue separating the walking area from the road

One ally was full of food stalls like this - table after table of food and you sit on tiny plastic stools.

We walked around some more, then went to lunch - yes I realize this post is very food/coffee shop oriented, but that's basically what we did all weekend - at a tofu restaurant. When we walked in, we were the only people there. Then again it was like 4 so most lunch people were already gone and dinner people weren't there yet. The ladies were very nice. Jayden got beef tofu and Dallas and I split curry tofu. She brought tons of sides and had a lightly fried fresh tofu square that was delicious - I ate two. After lunch we walked around for about another 30 minutes, then got on the subway to go back to the bus station. We had the whole back row to ourselves and I was able to semi lay down and take a short nap. Then I took an actual nap when I got home for about an hour.

Sideways lunch. The bowl at the bottom is the tofu curry. The yellowish looking squares are the tofu.

To continue the routine, I met up with the boys and went walking with Jayden while Dallas ran next to the river. It was really cold and I actually had to wear a scarf. It was a good time being able to chat with Jayden who I found out knows a little ballroom dancing - I must make him dance with me someday. Then we went to a chicken soup place for a late dinner. I actually ate a ginseng root which tasted like a weird carrot. Then we walked to Emart and the boys got some groceries but I usually go on Tuesdays after Bible study, so I didn't get anything. On the walk home we passed a guy lying in the middle of the road. Two other men were close to him and asked to borrow our phone to call either an ambulance or the police - I'm not sure which. They pretty much told us that the mad was just drunk but that they didn't want to leave him in the middle of the street alone. On the walk home Dallas asked us if we would become vampires given the choice (this came after a series of questions over the weekend about nuclear bombs and whether or not vampires could withstand them) and that sparked some interesting debate.

A horrible picture of me and Jayden in front of the castle...and my finger.

Chicken soup (sam gae tang) - it's stuffed with rice, ginsing and jujubes.

The weekend was not what I had envisioned, but I still had fun hanging out with the guys and walking around. I just need to remember to make back-up plans in case of rain :)