Way-gook-in' it up in Korea!: Happy Lunar New Year!

So Lunar (or Chinese) New Year was Monday and, since it is one of Korea's 2 main holidays, there was a 4 day weekend to celebrate. This holiday seems to be similar to Chuseok in that everyone travels back to visit their hometowns and families, and do ancestor worship. Well, I decided not to join my family, and instead Matt and I headed to Busan! Bret and John (the 2 guys I met in Yeosu last weekend) offered to let us stay in their apartment, especially since they'd be gone to Shanghai for the holiday. I of course took them up on their gracious offer, and I'm so glad I did! Their apartment was amazing! So amazing, in fact, that Matt and I hardly felt the need to leave the apartment the entire 4 days. :-) It is located in the Haeundae area of the city, which is where a lot of foreigners working in the port live, and it is near the beautiful beach there! There apartment complex was very new -- it seemed to have been built within the last couple years, and it was as big as my host family's apartment, even though it was only 2 of them. The best part, though, was that it was on the 24th floor, the top of the building! So we had an amazing view of the rest of the residential area and the ocean beyond. I seriously could have just sat there and looked out that window for hours.

Matt and I had a very relaxing and low key time. We watched 7 movies (on Sunday we had a Lord of the Rings marathon) and a half dozen TV shows. We were pretty much couch potatoes the whole time! :-) We ate lots of cereal (I never get it at my host family, so I really thought it was delicious) and ramen. Since it was the holidays, most restaurants and shops were closed up on Sunday and Monday. That didn't stop me from eating kimchi bokgumbap (kimchi fried rice) 3 or 4 times (pretty much every time we went to a restaurant) in the course of the long weekend. YUMMY! It is super delicious and has just the right amount of spice.

Anyhoo, I got home around 9 on Tuesday night. Tuesday was actually the 6 year anniversary for Ike and me! It was the first time that we spent it apart from each other, despite all the separate traveling we have done over the years. It wasn't too tough, since I just saw him a month ago and will see him in about 3 weeks again! Of course I wish I could have been with him though. Today I've just been vegging around in my PJs, doing some free reading (finished the book I started this weekend: Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry -- very Dan Brown -esque. I recommend it!), and started packing for my trip to SE Asia!!! I leave Saturday for that, but am going to spend Friday night at Anne's host family's apartment. So I have to get my act together!!! :-)

Here are pics documenting that Matt and I did indeed leave the apartment for a few hours over the weekend. Beautiful Busan!