Mom in Korea: Part III

I know, I know! This is starting to feel like those terrible Twilight movies and you're wondering when it's going to end. Luckily for you, this is part three of this little series, which means this is the last update! lol Hopefully you've found much more interest in mom's time in Korea than you did in those sparkly little vampires! haha Okay, I'm just kidding about all of that except the fact that this is the last part of mom's trip! (And I really do think Twilight is awful, but that's beside the point.)

So where were we? Oh yes, Thursday July 4th! Independence Day!!! Spoiler alert: It rained so we couldn't even do fireworks :(

I used two vacation days while mom was here so we could go on a mini vacation while she was visiting Korea. I decided the beach would be a good spot, so we headed to Busan. I had been there once before for Buddha's birthday weekend, but I didn't get to do anything on my list that I wanted so this was a good opportunity to take my mom somewhere I was somewhat familiar with but that I hadn't already seen several times! We got on the bus early Thursday morning for our 4.5 hour bus ride. The weather ended up being terrible the whole time so we didn't get in any actual beach time, but we went to two different ones just to look around. We did a lot of walking and sight seeing in Busan. We went to a big mall, with a giant water fountain show and a rooftop zoo, of course! We went to the Jagalchi Fish Market, one of the most popular ones. We went to Gwangali Beach and saw the pretty bridge all lit up at night. We also went to a really famous temple on the ocean! The on the last day, we met up with one of my friends I've made since being here. Her name is Hoa and she's from California, but she got put in Jeju for her teaching position. Jeju is an island off the southern tip of South Korea, so since she has to take a plane to get to the mainland, she doesn't get to visit often. I'm so happy we got to meet up with her and my mom got to meet one of my good friends I've made since being here!
The rest of this is just pictures of what we did with little side stories when necessary! I had a long weekend at the Mud Festival and my brain is too tired to think of everything we did! haha


This was on top of a mall we went to. Korea always throws in little surprises and I'm glad mom got to experience that. This was a 12 story mall (I think...) and so we headed to the top because I read online you could eat up there. Much to our surprise, there was a mini zoo that consisted of a horse (I know..how did they get a horse on the roof of a mall?!?!), huge parrots, rabbits galore, a baby deer, some hedgehogs, and a couple of other small animals like that. Of course all of those animals would be on the rooftop of a mall. Oh, Korea!  There were also observatory decks, but no food, so eventually we headed back down to the actual food court for some delicious Korean food!

View from the rooftop of the mall. That's an observatory tower that would have been cool on a nice day, but clearly the weather sucked. 

Jagalchi Fish Market

Fish Market! One of my favorite parts of Korea! 

Two little sharks :( 

Gwangali Beach/Bridge

Gwangali Bridge! It's a two story bridge and lights up really pretty at night, but again the sky looked a little scary so it takes away the beauty a little .

 This is a funny story. So mom was pretty awful at keeping up with her umbrella the whole trip. The first time we got on the bus here in Gunsan, I think it was the second or third day mom was in Korea, she left her umbrella on the bus. So after lunch we went to Diaso, basically a dollar store, and bought a new one. We carried them everywhere because it always looked like it was going to rain. So when we were in Busan, we went to the bridge to see it lit up but we were too early, so we sat right there where those little ladies are sitting and just waited for it to start. After about twenty minutes of sitting mom got cold so we went into a bar and grabbed a drink while we waited for the lights to turn on. We got a window seat so we could see when the lights came on, but we were also at a prime location for people watching. About half way through our drinks we noticed everyone had their umbrellas out, and that's when it clicked. Mom left her umbrella down where we were sitting!!! So we finished our drinks and headed down there only to find this old lady using mom's umbrella!!! Ironically enough, I assured her that people don't really steal here so it would be there. So here we are just standing behind these ladies and mom is telling me to go tell this lady that it's her umbrella! Well as we've covered before, I don't speak Korean so we just laughed and waited for an idea to come. Finally she laid it down and mom went up behind her and grabbed it! It was so funny! Maybe you had to be there, but those ladies were so surprised we took it from them. So funny!

In our hostel! Beautiful view! 

At the temple. 

Nicole and Hoa 

Beautiful colors of the temple! So pretty! 

Big 'ol gold Buddha. Such a happy looking fellow. 

View of the temple from up high!

We're not really that orange, I promise! I had my vivid colors setting turned on. lol

Those little pigs look so happy, which is exactly what Hoa and I will look like when we get back to America and finally get to shop at Target again! hahaha I think that's why we like each other so much, we have that deep Target bond! 

Ignore the older Korean couple to the left of me and mom throwing up gang signs! hahaha This one is kind of like a game... Where is Waldo  Jana and Kyla?!

So that's was basically mom's whole trip here! I am so glad she got to come, but I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't show her the more traditional parts of Korea. It's all so modern and industrialized these days, that that's the parts I frequent so after I showed her all of my favorite things in those places, we were out of time! 

I have three days of school this week, then I'm finished! It's unreal how quickly it has passed. I'm down to single digits tomorrow...the big number 9!!! I can't believe it at all! I'm so excited to be back to America. Korea is an awesome place and I've met some awesome people and made some really good friends, but I'll be excited to start back to school and get that over with! See you all soon! :) Thanks for reading my novel about mom's trip! 

-Kyla