Nanta, Batman, Busan, Daegu!

Wow this week went by so quickly! I feel like I accomplished so much in the last four days!
First off, Thursday:
As a field trip for the UC study abroad students, approximately 200 of us went to watch "Nanta." It's called a musical, but there is very little singing, let alone talking. But it is all music. It's similar to the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas. Nanta takes place in a kitchen and the performers create music using tools/supplies that can be found in the kitchen. I had so much fun! I was non stop laughing and cheering. The rhythm had me tapping my feet throughout the entire performance. Honestly, I recommend this to anyone coming to Korea.

Acoustics were amazing in here! You could hear everything!!! and I don't even think the stage was miked...

Friday:
A bunch of us went out Friday morning to watch "The Dark Knight Rises"! I was waiting for this all summer, and Christopher Nolan did not disappoint. I felt so many emotions throughout the movie: I sporadically laughed during the movie, then sporadically cried... it was a big mess of fun ^^

Afterwards, Makenli, Grace, Ivana, and I headed off to the city of 구리(Guri) to 인창 쭈꾸미, the baby octopus place Ivana and I went to last week ^^ It was Makenli and Grace's first time. It was great! The dad was showing us pictures of 동우 (Dongwoo) as a kid. haha it was awesome!

Then, we went out to do a little shopping.

Coffee break at 이대 (Ewha)

Saturday rolled along; Ivana and I were out the door by 6 am. Why, you ask? Because we were heading down to 부산 (Busan)!! This time, we were not going with a large group on a field trip; it was just us two. The drive down wasn't bad at all. We rode a comfortable bus and it only took 4 hours to get to 부산 (Busan).

On the road!!

In 부산, I met up with three wonderful ladies whom I have not seen in almost 3 years: Seowoo, Yoony, and Joony! They all grew up soo much! 3 years ago, Seowoo was the only one taller than me and it was only by a few cms, but now, Seowoo and Yoony both tower over me! Joony is almost there. She still has plenty of time to grow, so I have no doubt she will be taller than me in a couple of years T.T

 Seowoo, Yoony, Joony, Ivana, and I went to eat at a fancy Italian place, called Sunz Gallery. This restaurant seemed pretty legit Italian; there was very little hint of the restaurant being an Asian-Italian fusion place. When the food came out, at first I was disappointed. The portions seemed so small compared to what we were paying. But as I started eating my pasta, I realized that the bowl was very deceiving. There was more depth to the bowl than I had visually calculated. By the end of the meal, I was pretty full.

Look at them!! They're all grown up!! But, according to them, I have not changed.... don't know whether to take that as a compliment or not.... heehee

Delicious bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Cream pasta! Don't be fooled by the plate... there was more than enough pasta!

Me and Yoony!

Dessert! Not too sweet... 

We said our goodbyes, then Ivana and I headed to 창원 (Changwon) to explore another Inifinite restaurant: 오동동부엉이집.

Logging our travels!

We found the restaurant!

Hi 호야!! This is what you see as you enter the restaurant ^^

Again, the walls of the restaurant were covered with photos of 호야 (Hoya), though not as much as the previous restaurant.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the food here! There were not only a lot of side dishes, the fish itself was delicious! It was a grilled fish with a Koreanized salsa layering the top. The fish was very meaty and the salsa added a nice kick of spiciness and freshness.

Look at the fishies!!!

The lady gave us free soda ^^ fan service!!!

Actually the service in general was just awesome. The lady was so nice!

The vending machine coffees are so yummy here! 

haha of course the cups have something to do with Infinite ^^

Afterwards, full from all the food and tired from traveling all day, Ivana and I headed to Dream House Sauna, where we crashed for the night. I couldn't believe how small this place was. I'm so used to seeing really big saunas (찜질방), so this one, which only had 2 floors and 2 small steam rooms really threw me off. It seemed like more of a place for people to come and take baths and crash for the night. When I woke up the next morning, there seemed to be way more people than there were when we first came in.

Sunday morning, we were off traveling again, this time to 대구 (Daegu) so see Gina! It was nice to see her, sit down and just catch up with her. I had the opportunity to see her in SD back in February but there was little time to sit and chat. She told us about her experience living in Korea and work. She is teaching at 영남대학교 (Yeungnam University).

Ticket to 대구

Starbucks!

She took us around Downtown 대구. We went to 중앙떡볶이, a spicy rice cake place. Apparently this is a famous snack place in the city. They have these super thin dumplings, but they were sooo good! I got full off just that, and that is supposed to be a snack! I think I want to try making them someday ^^

 Nearby was a "Hello Kitty Cafe" where everything is literally Hello Kitty. The chairs are Hello Kitty head shaped, the cups have Hello Kitty faces on them, the cheesecakes are Hello Kitty shaped, the doorknob is Hello Kitty. Even the bathrooms were entirely Hello Kitty! It was a little much....

Look at how cute Ivana is! ^^

Again, so cute!!

Then Gina took us to 영남대학교, the school she works at. She gave us a tour of the campus. There are buildings that look like military buildings, with coverings for snipers and all on the roofs!

There is even a Folk Village (민속촌) on the campus. We had fun walking and looking around.

대구 is so much more green than서울... there's actual farming fields here!

This is their library! It's 16 stories high!!!!

This is the school mascot. 

Look at how big he is!!

Then, Gina dropped us off at the train station, where we took the train back to Seoul. This trip was quite interesting; because there were no more seats available, we had to stand for half the trip. 

Back in Seoul!

That was a fun-filled, busy, just overall enjoyable week! What an experience!!!