#Korea Week 17 – Finally in Korea!

#Korea is a weekly series on my blog documenting my time leading up to and during to my year in Korea. It’s very much unedited, stream-of-conscious writing! Check out the original post for a longer explanation here

WEEK 17: JULY 30TH – AUGUST 5TH

Holy Moses, is this the first #Korea where I’m actually writing in Korea?! Only took 17 weeks and a bunch of different cities, states, and countries. I feel like I’m so scrambled, this is easier to write by days, so here’s a rundown of how crazy this week has been:

SATURDAY

I think I wrote my post prematurely on Saturday. Allison and I drove to Colorado Springs in the morning, It’s about 3+ hours from Wyoming, and we decided to go straight to Cañon City, which is another hour, to go zip lining and visit the Royal Gorge. Ah-mazing. Spent way more money than we meant to, but oh well. Shout to our guides for being awesome. We passed by other groups, and ours was definitely the best. One of the other guides was too busy going on about tire burning to let us know the line we were on was uncoated, so it’d be a much faster one than previously…

We also checked into our hotel, The Antlers, and got a free upgrade because they were working on our room or something. Either it was gorgeous, and we had amazing views of the mountains. Everything in Colorado Springs was so expensive! All the Airbnb listings were still pretty high, and they were just for private rooms.

SUNDAY

After eating breakfast and checking out, we headed straight for the Garden of the Gods. We walked around on one of the trails for a bit and took about a trillion photos. It’s seriously stunning.

We were going to try to do something else, but it was a bit too late and everything was pretty much booked. Allison then drove me to my airport hotel in Aurora since my flight in the morning was at 9:54 a.m.

MONDAY

Got to the airport at like 6:45 a.m. and sat down to power through some work since I knew I wasn’t going to get wifi onboard.

FYI I hate United. I only took it from Denver to San Francisco because I love Asiana so much that I could swallow the bad-PR-United. First of all, the flight was delayed 30 minutes before we even boarded. Then it had to have been delayed at least another hour while were all sitting on the damn plane. I fell asleep right away (and had a seat open next to me), so I didn’t notice at first. This isn’t the first time I’ve flown United, and it’s been delayed.

Originally, I had about 2 hours to transfer to my flight in SF, but, of course, now I had a whopping 30-minutes. Hey, United, you KNOW people’s transfers, so maybe next time let those of us crunched for time off first?!

Anyhow, I basically power walk/jog from my gate all the way to Terminal A. Of course, I have to go through TSA AGAIN, and the guy checking passports and tickets in the express lane is taking his own damn time laughing and making comments on each passerby’s passport. Um, hey, buddy, this is express? Save that ish for the regular lane or, better yet, on your own time. And he had the gall to go, “Don’t come here if you don’t have a smile!” -_-

I make it through TSA and head to the bathroom because I’ve had to pee for a while now, but, of course, I hear my name on the loudspeaker. I run to check in and get on my flight and have to wait for another 30-40 minutes before the flight is in the air, and I can go to the bathroom. Luckily, though, this is Asiana and I have an empty seat next to me again. It’s a pretty sweet 12-hour ride. I finished In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware, sleep a lot, watch Hidden Figures, and sleep some more.

TUESDAY

I get to Incheon around 5:30 p.m. And, of course, I find out there wasn’t enough transfer time for them to get my suitcases on the Asiana flight, but they’d ship them to Nicole’s apartment in Mokpo. At this point, I’ve been wearing the same dress since 6 a.m. Monday (which means it’s about 4:30 am EST while being 5:30 pm KST). I got all sweaty during my power walk in SF, and I could do with a hot shower and fresh clothes.

I resign myself to this and get on a bus to Mokpo at 8. And then I promptly pass out for the 3 1/2 – 4 hours it takes to get to Mokpo.

Weirdly enough, I’m pretty awake when I get Nicole’s messages asking if I want to go out instead of going to bed, and I agree. We meet her friends and head to get lamb barbeque and then pretty much spend the whole night out and see the sunrise over the sea.

WEDNESDAY

We hung out in the morning, obviously sleeping, relaxing, and me catching up on some work. Nicole actually had a rock climbing date with a co-teacher, so after lunch, she went over while I worked and then went to a hair appointment for a digital perm, which takes about 4 hours (and is so worth it. I need to do a proper post).

THURSDAY

This was a major work day for both of us, so we popped over to a coffee shop and stayed until maybe 6 or 7? Nicole was working on her UX Design course while I was working on logging and my Pinterest managing. We then met her boyfriend for fried chicken and dropped her off for a drinking date with an old friend. Funnily enough, while she was drinking, we watched H3H3 videos and played with their cat. :p

Also my luggage came just in time!

FRIDAY

Friday was a packing day for Jeju! Nicole has a bunch of fun camera gear, which has made Jeju a lot of fun. We headed to Gwangju and then to the airport for our flight to Jeju and got here around 6 to get our little electric rental car. We’re currently staying at the cutest Airbnb, which I’ll share once we’re gone.

SATURDAY

Today we went out to Yeomiji Botanical Garden and then the O’Sulloc tea fields. Jeju is beautiful, but, holy cow, it is hot. Like crazy humid and the sun just beats down on your neck. My sweat had layers of sweat. In all my summers spent melting in the Pennsylvania sun, nothing compares to the crazy heat of a Korean summer, and Jeju is no different.

Things I’m Loving

• I’ve been thinking more about In a Dark, Dark Wood. It’s not scary at all, despite what Reese Witherspoon says on the cover. At the end, it just kind of made me sad. Like talk about the biggest “What if?” scenario.
• LOVE Charlie XCX’s “Boys” video. It’s just so fun. See if you can name all the guys in it.
• Buzzfeed Unsolved is baaackkk.
• Allison and I went to see Atomic Blonde, and it’s so freaking stylish and slick. I’d like all of Charlize Theron’s clothes and the soundtrack, please.
• My favorite Korean girl group, SNSD is BACK. I’ve been a fan of them for years now, and they’re definitely one of the first Korean groups I found. I think I like their “All Night” song better than “Holiday.”

And that’s about it! I told you, it’s been a crazy week! What are you up to?

want to support?

I’m always grateful when friends and readereach out wanting to support There She Goes Again. Truthfully, I’m just happy my posts are helping people travel! If you’d like to support the blog, here are some companies and brands I’m affiliated with. Simply click the links, and I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you!