Sooo... where's the trashcan?

That phrase could quite possibly be the theme of our trip over Chusok because I think Korea is in a shortage of garbage cans. I probably held onto some garbage for a couple hours in hopes of finding where to put my trash. Unfortunately, I think some people gave up hopes earlier than we did, because every once in a while you'd come across a pile of garbage DEFINITELY not in the right place. ANYWAYS, Chusok is a Korean family holiday where everyone gathers at the eldest family members house to partake in food, spend time together, and remember their ancestors. (It's probably like a Korean version of Thanksgiving) However, since all of my family is millions of miles away, a group of us decided to become our own family and head south to Busan for the weekend.

Getting tickets was quite the ordeal. Chusok is probably the busiest Korean holiday, so if you don't get your tickets early.. well, you don't get tickets. Fortunately for us, we DID get tickets, however; they were standing room. Haha.. So a couple hours on the KTX (fastest train in Korea), "playing" euchre ( I say "play" lightly because most of the way there we were arguing on the rules.. Canadian vs. American..hmmm..), and sharing in the NARROWEST hallway ever with the food cart lady, we arrived in Busan!

We almost made a horrible mistake of jumping into a taxi to find our hotel, only to soon realize that our hotel was RIGHT across the street from the train station. Haha.. I can only imagine the face of the taxi driver as we ask him to take us to our hotel.. the hotel that's 5 feet away. Nevertheless, we find our hotel and get checked in and decide to go find the BEACH! Now, I was expecting it to be EXTREMELY busy because it was Chusok, but in fact, the beaches were COMPLETELY bare! (I guess I heard you don't really want to be at the beach in the summer because literally, you can't even see the beach due to the masses of umbrellas lining the shore. No joke.. I've seen pictures.) But no one was around! It was awesome!





So we chilled, swam a bit and then found a place to eat.



THEN... we found the best things ever! SWEET bumper cars in the middle of nowhere! You put in 500 won and they go for a couple minutes and play SWEET music! It was pretty much amazing.. not only because it was incredibly random, but when we all got on them, tons of little asian kids joined in the fun. :) Probably one of the best memories of the trip!






Saturday we woke up early to get to the fish market. (I wanted to get there when they were first getting the fish in for the day.. at 4AM.. but no one else wanted to get up that early.. so we went at 8AM) The crazy bustling shopkeepers, jumping splashing fish (yeah.. some of them jumped out of their glass tanks..so you had to keep an eye out), and INTENSE fishy smells.. it was incredible.





I found a booth completely filled with fresh shrimp! :) mmmm....

After the fish market, we did some site seeing and saw a temple, lighthouse, and a pebble beach! It was a good thing we took this trolley ride, otherwise I think I might have keeled over. Just at the lighthouse alone, we counted over 400 steps JUST walking back up from the rocks at the bottom of the lighthouse.





Later that day we traveled to the Busan aquarium, which was so much fun! (I don't know what it is about aquariums, I mean, they're all the same, but for some reason, it just never gets old! :) The one thing that was extremely cool about this aquarium was they had a HUGE shark tank! They even offer shark dives inside the tank, and a few of us girls were prepared to take the plunge, but unfortunately/fortunately (ha) they weren't doing dives because of Chusok. (So maybe next time?)




haha.. the last picture makes me laugh.. resembles a rock with a face. But in the seal tank, one guy was swimming swimming swimming and then all of a sudden he crashed and dove down and ran right into the window with his eyes closed and everything. his nose was all pressed up against the window and I wish I would have gotten that shot..hahaha.. I laughed so hard. But then he settled backwards into this position, so at least I got him right after the fact.


haha.. this one kills me too.. We found this shirt in a store.. Detroit.. BEANS??!

It was a great time to relax and see a whole new part of Korea. In fact, during Chusok, I actually traveled to the most southern part of Korea (Busan) to Seoul, the most Northern part. ( Of SOUTH korea..) ALL IN ONE WEEKEND! It seems like alot of traveling, but when you stop and think how big South Korea really is.. I guess it's not TOO impressive, because Korea is about the size of Indiana. But this Chusok was definitely filled with tons of memories and I'm so glad I could have spent it with some amazing friends I've made here!

Well, I'm starting up my animation classes this week and so if you've read this and think about me in the next month or so, could you please keep me in your prayers just with adjusting to taking classes as well as ministering to these kids. We had our dorm staff retreat this past weekend, so it was really great to hear from a couple dorm parents from Africa about their personal experiences and be encouraged in our ministries. It's so easy to just turn what we do here into a job, but I'm praying that I don't lose focus of why I'm here. This is a job, but it's so much more a ministry. Thank you for your prayers.

Hugs, blessings, and garbage can shortages

Sarah