Busan!

Last weekend I went to Busan with my coteacher Adam. Busan was a city that was on my bucket list for Korea. At Wonderland we were given Monday off this week due to a teachers conference for Koreans on Monday. However, there was a catch. Adam and I had to go to the foreigner teacher’s conference on Saturday morning… So before our trip could commence, Adam and I had to go to this foreign conference in Chuncheon (20-30 min away, the capital city for our region). It kind of sucked to get up on Saturday morning but at the same time it was nice that we went on Saturday morning instead of Monday so we could have the extra time off. At our conference we met a few friends from Hongcheon that rode the bus over with us, we were both late… go figure! We shared a cab and sat by them at the meeting. Afterwards we went out to eat together. Adam and I are obsessed with Dakgalbi and Chuncheon is a great place to be if you are. They have a whole street dedicated to Dakgalbi. So naturally we ended up going there with our new friends for lunch. It was so delicious and a really fun time.

The infamous Dakgalbi Street, which I plan on coming back to shortly...

On Dakgalbi Street

YUM!

All of us together on the chickens... amazing! 

We decided to take a short trip down to Busan after the meeting since we had Monday off. We ended up taking the KTX down there. I had never been on the KTX, it travels up to 302km/h or as I understand better, 187 mph (the highest we saw). When we got to Busan we went to the downtown shopping area. It was so well decorated for the holidays! I couldn’t believe it. Who knew you had to go all the way down to the southern tip of Korea to see the holiday displays. It was really fun wondering those lit up streets. 

Goodbye Seoul

Streets in Busan!

The next morning we woke up bright and early so we could go see some tourist sites. We first headed to Busan tower. It was really cool; it overlooked the whole city of Busan. After looking around the area and the park that surrounded Busan tower we went over to the dried fish market. We weren’t too impressed with the market. It wasn’t anything too exciting. It was a bummer that we went during the winter and not the summer, I would’ve liked to go to the live fish market just to see it all. I hear a lot about it, not that I would ever eat any of it. But it would’ve been fun to see, my friend Kalie said I would “get a kick out of it”. She sounds just like my mom… Haha.

They had escalators because it was such a hike up to the Busan Tower, I wasn't complaining about it at all....

Busan Tower

The view of the harbor

You can see the park below

Adam and I at the top

Dried Fish Market

Later that day, Adam and I went to get our KTX tickets back to Seoul and the only ones left were First class. We had actually talked/joked on the way down about how it would be fun to go first class on the KTX just because we can and it’s not too expensive. Well, it became reality. We went first class back to Seoul. The KTX really is the way to travel. It was so nice, was a smooth ride, and very comfortable (even if you aren’t in first class). It was a short but fun weekend. My Monday day off was dedicated to writing my blog for you curious folks back home reading this. Hope you appreciated my day off as well! 

Busan Station!

I had to...

KTX is arriving

I felt pretty important riding first class, not going to lie...

The subway in Seoul

I'm really going to miss this crazy subway system I've gotten to know really well.

The bus graveyard at my bus terminal, Gangbyeon, in Seoul

Hong Kong Disneyland!

For my new years, I went to Hong Kong Disneyland. For those of you who don’t know, I previously worked at Disneyworld in Florida for 6 months as a lifeguard in the Disney College Program. I also grew up going to Disney at least once every year with my family. So, I was very interested in going to Disneyland in another country. When I first arrived at the subway, I already began to feel right at home… Disneyland Hong Kong has their own subway line connected to Hong Kong’s system that goes directly to the park. I felt like such a tourist taking pictures of the subway car but I just had to. I also didn’t feel as bad when I saw every other Asian doing the same… When I first walked into Disney’s territory I felt very comfortable. It was like I was home. I was surrounded by so many familiar things to me. 

Inside the subway

The Disneyland subway stop

I first went to go check out Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel. It was located right near the Disney pier on the water. It reminded me of a version of the Grand Floridian in Disneyworld. It was very nice and had a maze in the garden area. On my vacation I saw a lot of mazes, apparently Asians really like them. 

Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel

The maze

When I walked into the park, it looked just like a mini version of Magic Kingdom. The castle was SOO small compared to the one in Disneyworld. It was pretty though. The whole setup and rides pretty much mimicked Magic Kingdoms except for an added land called toy story land. The first thing I did when I arrived was getting my Mickey waffle! It tasted the exact same as at home, delicious! 

Front Entrance

Main Street USA

My Mickey Waffle! 

The band playing some nice Christmas music I believe

I was surprised and happy about how empty the park was. I guess I’m just so used to Disneyland and was prepared for chaos and fighting the crowds that I didn’t realize it was possible that the park would be slow. That being said, since the park doesn’t get as many people as Disneyworld they don’t really need to be as efficient at their rides. Which was exactly what I saw. The lines for the rides moved slowly and at theaters they didn’t require everyone to move “all the way to the end”… It was a little frustrating. 

I took this picture for my friend Bre who worked in Tomorrowland at Disneyworld!

I don't know if you can read but it says standby time for Space Mountain is 5 minutes... you don't see this everyday/ever in Disneyworld! 

Buzz and I

Holiday Parade down Mainstreet USA

Some of my good friends...

What a gentleman...

There were definitely some differences that made me think, yep I’m definitely in Asia still. For instance, the “snack” food that they were selling was geared towards Asian taste buds such as Korean dried squid, mini donut skewers, regular corn, and caramel corn instead of regular popcorn. They love donuts and everything super sweet here, I don’t understand how they are so slim… I’ve been here for almost 10 months and am still trying to figure that one out.  

These balloons kinda scared me... Mickey and Minnie look so weird! 

Driving wheel on the right side was different as well as reading km/h instead of mph.

My favorite ride as a kid... it's a small world

I liked how they did this ride, they had different characters from Disney movies displayed with the different regions of the world that you traveled through. For example, this is Ariel in the Little Mermaid in the ocean room. Aladdin was in the Middle East room, Toy Story was in the America's, Lion King was in Africa, Lilo & Stitch were in the Islands...etc. 

Another street parade

Some more differences that made me realize I was in Asia were the some of the merchandise they were selling in the stores. For example, they were selling things like Mickey chopsticks and Tupperware specifically for rice. I thought those were cute, but what really got to me was when I went to the golden mickey’s play and I heard Mickey talk… Yep, it was in Chinese. All of Mickey’s friends were speaking it too; it was so weird for me to hear. They had it translated into English on the side screen that I had to read. I obviously recorded a bit of him speaking, so if anyone is interested I’ll show it to you when I get home.

He may look the same on stage but trust me, he does not speak English here... 

The last big difference within the parks was cultural difference with the photos. As most of you know Asians LOVE taking pictures, it’s no lie. When I first moved to Korea I thought the majority of Koreans were professional photographers. But no, they just all have super nice professional looking cameras with their tripods and take pictures like it’s their job. So, at Disneyland Hong Kong they give a long time to take picture with the characters because they’re able to with not a ton of people coming to the parks and because it’s what a lot of them come to the parks for – to take pictures with the characters. It was fine by me; the longest line I waited in was 10 minutes to take a picture with a character. They also have two cast members next to the characters, one taking a professional photo and one waiting to take pictures with your camera. It was really nice.

The characters were taking their sweet time going to and from the character greetings. Here is Donald taking a little break before coming to meet us... that would definitely not fly in Disneyworld. 

My buddy Donald

MICKEY!

In the castle looking out at Main Street USA

The Castle

My lunch, veggie Mickey pizza and some tomato vegetable soup. It was actually really good. 

Toy story land... It was more geared towards kids entertainment so I just walked around and checked it out. It was super cute and very well done.

Slinky ride

The Tinkertoy toilets.

Even the cast member door is picture worthy, I think at least.

This is the Jungle Cruise line. You had three different options of language lines to go to. English and I'm assuming Cantonese( dialect spoken in Hong Kong) and Mandarin. 

The classic dumbo elephant ride

The train which I now have a deep appreciation for after taking a backstage tour of it last March with my family. 

The funny little aliens from the claw vending machine in toy story were popping out to take pictures of the train...

The lion king show, it was really good.

Sunset on Main Street USA

Train Station

Overlooking the park

The castle lit up!

At the end of the night it started to "snow" on Main Street USA! 

I had such a fun time at Disneyland Hong Kong. I’m really glad that I got to go there and experience Disneyland in Asia. I’m also glad I’ve been living here a while to understand and see the differences based on the culture that they have here in Asia.