I'm On A Boat!!

I've neglected this thing for far too long. I guess I was worried that if I actually took the time to write something it would just turn into whining, but since I posted something complaining about how miserable the heat's been making me I feel confident enough to update my adventures now.


Somehow our Adventure Saturdays have turned into Adventure Sundays (I'm blaming the time difference and the whole being in the future thing) and this past Sunday we headed up to Seoul to ride speed boats on the Han River. Our latest trip was replacing the much anticipated trip to the water park which was rained out the day before. Damn you, Monsoon! So, we picked up two of our friends from the gate and made the trek to the Seoul. Once we parked the car we picked up some snacks and headed to the nearest train station to head to the pier. I'm not even going to lie, I was so nervous about this train thing because the last one we had to get on went UNDER the Han River. Um what? How can the subway go under the river? This thought had completely blown my mind. I mean I know there's one in New York, and there's tunnels and all in the states where you're actually driving under the water, but I just don't understand how it's possible. What happens if there's a leak? You're trapped and you die, that's what. Obviously we arrived at the pier safe and sound since I'm writing this, but still you never know.

Walking to the pier.

View from the pier.

So, once we made it to the pier we paid our 10,000 won each (which is roughly $8.48 thanks to my won to dollars app on the Bb for allowing to me calculate that so quickly) suited up in our little life vests and we were off on the boat. OhMyGoodness whipping around on that boat was so much fun. I wasn't worried about falling overboard and drowning one bit, that's probably more due to the fact that I'm a great swimmer. What I was worried about, though, was falling into that nasty ass water and heaven forbid that shit get in my mouth and on my face and whatever else. No ma'am, I was not feelin that. I'm not even sure how polluted the water is actually, but it's the fact that it's a river, I can't see the bottom of it, and it's in a city. I mean Korea has pollution from China rolling on in when the wind blows just right, so who knows. I'm just saying, I didn't avoid any and all contact with water from the Neuse River back home, to come to Korea and suddenly grow a third arm from a splash of water reaching me over the sides of the boat, and if said water got on my body, I was fully prepared to bathe in Bleach anywhere surface cleaner when I got home. Just kidding..or am I? On a similar note, I also managed to successfully avoid the Tar River in Greenville, during several Ecology labs back in the day.


So after our spin on the speed boat the guys that came with us decided they were going to go out on the jet skis. Obviously, I wasn't feeling that idea for myself since we just saw a girl return from her ride and she was soaked from head to toe. As it turns out, you couldn't actually drive the jest skis yourself, so you would be at the total mercy of the driver, and if he wanted to soak you he could. After waiting around for their turns, the driver (would they be called drivers, maybe operator?) of the jet ski set up another one at the end of the dock and just as one of our friends was about to hop on the back, the guy realizes he doesn't have the key. Unfortunately for him he was a little too late in his discovery as he started to drift further and further out into the river. 

Still searching for that key.

After a brief rescue mission by two of the guy's co-workers that was quite comical our friends finally got their rides and we headed to KFC. It definitely wasn't an American KFC, there was no mac and cheese, and no snacker. I did have a tasty bulgogi chicken sandwich, that reminded me of the bulgogi burger from Mcdonald's, except you know this was chicken.

Love Locked

Saturday marked the first day of our four day weekend, so J and I decided that there was no other way to start it off than to take our Adventure Saturday trip up to Seoul. I had been dying to go to Seoul Tower since I first got here, and since our trip to the zoo was kind of rocky we decided from now on we would drive ourselves so we could do our own thing. Luckily for us someone had told J about a bus you could catch that would take you to some of the best tourist spots in Seoul. For 10,000 won (a little less than $10) you could ride the bus all day and visit whatever it is you want and catch another bus later on.


We immediately decided that our first stop was going to be Seoul Tower. Once we reached our stop we pretty much have to climb a mountain to get to the tower. I'm saying this hill is so steep, it was more like climbing up the wrong side of a slide. Once we were at the top we bought our tickets and headed inside to take the elevator up. I got completely distracted by this Hello Kitty game, so J decided to make himself useful and buy some snacks while I dug around for change to play. The game looked like one of those crane machines that you can find in Walmart that has all of the stuffed animals inside except it has the cute little Hello Kitty prizes sitting on shelves and you're supposed to knock them down with a stick. So yea, not like the crane machine at all actually. In the end I couldn't find any change so I could only stare at the machine in awe and try to knock down the cute little Hello Kitty prizes using my telekinetic powers. If only I really had them, I could've gone all Carrie on that thing; minus the pig blood, of course.

After I gave up on the game, we took the elevator up to the observation tower. The view from the top was incredible. It would've been a million times better if it wasn't so hazy out. I've come to realize that blue skies are a complete rarity around here, and it's an amazing thing when you actually see one. After we saw all there was to see, we headed back down to the second floor observation deck.

On the second floor viewing deck there's a fence that's set up around the perimeter, and this fence is covered with "Love Padlocks." This is why I so excited to visit the tower. There has to be thousands of locks hanging on this fence. Like any kind of lock you could imagine, padlocks, combination locks, bike locks.  The locks are linked together, and then locked to the fence to symbolize a couple's eternal love. After they're locked you're supposed to throw away the key, and they actually have specific places for you to throw them out, since metal keys aren't such a good thing for birds. J had joked that people who used combination locks wanted to keep their options opened, so if things didn't work out they were coming back to take their lock down. That boy is so optimistic. Ever since I found out about it, it's been my mission for us to put up our own locks, and so we did. =)

Our initials (of course someone had to have camo)

Our wedding date 1-1-09 (painted with nail polish)