So the weekend of rafting was awesome!! Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30am, got dressed and out the door I went to go on the subway to meet the group at a station to go rafting! When everyone arrived we went on a bus and the ride was about an hour and a half or 2 hours. Not sure on the exact time of the bus ride. When we arrived we walked to go pick a raft to ride with 9 other people. We put on life jackets that were awkwardly uncomfortable to wear. They had us go in the water and float on our backs and do bobs! Ha! The water was freezing!! But it was so hot outside it also felt so good! So then I got in the raft with the other people and we were off!! The water wasn’t going that fast. Although we went down this dip and there was a scary moment. I screamed pretty loud and this girl I met from Canada and I dodged for the center of the raft!! HA! We laughed about it later. Overall it was fun. The funny part is every time we passed by another rafting group even the Koreans they were splashing us with the paddles! HA! As you can see in the pictures. It was really funny. We stopped twice to go swimming and then there was a moment where they set up the rafts where they flipped them over and we ran and slid off of them like a waterslide!! It was awesome!! You can see in the photos! I met some pretty cool people on the rafts and swimming! It was really funny because I wanted us to go faster and I would ask, “can we keep pedaling?” HA! I meant to say paddling. Everyone was laughing. There was also a game that we played when it was safe of course in the water. No heavy rocks around. We put up our feet against the person sitting across from us and we had to try to push each other off. It was really funny because my side got knocked off! HA! But I was so annoyed because the girl across from me had already started and was on my side! Not fair! HA! But everyone eventually got knocked off. It was fun! There was this one time where I was trying to pull up this girl. She put her feet up first from the water. It looked hilarious from the view of being in the raft, but it was really smart though. I was trying to pull her up and I was laughing so hard! Then another girl and I were trying to pull her up, but we ended up bursting into laughter so hard that we were having a hard time. Then we finally got her up! Ha! My cheeks were hurting because I was laughing so hard later. Then lead to bungee jumping. There was an option to bungee jump. Did I? Well, actually everyone thought I was going to because of how outgoing of a personality I had. But no. I did not have the guts to do it. It looked scary and from where they bungee jumped it didn’t look high enough for me. But I heard from this one girl that the next day you feel like you were in car crash. Did not sound pleasing to me.

After everything was over we went back on the bus to the subway station where we first met. Then I had dinner at a Morocco-an restaurant with 3 other people I just met. Pretty interesting individuals. Julie was born and raised in Germany, works as an English teacher here if I’m not mistaken and Dong-Seon Chang born in Korea but his family moved to Germany because his parents worked in Germany. So he’s fluent in Korean, German, and English! He works in the medical field but also works within the arts field on the side. Also, there was Genna, a Canadian young lady who is from Toronto, Canada. She traveled and lived in Thailand for a year. So I talked to her a lot about her experiences there. It was really interesting. But she loved it! She is a very interesting person, besides where she has traveled, in Toronto she worked at a homeless shelter. Apparently, she was making a great salary, which surprised me, but it was a difficult and emotionally draining job because she was working with such rough situations.

Afterwards, Dong-Seon took us to a bar that was fascinating in interior design. Korea is very random! Inside it is all white, you feel like your in Antarctica but it wasn’t cold. I had to take off my shoes, which was weird for me especially in a bar. But we walked upstairs and sat on the floor having a glass of wine. Oh my gosh! I was sitting there just observing everything and taking it all in. I was going through a little moment of shock. The design was really beautiful. And there was also a part of the bar where there was a little water where you can step your feet in. It was really neat! Then he took us to another bar where it looked really cool also, but it was something I could easily see in America. The bar played good music though and I met two girls from Scotland girls. They were really cool! That same night I walked with them to this outside area in the village and Zoe (Scotland Girl) put fire on the end of a string and swinged it around. It is really interesting to watch. I had seen and heard of it, but never seen it live! That night I was soo tired! Going since 5:30 in the morning to about 3am at night! I was so exhausted! I was surprised I didn’t pass out and a Canadian guy I met that night told me he’s surprised I hadn’t already. Shows how much energy I have right? I was supposed to spend the night at a friend of a friends place. But here bars are open literally for a longggg time. I’m not exactly sure. But people are out I know until 5am!! Definitely different then Cleveland, where places close at the latest 2 or 2:30am. So I ended just taking a taxi that night. SOooooo tired! But glad I was out and about!

There’s another random bar in Korea that I’ll eventually go to. It’s called the Ice Bar where it’s absolutely freezing! They give you a fur coat to wear and you walk into the place obviously feeling literally like you’re in Antarctica. I haven’t gone in yet, but I heard the weather gets really hot here in September. I’ll probably go during the next month.

So Sunday I just mellowed out! Recovering from Saturday. The next weekend, I had a long weekend where I had Friday off. So this girl I met from Las Angeles, California who lives near me explored a mall that had different stores. We especially looked at the stores that had traditional things from South Korea so I can send back to family and friends of course! It was really cool! There was a show in the mall! They played Korean music and a guy came out in a costume. What was especially important was his hat, cap, and mask. I don’t know what it was called what he did, but he would cover ridiculously quickly is face and a new mask would appear! I don’t know how he did it so fast! It was really incredible to watch! I was feeling the Korean culture! After the guy was done, we saw the Chinese lion dance! It was amazing! They had two people underneath this furry lion costume thing, it was soo cool! I had seen clips on TV, pictures, but never in person! It was so awesome and funny! There was the aquarium in the mall so we went to the aquarium. It was really interesting. Of course I’ve been to an aquarium before, but Korea has some differences. At this aquarium, they put fish in a part of a refrigerator, a toilet, a sink, a microwave, a dresser drawer, and other things I can’t exactly remember. Well, of course Korea would have an exhibit like that! Ha!

We had a little Italian dinner, not the same quality as the Italian food I’ve had in the states just so everyone knows. But it was really good though! Then off went back home. Pretty tired and to bed.

Saturday mellowed out day. Went out for a walk late at night with my friend that lives in the apartment building on the same road as me. We walked around the river and found a little concert that was showing! There were 3 Korean guys playing the saxophone. It was basically a little jazz free show. A little outside stage with families and people watching, sitting on benches and outside lawn chairs. Then we wandered Bundang and went on top of the roof of an apartment building and watched korean olympic baseball game on a big screen. That was cool!

On Sunday, stayed and walked around a little bit. The whole weekend it had been raining. I found online a free performance to watch of Rent in Suwon, a city not far from me. It was near the Hwaseong Fortress. It was an outside stage where people brought towels or a mat to sit on the lawn. They skipped a couple of songs but the men were stronger singers than the females I have to say. They sang in Korean of course. We were jamming and singing on the side in English when the song “Seasons of Love” was performed. Both Laura and I had been in musical theater before so we knew about how people should be and quality of a good musical play. Laura told me that she was in rent. I haven’t but it was good though! Good time outside!

That’s all of my adventure stories for today. I hope I brought some smiles and laughs to your faces!