Which way to the beach

So the journey to Busan (bottom of Korea) started on Wednesday morning. We worked all day Tuesday even though it was Korean New Year and we thought afternoon classes were cancelled. In the morning with the kinder kids they got all dressed up in traditional Korean outfits and we learned how to bow and play a game called ‘Yut’. Also, when we arrived in the morning we were given dresses to put on from the Korean teachers. They were their wedding dresses actually. Mine was bright pink and too short because as I’ve heard too many times ‘you’re very tall’. So basically I looked like a candy (bon bon specifically). Justine had a nice one that was purple’y. So at least the morning was fun. We were slightly disappointed about having to teach the elementary classes since we had the whole afternoon planned to do trip stuff and instead we didn’t end up leaving the school until 7:30pm. The plan was to take the high speed train (KTX) down to Busan, but what we learned on Monday was that it has been sold out for months. The next option was the bus. Although it is not a favourite, it was the only option so we were gonna take it. Then, after Justine did some investigating into it she learned that it might be sold out as well. The plan was to just leave around 9 Wednesday morning and then hopefully catch a bus by noon. However, Ken (our director/boss) informed us on our way out Tuesday night that due to the traffic and because it is ‘high season’ (Lunar New Year), instead of taking 3-4 hours to get there it would be more like 10 because of the traffic on the highways. Devastating news. So we came up with a new plan. This involved going home, packing, doing some laundry and not sleeping. We decided to leave our place around 3:30am and then hopefully catch the first bus at 6. So we were prepping for the trip and since we were given 2 very nice bottles of red wine each and a corkscrew from the school (for the New Year ) we felt the best way to start of the vacay would be to crack one open. Then, Justin Timberlake live at Madison Square Garden came on OnStyle (one of the 5 English channels we get). So we cranked it and pretended we were there. We made it to 3:30 and our clothes had successfully dried on the floor after cooking like chickens because we turned up the heat so high. At 3:30AM, we headed out to find ourselves a cab. We would have called a cab but A) we don’t really have an address and B) we don’t speak Korean. Luckily we found one at the main street not too far away from us. After being scared for our lives due to Mr. Cabby’s (lack of ) driving skills, we made it to the station to find out the ticket windows didn’t open until 5:30 (It was 4:30). So we just chilled and waited (and hunted for the McDonalds bfast). Around 5:15 everyone was lining up to get tickets so we followed and got 2 tickets on the express bus for 7AM!! Not too shabby.
to be contiued...