Cherry Blossoms, Jimjilbangs, Peeps, and Selfies

This past Friday, I celebrated my 10 month-iversary in Korea! Pretty wild, right? It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that I've been in Korea for almost a year. In just a couple short months, I'll be flying home to visit my lovely family and I am so psyched!

Before this happens, have many activities lined up here in Korea (spoiler alert: May is going to be incredible). But let me back up a little bit and fill you in on yet another great week in Gwangju.

1. Spring is in full swing here. The greatest evidence: cherry blossoms (벚꽃)! Last Saturday I went to a Cherry Blossom festival which was conveniently located directly across the street from my church building. The downside? The weather! Right as the blossoms were blooming, we got some heavy rainstorms. Everyone was so concerned about the poor blossoms. They took a beating but they were still pretty.

Poor blossoms!

It was very rainy so I didn't take many pictures

A corn dog covered in fries?? Good job, Korea! A+

Back at the church, there was conveniently an activity with food! I ate delicious seaweed soup, kimbap, and chicken ^_^. Johanna, a classy French girl in my ward looked super French with her French beret. I convinced her to let me try it on too. Who wears it best?

French?

American?

Korean?

Clearly Johanna is the winner hahaha.

After dinner, we headed downtown for dessert. Mmmmm bingsu. I could eat bingsu every day.

You can't see the bingsu...because we ate it. But trust me, it's delicious

Since that day, I've been a little more successful with finding good cherry blossoms:

2. Yesterday, I had an adventure that was, uh, interesting. Very new and different haha. I went to a jimjilbang (Korean spa). If you don't know anything about what goes on in a jimjilbang, I'll fill you in with this Conan O'Brien clip:

Yes, I even did the full body scrub...yes, it was painful. But I felt so smooth and reborn afterwards! It was definitely an eye-opening experience. Jimjilbangs are nice because it's a cheap place to get cleaned up and sleep for a night when travelling. 

3. My mom sent me so many peeps in my Easter package! I've been really excited to try the unique flavors she sent but I haven't had an opportunity to share the experience with anyone. So I went ahead and tried a couple on my own:

4. In the States, taking selfies is shameful! But in Korea, it's very normal and very much embraced. I can take vanity selfies with pride and confidence! A new friend from Australia introduced me to a Korean picture app: Candy Camera. This app is popular because it pretty much makes you look perfect. Here are some good ones I got today next to beautiful flowers my friends and I came across walking home from church.

For comparison, here is one picture I took WITHOUT the app

And then things started to get silly,  naturally

ANYWAY. Please excuse the vanity. Really, this camera app is wonderful.

5. I have one more thing I must share with you. 

Shrek sweater!

Eating Shrek chicken nuggets while wearing my Shrek sweater

Okay. That's all. Until next time, friends and family!

Thailand Part 2

I know, I know. I'm kind of failing at the blog thing. It's finally time for me to make another post about my Thailand adventure!

The first actual day in Thailand was spent in Bangkok. It was fun exploring the city and seeing a few Buddhist temples (Wats). It was HOT and humid in the city--a huge change from the Winter weather in Korea! It was a very nice break from the cold.

Something I really enjoyed about this day was noting the differences between a Thai Wat and a Korean Sa.

This was my breakfast. We "had to buy something" at the bar in the hotel to get the wifi password. Which was such a joke. Everyone knew the password but we didn't know at the time.

For brunch (okay we slept in a bit, so what), we ventured out into the wild streets of Bangkok, on the hunt for street food!

Success! Yummy, yummy street food! I've missed limes

Our chef

So Venetian!

We were able to navigate Bangkok well enough to find the temple all on our own. Success!

I was so fascinated by how different Buddha looks in Thailand haha

Beautiful ceiling 

Dad converting to Buddhism ;)

Near by was another temple!

Fresh coconut ice cream in a coconut ^_^

This is a famous temple in Bangkok. We actually had to pay to get into this one

We also had to climb up a large spiral hill thing but there were fun things to play with along the way

...and strange sculptures we did not understand

View from the top of the Golden Mountain

Top of the Golden Mountain

One of my favorite pictures from the trip

We were pretty drained after so much wandering in the heat so next we did one of our favorite in-door activities: exploring a museum! We went to Museum Siam, where we got some much needed background information about the history and culture of Thailand. To be honest, I really didn't know anything about Thailand. But thank goodness for museums (p.s. support your local museums, folks).
We got to the museum via motorized tuk tuk. It was frightening. Thrilling, but not exactly fun.

Cookin' up something good

Lady's got to pay better attention to her produce

Obviously I'm Thai

Outside the museum (this pictures totally out of order oops oh well)

Not impressed...

...just kidding!

I was having fun sneaking pictures of my dad playing a game

wild!

After a long, full day in Bangkok, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant. The food was yummy but little did we know, the very best food was yet to come!

I wish I could remember exactly what we ordered...prawns? Something with chicken? A delicious mystery. 

Once we finished eating, we relaxed in the hotel and planned out our next day. We really wanted to go to Chiang Mai. So we made reservations for a flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and for a cool bamboo bungalow place for lodging. Tired, but excited for a new day, we headed off to bed for a well-deserved sleep. 

To be continued...