Busan? Pusan? Who cares, it's a beach!

Last week was very stressful for me.  I don't know if my hormones decided to just mess with me for the fun of it, or what, but by Friday afternoon, I was ready to pop.  Thank goodness I had plans to go down south with my friend Sam for the weekend!  One city that my friends and I had all wanted to go was a beach town called Busan (or Pusan, depending upon where you look).  Since my one friends folks are in town for three weeks, she told us she planned to go down with them.  So Sam and I decided we'll go by ourselves, no biggy.  (Later we found out that she had decided to go down the same weekend as us!  At first we thought this was great news, but later found the opposite to be true sadly.)  Sam and I meet up, grabbed some food, and took the slightly slower train down to Busan.  While it was only 5 hours, the ride felt like it took forever, mostly because we would stop every 30 min or so and people stood in the aisle.  Poor Sam kept getting hit with bags since she was in the aisle seat.  We finally dragged our very tired bodies off the train around 11pm, found a taxi, then walked from the subway stop to our hostel.  After 12 failed attempts at contacting our friend to get our room key, she finally woke up enough to hand us our key.  Not gonna lie, we were kinda freaking out.
Despite sleeping in till 9am, we both felt really tired and I know I was incapable of a real conversation until Sam got some tea in me.  We (sort of, but not really) made lunch plan with our friend and her folks before we went off to a water temple.  It was pretty, but most temples look the same after a while, so didn't spend long walking around there.  There was a pretty area where you could sit on rocks and overlook the ocean right next to the temple though.  So we hung out there for a while, Sam just relaxing and me drawing.  A taxi brought us back to town where we had Mexican with our friend and her folks, which was fine.  They went off to a soccer game while we went to the beach!
Ahhhh, the beach.  I never imagined that I would miss something I felt so ambivalent towards growing up.  There's something calming, soothing and reminiscent of home about a beach now.  We just chilled on the steps, taking pictures, people watching, and talking.  We walked around, watched an amature dance competition, then walked around a park area.  We saw a mermaid statue and lighthouse!  :)  There was also a fun suspended bridge on the walk, I wish the whole thing was made that way!  We found a cafe afterwards and (accidentally!) listened in on a conversation next to us, talking about their conversation on Kakao.  Now before you judge us, we live in Seoul, where we never hear English.  When we do, we both still whip around and look for the person speaking in English.  It's so rare, that we are caught off guard understanding others.  So when this guy was speaking in Englilsh Right Next To Us, we couldn't help but listen!  Yeah, I know, weak defense.  Whatever.  :P  Afterwards we read on the beach before meeting up with our friend and her folks.  We walked around one of the largest department stores in the world, enjoyed grass on the roof (no seriously, the roof was covered in grass!  I did cartwheels!), before parting ways to find dinner.  (I'm sorry to say, after parting ways, Sam and I were feeling all the more frustrated with our friend than ever.  I won't go into all of the details, but basically she has stopped communicating with us, making planning very difficult to do.) 
After a delicious meal at Outback, we grabbed tea and basically sat in the common room at the hostel to read for a while.  We tried to wake up for the sunrise, but we either missed it or couldn't see it because of the hill.  We weren't sure, but neither of us were pleased.  We made the hour ride back to the KTX station, walked around an outside market with our friend and her folks, and then grabbed lunch before going home.  I discovered that trains put me to sleep really fast!
All in all, it wasn't a bad trip.  Just not as smooth or enjoyable as I was hoping.
Sam and I are planning a trip to Puerto Princesa, Philippines in late June, and we're both really excited!  We're also looking in going to the World Expo/World Fair in Yeosu, Ulsan and then Jeju before I leave in August.  See my lovely maps?  Red stars are places I've been, blue are ones that I plan on going to within the next year or so.  :) 

Gotta stay positive, life isn't always going to be sunshine and cotton candy you know. 
Love,
Rita