24 hours in South Korea

After our January jaunt in Beijing we once again had to leave the country for our visas....so it was off to South Korea to visit friends for 24 hours! We flew in to Busan then headed south to Geoje Island, which was absolutely beautiful even in January. We drove around a good portion of the island, stopping of course to see the shipyard that makes Jiangyin's look oh-so-tiny, ate good Korean food--including fermented baby octopus (surprisingly good!), drank a good amount of Soju and Scotch (separately), and even squeezed in a near fatal trip to Costco before jumping back on the plane.

I can't believe I'm posting this atrocious photo of me....but it's good of Dougie, Bri and Ji-Young.

In the summer this is Busan's see-and-be-seen beach...

It was a whirlwind trip, but great to sleep in a comfortable bed and see Dougie & Ji-Young's town, even if the trip ended with food poisoning from Costco. At least the food poisoning gods were slightly kind, in that it didn't kick in until after our flight. Oy.

Happy New Year, Again!

Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year) starts on Monday and Jiangyin is already becoming a ghost town as people start the mass exodus out of town to see their families. We're jumping on the bandwagon tomorrow as we make our first trip to Beijing and then continue on to South Korea courtesy of our 30 day visas. We'll be in Beijing for 4 days, staying at a hutong inn which should give us a glimpse of "Old Beijing." All the usual tourist suspects are on our list--the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall (hopefully covered in snow?!), eating Peking duck, scouring the famous Dirt Market trying to discern trinkets from treasures, ice skating at Shichahai, seeing a traditional Peking Opera performance, and of course, the Beijing Museum of Tap Water. Phew! I'm sure there's no way we'll squeeze it all in!

Then we're off to South Korea to... I actually don't know where! We're flying to Busan because it is the cheapest flight out of the country we could find. But our best friends here in Jiangyin are actually from a city near Busan and happen to be home on their vacation. So it works out perfectly for us to stay with them for two days and get the official insider's tour. I can't wait!

So "Xinnian Kuaile!" and I'll see you all in the New Year! (Which I learned last night at our Chinese lesson, means I'm soon to be 33! ouch! But as soon as I'm south of the Yangtze I'll be 32, which is a little better, yet so strange!)

Fingers crossed for snow!