While I thought everything would be all peachy for my visa since I had applied more than three weeks before my flight, I got a email reply saying that because I had resided in South Korea, apparently a high prevalence of Tuberculosis, I had to have a test done. By the time I got this email I had only ten days until my flight and was really concerned it wouldn't work out. I had to go to a certain hospital in Busan or Seoul to have it done unfortunately. So I ventured there, had the test done and they said they would send the results electronically in two days.. Which left only a week for the OZ government to get back to me and approve my visa.. So I was really worried it wouldn't all work out. The morning after I submitted on my immgration account that I had the test completed and just a few hours later received a reply that my visa was granted! What a relief..I had the awesome opportunity to help a friend out and take some photos in a beautiful flower field outside of Gyeongju, called Cheomseongdae where there was perfect clouds and lighting for our photo session. The pictures came out amazing, you can see all of them here. That evening Jared, one of my EPIK orientation friends, had his parents visiting. So we did some Korean bbq and a little night out in Pohang. It was yet another great reunion.
I had the awesome opportunity to play in a second Ultimate tournament in Korea in Ulsan and played with a Soongshil University Team based from Seoul, the team was pretty new, and most had never played together so we struggled against the other club teams who play in Korea.. but we still had a good time! It was also a great time to spend a lot of time with Owen and Sunhwa that weekend. Seeing all of the Ultimate Community kiddos hanging out and playing together at the tournament while mom and dad were playing Ultimate was adorable. They have a whole little crew.
After Ulsan, I headed to Seoul where I was picked up at the bus terminal by Sunny and her mom who had just gotten off work. The next day she had an accupuncture appointment scheduled, so she asked the doctor if he would see me as well, and for 12 dollars, why not? He touched some random places on my body, asked her some questions and then said that my pancreas wasn't functioning as well as it could be.. So the needles were placed based on that. Most of the needles didn't hurt to much while he put them in, however the one in the webbing of my toes.. ouch! Mostly it didn't hurt but a few of the needles started to hurt as we were nearing the end of the 15 minutes lying still under the lamp. It was an interesting experience for sure. Then we went to the jjimjilbang where Sunny and I got "scrub downs". I've talked about jjimjilbangs before, or public bath houses but that would be years back to find that post.. anyways a jjjimjilbang has all sorts of different temperature hot and cold pools, showers, saunas, and places for people to hang out. You can eat in them, you get a little outfit, can get a massage, a scrub down, etc.. Check out this video for a great idea and hilarious take on jjimjilbangs. Anyways the scrub down is where a naked lady scrubs your whole body to remove all the dead skin with a magic little scruby thing that everyone in Korea uses.. It tickled a little bit, and yeah was a little all up in my grill.. but my skin did feel quite amazing afterwards. In that same video above, check out 5:30 for where Conan gets his scrub down!
The next day we went on a hike up the mountain near her house and had a beautiful look out of Seoul. I met my cousin Shane in Itaewon for what was going to be dinner, ended up being beers. Great to see him, but sad I missed Dale but I know it was a week night and he had stuff going on as well. I also got to meet up with a travel bud I met in Colombia. We explored Dongdaemun, got some lunch and checked out all the shops. It was great hearing some of his travel stories and catching up. Another night I met Sunny's Korean friends for a night of norebanging (karaoke room) and dinner in the room. It was so much fun to sing and dance with them, however they were struggling with their English so that made it a little bit difficult. Nonetheless still a great time. My last night in Korea Sunny and I got some Shabu Shabu, then packed and I had my flight the next morning.I was very pleased with Garuda Indonesia and happy that I spent the extra $4 dollars to fly with them instead of Air Asia. The first flight wasn't totally full so I had plenty of space, good meals, including ice cream as a snack, and awesome in flight
My resume is all updated and I've been sending it off quite a bunch so hoping to find something really quickly when I land in Melbourne. For now I'm just hanging out with another travel pal I met in Costa Rica in Adelaide. Just arrived yesterday so haven't seen too much but seems beautiful and I'm excited to do some exploring here. Wishing it was a little bit warmer to go for a swim in the ocean but Spring is here! Hopefully the temperatures warm up soon!! Keep your fingers crossed for some decent work and finding a house quickly after arriving in Melbourne!
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