Restless Seoul : Blossoms, Buses, 'brellas, and Busan.

It was a wet and wild weekend here in Korea. Okay, wet and a lot of time on a bus, but it was wildly entertaining and kept me on my toes.

I didn't have my 6th graders on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that opened up my week a lot. I recently started watching a show called "Running Man." It's a variety show, and it's awesome. They have idols and actors and whatnot as guests for each episode and they play stupid games. Usually there is a nametag ripping game, which is always fun.

Here are some funny moments throughout the show. It's fantastic and I love watching it.

Anyway, So Jung and I only had 1 class on Tuesday and Wednesday thanks to our lack of sixth graders, so we got to relax and have fun. It was great!

So I had a quick week to get to an even quicker weekend. On the docket: Cherry Blossoms!

A while ago we booked a trip to Jinhae and Busan to see the blossoms. They bloom earlier in the south, so this was the perfect weekend.

Or so we thought.

On our way down we had quite a bit of sunshine, but we were stuck in traffic too long in Jinhae to notice the clouds come rolling in. We got to the famous train tracks about an hour later than we should have (WinK - When in Korea, the trip group, is great if a little bad at planning for traffic), and we wandered there for a bit.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Walking on the train tracks surrounded by blossoms with my best friend in the universe. No amount of rain could ruin it!

So many pretty flowers lining the tracks.

Jeanie and Tina got some blossoms!

We got lost on the way back to the bus (another thing that happened far too many times on this trip), and a trip down to the main part of Jinhae took another hour on the bus.

Alas, our sunshine was gone. It started to rain when we got down and it did not stop.

Rather than let the rain on our parade ruin our trip, we decided to go to the famous stream, Yeojwacheon, in Jinhae too. It's famous for being a romantic spot, and was a filming location for something or other.

And oh man was it pretty! Even with all the rain, the blossoms floating down the river and the stream being lined with the trees was incredible. They had cool decorations in the stream and whatnot.

All these umbrellas and I still got soaked...

We managed some photos and continued to marvel at how rainy it was.

Awwww.

We still managed to find ways to enjoy the day despite our wet clothes and feet!

Jeanie with Exhibit A: the bomb-ass food we referred to as the Potato Tornado.

After getting a potato tornado treat, we made our way back to the main part of Jinhae to dry off.

I liked the look of the blossoms on the umbrellas.

On the bridge over some train tracks, we came across some rainy day gems:

"Line of People with Umbrellas Waiting to Get on Train"

"People Without Umbrellas"

Seriously, the guys using the boxes for protection were my heroes. We could not stop laughing.

After warming up with some tea and coffee and migrating to get food, we went back to the bus and helped round people up so we could make our way to Busan.

Tina and I did brave the rain for one more time to go buy the poor bus driver a sandwich. He was stuck driving in the traffic for so long and he hand't eaten by the time we got back, so we felt like he needed some cheering up. He was really chill and helpful and nice, so a sandwich and a coke was the least we could do for him.

Bus driver dude got the job done and got us to Busan on time! We made it to our motel and finally got to be warm and dry once we changed our clothes.

The famous "Diamond Bridge" all lit up at night!

After some rest (and a glorious electric blanket for me!) we got up bright and early to explore Busan. First stop? This awesome temple:

Too much to type.

It got messed up and rebuilt thanks to our good friends in Japan. It was a really cool temple!

Korea needs this.

This is really famous for having a female buddha I think.

Unlike being on a mountain, this temple is located along the shore of the sea. It's got some pretty cool views!

The WinK leaders love pics, so we have a lot of group selfies.

We made our way back to the bus, but not before snagging this gem:

If there is an interactive statue, they will take ridiculous pictures on it.

Next we made our way to Haeundae Beach to walk along the beach and boardwalk.

In the bottom right you can see the mermaid statue.

We headed to the non-functioning but cool lighthouse.

After a lot of walking and exploring beautiful Busan, we headed to the Wolfhound (an Irish pub that is also in Itaewon) for fish & chips then headed back to the bus.

We got to cross the Diamond Bridge, which is less cool looking in the daytime. On a not so cloudy day, you can see Japan from some points in Busan. Alas, we were cursed with clouds all weekend. Oh well.

There's an abandoned roller coaster. There used to be a ferris wheel too, but both were shut down for ... reasons...

We took one last stop back at the motel before finally making our way back to Seoul. It took forever for me to get home. I seriously got home at about the time I usually go to bed and I was so tired and sore on Monday (naturally the day I have the most classes), but it was so worth it. I really had a wonderful time! The only problem is now I keep looking up more trips that I want to take! Ahhhh!

We'll see what else this week has in store.

In honor of the cherry blossoms, here's the song that will be playing all over Korea while they're blooming: