Naksansa Buddhist Temple & Beach

(Happy Birthday DAD!!! 💙)

Today was such a fun day! We drove all the way up to the northeast corner of the country and spent the day on the beach with the Simons Family.  It took us almost 4 hours to get there because of traffic (despite leaving at 5:30AM). Summer school just ended so today is the first official day of summer for the Koreans. One of the craziest things you'll ever see in Korea are the rest stops. Rest stops here are kind of like mini street malls, so there's lots of food and some shopping places. Kind of cool, but nothing super extravagant, right? I mean, it's still a rest stop. But driving by, it's almost as if the rest stop is the final destination for the Koreans. Literally PACKED. Sometimes there's even a backup on the interstate from cars trying to get off at a rest stop. Why? Who knows. On the way to Gangwon, we passed the turn off to Pyeongchang where the 2018 Winter Olympics were held. South Korea built tunnels through the mountains in preparation for the games to make it easy for people to get to the venues. One of the tunnels is 11 km long and in the middle they put grooves in the road that sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" as you drive over it. It's pretty neat. To get to the beach today, we drove through 40 km of tunnels.

Shooting On My Birthday!

So now it's time for my birthday shenanigans! So I got the present I have always wanted: to book a big job! I booked a prestigious golf client, Jack Niklaus! I have no clue who they are, but they are the big client here! Because of that, we started my birthday party on Sunday with the Simons, a fondue party! We invited a couple other friends from the ward, Jimmy Shaha(from the branch presidency) and Caleb Stott(a way fun dentist that talks about the bachelorette with us)!

Boryeong Mud Festival

Today I went down south to Boryeong to a popular Mud Festival with the Simons! Spencer couldn't come because of work! He got called last minute for a job which was such a bummer, but also good cause, we like work! It was about a 2 hour drive down to where we were. We left at 7:30AM to get there early.

The festival had tons of activities and challenges including obstacle courses, slides, mud soccer, and several mud pits to just wrestle in. The challenges were all in the big blow up My favorite challenge was the floating "king of the rock" type challenge. We started with two teams, 4 on each side and the goal is to push the other team off. It was so much fun! My team definitely won and I take pride in the fact that I knocked Diamond off! At the end Brian dumped us all in so that was whatever. The other challenge I really liked was a giant circle and we had to push the other team out of the circle. No one had a chance against Brian though. It ended up being a free for all more than a team thing. It was really fun.

My day in the OR...

Today I got the chance to shadow Jimmy Shaha in the operating room! He is one of the counselors in the branch presidency and an orthopedic surgeon for the Army. I loved being in the OR! It was such a cool experience! He had four surgeries scheduled that day. There was a lateral ankle ligament reconstruction, an ACL, a knee scope, and a shoulder scope. I was kind of nervous about maybe being a little queasy but I wasn't at all. I spent so much time at BYU working with athletes post-operation and it was so cool to see the other side!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my 24th birthday! Whoopee! I got to talk with Mom and Dad and Emily and Gwen and Jacquelyn which totally made my day! The day was pretty chill though. We agreed to dog/house sit for the Livingston family in our branch while they are in the states visiting family for a couple of weeks so we moved over to their huge apartment in Yongsan. They're on the 23rd floor and you can't even imagine the gorgeous views they have from their floor to ceiling windows that are everywhere in their apartment. They have two dogs, Luke and Lilo. Luke is a big dog and Lilo is little. They're both super cute.

4th of July Fun!

Happy Independence Day!!!!!!

Today the Simons invited us to go hike the Seoul Fortress City Ramparts (aka the Seoul City Wall)! We spent about 2 hours hiking from our start point to the end point. It was a really cool hike with lots of pretty views! Of course the actual hike was just endless stair climbing. We were behind the Blue House and in a militarized zone so we had to check in with our passports and then wear a tag around our neck throughout the duration of our hike.

After hiking we went back to the Simons' house for a swim in the pool on base. Brian picked up some pizza for lunch! We had so much fun at the pool. It felt so nice because it was such a hot day. Spencer and Diamond were doing tricks off the diving board that kept getting more silly and challenging as the day went on. Sophia and Giselle also had some fun tricks. I did a front flip and called that good enough! The lifeguards at the pool are all Korean, and Koreans are very much the "follow the rules" type. Unfortunately, that means that most things you would do at a pool are not allowed. Things like, running, diving, excessive splashing, and having too much fun are frowned upon. We spent a good 3 hours at the pool before deciding to call it quits. We went to the Simons' house to shower and clean ourselves up and then we watched "White House Down." The Simons hadn't seen it yet, but it's one of our all-time favorites and perfect for Independence Day! After the movie ended we hurried over to the Narula's home with the Simons. They had invited us all to watch the fireworks from their apartment window. If you're reaction is anything similar to what mine was when we first got the invitation, it was "What fireworks?" As it turns out, Koreans don't celebrate the 4th of July, but Americans do! The Narula's big living room window looks out over the military base and the Army put on a whole firework show for the soldiers and their families! It was awesome! We ate tacos and had sugar cookies with 4th of July sprinkles. We spent the rest of the evening playing games and having a great time! The Narula's have been in Korea for about a year I think. Bro. Narula works for the Department of Defense. They came from England and were in Germany before that. They love the ex-pat life. They have 4 kids. Two boys and two girls. The oldest boy is 15 and then they go down to about 3 years old.

It ended up being a very American day as a whole which Spencer and I were really happy about! That had definitely not been our experience in Mexico last summer! We were so happy that the Simons thought to invite us along for the fun!

Street Food in Myeongdong!

So we live basically right across the street from one of the most famous tourist spots in Seoul. That would be the Street Food Market! They have all sorts of fun uniquely Korean foods, and also some silly foods! It is soooo busy! They typically set up around 4pm and close up shop between 11pm-midnight. The market goes down two very long streets that intersect and there are stands on both sides! So many different foods! Who knows if we are going to be able to taste them all, but we are sure going to try! (Well, all except the seafood ones, we all know Amy isn't going to touch them!) We decided that we would try to go once a week and try something new when we first got here, maybe for FHE or date night, but there are always other options! So that hasn't happened, but we still go quite a lot! Some of our current favorites are Egg Buns, Not Spicy Chicken Bowls, Cheese Sticks, and the 32cm Ice Cream Cone! We have a bunch of pictures, so get ready!