This past weekend, Mike and I made our way down to Busan with a few friends. We checked out a few films that were part of the Busan International Film Festival and hung around the beach.

A dose of realism here: I thought I was going to be hanging around on the beach like this every weekend. Incheon (where we're living) is right on the ocean, but it unfortunately does not have beautiful sandy beaches like Busan. It has a booming sea harbour - not quite so pretty. That being said, I haven't actually checked out Wolmido island yet, so I should perhaps refrain from judgement.

In any case, it's awfully nice that we're easily able to escape to sandy ocean beaches whenever we so choose! As someone who grew up smack dab in the middle of the continent, that feels like quite the luxury.

*One perk of traveling with friends: having someone around to take a photo to send to your mom.

The sunset on our ferry home from Jeju was killer. As I gazed out on those islands, I had one of those surreal moments where you realize you are living what you dreamed about for so long.

On the day of Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving), the entire town was shut down - tourist attractions, stores, every single gas station and most restaurants. We had plans of whizzing along the coast on our scooter, but of course the tank was empty and we couldn't fill it up. So we spent the day at this rocky spot - munching on snacks, reading, watching kids play in the water, sun burning our noses, and dipping our toes in the water. I had to release myself from all the things I had planned for us to do that day, and just chill out. So we did.

*This spot kind of reminded me of here.

One big perk of teaching at an international school is that you get time off for all sorts of holidays that you wouldn't normally get. I got six (!) beautiful days off for Korean thanksgiving this past week. Mike and I seized the opportunity and made our way down to Jeju island. It is often touted as Korea's Hawaii and it certainly did not disappoint. The only tricky thing about the trip was that some places were closed, especially on Sunday, for the holiday. But I'm all for spending time with your family, especially on a holiday like Thanksgiving, so I could not begrudge them for that.

More photos to come!

(Photo four & five: Haenyeo women showing off their day's catch. Photo six: Seongsan Ilchulbong. Photo seven: Jeongbang Pokpo. Photo nine: Jungmun Beach. Photo eleven and twelve: Gimnyeong Maze)

To a certain extent, a tower is a tower. Every major city seems to have one and they often seem like a cash grab. Regardless, we paid the money to go up the N Seoul Tower and I'm glad we did. Looking out over Seoul made me appreciate just how huge it it is. It sprawls for mile after mile in every direction. As someone who grew up in a city of less than a million, it sort of boggles my mind.

*Back on instagram!

We spent our Saturday morning walking around Namdaemun Market. We didn't buy much else besides some snacks, but it was fun to people watch (and take photos, of course!).

Last night, we played Settlers of Catan in the park with friends. It felt exactly like something we'd do in Canada, which was really nice. We've met such good people here.