On Being Flexible

Today, we learned to be flexible- a lot of unplanned things happened. We first drove to Busan Tower where we rode the elevator up all the way to the top. You could see all the parts of the city, even the undeveloped hills which was cool. On the glass it displayed information about direct parts of the city. You could walk down a flight of stairs where there was food and beverages. We then rode the elevator down to the gift shop where there were many cool souvenirs. We left Busan Tower and headed to the UN cemetery. We were originally supposed to visit it yesterday but we couldn't because it was raining. We were able to fit it in today. At the cemetery, we saw 2,300 graves. They were separated into their nations and a flag was flown for each country that lost soldiers in the war. We then watched a video which gave details about the Korean war. We also viewed the monuments and memorabilia related  to the war. It was interesting to receive even more perspective on the war in addition to the DMZ and JSA tours. We then drove to a local fish market that had an abundance of live seafood. It was really cool to see all of the living fish right in front of our eyes. After we explored the fish market, we headed to a pizzeria for lunch. It was fun to eat pizza again after all the new and different Asian foods. Next, we walked through another marketplace filled with handmade items like food, clothes, and cultural items. As we were walking back through the streets, we enjoyed passing pet stores that had adorable puppies in them. After that, we were all ready to catch a flight to Jeju Island. When we got to the airport and checked our luggage, we waited at our gate for a half hour, only to hear that our flight had been canceled due to the aftermath of a typhoon! We called our tour guide Christine back to help us create a new plan. We ended up waiting in the airport for about three hours. To pass the time, some of us played games like cards or volleyball, and also used the Wifi. The new plan was to return to the same hotel we stayed in last night. We plan to take a very early bus ride to Seoul and fly to Jeju from the Seoul airport. We arrived at the hotel and have yet to figure out a way to entertain ourselves until the morning. Today we were truly reminded of the first rule we learned to follow, "Be flexible!" Over and out...

-Kate and Sonja