We Run/Walk/Crawl Taipei and South Korea Adventures!

Hi everyone!
Long time no see!  Sorry for my 2 week absence- I've been busy having amazing adventures!!!  This past weekend was a long weekend for us in Taiwan- we had dragon boat festival!  So it was time for me to leave Taiwan for one last international adventure: off to South Korea I went!

My trip started in Busan, where I met up with my friend Shawnsey, who lives in Ulsan now. Shawnsey and I worked together last summer, and as such, his leaving me at the airport for an hour was especially frustrating, as he knows just how much I don't need quality airport time.
*Shawnsey may try to claim that I have left him at the airport for longer than that, so I will go ahead and point out that he was getting paid for that*

My phone had a very problematic malfunction during our time in Busan (yep, that was scary) so unfortunately I have no pictures! Sorry!  But I went to the beach and that was fun and tried soju, which is gross, but not as gross as baijiu.  After a wonderful day there, I was off to Seoul!

My only picture of Busan! Sorry!

*Don't worry, my phone was working again for pictures by the time I got to Seoul

High Speed Rail in Korea, aka Korail. Busan- Seoul time: 2 hours

Seoul is a crazy city, and I understand why people say it's what Taipei will be 15 years in the future.  Seoul is a city that is all about its shopping and food (which is great, because those are my favorite things too) and I was lucky that I found a place to stay in Myeongdong.  Myeongdong is the western-style shopping area, where you can buy all the clothes and of course, COSMETICS you could ever need.  I have never seen a country with so much make-up as South Korea.
And I will say that while most Korean cosmetics contained whitening products, it is possible to find products without whitening (often cheaper)!  I managed to grab some Bb cream.  The best part is every make-up store you go in gives your free samples, which is how I ended up with some great face masks and lotions (and some whitening products I gave to some Chinese tourists staying at my hotel.

Even Frozen Make-up, so you can be as pale as Elsa.

In addition to my shopping, I also ate lots of yummy street food…mostly while listening to a guy sing K-Pop hits in Cheonggyecheon.  Cheonggyecheon is an amazing discovery I made in my Seoul wanderings- it's basically a river park smack in the middle of busy streets in Seoul.  It's a very cool concept, and a great place to hang out and enjoy some food and music on the weekends!

The market where I bought new glasses

Fried fish something?  It was yummy

The cool river park!

People listening to the concert!

Fried Chicken Stick!

Myeongdong at night!

Me in the market shopping

Banana + Nutella + Crepe + Ice Cream + Corn Flakes = Delicious!

More Shopping!

The view of the Seoul tower from my hotel!

After an exhausting day, I went to sleep in my hotel, and was greeted the next morning by my neighbors blasting K-POP at 8 am.  No problem for me- it was time for me to get up and get ready to go!
So my first stop was Gyeongbokgung, or one of the royal palaces of Seoul.  Mostly destroyed by the Japanese during the occupation (Japan…why did you have to do this to Korea/Taiwan/China?) it has been gradually restored.  It also featured a great museum on Korean history, which was very useful as I have ZERO knowledge of Korean history.  oops.
I also managed to eavesdrop on a Chinese tour group for a lot of my time there, as they mistakenly assumed I couldn't understand what they were saying and therefore didn't try to shoo me away…

The Palace!

A close up!

It's my spirit animal! (That's a horse, y'all!  I'm year of the horse)

Lilly Pads!

Such a beautiful place to visit!

But then it started to rain, so what was a girl to do?  Get some delicious Kimchi for lunch and try out a Jjimjibang!
Jjimjibangs are traditional Korean bath houses- very similar to a Moroccan hammam.  They are gender segregated (of course) and for a very low price (about $8) you can spend a whole day in the jjimjibang and the fomentation rooms.
Step 1, of course is washing yourself and getting scrubbed down.  For those of you who have also had a hammam experience, you know that there is nothing better than getting all your dead skin scrubbed off your body- and after almost four years, it was nice to feel super clean again.
But after that the real fun starts, you put on your sweatpants and tshirt uniform and head up to fomentation rooms.  These rooms are designed to help increase your circulation and balance you- you can choose from many different rooms (like charcoal for arthritis, jade for chronic pain, etc.) and alternate between hot rooms and cold rooms.
I'm not sure if they really work, but it was a really great experience and I certainly felt relaxed.

My super awesome kimchi hot pot lunch

Ready to try the fomentation rooms in the jjimjibang!

…which was great because it was back on the bullet train for me!  A quick stop in Ulsan for dinner and a place to sleep for a few hours, and then it was back to the airport in Busan for me!

The Busan Airport

Enjoying my quality airport time...

…because they have DUNKIN in SK! (it's the little things, y'all)

Also, Air Busan feeds me.  US flights are going to be such a disappointment next year. 

However, after my 3 day week, a very relaxing weekend would have been great…but not what I had planned!

It's Buy One Get One free frappucino week here, so that makes me over caffeinated 

Half marathon, anyone???

It was off to Taipei for the Nike Women's Half Marathon!  Saturday I headed in to Taipei for the half marathon. I had a pretty boring day getting ready for my race, but managed to do a little rainy day exploring.

Shopping in Wufenpu, the wholesale district close to my hotel

Gu + laduree macarons = half marathon prep complete.  What else could I need?

On the storefront of the Nike Store in Xinyi, Taipei, they listed the names of everyone running…super cool!

Can you find my name???

And then race day dawned bright and early at 4 am!!!

So excited to go running this morning!

The course was very flat, well organized, and enjoyable.  However, I have a few observations for Nike!

• If you have an all women's half marathon, I highly suggest we have more bathrooms
• Make sure you have lots of healthcare personnel around to help out
• More bananas please!!!
• Oh, and we don't need a marker every kilometer.  For km 1-10, that's just demoralizing

One thing I LOVED is that we actually didn't get Tiffany's necklaces from firefighters, unlike the Nike women's races in the states.  Not that I wouldn't LOVE  a Tiffany's necklace from a cute firefighter (that sounds wonderful), but it's nice that Nike in Taiwan doesn't assume that women will only run en masse for cute men and jewelry.  They assume that we are actual people and therefore do not need to be bribed.

*unless I sound to high-handed, let me reiterate, I would LOVE a Tiffany's necklace from a cute firefighter and consider that great motivation to run 21km.  However, I like that Nike in Taiwan doesn't assume all women are as shallowly motivated as me. 

It was a great race, except that a young woman near me collapsed towards the end.  Very scary, and I hope she's okay!!!  A reminder that we should all stay safe when we run!

I'm done!!!