Whew

It has been a busy few weeks. Finished exams and went on a trip to the southern portion of South Korea (Kwangju and Hampyeong) for a famous "Butterfly Expo." I didn't plan this one, my RA Alex did, but after exams I was anxious to get out of the city.

These are his photographs from the trip (I didn't bring my camera). The big things of note are that, in Seoul, some people say "hello" and "how are you!" when they see me because I am white. But in Kwangju and Hampyeong, me and Becky were the only white people, and probably about half of the thousands of people we saw insisted on saying hello and practicing their English. This made it really easy to accost all of the mascots and get pictures taken with them.

Also, we slept overnight at a sauna. Yes, on the floor with a little square cushion. $6 for the whole night. It was strange, but I sort of liked it (except that I only got 1 hour of sleep because of the whole floor thing). They call it chimchilbang, which I think means "heated compress room." Regardless it's pretty fun to go to, and you can get massages and stuff if you feel like.

I may be traveling to Osaka or Tokyo next week because we have school off for Buddha's Birthday. They string up paper lanterns on the streets... its like Christmas! Anyway, good luck to all my pals back home that are probably having finals right now. Shouldn't be much longer before I'm back in Gainesville!