Last week I was lucky enough to have my first visitor in Korea.  Despite never having been out of the country (road trips to Canada 30+ years ago don't count), I talked my dad into flying halfway around the world to an extremely foreign land.  With the luck I have at my school I was able to leave early on Friday meaning I could meet him at the airport, a 3.5 hour bus ride from my home.  It was long, but well worth it, I was all smiles once I finally met him in the arrivals hall.  He had survived his 15 hour flight, but unfortunately the travel wasn't quite yet finished.  We still had an hour subway ride into Seoul, and then a hunt for our hostel. 

This past weekend I took up to Seoul for the Lotus Lantern Festival.  There were a number of people going, but I'm never one to rely on or wait for a group so I booked accommodation and said I'd meet them there.  Once in Seoul, I ran into Beth and Katie only to find out they were staying at the same hostel as me.  I then found Stephen at the subway station and we made our way to the hostel, dumped our bags and proceeded into the nightlife of Hongdae.  This was my second weekend spent on the streets of Hongdae and I can say I've not been disappointed.  There's a university nearby so there is plenty of bars, clubs, restaurants and street food.  It was one of Stephen's friends birthdays so we started by getting burgers, beer and some unnecessary shots at one o the restaurants.  After that, we made our way to a few different bars before calling it a night somewhere around 3am.