Fergusons in Busan.

The last stop of the trip was beautiful Busan.  Busan is the second largest city in South Korea, but has a very different vibe from Seoul.  It is spread out along the coast, so for some reason it doesn't seem so big, and it also has a very beachy vibe.  Doug and I had been once before, but it was during the winter.  So, we were excited to experience it during summer and see the busy beaches.

We arrived late on the first night after a very long bus ride from Boseong.  We checked into our hotels and dropped off our bags.  We were starving by that point, since it was past nine o'clock, so we walked down to the beach to check out the restaurants.  We found a great little Italian bistro on the waterfront that, luckily, was still taking in new customers even though it was approaching ten at that point.  The food was delicious, maybe one of the best places I have eaten in Busan.

The second day was when we did most of our sightseeing.  We went Busan Tower first and looked over the different districts and ports of Busan.  Once we got to the top, Doug and I searched for our "love lock" that we put up there when we were visiting in January.  We looked for awhile with the help of Doug's parents, but couldn't find it.  In hindsight maybe we should have made our lock really unique looking to stand out.

After the tower, we shopped, ate lunch, and then stopped at Jalgachi Fish Market.  You can actually see the market in the picture of the city, above.  It is the longer building with the funny curved roof.  It is towards the right side of the picture and is along the water.  The market is always a cool thing to see.  They've got every type of seafood that you could imagine.  

The outdoor market.

The indoor market.

The last day we went down to the beach by our hotel to dip our feet in the water before we had to get on our train back to Cheonan.  When you go the the beach in Korea, you can rent an umbrella space rather than bringing your own.  So all the spaces are uniformly distributed along the beach with red umbrellas.

When we were walking back to the hotel to get our bags and go to the train station, we ran into a local with two beautiful Jindo dogs.  The owner spoke impeccable English, so it was so fun talking to her about her dogs.  Jindos are often kept her as a guard dog, chained up outside for their entire life - never let off their chain.  Or they are raised for dog meat occasionally.  Rarely do we see them as actually pets.  This girl's Jindos were so incredibly sweet.  The one that is not pictured would just plow her head right into you and try to snuggle on your lap when you crouched down to pet her.  It was so endearing! Now, Doug is totally sold on getting a Jindo someday.  

Anniversary Weekend: Gwangju.

For the second part of our anniversary weekend, Doug and I stayed in Gwangju, a city in the South West of Korea.  We were lucky that there was no rain during the weekend, but it was sweltering hot.  Because of the heat, we tried to stay cool as much as possible by enjoying our meals slowly and stopping for lots of coffee breaks.  Doug found a really nice Italian restaurant called Bottle.  The flavors in the pasta were so fresh and delicious.  We loved it so much that we ate there twice in two days!

Night 1: The food was so good that we didn't even think to take pictures until after we were finished.  The food was great, the drinks were refreshing, and the atmosphere was so relaxing.  I think I'm glad this place isn't in Cheonan or I would be wanting to eat there all the time!

Day 2: We ate there for lunch before heading back to Cheonan.  Doug couldn't stop thinking about the burger after he saw it on the menu the night before.  See how there are only two fries on his plate?  They've really got portion control down here!  I got seafood pasta with a tomato sauce (yes, I ate seafood - it was too good to pass up!). 

After lunch we had some time to kill before catching our train but didn't want to walk around in the heat.  Also, I wore black skinny jeans that day which was the worst decision of my life.  We noticed a dog cafe across the street from Bottle and I convinced Doug to go with me. This cafe was a lot cleaner than the  one we went to in Cheonan, but the dogs weren't that interested in being around you.  From the photos you can get a glimpse of how to accessorize your dog in Korea.

Picnic and fireworks.

Here are some pictures from our late fourth of July celebration that we had with some friends. We all walked down the lake and packed picnic dinners and drinks. It was such a fun day enjoying the beautiful weather with great friends.  After the sun set, we lit off some fireworks.

Our friend's dog, Foster.

Meet....

Pippa!  I know many of you know already, but we got a new dog.  After some serious consideration, Doug and I decided that the best thing for us deal with the pain of losing Yeppi was to open our hearts to a new dog.  We will always miss Yeppi and she we always hold a very special place in our hearts, but we needed something else to love to distract us from the emptiness that we felt.  We ended up going to a shelter in Pyeongtaek, which is about twenty minutes north of us on the subway.  

When we got to the shelter, a woman took us to a room with about 30 available dogs.  They were all small dogs and there were several Yorkies, Malteses, black Poodles, and mixed breeds.  We weren't able to get any of the dogs out and play with them before making our decision, so we took some time trying to get to know the dogs through the cages.  We both knew that we wanted a dog that didn't bark, so we narrowed it down to the two cages that had quiet dogs.  I was trying to decide between Pippa and the little Yorkie or Maltese in the pictures below.  I asked Doug what he thought and he said he wanted Pippa. Since Doug was the first one to see a spark in Yeppi, I knew he knew what he was doing when picking out a sweet, lovable, amazing dog. 

Disclaimer: The pics for this post aren't that great because they were taken on our phones and the dogs were moving so fast :) 

She got Pippa out for us and brought her into the shed/office where she worked.  We filled out some paperwork and that was that.  We didn't even have to pay a fee to take her home.  I was shocked at how simple it was.  We basically pointed to the dog we wanted and took her home.  She wouldn't stop moving; she was so excited to get out of that cage and come home with us!

She was a little fidgety on the subway.  Doug and I joked that she is like a baby because we couldn't sit down but instead had to stand up and gently rock to keep her settled!  Now, she is much calmer so it must have been all the excitement of that day.  She is settling in so nicely after spending a little over a week with us.  She is so curious and loves just watching our every movement. Also, she is a great snuggler.

  

I think we are going to need to work on her "acting like a lady" skills since this is her favorite was to relax :) I think she would've gotten along good with her sister, she liked to lay like that too...

Puppy Cafe!

This past Tuesday, Doug, Jessica and I decided to go out for an after work treat since Wednesday was a national holiday and we were off from work.  So after work, we decided to try out a place called "Play Dog".  Basically, it is a cafe where you can go and play with dogs, hang out, drink coffee, and order dog treats to give to the dogs.

I have heard of these cafes becoming popular in Seoul, but wasn't sure there were any in Cheonan.  Being a dog lover, I knew I would have to try out one of these places before coming home to the States where a dog cafe would never pass the sanitary requirements to become a legitimate business.  Luckily, I noticed one in downtown Yawoori (a block or two away from where we live) and we thought that with Yeppi's passing it would be the perfect time to get some therapeutic doggie time in.

When we first walked in, we where greeted by fifteen or so barking dogs and the strong smell of ammonia from dog urine.  Yes, this wasn't the most appetizing smell that I would want to sip my coffee to, but we'll only be in Korea once!  I was actually lucky to even get Doug to go with me, since when I mentioned going before he was completely appalled by the idea of having a cafe and  multiple dogs in the same room.  I think he also was missing having a dog around the house.

Although the place smelt like dog pee, it was surprisingly clean (for being a dog cafe).  The dog wrangler, as I like to call him, constantly wiped down tables and cleaned up fur or any messes on the floor. (We later found out that he was the owner of ALL the dogs - and it was he clear he was their pack leader by the way he managed the dogs!)  The room was empty in the center for the dogs to play and roam, with table along the walls of the cafe.  It was pretty empty, being a Tuesday night, so we sat down and ordered a couple of lattes.  Jessica immediately took a liking to a sweet and snuggable little Pomeranian.  I was like a kid in a candy store for the first fifteen minutes or so trying to pet any and every dog there.  A big shepherd-like dog quickly laid under our table and all the dogs followed him and laid down around us.

The bigger dogs kept trying to steal my umbrella!

Pretty soon after we got there, a group of Korean girls left and put down the little brown toy Poodle puppy they were hoarding over at there table.  I scooped her up right away and spent the next half hour or so letting her nap in my lap and snuggling with her.  She was so precious and so tiny.  Jessica was trying to get me to sneak her in my purse on my way out, but I knew I couldn't steal a dog.  That's got to be a crime, right?  Even if the dog wrangler has so many dogs he may not realize one is missing...

She was like a little ball of fur.  Look at that face!

 This big guy was precious.  It definitely made us miss hanging out with bigger dogs.

The Basset Hound was hilarious.  She didn't realize how heavy she was, so she was constantly trying to snuggle up in your lap.

Jess took this picture of the Golden Retriever.  She asked the dog wrangler if we could play with it, so he let it out of her cage for us.  We couldn't resist those eyes.

The poor Basset Hound.  All the bigger dogs would play fight with her.  I think she liked it, but she looked like a chubby walrus trying to keep up with the other dogs.

I think Doug enjoyed his time there even though he was skeptical :) 

We ended up staying for about an hour or an hour and a half just chatting and playing with the pups.   Even though the dogs could be a bit rambunctious at times, it was surprisingly relaxing and definitely an experience I won't forget.  I'm pretty sure I'll go back when I need my next dog fix!  

Asan shelter trip.

This past Sunday, Doug and I volunteered at the animal shelter in Asan, which is the city bordering Cheonan.  Asan is much more rural and has many traditional villages still in place.  We met up with other volunteers from Animal Rescue Korea at the Cheonan/Asan train station and took a taxi together to the shelter.  The shelter was up on top of a small mountain.  The road to get to it was really steep (I can't imagine how they get to the shelter during the winter!).

The shelter definitely isn't up to the standards of an American pound, as many of the dogs never get a chance to walk and leave their cage.  At the entrance, there was about 50 small dogs in cages as well as three mom dogs and their puppies.  The shelter continued up onto the slope of the mountain.  I was shocked when I walked up to the enclosures at the top of the mountain to see that many of these dogs were so wild that it would be impossible to ever adopt them out into a family.  The dogs on the mountain were grouped by breed.  There was an enclosure with about ten Cocker Spaniels, one with maybe seven poodle looking mix breeds, another with some terriers, etc.  The bigger dogs got their own pen because I'm guessing that they do not get along with other dogs.  Many of the dogs up on the hill are not even walkable because they cannot be trusted with humans.

It was so sad to see these dogs up on the hill because you could tell that they really were completely wild.  Many of them had open wounds on their bodies from fighting each other.  It was so sad to see that these beautiful dogs - many of them purebred - would never be able to live outside a cage.

Ok, so on a happier note, Doug and I were able to walk dogs for five hours straight!!!  I had the best time there loving the dogs and getting to know them.  It was so nice to be outside all day up on the mountain getting to play around with these dogs.  We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home!  Sadly, the dogs only get walked every Sunday (if they are lucky), so you can imagine how much energy each of them had.

This was the first dog I walked.  A little black male poodle with lots of energy.  I fell in love with him!

This poor German Shepard never is allowed to leave his cage.  He doesn't get along with other dogs and I'm guessing maybe he is not too friendly with humans either.  We had to pass him each time to take the other dogs for walks...it must of been torture for the poor guy!

This little girl is April.  Typically, I am not the biggest fan of Chihuahuas, but she was so gentle and so loveable. All she wanted was to snuggle in your lap and get to know you.

 I was in heaven with all these cuties!

 One of the puppies :)

 Here is a picture of the bottom kennels.  The dogs kept here are the ones most likely to get adopted and get to leave their cage maybe once a week for a walk. 

 Here is a picture of the enclosures on the side of the mountain.

 The crazy cockers.  I would not want to be left alone in that cage with them.

 So many dogs.

This is Jasmin.  She is a Jindo, which is a Korean breed.  These dogs are typically raised in meat farms and eaten. 

She is so beautiful!