"I open at the close."

Quote from the snitch Horcrux clue that Dumbledore left Harry.  My half year of travelling abroad has come to an end, since all good things must come to an end.  It's been a roller coaster of a ride, with all the ups and downs, though everything worked out in the end.  This Asia trip took me to 4 countries that I've been wanting to visit for a really, really long time.  Here's a quick wrap up.

1st stop Taiwan is always fun because of the great food, shopping, and culture.  Still haven't been able to do a complete tour of the island (gotta leave some things for the next time I go back =P), but this time I was able to make some friends, so it wasn't as quite boring and lonely as usual.  And at least I now know that if all fails in life, I can always go to Taiwan and join the lucrative English teaching industry lol.  

2nd stop Hong Kong!  My Cantonese friends always rave and rave about how good HK is, so I had kind of high expectations going in.  Best dim sum ever..I don't know how I'm going to be able to eat dim sum outside of HK anymore.  What was most special about HK was how it felt like a Western city in terms of the openness and internationalism of the city, yet the setting of the city was definitely Asian. Would like to take advantage of the tax-free shopping more next time, to be able to do more of the tourist sites, and a day in Macao.

3rd stop Seoul for 5 weeks were the best 5 weeks in my life.  Honestly after Seoul, I'm glad that studying in Japan didn't work out so that I had the opportunity to visit this city that has been #1 on my list ever since I got into Korean culture.  It met and exceeded all my expectations, though that's also because I met some awesome people in my program that made it this fun.  Fried chicken, waffles, pizza, who thought that the Koreans could make it taste so good that it tastes even better than its Western counterparts?  And of course, Korean food is always good.  Surprisingly I never got sick of Korean food.  I even started turning Korean with my stomach not feeling quite satisfied without seeing kimchi at every meal.  And it was cool to gauge my level of Korean proficiency.  At least all those hours I've wasted on dramas wasn't completely unproductive!  Living with my native Korean roommate was a great experience also.  Through her I felt like I got a deeper look into Korean culture.  

Final stop, Tokyo.  First thing I have to say: yes, it truly is as expensive as you've heard.  If you want to eat relatively well (besides fast-food and cheap Chinese food shops) meals average 1050Y, which is like $14 with the current exchange rate.  Not only that, but transportation costs are also high.  I limited myself to the Tokyo region and still spent about $100 on travel for 2 weeks.  Tokyo seemed overrated because I felt that the city didn't have much to offer after staying a week.  It's just another city for eating and shopping, mostly, like Taipei.  Though admittedly some neighborhoods were fun to people watch in.  (Seriously, the Japanese have an amazing sense of fashion that only the Japanese seem to be able to pull off.)  But the country itself has a lot to offer in terms of travel.  So next time I visit, I'll just spend 3 days in Tokyo then get out to see the other parts of Japan.  

A few of the tons of pictures that I've taken over these 6 months

Though this trip has ended, I'm also excited about this upcoming fall semester as it's going to be my last semester of college.  And if all works out well, I'll be back in Asia again.  =)  Over the next few posts I'll be jumping everywhere from my daily life to product reviews from my Asia haul to restaurant reviews in Tokyo.  Since I did such a bad job of posting abroad I gotta make it up now! *laughs*  Thanks for reading!