How do you relieve your stresses from school, assignments, exams and so on? We are living in a world where we, feeble human beings, are vulnerable to all kinds of stresses from, literally everything in the world. Currently, I am living a life no better than a rock as my upcoming military service has given me so much stress that I cannot even be bothered by my everyday life. I live just like a koala: I, wake up, pick some food, slack lazily in bed and go back to sleep. My parents, who have consistently told me that I was wasting my life, suggested that I visit my sister who was working in the USA. I, quite far from sanity, just nodded and in the blink of an eye, I was in LA, the city of La La Land.
The first thing that got my attention when I arrived in LA was the sky. It is quite hard, I mean way too hard to see, a clear blue sky in Seoul nowadays. But the sky of LA… I was so mesmerized with it and it was at that moment I knew the trip was going to be awesome. I went to my sister’s place, in Orange County, California, after having a double-cheese burger at IN-N-OUT Burger. It was not the best burger that I had had in my entire life but thinking about its price, I wondered how the quality of the burger could be so good. Even though IN-N-OUT tasted good, I do not favor it as later it gave me a stomach ache. After resting for a day, I went on a package tour that my mother had prepared for me. The name of the package tour was “7 Canyon Course in the West” which sounded quite boring honestly. But, I changed my mind instantly when I heard the first destination of the tour: Las Vegas.
Las Vegas
A city that never sleeps and of course, is well-known for the countless number of its casinos. It is a place that I had only seen from the movies and I had dreamt of going to since I was little. The photo was taken in front of the Bellagio hotel where amazing lake shows take place. It is free, so I would strongly recommend those visiting Vegas to watch it. There are shows that cost quite a sum of money in Las Vegas like KA and O show by Cirque de Soleil, as well as Le Reve. The show that I watched was Le Reve, which is the most famous among all. I spent about 125 dollars for the show and I have to say that it felt very bad as my lunches in Korea mostly cost less than 10 dollars and I just blew at least 12meals-worth then. The show itself was amazing and I think it was worth the price. It takes place in and out of water with a bunch of bald people jumping around everywhere. Their acrobatics are so fascinating that I definitely had a thought of seeing it again, despite its excruciating price. After the show, I was so excited to make my dream come true, gambling in Las Vegas. To my sorrow, I had a month left to turn 21, and this excited young fella who was just about to make his dream come true, was not allowed to play a single game. I was desperate, but there was nothing I could do. I just decided that in the future, no matter what hardship there is, I would be back, in Vegas, and gamble like there is no tomorrow. With tears dangling in my eyes, I went to sleep for the upcoming schedule that awaited me.
Rocks, rocks, rocks.
If you go on a trip that visits all kinds of canyons, such as the Grand Canyon, I bet it would be only a few days before you would be enchanted with the majesty of Nature. I was shocked to see the sceneries that nature had created. I looked at them with my mouth literally agape when I visited the first canyon out of seven, Zion Canyon. However, after visiting all seven of them, even though they were all great, I was not as dumbfounded as earlier. They all differ in terms of distinct features and I surely would encourage people to visit all of them. But if I were to recommend only one canyon to my friends, I would choose Bryce Canyon, where the rocks are wearing a white snowy muffler. Even though it is just another mountain of rocks with snow on it, it portrays a smooth and warming feeling. People often call Zion Canyon a father’s canyon because of its rough features and Bryce Canyon a mother’s canyon because of its soft features. If you are running out of time or have limited time for the trip, visit Bryce Canyon and you will have no regrets. To summarize the canyon trip, I saw more rocks in those few days in canyons than in my entire life.
Beach!
A place you must visit on a sunny day before you leave the west. It is a sin not to visit a beach in California. I visited Santa Monica, which is located near to my sister’s place. Frankly, the sea itself is not special, but its atmosphere, people, and facilities are the ones that make the California beaches so unique. There are musicians playing ukuleles, guitars, and some even play traditional Chinese instruments that I had never seen before. All sorts of people from different races, countries and families enjoyed their picnics in all kinds of different ways. Well, I think a California beach is the best place where you could feel the USA vibe, and the harmony of those differences. But still, despite my great love of the place, not everything seemed nice to me. I think the rides at the amusement parks around beaches are too expensive. Personally, a few games will be enough in the amusement park, not the rides, as there are theme parks with more exciting rides in the California. Let’s get to know about them, shall we?
There are way more things that I did throughout the journey but listing all of them would be the most boring thing in the world. The four places I have chosen are based on their popularity with tourists. Actually, the most memorable and fantastic moment during my trip was a night at a hotel in Utah. During the package tour with random Korean people, there was a married couple who were travelling all around the world by themselves. I guess they were the angels God sent to me out of sympathy. As I have mentioned earlier, I was 20 years and 11 months old which means, I, banned from playing games in the casino, was also prohibited from buying alcohols. The couple handed a can of wine, which was only about 250ml but with that bit of alcohol, I felt like I found an oasis out of nowhere. I did not know that wine went so well with Korean spicy noodles, buldak bogguemyun. (I tried it in Korea and it was bad.)
Drinking a sip of wine with the noodles, I was in heaven. A little high, I went out to see the night sky, which was filled with stars. I wished the time would stop. I stared at the stars for hours and hours in peace. I have never done so anywhere in Korea and I think I will never do so in the future. It was the freedom from all the stresses and worries in a strange place, alone and surely, a bit of alcohol that made me feel so happy.
I spent my time thoughtlessly just travelling around the west side of America. Even though most of the times I spent there was planned by my family, meeting new people in a new environment nourished the effortless “dead me” to be hyped with life. I no longer wanted to waste my time and wait for military service like a man on death row. I just realized that the world was great after all and I felt that I did not appreciate it like a fool. Even if I am a man on Army row, remembering the good memories during the trip, I promised myself not to waste my days.
Ha Jungyoon ha980311@gmail.com
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