The Catch Up Edition

Life's been busy in South Korea recently. So much so that there's been no time for blogging, but the upside of that being that this one's got a lot of good stuff in it.

This past Monday Jim and Kathy departed after a week and a half of Koreanism. Brian and David both got out of school early while they were in town, so the Laggi had many an adventure together, including but not limited to: school visits at both brothers' places of work, hiking Geumjeongsan (mountain), hiking Igidae, visiting Beomosa (temple), and a visit to Gyeongju where there was a rice cake and wine festival. We also Dr. Fished, ate hoe (pronounced hway, this being sashimi) at Jagalchi, went to the Eobang fishing festival on Gwangan Li beach, had a tour of all the fried street food that Food Alley has to offer, and discovered all you can eat tuna hoe for 15,000 won per person (roughly 12 USD). In fact, there was even a hookah bar somewhere in the mix. I've put my favorite pictures as stills but there are many more to see in the slide shows. Oh, and this Saturday is Buddhamas, so the streets are currently lined with bright colored lanterns and the temples are decked in the best and brightest.

Lanterns line the streets for Buddha's birthday.

Giant hula hoops in the exercise park on the hike to hike Igidae.

The Laggis boys at Igidae cliffs.

An ajuma cracks open sea anemonies to sell while her friend smokes octopus in the seaside shack.
Kathy tries out the foot torture path. Brian was the only one tough enough to stick it out.
Who knew the ocean would be this color in S. Korea?
Beomeosa has decked its halls for Buddhamas.

A man and his camera at the upper temple.

Small shrine from the upper temple.

The bell from the upper temple of Beomeosa.
Jim and Kathy visit Brian's school.Boats with torches for night fishing at the Gwangan Li Eobang Festival.
Jim and Kathy as Joseon Dynasty Korean fisherpeople.
THe string of kites they flew at the Eobang festival was stupendously long.
So long!
Brian and Jim in action on a traditional Korean game. I don't know how you're supposed to play, but it's fun as a human catapult.
The Eobang Festival parade featured traditional Korean song, dance, and costumes.
And floats!

This one's my favorite float.

An ajuma makes calguksu noodles at a stand in Seomyeon.

Orchids on sale on the cheap near my school.

It was really fun to see Jim and Kathy and to be reminded of all things Korean that are very different from home. We've all become so accustomed to life here that we've largely forgotten the things that wowed us when we first arrived. It's refreshing to see it all again through a new set of eyes. And I think that our visitors were thoroughly wowed.

Before they arrived and since they've left we've all still been feeling the aftershocks of all the changes the new school year brought. At my school there've been multiple "cultural education days" for teachers. In Korean schools the teachers are organized into teams by grade that they teach. At Dong Cheon, there are only 3 classes for each grade, so my coteacher and I, along with the special education teacher, are part of the 5th grade team (I don't really see how that follows either, but that's how it was explained to me and I like the 5th grade teachers so I didn't question it). Brian's school on the other hand, has 7 classes per grade. But back to the point, each team of teachers gets 1 cultural education day a month when they get to leave right after lunch to see a movie or visit a park and then go have dinner and get drunk together, and of course finish the night in the norebang (kareoke room). This is how morale is maintained, and it's pretty fantastic. Also, I recently discovered that there are 2 full size beds in the nurses room. After staying out late on a week night with Jim and Kathy in town I took a nap one afternoon at school. I love this job!

Also at Dong Cheon, we've started practicing volleyball every day in preparation for the teachers' league tournament that starts next month. This combined with the new development that I teach every class all class to ready me for Open Class results in very fun days but very little free time at school. So Open Class? Well that's the horrible idea the South Korean school system has devised to check on the effectiveness of its teachers. All Korean teachers have open class at least once a year, but this year the foreign teachers (that's us) also have one to make sure we're worth the trouble expended to get us here. Doesn't sound so bad yet, but the problem is that open class is rehearsed. Although it's the same thing we do everyday in class this particular class must be overpreped and practiced. The result of course is that the kids are bored out of their minds, and scared out of their pants because they're being screamed at by an over paranoid Korean teacher because they can't pronounce 12 correctly. And also, the people observing the class get an utterly artificial version of what goes on there. Be that as it may, this is a deeply entrenched Korean mainstay and it's going nowhere. So the poor 4th grade class that will be Open Class's victim this time around has had no games for 2 weeks, and it's starting to get ugly between Sun Ja and the kids. Luckily, it'll be over soon.

Also lucky for me, this coming Monday is Exercise Festival Day! Which is similar to field day except that there are large scale performances by each grade on top of all the games and races, and this too is rehearsed. Great for me because it means that many classes are cancelled and I now have time to catch up on my reading and photo uploading. Photos to come after Monday. For now, here are the rest of the pictures from Jim and Kathy's visit.

Mom and Frank at large in Korea

About a week and half ago Mom and Frank flew in to Pusan to visit for a week. These are the tales of their time here.

Friday the travelers were wiped from their agonizingly long flight, so we checked them into the hotel, had some dinner and caught up a bit before tucking them in for the night. Their first Korean meal was a great success, and the view from their hotel room (30 USD/night) was priceless. They brought us lots of goodies including a new camera to replace our busted one. Thanks Mom and Grandma! It's great!

Saturday they were still pretty tired, but they were troopers. We went first to Beomosa where Shannon and Ryan met up with us as we cruised around the temple grounds. Then we were off to Dongnae to meet David and Duck and have some of the famous pajeon and makulli from that area. This got 2 thumbs up from both Mom and Frank. Here are some of my favorite temple sites.

After all the delicacies, we tromped on to the Oncheonjang hot spring foot baths where 8 waygooks garnered quite a lot of attention. We soaked for a while and nearly put Mom and Frank to sleep, so we all split up and the visitors came to our apartment to see the neighborhood and have a nap. But they were up again for dinner and a visit to one of our favorite little bars where they still remember us for our infamous Halloween escapades. Every time they see us they all say "Oh! Halloween Day!".

Sunday we went for a hike up to what might be the prettiest place in Pusan, Geumjeongsanseong. I think this might have been Mom and Frank's favorite part of the trip, but you'd have to ask them.

After the hike and picnic we went to check out the famous Dr. Fish we'd heard so much about. There are some pictures in the above slide show, but you don't really get the full effect til you see the following video of Mom's reaction to the pedicure that consists of little fish eating the dead flesh off your feet. It's creepy at first, extremely tickly the whole time, but eventually feels kind of good once you get used to it. It was sort of a feet filled weekend.

Contrary to what you might think after watching this video, Mom actually enjoyed the fish pedicure and ended up staying in the tubs longer than any of us.

Monday I had to go to school, so the waygooks had a chance to relax after the whirlwind weekend we put them through. But thanks to all the wonderful changes that have taken place at my school since the new school year, my great new Principle and Vice Principle gave me the afternoons after class off! I met up with them at 12 and took them to Nampodong to explore and have a raw fish (like Sashimi, called hoe) dinner at Jagalchi with Yun Jae and Mi Yun and all our waygook chingus. They were brave to eat some of the raw creatures they ate, and we had a lot of fun with all of our friends together.

Tuesday they came to school with me! Tuesday is all third grade classes,which means all the cutest kids come to the English Room. My 6th graders the next day were very upset they didn't get to meet them. That night Sun Ja, my new coteacher, took us out to Vietnamese dinner and up to Huryeong Mountain to see the view of the city, and eventually to her home to see Korean home life. At that point I'd known Sun Ja for about 5 days. She's so sweet and great. Hooray for Sun Ja! These are some of my favorites from those couple of days. They're both views from Mom and Frank's hotel room.


And the rest of the photos.

Wednesday I got off early again and Mom and I went to a sauna, which here means a big fancy bath house, usually with many different saunas as we know them in the west. I was a little disappointed at first because there were only 4 baths and it wasn't as nice as many I've seen before, but then we signed up for the "minimassage" and it blew both our minds. I'd seen women being scrubbed down by the sauna workers before, but I thought we were getting a 30 minute massage. It turned out to be an hour of intense exfoliation that nearly drew blood followed by the most painful massage of my life, but also included a facial and a moisture treatment. They even washed our hair and massaged our scalps. It's sounds kind of terrible, and it was kind of, but at the same time afterwards I was limp I was so relaxed. And I don't think either of us have ever had skin so smooth.

That night Yun Jae and Mi Yeon met us for drinks before we had to say goodbye. But Yun Jae offered to pick Brian and I up in the morning to see off the padres so Thursday morning was our official goodbye. I'm so glad Mom and Frank got to come and it got me excited for all the other visitors coming our way soon. Since then we've been up to all kinds of miscellaneous activity. At school I was asked to decorate a green board in the classroom one day when classes were cancelled. I had so much fun making it; I miss crafting things and it felt good to do it again.
Then this past weekend we had a night at the arcade where you can take these fantastically absurd photos and dress them up with obscene amounts of pink and glitter and sparkle. It's amazing.
I decorated Smile Days and Everlasting Miracle For You, Duck did Twins Sweet Love.


You can also sing kareoke and ride ponies at the arcade. It's a magical place.Saturday we met a lot of new teachers in town at a St. Patrick's Day celebration, and Sunday we went to the opening game of the Pusan I Park team's soccer season. The game ended in a draw, but it was fun and not well attended so it was cheap and we could get close.

And that's what we've been up to. Now that things are settling down with the new semester I should be more regular on posts. Check out the Konglish blog too, there are some new prizes there.

Jess

Beomosa

Last weekend we went hiking! A teacher from Brian's school - Mr. Kim, AKA Skinhead Kim (this at his own request, because he's bald) - invited us to go hiking with himself and Yun Jae. We met at 8 AM on a rainy, cold morning and headed to Beomosa, Pusan's most famous Buddhist temple, and probably the largest. David and Duck met us at the subway stop and after buying some snacks, we were off.

Beomosa is Busan's largest temple, with many scattered compounds and courtyards. We saw the main section first, where monks with umbrellas gave us hot tea, and we listened to the faithful chanting in Sanskrit. We were told Korean Buddhism is different from other forms in that it isn't one form only. Even within that temple they practiced Theravada, Mahayana, Zen, and a sort of nondenominational Korean Buddhism.

Leaving the main compound, we walked to an area with 7 or so enormous statues of Buddha, all in bright colors. It was the perfect time to visit the temple because all of the leaves were jumping out of their skin with color. From here we started our ascent on the mountain. It was raining pretty good at that point, so the only photo is from the summit. By that time our hands were so cold they couldn't grip anything and it hurt to touch them to rocks, but the summit was this knife edge ridge of boulders with a rope to hang on to, that may or may not have prevented the gusting wind from blowing you off the top. But my hands were too cold to hold on, so I bore the pain of pressing them against the rocks and keeping low to keep from soaring into the mist hidden abyss. It was treacherous, and there was a woman screaming the whole time. Even though the fear factor makes the adventure more fun, I was glad to get out of the wind and onto more sure footing.

Half way down the mountain we had a picnic of all the snacks we'd brought. We'd planned to go up one side and down the other, but the weather made that a dangerous proposition. We were headed back towards Beomosa when we stopped for the traditional Korean hiker's fare - soju, kimchi, any other snacks, and some red wine (I don't think that parts traditional, but drinking in general is). The ground was wet so I tried out my new Asian style squatting skills. It worked ok at first, but them my legs started to cramp up. That's going to take more practice.

Once back at the temple, we saw another smaller compound with a unique dragon roofed building. It was less crowded and more serene than what we'd seen earlier. There was also a small grotto with a shrine inside that felt so cozy after the cold rain outside. Incense billowed out and a small fountain babbled within. There were persimmon trees all around the perimiter, and the leaves were beautiful.

After our temple/hiking extravaganza, it was time for the time honored pajeon and makulli. We went to a tent, a sort of permanent tent, with heat lamps and the best pajeon I've had so far. The makulli was served in a large bowl with a ladel and tasted perfect. I fell in love with the heat lamps, but even so it took an hour before my hands could grip again. We decided we could use a relaxing bath, so we were off to our first bath house experience!

We had one in mind - largest in Asia it's claimed - but good ole Skinhead Kim had other plans. He took us to a smaller one, but one where all the hot waters are from natural hot springs. The girls and boys separated here, but comparing stories it sounds like they had the same design. Duck and I headed into our locker room not knowing what to expect. There a large woman in her bra and panties showed us a locker and gave us a towel and some soap. Then she led us into the bath room. Here there were 5 or so showers along one wall where you shower first. Then there were 3 tubs in the center, the largest being a very comfortably hot tub big enough for 20 or so bodies. It had a dragon spewing water into it too. Along the long side of this pool were two smaller ones. One was the same temperature with Jasmine flavored water. The other was painfully hot and all I could bear was to put my feet in for a second. The Korean's didn't seem to mind though, and they found it very funny that Duck and I couldn't take the heat. But they were so friendly and helpful, showing us where to go and what to do when we tried new tubs. Along another wall were the cold tubs. Again, one big enough for 20 or so and a smaller one. The smaller was icy cold - awful. The larger felt great after the hot tubs. And it had this turbo shower that blast massaged you if you could stand it; I couldn't. In fact, all of the tubs had massaging jets, some more comfortable than others. Then there was a sauna and steam room. The steam room's steam tasted and smelled like green tea and it felt amazing, but it was hotter than any steam room I've ever been in. There were also sit down shower stations with big mirrors in front of them, like vanities, but for showering. There were at least 10 of these, and women were scrubbing and putting on masks and such there. Then there was a station where the bra and panty ladies (everyone else was nude) were applying various scrubs and treatments to people. We only stayed for 20 minutes, but I loved it and can't wait to go back to the big famous one. Anyone who travels to South Korea would be foolish to miss out on the bath house.

We headed to a bar in Kyungsung after all the excitement. Poor Skinhead Kim was so shy until he got some drinks in him. But Yun Jae is becoming a great friend. Another friend I hope to get to know better is Mi Yun, Brian's coteacher. Last night we went out to dinner with her and then she took us up to see the city lights from a mountain top. I didn't have my camera, but it was a glittery wonderland. We also had the best coffee we've had so far in Korea up there. Enjoy the pictures!