Next Stop: Thailandia

From Burma we flew to Penang, an island just off the North Western coast of Malaysia, to meet David and Duck. we devoured the delicacies on hand there for a couple of days before busing up to Thailand. Compared with the poverty and difficulty of travel in Myanmar, Thailand seemed a land of luxury and easy living. We spent nearly 2 weeks on the beaches of the South and a week in the mountains of the North. At the end of our trip we came back to Bangkok for the 4th time, but it was the first time we'd had a chance to explore it.

Mudfest beats Mad Mama's Mudsling 8 to 2

This weekend the long awaited festivities of mudfest finally actualized into a lot of messy fun. It is what it sounds like, a festival of mud. This mud is supposed to be great for your skin, but in the end it's great for getting as dirty as possible with all your friends and wallowing in it. Most of the festival consisted of getting muddy in as many ways as possible, like a pool of mud, a mud prison where prisoners were splashed with mud, a mud hose, a mud fountain, etc. But there were also mud slides, inflatable mud obstacle courses and races, and of course, mud wrestling. But I think my personal favorite was the color mud with which you could body paint yourself or your unsuspecting friends.

This festival is King size popular with the foreign community in Korea, so all our friends made it which in turn made the mud even more fun. But we didn't stay as muddy as we'd imagined. It got cold early on Saturday so we turned to warmer, cleaner fun after the mud, and it's monsoon season so Sunday we got rained out. Of course, rain is good for mud, but it's also cold. But, that's not to say we didn't get muddy.

I'm still finding mud in my ears. Doubtless some people familiar with McDowell County, NC and it's now passed institution Mad Mama's Mudsling will take offense to my statement that Mudfest is better. But, what could make mudding in your monster truck even more fun? Using your body as the monster truck of course!

I've never felt I had so much in common with a monster truck before.

Good Cheesy Fun

The weeks continue to go by faster and faster. We've only 3 months left on our contracts, but it feels like much less because of all the revving we're doing in preparation for our Summer escapades, and we're already starting to think about where to start in South East Asia after it's all said and done. Partly in an effort to conserve money, and in part because it's too hot to do much else, we had a slow and easy weekend.



Friday I met Ryan and Shannon in Seomyeon for a short soju tent time. Brian was out with the teachers from his school, so it was just the three of us, but I think the ajuma who ran that tent could be considered part of our party because she did hand feed us some of her wares. I suppose she thought she was showing these strange foreigners how to go about eating the food on our table. I can't assume to know what was in her mind, but I can report her actions. She came over after delivering some cucumber sticks with a yummy sauce called duenjang (pronounced dwen jang). She picked up a cuke, dunked it in the sauce, and then came for my face with it, and I duley opened up. Next one for Ryan, and last, but certainly with just as much care, one for Shannon. This is actually pretty common; about every other day some kid comes up to me at school with a grimy fist full of love wanting me to open up for them to put some food in my mouth. I usually take it in my hand first, just in case. Korean kids aren't devious like students at home. I can imagine some American 6th grader trying to put a piece of chocolate that'd freshly met with a bathroom floor in a teacher's mouth, with full malicious intent. But what do I really know about American 6th graders?



Saturday David came over in the morning for some nutritional yeast gravey. If you're a meat eater and that sentence disgusted you, you really should give it a try. It tastes like a cheese sauce fit to please any T-bone muncher's palate. Just ask David. After the compulsory Super Laggis Brothers gaming, we took off for Haeundae.



On the way we found one of Busan's great Summer offerings - beverage promotions. This one was a giant can of Cass, one brand of the ubiquitous budweiser-esque lagers of Korea. I don't mind the darts promotions, those are fun, but I'm particularly partial to the spin the wheel variety. I spun and got a glass of Cass Lemon, somewhat like Tequiza. Brian got a whole can, and David won a glass of light. A great welcome to the beach it was. That night David, Brian, Will and I caroused in Kyungsungdae for a bit, but we all turned in fairly early. That gave us plenty of time for cheese making on Sunday! We'd tried before in Korea, with mixed results. But this time we were success! Yummy fresh mozzarella was ours! At home we'd made cheese with 2% milk, and it was a long time ago, but it seems to me that the whole milk we used here yielded a lot more cheese for the same amount of milk.
What with a bowl full of fresh cheese, we decided for pizza and movie night. Here's what our cheese turned into. This may not look so special to Western eyes, but keep in mind we eat rice for every meal and those bottles of beer on the table are not sold in Korea. Maybe with this cheese block we can start bulking up our dairy intake to prepare for Mongolia. I read that in the Summer months the nomads there subsist on what translates to "white foods", meaning milk, cream, cheese, yogurt, and dried cheese curds, as well as fermented mares' milk. These come from yaks, sheep, horses, goats, and maybe cows, but I'm not sure. I am sure that until we made that cheese our diet for the past 9 months has contained less than 1% dairy and I hope all my lacto-digesting parts and critters are still fully functional.



Speaking of Mongolia, we've just bought our tickets (we used Ken at Unique Travel in Pusan who speaks perfect English and finds flights 200,000 won cheaper than we or the competition can; uniquetravel@korea.com) and we're getting the final plan ironed out. Shannon, Ryan, Brian and I are leaving Busan August 8th on a flight to Beijing. We'll have 2 and a half days there to see the city and the Great Wall and hopefully catch a Shaolin Monk Kung-Fu performance. Then we're flying to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, on the 11th. Which means that we've got from the 12th-27th, 16 days, 15 nights, to see all that we can see of Mongolia. We're hiring a guide and jeep through Nomadic Adventures (ganerdene_y@hotmail.com) for the duration, and we're going to the Gobi, Central and Northern Mongolia. We're still working out the itenerary, but whatever happens, it's going to be slack-jaw-amazing.

Mindless Bludgeoning and Insightful Travel Advice

I'm not sure what took hold of me this weekend, but for some reason I took lots of video footage of our messcapades. You will see some here, but don't be fooled. This is not all; I probably took at least twice as much as I think you could bear watching. All of it happened on Friday night. After a very quick week of school, we found ourselves reuining with Ryan, Shannon, David and Duck in Seomyeon. We beered and dined before seeking out a photo booth that makes everyone look like they're from 90210, or in other words, makes you look like you're wearing make up. Shannon's in charge of getting those pictures out, so I'll post them later.

Next stop was the Seomyeon arcade in Judies Taewa. The following video is our approach on the arcade, which happened to be flanked by go go dancers for some store or restaurant opening. This is a very common, almost compulsory phenomenon for the opening of a new business. But these dancers didn't appreciate Brian's video taking, and they sent their mascot minions to put an end to it.

Inside the arcade I proceeded to win many suckers for everyone on the rock paper scissors machine, my favorite arcade game. I used to love the drum game too, but I was shamed away from it after watching this guy. For those of you who haven't seen this game in action before, normally one person plays one drum and another person competes on the other.

But after we had done all we could do inside we snuck out the back way to avoid the minions, and there we found the rest of our night waiting for us in the form of a test of strength hammer game. This was fantastic. We quickly drew a crowd, which I doubt was so much due to this following performance as it was due to the novelty of giants like David, Duck, and Brian swinging away at it. However I include this next video because it is a very important precursor to the next one. Watch my score closely.

Next Brian tries it. You'd think a strapping young fellow such as himself might have a pretty good shot at beating a little Jess like me... but I don't want to give anything away.

Yeah! 765 to 703! Poor Brian, loses to me and then gets heckled most mercilessly for it. Not that I'm still gloating. But things heated up when a Korean challenger came along.

The footage of the Korean guy's swing was long and uneventful without editing, so I left it out, but unfortunately, David lost also, and both Laggises were defeated that night. Neither one of them liked the taste of it either.

That's right, everyone's trying to justify the loss to S. Korea, which now reigns victorious in the S. Korea vs. USA hammer swing competition. Everyone except for Duck, who at some point starts looking for an imaginary cat in David's shirt. Googles isn't there Duck! He's gone! Let him go!

It was a grand night, but eventually we had to head our separate ways. But we left with our dignity in tact, as evidenced by the following video.

Unfortunately, this last, best video was taken in a lower quality setting by accident, but there's no mistaking what happened in it.

Saturday we went to Haeundae where the jet ski gang was in full effect. The jet ski gang is this group of 40+ uber tanned idiots who ride their jet skis backwards and in donuts in the designated swimming area within a couple of feet of young children's bobbing head targets. They mostly wear speedos, but their ring leader wears a g-string, and a whistle, which he blows incessantly. He blows this whistle to tell his gang it's time to set up their plastic chairs and tables. Then it's TWEET TWEET again and now it's time to play frisbee. Once more and they're oiling each other up for a session of sunbathing. TWEET! and they're giving rides to all the girls on the beach on their melon smashers. I don't know why the others let Mr. Whistles boss them around, but I also don't know why THIS guy wears a speedo.

It is a cute print though. Here's a close up so you can see for yourself.

It was a beautiful beach day though, which was extra lucky because it is now monsoon season in Busan. This means the hot muggy weather is being staved off a bit longer, but it also means that the hole in my galoshas is becoming a nuisance.

Saturday night we went to Dongnae near David and Duck's apartment to that of other friends for a rooftop party.

This did eventually get monsooned into an indoor party, but it is notable because one of the girls who came was hosting a couch surfer. The couch surfer was Charlotte, a 19 year old German who has been traveling round the world for about a year now. How is this possible you wonder? Well, her grandparents are helping her out, but traveling does not have to be as expensive as you might think as long as you're willing to sacrifice a little cush and have an adventure or two. Here's a link I filched from a friend that has some good information if you're a first time budget traveler, and if you're seasoned, it's got some great links to lesser known work stay and budget travel sites. http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/cheap-travel/ Check it out and get moving.

Sunday we watched the Cave of the Yellow Dog with Ryan and Shannon to convince them to come to Mongolia with us this summer, but the results are still processing. We've honed in on our travel plans now and it looks like we'll be flying into Beijing for 2.5 days, then taking the Mongolian leg of the Trans-Siberian Railway up to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital. From there we will hopefully find some travel partners (even if Ryan and Shannon come) to make it cheap, and then we'll do a 14 day jeep and camel or horse trek through central and southern Mongolia, including the Gobi. In fact, if you are a potential travel partner reading this blog, we will be ready for the trek August 13th but could postpone until the 15th at the latest. Just comment your details on this post.

It's a good news Monday

Before this weekend we had a pretty slow week, but it was stressful. Arguably the worst thing about EPIK (English Program In Korea) is the one thing that is not nationally regulated - camps and vacation during breaks. The good news about this being up to the individual schools is that during both breaks we've been allowed much more than our gauranteed 7 days plus weekends of vacation. The bad news is that we never know how much time we'll have or when we'll have it because the schools decide pretty late by someone anxious to buy a plane ticket's standards. This is made additionally stressful by the fact that our co-teachers don't want to force the issue with the principles, so they tell us what they think will happen as if it were what the principle has already set in stone. Example: last week Sun Ja told me on Wednesday that I definitely (go home and buy a plane ticket now definitely) would have only 1 week of camp and could travel the whole month of August. But then Friday she said I only had 7 days of vacation and would have 3 weeks of camp and would have to come to school for 8 hours a day when I didn't have vacation or camp, or any other teachers or students around either. That was devastating, but now it's Monday, and the story is I've got 2 weeks of camp and can travel for 3 weeks in August - a compromise I am more than elated with. Such a good news Monday!

So during that slow, ants in my pants week I experimented with the macro on my camera.
Hooters.

Party time.

These are my Philippines jewels.

But, the stamp pad is my favorite.

Luckily, things picked up on the weekend. Thursday was Soo Jeong's last day of teaching with Brian, so we all went to a Giants' baseball game to say farewell. Much to our surprise we saw David and Duck there too. Though it was a full stadium, two 6 foot foreigners were easy enough to spot in a sea of Koreans. And the Giants won! It was a great game and we had a lot of fun. Observe.

Friday David came down to our side of town. We kicked off with a trip to see the fountains at the park near the apartment. The fountains themselves were nice enough to see, but the best part was all the the kim baps running around in the water.

The little guy in the rain jacket was my favorite. Turns out those things don't work so well when the water is coming from the ground.

Once the fountains finally died out we ventured onward. We found ourselves at a Japanese restaurant for dinner and drinks where I was excited to find out I could recognise some of the hiragana written there. Hiragana is one of the 3 different kinds of Japanese scripts, which I've been studying recently because I had all this nervous energy pent up that I desparately wanted to spend on planning trips but was thwarted by the lack of information about when and how much time I would have for said trips. I had to do something, so I started studying Japanese in case we find ourselves teaching there next year.

After Japanese time we went to Keno Eye for a lively round of darts. And the boys, believing themselves to be beautiful people, wanted to see and be seen. Here they are striking a pose fit for magazines. Check that mustache action.

Saturday was bright and sunny at our apartment, so we pulled ourselves together and struggled over to Haeundae where the weather was very strangey. It was hot and somewhat sunny, but mostly there was a very dense, very local fog that may or may not have been man made.

We found out the next day that it had been nakey time on the beach day, an event sponsored by Busan to increase foreign tourism. I find it doubtful, but within the realm of possibility, that the fog was created to engulf the nudity, which we never saw, so perhaps this scheme was effective.

Saturday night Brian and I took it easy, but we still acompanied David to the convenient store for a sit and some people watching. This plan allowed us to get up early on Sunday and go for a hike. We went out in search of a temple called Seokbulsa, but we did not find it. Instead we found an amazing obstacle course and a ropes course. It was also the first time I'd seen the town within the valley up on Geumjeong Mountain.

We spotted this old couple having a Sunday picnic in their garden. I love this bit of rural Korea in the center of Busan.

We never found what we came for, but what we got was better than what we'd planned on anyway. We found a bee keeper selling honey on the mountain. We even found an explosion of pheasant feather souvenirs on the overgrown trail we bushwhacked.

And now it's good news Monday. I don't have my after school classes this week because Sun Ja has a conference to attend, so I'll have time on my hands to plan our Mongolia trip. I can't wait for two humped camels, fermented mare's milk, and nomad nights in gers. We're going to the Gobi!

It's not a weekend til someone's sleeping in the bushes

Last weekend was extra long thanks to my school's granting Friday off. Great job! Luckily, I spent the day relaxing on the beach and at the baths, soaking up energy that would prove to be much needed around 4 AM the next morning when I found myself piping Lovefool by the Cardigans at a norebang (kareoke room). But let's not get too far ahead.

I was the only person I knew with Friday off, so I spent the alone time well. Later, when everyone finished with school, David and Brian came over to our apartment (Duck left that Friday for a wedding in the States, so she was probably eating good pizza, or good cheese and drinking delicious, flavorful beers while we had our traditional Korean style weekend). We relaxed there for a while before Ryan and Shannon arrived from Sunmudo with Sam and Heather in tow. Sam and Heather live in Boseong and Ulsan respectively, but they come to Busan every now and then for a good time. This good time we spent having drinks in the apartment before a late dinner at a meat and seafood grill restaurant. There we got lucky with freebies. There were some girls doing a soju promotion who gave us 4 bottles, and the restaurant owner gave us free mixers, including aloe juice that tasted like white grape which he assured us was "very expensive". It was delicous and fun and we didn't leave there until after midnight.

Next stop was Ghetto Bar, which normally Brian and I dread, but this time it was filled with Koreans instead of the usual slimy foreigners that flock there, and the soju buckets abounded making it easy for everyone to get their dancing pants on.

After buckets and schwarma (for the carnis) from our friendly neighborhood schwarma man we were off to find another dance party and we went searching for it at Vinyl Underground. My memory's a bit blurry, but I'm pretty sure only people that worked there were there before we showed up. But we brought what we though a pretty spectacular time to the place. The workers disagreed. We eventually got kicked out after a few people had their try at the drum set. But not before Ryan showed us how to fly.

There's nothing to it!

When we realised we weren't making any friends at Vinyl Underground, we decided to show Heather, the only member of our posse who hadn't been thusly initiated, how to noraebang. She took to it like a hippie to patchulli oil. I suppose we all did. And we kept being granted more minutes on the hour we paid for, so we didn't leave there until 4:30 or so.

Brian lights up the room with his singing.

When we finally made our way out of there, it was donkas (fried pork cutlets) for some, and bed for others. The majority of us made it home safe and sound after the sunrise, but at least one person woke up in the bushes of the nearby university with a friendly grounds keeper asking if he was ok. And that's how you spend a Friday in Busan.

Needless to say, we slept in on Saturday. Then we went to the beach and slept some more. Then we ate burritos at a great hole in the wall and then we went home and slept some more. But Sunday was another odyssey. Shannon met Brian and me at Beomeosa for a hike that we've been wanting to do for some time now. Up to the summit of Geumjeongsan from Beomeosa, then over the mountain to the East Gate and back down into PNU to catch the subway home. It was a perfect day for hiking, and the views were spectacular, for a city of 4 million. We took a detour near the top to visit the standing Buddha carved in a rock face.

The body was a little faint, but the face still shows up beautifully.

Shannon picturing from the top.
This is not the summit, though it looks like it could be from this angle, but it's a beautiful view of the reconstructed wall ruins and the sky that day.

We packed in our kimbap and crackers and despite our many viewing and snacking breaks, we were all pretty wiped at the end of it. We're not in the same form we were on the AT, but it was nice to do a longer hike again. Hopefully soon we'll take a trip to Jirisan (mountain) for a less urban hike.

Monday we were back to a full work week after all the hollidays we'd had the week before. Brian has his dreaded open class today and I've got mine tomorrow, which means lots of practicing the same class over and over again with a very intimidated group of 4th graders for me, 5th graders for Brian, and very strung out teachers. But once it's all over I've been told we'll have a volleyball scrimmage and then a wine and dine. It will be nice once all the open class frantic-ness has died out around us and we can go back to focusing on our volleyball games. Our women's team's first game is this Friday and coach says we've got a shot at the championship! I disagree, but then I haven't seen the other teams.

Here are more pictures from the weekend.

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.

A weekend of Companera and "Elin"

On Friday Chelsea and Erin returned from their temple stay more exhausted than ever. I found them napping at the apartment when I got home from school. Brian was busy bowling with his 6th grade teachers while the girls caught me up on their adventures. The bottom line was that they very much enjoyed the temple, but the vegetarian food was a struggle for Chelsita, and the 4 AM wake up call and cold meditation were challenges.

Brian came back to report a high score at the bowling alley, and we were off to dine. We tried lots of restaurants while our carnivores were in town that we'd never gone to before because they advertised only meat, but we found a delicious squid and garlic roast at the place we've seen many times but never entered, the one with a chicken with it's butthole taped up - strange mascot, catches the eye though. It was the beginning of a long night of mayhem, including but not limited to arcade games and soju bombs. Erin's friends from the Peace Corps (she was in Honduras), Rich and Raul, are both living and teaching in S. Korea "these days" and they met up with us late that night.

Next day we woke up late, but not terribly so, and somehow motivated everyone (that's 6 people if you haven't counted yet sleeping in our one room apartment) for a hike on Geumjeongsan. Not everyone was enthusiastic to begin with, but everyone was glad they'd seen it once we were there. That's Raul on the far left, then Erin then Chels. Rich was doing a scramble while we were eating apples.
And below is the mountain and fortress wall. The azaleas are all blooming but the cherry trees haven't made it up this high yet.

After our hike we went to Dr. Fish where everyone was tickled to their limits by tiny mouths chewing on our feet. From there we decided free drinks at the casino were a good idea, so it was there before a soju tent and back to Kyungsung. In our home turf we ate more and then showed everyone a great time belting our hearts out at the most ghetto little nore bang in town. Then we were off to Ol 55 where we met and played pool with an Asian version of Johnny Shields. Check him out, it's kind of unbelievable.

Sunday morning it was even harder to rally the troups, but once we were up we had a nice Sunday walk on Haeundae Beach on our way to Vesta Sauna, a bath house with an unbeatable view of the beach and Dalmaji hill. There's even a small tub outside on a porch where you can soak in the breeze, but there's a necesarrily high fence so you can't really take in the view from there. The girls loved the bath house, and according to Korean tradition, we are all best friends for life now for having gone together. The boys had a good time, but at the risk of stereotyping by sex, I think boys simply don't enjoy bathing as much.

It was hard to see them go, especially Chels and Erin because I know we won't see them again for at least 9 months, but it's better to have seen them and have them go than never have seen them at all.

This is unrelated, but hillarious. This is a real commercial for a pizza chain in S. Korea, and it uses a mix of Korean slang and English profanity to sell the stuff.

Yes, he says "*#$ f*#$ f*#$ mother f*#$ f*#$ mother f*#$"and also "let's get down ni@#*!" and this airs frequently on all channels. So funny.

Chelsea and Erin are HERE! But mostly Boseong green tea Heaven

Monday night Chelsea and Erin arrived in Busan, tired but very excite! After moving them into the apartment we went out for what is now my new favorite Korean food, and I don't know what it's called. The visitors ate bulgogi barbecue (cooks over a flame at the table) and Brian and I ate seafood delight. This seafood delight consists entirely of shellfish and shrimp, and the shell fish are raw on the half shell with spices and seasonings piled in with the meat. You use the shell almost like a frying pan to saute up the goodies and it's a tasty treat indeed. Chelsea and Erin said that meal was their favorite they'd had so far in Korea (they'd been in Seoul with Erin's friend for a couple of days already), and though they didn't eat the seafood, they were intrigued by the cooking method. Yeon Jae ended up meeting us there for soju and coming back to our apartment for a bit. We haven't seen much of him this semester because he's become a 6th grade teacher and he's much more busy than he was as the PE teacher. That also means he no longer shares an office with Brian, so the poor chingus are separated. It was good to see him that night.

Tuesday we mapped out the route to Beomosa, the biggest most beautiful temple in Busan, for the girls... and they made it there! They reported back in time to meet Brian and I with Eun Hi (Brian's ex-co-teacher from last semester) and Soo Jeong (Brian's current co-teacher) to check out the cherry blossoms at Dalmaji hill. They were impressed with the temple and later the hill where we checked out a beach Brian and I had never seen before. After saying goodbye to Eun Hi the rest of us subwayed over to GwanganLi to see the night view of the bridge and get some dinner. There Soo Jeong took us to a famous deokbeoki (rice cake sticks in sweet spicy sauce) and fried squid restaurant. I loved it, Brian loved it, Erin and Chels could take it or leave it, so we also kimbaped before heading to a bar with pictures of Russel Crowe on the sign - no sign of Russel Crowe within though - to admire the night view. By then we'd thoroughly exhausted our guests so home we went to rest up for the real gem so far.

Wednesday morning we were up before 6 to catch a bus (that we missed, but that gave us time for breakfast, which I think I preferred) to Boseong, a town famous for it's green tea plantation. It turned out to be farther away than we'd hoped; it took over 3.5 hours by bus, but it was beautiful. The picture below shows the hills of tea plants.
Even the entrance to the place was beautiful. The cedar lining looked magical and serene.

I think the bamboo forest looked even more magical though, and the wind blowing through the stalks made them clack together just so like wind chimes. You can hear it too in this video.

And here's a close up of some of the bamboo graffiti. It's a list of names, nothing juicy.

After climbing through the fields and admiring all the scenery we ate some green tea dishes like green tea noodles and green tea fried pork cutlets, and of course, green tea ice cream. When we finally got back to Busan we heard about the North vs. South Korea soccer game to determine who would go to the World Cup and caught part of the game in a restaurant. And South Korea was victorious, hoorah! We were trying to get to the famous bath house of Oncheonjang, but we were not success, as our Korean friends would say. It closed before we got there. Perhaps Sunday. Here are the pictures of our adventures so far.

Today Erin and Chelsea are headed to Gyeongju (the former capital of Korea (before there were N and S)) for a temple stay at the same temple we went to with Ryan and Shannon. We'll see them again Friday night for more adventures in Korean wonderland. Also, check out the Konglish blog, we found a gem on the bus station snack rack.

Jess