Be cool about fire safety, among other things

Wednesday
About a week and a half ago my dad made the trip to Korea and arrived Wednesnight. He was the last of our overseas visitors, and it was great to see him. Incidentally, if you ever need a pick me up a great place to people watch is at the international arrivals gate. Everyone's all smiles and welcome homes and hugs and happy tears. Dad was detained by swine flu checking just long enough for Brian to meet us at the airport, and then we were off for great things - namely, sleep after Dad's 25 hour journey.
Thursday
My school had a 2 day 1 night field trip on Thursday and Friday, so there were no classes and they were wonderful enough to let me have the time off to spend with Dad. So Thursday poor Brian geared up for school while Dad and I took off in the rain to visit the UN cemetery and the Busan Museum for an indoor sort of day. Then Dad had his first Korean meal: spicy tiny octopi. It was a great success. But jet lag inevitably took it's toll and we went home for naps until Brian got off school. That night we made it out again to the pajeon and makulli whole in the wall that we've loved ever since we arrived.

Dad was looking skeptical when the plate of tofu arrived, but he did like the pajeon and makulli. We tucked in early that night for the day to come, but not before a stop over in the arcade. Dad fell for the drum games at first drum roll.

Friday
Friday I was off again, and Brian went off to school again as Dad and I got packed up for a trip to Gyeongju, the old Korean capital during the Shilla Dynasty. We hopped on a bus and rented some bikes on arrival for a biking tour of the city. We went first to the burial mounds park where kings' tombs are enclosed in large mounds of rock, soil, and grass.

Next up was the oldest astronomical observation tower in all of East Asia. It was there we met Paul, an English muffin who saved us from our terrible self portraits in front of the tower with a proper picture. I thought he might be an English teacher from Busan because he was on our bus, but it turned out that he's just a guy ramblin round the world for a few years. Sounds like just the right thing to do.

The two Pauls and I had lunch together before Dad-Paul and I began the trek home. Getting back to Pusan we visited a bath house. I wasn't sure how much Dad would like it, but I think he was thoroughly impressed.

It was after the bath house that we discovered the whale meat district of Seomyeon, and Dad discovered the scrumptiousness of Korean barbecue. We even got free soju from the soju promoters. Those pictures are somewhere further down in this post.
Saturday
Saturday we finally got to play with Brian too. We got up and out and on a bus to Taejongdae, the much recommended but previously unvisited seaside park. It was lovely, but it was a long ride. Besides all of the lush greenery and beautiful seaside cliffs, there were vats of bondegi (a silk worm larvae (or possibly pupae)) for sale. And we got Dad to try one. In fact, we found a can of them for him to take home to spread the delicacies your way. Here he is with his bug before he eats it.

After Taejongdae we went to Jagalchi, the largest seafood market in Korea. Imagine a marine invertebrate specialist in a market full of spineless maritime squiglers - like a kid in a squirmy candy shop. Here he is admiring the things he never thought you could eat before this trip. But Jagalchi doesn't only have live fish and friends for sale; there's also a large dried market. Here are heaps of dried fishes of all shapes and sizes.
And below, the street market scene. It's a little grimy, but not as smelly as you might imagine.
That night we dined in the market place and followed up with hodducks, a chinese derived snickerdoodle on butter steroids. Dad got hooked when we mainlined a couple when we got back to Busan's bus station the day before.

Sunday
Sunday it was chilly and threatening rain, so we went to the Busan Aquarium for more aquatic delights. There are more fish photos than necessary because I got excited about the aquarium setting on my camera. It made this seahorse look like it came straight out of The Life Aquatic.
We tooled around Haeundae Beach for a bit before catching another bus to a seaside temple we'd been wanting to visit. This temple is unique for a couple of reasons. 1. Most temples are built on the mountain sides, this one on seaside cliffs. 2. This temple is dedicated to Avalokitsvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion, or in more western terms, the goddess of mercy. She is often shown riding on a dragon, and thus there are many dragon images at this temple, which are absent at others. For some very good reason unknown to us, there were also these two plump, jolly pigs at the temple.

There was also a plump, jolly Buddha statue.
This dragon is a painting on the outer wall of one of the temple structures.
This dragon decorates the rafters of the main temple hall.

These cairns dotted the cliffs outside the temple walls.
And the rest of the aquarium and temple photos are in the following slide show.

Monday I finally had to report back to school. But I only had 3 classes and got to leave at 12, so Dad and I had time to take a short hike up Geumjeongsan, a nearby mountain with a fortress wall (much talked about in this blog). We had lunch and got some snacks to take with us and then cruised up to some perches with nice lookouts. It was the first time I'd been there during working hours on a weekday and it was phenomenally more tranquil without the crowds.

Tuesday was our volleyball semifinals at school, so though I didn't get to leave early, Sun Ja and I picked Dad up at the apartment and he got to come to the games. It was a double header and we won the first game and lost to the second team we played. But the first team had our old pal Sunny playing, and Kyung Mi my co teacher from the school I no longer teach at was there too. It was fun to see old friends and for Dad to get to meet the people I work with.

We went to dinner with the school after the game, but after that Brian came and met us and all of the young teachers for drinks and a night on the town. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures that night because the camera was dead. But it was fun to have all my favorite teachers meet Dad and Brian. They even taught us some new Korean drinking games, and of course, the night ended at the norebang (or kareoke room). Yes, Dad sang too.

Wednesday was Dad's last day in Korea, and he came to school with me to meet the kids. He even co taught with me a bit in a roll play we performed for the kids. It was 6th and 5th grade that day, and I wasn't sure how well they'd respond because they're just at the cusp of teenager hood. But they were all so excited to meet him and wanted to compare their hand sizes and arm hair. They all said "he's so handsome guy!". My co teacher got some photos of us in action which I'll try to get hold of to post later.

After school we got to leave early. We relaxed at home and had Korean style tea til Brian came home. Then we started our snacking tour of Korea. We had to fit in as many foods as possible in a short amount of time before going to see the night view of the bridge at Gwangan Li. We all performed admirably.

Once on the beach we found it chilly, so in we went to Russel Crowe bar to have a last night of talk before the departure. These are all the photos Dad took on his last day in Korea.

And these are all of the miscellaneous photos of food and drink and night scenes that didn't fit elsewhere.


I think this final photo of Dad really sums up how he felt about his entire Korean experience. Pretty fantastic.

He left Thursday morning, but Thursday afternoon at school was exciting enough to make it into this post. All of a sudden in the middle of my after school class fire alarms and sirens start going off (and didn't stop for an hour) and all the kids run to the windows. I can't understand the announcements being made, so I check out the window scene. Lo and behold, there's a fire in the middle of the school yard, but an intentional fire, an instructional fire. There's a fire truck and kids getting to use fire extinguishers to try to put out the flames (unsuccessfully; the fire hose was used in the end).

As you can see from these photos, these kids really know how to be cool about fire safety. I should know, as I consider myself a semi-expert on the subject of fire safety because I had to take a course at Furman for a dorm violation involving candles and string lights.

And speaking of fire safety, if you're reading this to waste time, I highly recommend this video. It's hilarious and informative. And if you enjoy it, you should really check out the second and third parts. The second part features Little Richard singing about crawling out of a fire with really awfully funny PowerPoint add ins.

This weekend we mostly rested after the flurry of activity with Dad, but we managed to make it to Haeundae for the sand festival going on there. This was my favorite sand sculpture. Anti-whaling, if you can believe it after all of the whale meat we found and showed on this post.

But there were many more to gawk at. Friday was actually a cultural education day for my teachers' team, meaning that we got to leave around 1:30 for a movie and dinner and coffee. That's where the graphic image of eel heads comes from in this next slide show.

And now we've only 7 weeks left including this one before our summer vacation. We're not sure how much time we've got off at this point, but depending on that crucial bit of information we may go to Mongolia or Indonesia. Either way, we will definitely go to Beijing for a few days. We've got 4 months left on our contracts, but it feels like our time here is already running out. We're trying to fit in any last experiences while we plan our next adventures. It's all so exciting!

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.

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

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