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

Live octopus is easier than smelt

The Monday after our temple stay we went to meet up with Shannon and Ryan in Nampo Dong, a big shopping area near Jagalchi fish market. To the left is what we found there. A lady and her look-a-like dog. Yes, that dog's wearing socks as well as shoes. And pants. And a jacket.

We wandered and wondered for a while before coming to the point of it all, which was sashimi (called hoe pronounced hway in S. Korea) dinner at Jagalchi. Brian and I had experienced this delight once before, but we had a new mission. Find the best of the Jagalchi restaurants, and eat a live octopus. San nakji is live baby octopus, though it's not really alive when you eat it. We found that the live smelt we ate in Inje was not very common and many Koreans were amazed or horrified that we'd done it. But san nakji is very popular.

Apparently, so is sea slug. They looked charred but maybe they were just dried out. That's them on the pink plate in the picture below.

It took us a lot of talking and even more tenacity, but eventually we found an ajumoni (endearing term for middle aged Korean woman) willing and able to grant our wishes. She was the first to bring out the little octopus with a knife instead of a plastic bag of water. She filled up a Styrofoam of spicy sauce and chopped the little guys legs into bite size bits and let us dig in. Behold.

Shannon's got some videos I'll post when I get them from her, for now just stills. It was squirmy wormy but much easier than the smelt, and more delicious I think. It's little suckers were so small though that when it grabbed your cheek or tongue it felt like you were being poked rather than pulled. All the other ajumonis were peeking out of their stalls and shouting questions to the lucky chosen one. Where are they from? Do they like it? It isn't too spicy for them? No ma'am, it's perfect. Our ajumoni even threw in a few raw oysters "service!" (that means free).

We found a sea monster octopus downstairs before dinner as well. It was enormous and the lady kept trying to get us to grab the poor thing's legs. Look at the size of those suckers! She also handed Shannon and Ryan a hapless little friend to hold.

Upstairs we were also success. It's hard to say if we found the best restaurant, but it was more and better food than the place we'd tried with David and Duck, and it was 10 bucks cheaper to boot. Below is the Jagalchi restaurant symbol. I'd say the ajumoni is amazingly accurate, but I doubt the fish are so happy. An aside: it's really common to have the food animal that a restaurant serves as a mascot for the place, usually all smiles to be your dinner. But in the US I think every attempt is made to ignore the fact that what you're eating is an animal. Strange cultural difference resulting in cute signs in Korea.

The spread our lady served was fantastic and I got her card and she memorized my name so I could call and make reservations when Mom and Frank get here. Only 3 more days!
Great job.

Jess

A Rebutal! and our temple stay

First of all, I'd like to back up and say that shortly after the video from the arm wrestler post Mi Yeon and I wrestled with our left arms (her "strong arm") and I won. And I want a rematch now that Brian and I have been pumping kilos in the gym. Incidentally, our gym is called city sports, but in Korean an s sound followed by an i sound always makes a shi sound. So naturally, we work out at shity sports.

But aside from all this, last weekend Ryan and Shannon suggested a temple stay in nearby Gyeongju, the old Shilla Dynasty capital of S. Korea. David and Duck opted out but Brian and I were excited to go, so early Saturday morning we all hopped a bus to another bus to Golgulsa (sa means temple), which is the headquarters for sunmudo. Sunmudo is a martial art one monk told us was developed in India at the very beginning of Buddhism. It is an "active meditation" meaning that it's a tool for enlightenment rather than a tool to defend yourself. It focuses on breathing as well as intensely controlled movements and it's beautiful to see in action.

We got to try it out on our first day there, but the second session and the demonstration from the monks were cancelled due to rain on the second day.

So our first day at the temple was lovely but cold. When we arrived it was lunch time, so we headed into the dining hall where Shannon and I had to sit with the women and the guys with their fellows. We had plenty of time to talk and wander around together between activities, but within any temple structure we weren't to "associate". So we associated as much as possible while exploring the temple grounds after lunch.

We found this happy little guy guarding the watering hole.

The higher we climbed the more charming the characters we found.

A little higher and things started turning a bit more stately.

And regal.

Til the crowning glory at the top. This rock carving that supposedly happened in the 700s. It was beautiful and had a commanding view of the temple grounds. Check it out further down.

Then it was time for archery. We headed over to the Sunmudo center where archery was to happen in time to catch the tail end of a game (can never remember it's name) of foot volleyball between 4 monks. In foot volleyball you have a regular volleyball net and 2 or more players per team. The ball can bounce once between each kick, but a person can only kick it once. It's amazing to see them spike it. Then it was time for archery, which at Golgulsa is also a meditation. We all got pretty good, but it was really cold in the shade where we had to stand and I was glad when it was over.

After some more downtime (spent warming up in our separate girls and guys quarters) it was sunmudo training or bust. There we heard chants to Buddha and learned the proper way to bow to Buddha along with our kicks and hand meditations. It was fun and hard and beautiful to watch the monks who were perfectly amazing at it. And then it was bedtime because morning comes early at a temple. 4 Am early, and the penalty for missing 4:30 morning chants is 3,000 bows to Buddha.

The dormitory (girls on top floor, boys below)

So Shannon and I retired to our room. I've never loved the heated floor so much. There were no beds or even mats, just 2 blankets per person and a small pillow - traditional Korean style, plus an added dose of minimalism for the temple. And our room had paper doors, also traditional. I was amazed at how warm we stayed though, slept like a baby. It was especially nice during Sunday's downtimes when it was cold and drizzly outside and you could hear the rain so nicely through the paper.

At 4 AM as promised we were awakened by a monk with a booming voice and a wooden gong walking by our paper doors chanting and gonging. I'm not typically a morning person, but I was excited to wake up that way, and we were off to morning chants, morning meditation (cold!), and then a short walking meditation up on a hill where the sky was just starting to glow red with the beginnings of dawn. It was cold and quiet and peaceful. Below is where we did walking meditation, only it was dark then.

From there we were on to the mess hall for Baroogongyang, a ceremonial meditative meal.

Baroogongyang has a protocol not only for eating, but for the setting and cleaning of the dishes as well. Eating, between bites you put down your chopsticks and chew slowly and mindfully each bite. However, this was a shortened version for laymen to experience, so it was quickened. Ryan and I were the last ones finished cleaning up with the kimchi because we took it to heart when they said chew slowly. I had to speed eat the last bit of my meal to come in last place while everyone waited for us to finish. Oops.

I forgot to mention the other selling feature of Golgulsa, it has the only cave temple in all of S. Korea. That's where the monk that chanted us awake started out and marched on down from there. Here are some pictures of that lovely spot.

Temple entrance above and altar below.

Buddhas in the wall of the cave temple.

Then, somewhere around 6:30 AM, it was naptime. Then at 8:30, tea time with Q & A with one of the monks! He told us about sunmudo and how he became a monk. Then many of the questions came our way being amongst the only foreigners there. Everyone wanted to know how we found out about Golgulsa, what we thought about sitting on the ground, if we knew about Korean traditional dance and so on.

After tea time there's usually community service, but at that temple it's usually gardening, and it was February, so more downtime. Eventually it was lunch time again and time to go home because most of the daily activities were cancelled due to the rain. But here are some photos of where it would have happened.

Above is the view from the Buddha rock carving of the main temple hall where we meditated and had morning chants, and where the sunmudo demonstration would have happened.

Fighting monk murals.

We were sad to miss a lot of the second day, but happy we'd come to Golgulsa. We'll just have to go back sometime. Sometime warmer. We had to get all bundled up as we waited for the bus back home, but we were all smiles too. Great job Golgulsa!

The perfect rock ledge

This past Tuesday we went over to Dongnae to see David and Duck for the first time since Duck's birthday. It was high time, and we were on a mission. We would walk towards Guemjeongsan (mountain) from David and Duck's place til we found a trail, which we would hike up until we found the perfect rock ledge for our kimbap and soju picnic. This plan went swimmingly. It was a hike up the roads heading towards the mountain, but as soon as we hit dirt we knew we were in luck. These little guys guarded the way.

There was even a map that we puzzled over for a bit.

But we didn't much need it since the only way to go was up. And up we went. Along the way we found many offerings such as the one below. Soju for the ancestors or forest spirits, depending on whether the offerer believes in Confucianism or shamanism.

At some points we lost the trail and used the river bed.

Behind one rock we found this colorful figure on top of a tiger.

Part way up we came across a road and what looked like the entrance to a temple. A Korean couple on the road asked us where we had come from as we scrambled up out of the river bed. Then they pointed us on to the temple, Okbulsa.

At the base we found this waterwheel and pine.

Up some more to find some of the shrubs blooming already and more temple paraphernalia.

This temple turned out to have their own rock carving of Buddha.

But this wooden piece was my favorite sculpture there.

The view from Okbulsa was lovely.



Some of the buildings were an interesting mix of western and Korean architecture. But we still wanted to go higher and find that perfect rock ledge for our picnic (no soju on temple grounds). So we were off again. We found another site that seemed related to the temple, but there was an old woman there who ran us off and pointed out a trail going up up up. It wasn't well maintained, but it was empty. An empty trail is a rare and precious thing in Busan and probably all of Korea. Most trails are extremely wide and packed with technicolored Koreans in the trendiest new hiking gear, complete with two poles and packs for 1 hour, graded trail treks. It was a wonderful surprise to find a solitary hike. It was steep, but it wasn't far, and we managed to see a quail or pheasant and a hawk or falcon (not too familiar with Asia's birds). All this in a city of 4 million. And we did finally find that perfect ledge where we had our picnic after all.

When we finally tore ourselves away we found this guy on the way down. He's the Korean incarnation of Buddha. He's always portrayed as this sort of fierce, bearded protector who will ward of evil spirits. Not quite the Buddha I learned about in the States, but this was the first sculpture image we'd seen in that likeness. He's more common in prints and calendars.

Unrelated to the mountaineering, yesterday all 4 of us went to the Bexco conference center for a conference Brian's school had told him about. We knew it was for the opening of an English language radio station, but David heard there'd be a "famous buffet" from his coteacher, Brian's teacher said it would be "almost festival", and Duck's teacher just told her she should go. So we were excited but didn't know what to expect. It was an opening to the radio station, but it was a fancy affair and they gave us a gift bag (contained a portable radio) and the mayor of Busan was there and everyone assumed we were part of the radio organization. When they found out we weren't they all wanted to know what we were doing there. Oops. Our explanations worked, but everyone had that look in their eyes like you just came for the free radio didn't you. I'm glad about the radio station, but don't kid yourselves radio people, a portable radio the size of a walkman is not desirable even if it's free. Now, if their eyes had accused us of this famous buffet having brought us... but there was no buffet. It was a strange hour with dancers and a fog machine and firecracker confetti, but the fruit tray on each table was delicious and we got offers to contribute to the station. It's wonderful how speaking English has suddenly qualified us for jobs that we're absolutely unqualified for.

Another side note, Brian's been refurbishing the blog and he's moved the Appalachian Trail posts to a new blog you can find at http://www.atsummer08.blogspot.com/. He's added some new pictures and posts and will be adding for a while til we get all our favorites up. Also, he's made another at http://www.canyouenglish.com/ where David, Duck, Shannon, Ryan, Brian and I will be cataloging the great konglish signs and other printing that we find. There are links to both of these blogs on the left hand of this blog under the heading Our other blogs.