Birthdays in Busan!!!!

This past weekend was my birthday! And we celebrated accordingly. Friday when I got to school Sun Ja told me I could leave at 1:30 because it was "same grade teachers' cultural education day", but we didn't have a plan for cultural education so we all just left early; of course it was! Thanks for the birthday present Dong Cheon! I went home, straightened up for the eminent arrival of Chelsea and Erin, and then wined myself silly til Brian came home.

Then we subwayed to the 7 Luck Casino where we met David and Duck and I met with 20,000 more than I'd walked in with at the roulette table. Free dinner, free drinks, even a free tooth brush if you request it, which we didn't, and free money, not a bad start to the night.

We met Ryan and Shannon on our way back to Kyungsung where we tried out a Japanese bar we'd been eyeing for a while. There we did presents (thanks everyone!) and played a rowdy little game of drinking Jenga which Brian had gifted me earlier.

Me and my birthday hat Shannon made me.

The mini drinking Jenga Brian made.

The penalty for demolishing the jenga tower was to eat 3 bondaegi. Bondaegi are either cocoons or larvae, we don't know which, we've heard people swear to both, that are steamed and served with no sauce or flavoring of any kind. They smell absolutely foul and I was the only one with enough sense not to try one. And no, I don't regret that decision as Shannon and Duck tried to convince me I would.

...Bondegi

Our new friend Will met up with us too, and at some point we moved on to an arcade where by some miracle we were able to fit 6 people, including David, Brian, and Duck, into a 2 person noraebang (kareoke room to all you waegooks). We sang old favorites like I Like to Move it Move it and that stupid Rick Ashley song I can never remember the name of. We all emerged unscathed somehow, and straggled on to an interlude at the Family Mart (a 7-11-esque convenient store with a random patio and seats) but not before a quick girl fight.

I blame the heels for that awful performance. We eventually met back up with Will at Zorba Buddha, a cozy little hookah place, where we stayed until the drinks and plush pillows lulled the night to an end.

Saturday it was birthday time again! Brian and I met Duck at Haeundae Beach were a pod of foreigners was basking and volleyballing. We soaked it in for a while before adventuring towards Dalmaji (that means moon hill) in search of the famed cherry blossoms there. We took an unorthodox route in some back streets past backwash waters and on through somebody's vegetable garden, across some railroad tracks and then we saw them! The streets were blooming all round with cherry blossoms, or cherry flower trees as Sun Ja calls them. We even found a short woods walk where we overheard a group of people singing traditional Korean songs. Have a listen.

Cherry flower trees!

These birds were drinking from the flowers.

The woods walk reminded me of Myst. I was awful at that game.

On the top of the hill we dined on makulli and popcorn under the cherry trees before deciding once again that it would be a good idea to get free food and drinks at the Haeundae casino. And once again I walked out with 20,000 won from the roulette table. Improbable, but true. On the subway back to our place we met a group of kindred spirits and decided to go with them to O'Briens, the Irish bar in which we'd celebrated St. Patrick's day. That night they had a great band, cheap drinks, and we ended up playing darts until strangers became friends.

Sunday was a day for recovery, and I'd just finished The Kite Runner (great story, but reading it concurrently with Ulysses made the writing seem a bit wanting, though that would probably be true of most books) (thanks Margo!) and was craving Indian food so it was birthday time again! And we ate at a place with an open kitchen where we watched the Indian chef make our naan fresh and delicious. I don't really miss the food in America so much as I miss the variety of foods available all at around the same price. There's Italian and Indian and Vietnamese food here, but if it's not from Korea, it's at least 3 times as expensive, and usually not that good. But the food at Shabana was delicious, though still not cheap.

And now the weekend's over but tonight Chelsea and Erin arrive in Pusan and I can't wait for all the gallivanting to come. AND Brian's school and mine have the same founding day, which is this Wednesday. So we've both got the day off to carouse with the visitors! And to sweeten the whole sweet deal, Da Bin, one of the third grade girls who cleans the English room, gave me a notebook for my birthday and the note on it said "My best friend Jess (heart drawn here) happy birthday! -from Da Bin-". I love this job and I love these kids even more. As the drunken man in the first Korean restaurant we ever ate at once said, Korea number one!

And to put some faces to the third grade girls who clean the English rooms' names...

From left to right there's Da Bin, Min Su, Ji Eun, and Hye Jin. They're eating chocolate covered cookies sticks with sprinkles - YUM. They're so cute and sweet and I love them so much.

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!