Sports, Spiritualism, Science?, and Sports

Last weekend and this week were loaded. Friday after school Brian and I met David and Duck at Sajik Baseball Stadium for a Lote Giants game (or ja-iy-uhn-tuh-suh, as it's called in Korean). The team's not so hot, but the fans don't seem to notice. Baseball is probably the most popular sport in Korea, and people have a great time at the games whether their teams winning or losing. You'd never be able to pick the winning team by watching the fans leave the stadium. Everyone's just as happy as they can be, and why not? They can take as much cheap booze and food into the game as they can carry. And they have this sort of thing to greet them at the gates.

Apparently there's a new soju in town and there have been soju dancers promoting it all around recenlty. After the game we had a short trip to a nearby pub, but we were all pretty worn out. Duck was falling asleep in the booth, so soon we all crashed at David and Duck's.

But Saturday was Buddhamas. Christmas is a recongnised holliday here, but decorations don't pop up until about 3 days before the big day. Not so for Buddhamas. About 3 weeks beforehand colorful lanterns appeared lining most streets and even a giant animated light up dragon showed up near Busan Station. But the actual day was even more ornate. We decided to wait until evening to visit temples so we could get the full effect of the lanterns, so we played badminton to honor Buddha's birth. We even had some fans looking on and cheering. You can witness this in the next slide show.

Once dusk set in we were on our way to our first temple with Ryan and Shannon. I don't remember the name, but it was near Seomyeon. It was small, but quaint and it had some unique lanterns. And we got to participate in the walking meditation/chanting prayer around the temple grounds before we left. It was gorgeous, but we had heard of a temple with such numbers of lanterns that it looked like a sea of lights, so we were tempted to move on.

We had to split up for the taxi ride, but in no time we were walking up to Samgwangsa (all the temples are up on hills, like the universities). Though Samgwangsa had a little less character than the nameless temple, it was undeniably spectacular. The following video is sideways, I don't know how to fix it - just tilt your head.

And, on Buddha's Birthday (not really called Buddhamas, in case I've convinced anyone that it is) the temples give out free bibimbap. It was like carolling with figgy pudding and wassal, except it's May and it was temple hopping with bibimbap and calguksu.

After the last temple Brian and I headed home early to get some sleep for the Jirisan trip on Sunday. EPIK (English Program in Korea - our employers) sometimes organizes free trips for the native English speaking teachers, and Sunday we went to a mountain called Jiri for a medicinal herbs festival. This was much less exciting in real life than it sounds, but it was a free trip on an otherwise planless Sunday. We tasted some tasty teas, saw an awful excuse for a cotton field/museum about cotton, saw some beautiful mountains that we'll go back to for hiking/camping, learned that Korea has black bears (with a white V on their chests), and got to try acupuncture! This last was probably the most exciting part, besides the bears. It's true, it really doesn't hurt, and I'm a wimp about needles. My whole family and Brian got to witness this one Christmas when Mom brought an injection for me to Mammaw's house in Georgia. Just couldn't wait til I came home could you Mom? But as for acupuncture, it felt like someone touched me with a pin, but didn't actually break any skin with it. I got the needles in my back though, and if I moved in such a way as to flex those muscles it did pinch. I wasn't in any discomfort beforehand, so I can't say whether or not it helped me, but it was relaxing and I didn't feel any worse afterwards.

Then, Monday was Field Day at my school! Field Day certainly means something different in Korea than in the US, but like at home, it means no classes. For Field Day in Korea the teachers and kids rehearse for about 3 weeks. What could they rehearse you wonder? Well, please observe this video.

THat's right - at all times at least 2 events were going on at the same time, and these weren't simple games like the nail drop. There was one game where the kids rolled a giant dice and then according to which number they got they had to do a different task. Each time there were 3 kids rolling and doing the task and it was a race to see which team of 30 or so kids could get every group of 3 to finish doing whatever task and race back to the group first. Not only were the games complicated, there were also enormous dance productions where an entire grade performed together. Observe the 3rd graders in Hey Mickie!

And whatsmore, it wasn't limited to the kids. A handful of dads and a million moms and gradmas came to play too, and take pictures of their kids doing their routines. There was a moms' tug-o-war, a grandmas' person-size ball rolling relay race, a dads' 200 meter race, and even a moms' dance number and jump rope dance number. I loved the parents' sport competitions, but the dance was kind of embarassing. My favorite was watching the gradmas race that ball around. Brilliant. Look at the determination on their faces!

So while Field Day at home may be more fun for the kids ( no rehearsing, no pressure, just games), it is overwhelmingly more fun for the spectators in Korea.
And Tuesday was a holliday (Children's Day), so we beached all day on Cinco de Mayo, Wednesday Brian and I both got to leave school early (me for hiking with my teachers, him for drinking and a movie with his), Thursday was normal and I'm off again today! May has been great in Pusan.

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