11/13: First Week of November

View from the hike on the mountain near my house

 

Cheonan

 

Cheonan

 



Cheonan



 



Walking to the trailhead for the hike by  my houshour

After an awesome hike on Saturday, the weekend remained eventful when I went to Cheonan on Sunday to meet up with a friend I had met at orientation. At orientation in August I had randomly sat at this table during our Seoul field trip and struck up a conversation with a girl from Alexandria! We ended up getting along really well and she was one of the first people who I felt like I made a connection with. A couple of weeks ago we went to Daejeon for the weekend and had such a nice time that we decided to explore another town. This Sunday we explored Cheonan which is a city about 20 minutes from me. They are supposed to have a really good Indian food restaurant so as soon as we found each other at the station (which took longer than you would have thought as we were in two different waiting rooms) we walked straight over to the restaurant. I think we ordered everything they had on their menu, it all looked so delicious! And it was delicious! I loved the food and we had a great time stuffing our faces.

                After lunch we decided to just walk around and explore and stumbled upon their traditional market. There are traditional markets all over Korea and it basically is just a farmer’s market. But at this traditional market they were actually painting the street of the market with these huge, gorgeous, floral patterns. And it didn’t look like an organization but rather a hodge-podge of people, young and old who volunteered their Sunday to paint the street. The flowers were beautiful!

                In Korea there isn’t much to do besides wander around, shop and hike so we walked over to the main shopping area and ended up spending some time shopping here and there. We wanted to try to get our nails done but every place we went to told us to come back at 5 after their other appointments were done so that was out. We were tired too so instead of wandering around some more we just had some coffee and then slowly made our way back to the train station. Although it was just a Sunday of wandering around, we had a lot of fun and it was nice to see another Korean city.

                Back to a full week of school again. Things aren’t necessarily getting easier at school but I at least am getting into a system. I still have no idea what to do with my first and second graders who hate everything I do. I am trying to teach them phonics since they already know the alphabet and do this through motions. There is a great song that we have learned and are learning the movements to match each sound. They hate doing any activity more than once so I have to always think of new games. Luckily they don’t tire of getting stamps. They each have a paper with their name on it and if they do something good they get a stamp, 10 stamps=candy. Every day I ask them “How are you?” and I ask 5 students and each of them gets a stamp. The reason I bring this up is because of the cutest little boy named Tae Min. He is known as the terror of the school, a first grader. About half the time he is unruly, hits other kids, yells and screams. One time Juny and I were walking downstairs and I turn around and see that Tae Min was hiding under a table in the hallway. We took him back to his homeroom where the teacher said she told him to sit outside as a punishment but the little lump decided to run away and hide under the table. He is probably the tubbiest kid in school and is always one of the last kids to leave the cafeteria. I actually love watching him eat because he genuinely enjoys eating, both his first and second meal! Then he walks around with his little tum tum pooched out. Anyways, I go around asking the students how they are today and when I call on Tae Min of course he yells and screams, “I’m HUNGRY!!” It was just too perfect for me not to mention it. Of course, my little tubby kid would yell he is hungry!

 Today Tae Min was cute but a couple weeks earlier he was the terror of my class.  I don’t remember exactly what we were doing but I think some activity that required the kids to get up and move around. Well from the beginning of class he didn’t want to be in the room because he came in, dropped his stuff at his table and ran outside the classroom. Then for the next 30 minutes of class he did everything he could to disrupt us. He ran around the hallways yelling, he ran around the classroom yelling, he hit kids. At one point, there was this little girl HanNa (who is really tiny) who was kneeling down for some reason and out of nowhere, Tae Min comes running towards her and bowls her over. Literally it was like Tae Min was this huge bowling ball and HanNa was a pin and she went flying and hit her head on a desk. Thank God she wasn’t hurt too bad. Well then I grab Tae Min, but the little plump gets out of my grasp and runs into the hallway so I lock the door. When he learns this he just puts his face up against the classroom windows and starts yelling “Sit Down, Be Quiet” the only words he learned this semester. Then he bangs on the door, so I open the door and just hold him as I continue to teach. Luckily by this time class was almost over so I release Tae Min and dismissed the rest of the class. It was actually a workout to hold this kid!

Even though I hate my first and second graders I have grown to love my kindergarteners. They have no attention span but think everything is funny and love everything we do! We always start with a welcome song and then do some youtube videos or songs. They have learned their colors, their emotions (happy, sad, etc) and one of their favorite songs to sing is “5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!” There is a video that they like to imitate and it is literally the cutest thing on the planet. They love to jump up and down and then they imitate calling the doctor and shaking their finger when it says, “No more monkeys jumping on the bed.” I love doing it because they are just too cute. Their newest favorite thing to do is called the alphabet dance. There is another youtube video danced to the song “We No Speak Americano” and these dancers make alphabet shapes with their body to the music. The kids are obsessed with it! And I mean obsessed always saying, “One more time!” after we do it like four times. It’s so great. And then there is my old-man kindergartener who gets a kick out of it. He actually is a special needs kid but he looks like a really small old man, complete with the bright, yellow, velvet tracksuit. He really likes and is good at English so after we do the alphabet song and I am about to leave he comes up to me and goes “Young-o SunSangNim” (English teacher) and moves his finger in big circles and movements to draw a letter in space and goes “iroke, iroke” (like this, like this) asking me what the letter is. Most of the time I have no idea so I guess and when I get it wrong he goes, “NOOOOO, Y” hahahaha! He does this a lot where he tests me. Sometimes he draws with his fingers, othertimes he imitates the video using his body to make a letter and sometimes he asks me what something is in English but speaking in Korea. OF course I don’t know so he just yells, “NOOO….spider/gorilla, etc/whatever he is asking.” Those kindergarteners are so ridiculously great!

Besides hating my 1/2^nd graders and loving my Kindergarteners this week I am preparing for the last VIP English Festival of the semester. It is the same thing every time but we still have to go for a dress rehearsal some night of the week which is annoying but at least they give us free pizza. The real festival was held on Saturday and since it was my third time working as the Master of Ceremonies I felt pretty confident with it and it all ended up going well. Afterwards they took us to this little hole in the wall restaurant that I really like for an awesome meal of samgyupsal and galbi (Korean BBQ). FANTASTIC MEAL!!

Later that Saturday I ended up going to Home Plus (like Target) and then that night went bowling with some of the other Americans. I was nervous they weren’t going to have my shoe size but they did and it ended up being pretty fun, especially since I won! I love bowling! Then afterwards we walked for what felt like miles to go get waffles. As I have mentioned before, the cafes here open late and stay open late for a long time so even though it was like 11 we walked in and got ourselves a really awesome green tea ice cream and vanilla ice cream waffle.

Although Sunday was a little more relaxed than Saturday it was still a great day. I had the morning to myself and then in the afternoon went hiking with some other westerners on the mountain near my house. It was the first time I had hiked it so I was glad to see how close the path was to my house. Overall it was a great week and fun weekend!





10/13: Hiking Mt. Kyerong-Last Week of October!

Silkworm Pupae I bought

Walking to the trail head

Temple on the trail

Snack Break while hiking

Lunch Break

                  So luckily Halloween was a huge success at school and the kids really liked it. I am becoming more and more comfortable with the kids every week. I play a lot of UNO with them which they and I love. There is usually an hour between when they get out of school and when English after school starts when they have free time. Most of the kids are running around the school or playing outside but some of them come to my room and we play UNO together. It’s actually a lot of fun and I am always shocked by for how long the kids can play. Other times we play a game on the board where the kids teach me Korean and I teach them English. For example I say “strawberries” and they will say it in Korean “Dalgi” and I have to write in Dalgi in Hangul and they have to write strawberries in English. So far I have only looked strawberries and green tea from them but it is something to do. Plus if I say anything in Korean they get so excited and surprised. The other day someone did something good so I said “Pak-soo” which means clap and instead of clapping they all just stared at me. It was really cute and really funny. Yet at the same time they love to imitate me speaking English (which is good) and Korean (which is annoying). During my afterschool class I picked up the phone and said “Ann-young-ha-sayo” which means hello and then the fifth grade boys erupted in a chorus of “ann-young-ha-sayo” using an American accent. It was cute and annoying at the same time. They do it in the lunch room too when I say hello to the lunch ladies, I hear a chorus of American “annyounghasayos” all over the place.

Sometimes it’s good when they imitate me though. One day, fourth grade Lily comes to hang out with me after school and she stands on the little teacher stage we have and picks up our weather cards. She starts asking me what the weather is and when it’s not the correct weather, she throws the card on the floor, just like I do in class. It was hilarious! Even my sixth graders like to imitate me. All the students have English names and in sixth grade two best friends named Jack and Antonio decided to become one and were Jacktonio #1 and Jacktonio #2. Well Jacktonio #2 wasn’t in his seat when class began so I decided to sit in his seat, I became Jacktonio #3 and Jacktonio #2 was me. He greeted the class and then immediately wrote on the board that it was free time.

Along with imitating me the kids love to comment on  what I wear and how I look. One of my fifth grade girls, Anna, is obsessed with fixing my clothes. If my bra strap is showing, she will come up to me, go “teacher” and point to my shoulder. Or if one of those hanger strings from a shirt is showing she will walk up to me and point it out. She was also the one who told me that I shouldn’t wear the same necklace everyday and need to switch it up. Another day I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop and two of my second graders come over (Lee Yoo Jin and Seo Hae In). I had to wait for like 20 minutes which made having a conversation with two girls who speak no English pretty difficult. I had taught them shapes earlier in the semester so I tried pointing out shapes and they would repeat the shape after I said it. Then we moved on to colors which worked pretty well. Then they start looking at me and through pointing and words here and there told me that I had a really big forward and a pointy nose and my skin was very white. Hm?? Well thanks a lot for the confidence boost, lol. Especially since fourth grade Lily told me in the beginning of the year that I had a big, pointy nose as well. Now I’m uber self conscious about my nose and forehead around the kids.

They can be nice once in a while. They like to say I look beautiful and very pretty a lot which is always nice. One time I wore my hair down and all the kids ooed and awed over it at lunch. Even at lunch one of my third graders runs up to his homeroom teacher and says “Julie-Sam [Julie-teacher]” pointing at my hair. It was so cute. Later in the day two of my third graders come to class after lunch and start chasing each other. One of them who lived in the US for two years and has great English comes up to me and says “Julie teacher. Jayden [one of the cute little boys from third grade] says that you look very beautiful today.” It was so so nice. But that was short-lived.  A couple hours later another girl explains that what Jayden said is that I look beautiful with my hair down but not beautiful with my hair up in a bun. Thanks for that Jayden! These kids!!

A couple of weeks ago some of the teachers in Jochiwon went hiking on the mountain close to our town but unfortunately I was in Busan. However, one of the teachers who was going on that hike planned another hike at a huge mountain so this weekend I got up early and headed to Gongju with four other teachers to hike Kyeryongsan (san means “mountain”). Anyways, we all met up and took the bus to Gongju where we would have to transfer to another bus. Unfrotunately when we got to Gongju we had just missed our bus and would have to wait about an hour or so. Luckily there was a traditional market there to walk around. In Korea they eat silkworm pupae and I had been meaning to try it and low and behold they were selling them at the market so I bought a bag. Only after buying did I learn that they were frozen and I would have to heat them up at home. Well that sucks! I had to hike the whole mountain carrying defrosting silkworm pupae that began to stink!!

Anyways, finally the right bus came which took us straight to the base of the hike but as soon as we got there it started to pour! I was an idiot and hadn’t checked the weather so all I had was this cheap poncho I had bought from the dollar store. We decided to take the steeper route and boy, was it steep. However it ended up being a fantastic day. We all got a great workout in even though it was pretty slow going up the path. It rained on and off the whole day and was cold and windy but was awesome! Since it is fall the colors of the trees were gorgeous and the mist and wind just added to the majestic quality of the hike. Once we got to the top of course we couldn’t see anything and it was freezing, so much for a view. But we did find this adorable white puppy that led us to the bathrooms and this little hut. We thought the hut was empty and sat down on the porch for lunch. As we sat down this man comes up out of the house and tells us to come inside. We had just got settled so we politely declined and instead he brought us warm coffee. It was so nice of him.

The hike down took a while and we were actually getting a bit nervous that we wouldn’t make it down before dark. Not only was it really slippery which slowed us down but the path down was way prettier than the one up (we went up and over so took two different paths) so we stopped multiple times for pictures! Although we had to speed it up we made it safely down off the mountain and actually ended at a beautiful Buddhist temple with a great gift shop. And then while we were shopping around, some of the monks got on the bell tower and beat the drum that was up there in a beautiful, steady beat. It was so interesting because they would take turns beating the drum but the rhythm never stopped as they artfully and skillfully changed places.

There was also a small little town at the bottom where we stopped to get an awesome duck soup dinner. It was funny though cause we walked onto this restaurant porch and when the woman saw us she goes “English,” we replied yes and she got all nervous and started apologizing for not knowing English. But of course, it all worked out fine and we had a great, well-deserved dinner!

Overall I loved this hike even though it was cold and windy and steep and slippery! The views were fantastic!! Great SATURDAY in KOREA!

                  

10/13: Halloween

Thomas with his monster mouth teeth

Me with my fifth grade after school boys making graveyards

Adrian with his graveyard

Monster Mouths

Jacob with his graveyard

My classroom with pumpkins, spiders and ghosts



Our cemetery

My pupucha, Tyler

First and Second Grade Pumpkins

Owen making his graveyard

Jacob being a vampire

Blake with his graveyard

Ghost Lollipops I made

Halloween in Korea is not really celebrated/celebrated at all. There is a zombie run in Seoul and a couple other events. Some bars have Halloween specials and some people who go out do dress up in costumes but that’s really all there is. There isn’t Halloween candy sold in stores and the stores that do sell Halloween stuff just have a really small section for it. The kids don’t dress up or really have any idea what it is except that candy is involved somehow.

Although I really hate Halloween it doesn’t mean that I wanted to deprive my after school kids of the Halloween traditions so for the weeks leading up to Halloween we did some Halloween activities. All my afternoon classes watched a Halloween movie/show with Korean subtitles. My little first graders all got to color and decorate a pumpkin. My older kids got to decorate a pumpkin and make a tombstone for themselves. It was really cute too cause my fifth and sixth graders got really into their tombstones drawing ghosts and such. It was so cute because most of my kids wanted to write their name and “die” next to it (I know it’s “XXX is dead” but they were so adamant about it that many of the tombstones just read “XXXX die”). Except my 6^th grade Ryan when I telling him that other kids were writing “die” he curls up and goes “Oh no teacher, Ryan not die.” It was hilarious and so so cute!

We also played some Halloween games and I taught them some Halloween vocabulary. There is this one awesome Halloween powerpoint game where throughout the game various ghosts and monsters pop up on the TV screen. It was great and the kids got really into it except for my third grade Ryan who kept turning away from the TV screen and was so scared of the monsters and ghosts. I felt so bad for him but it was so cute at the same time.

On the day of Halloween itself, I decided that my fifth and sixth graders were old enough to have a Halloween party so I pulled out all the stops. The night before I made cookie monster mouths (just cookies with marshmallows) and bought stuff for the kids to make gravestones. I also created a scavenger hunt around school where I put pieces of a skeleton all around school grounds with hints to the next bodypart. The hunt itself turned out pretty good but the kids did get yelled at a lot for running around and they ended up taking some of the clues I had taped to the walls which meant that other teams couldn’t read the clues. They pretty much got it and they ended up having a blast both during the hunt and during the party where they made their gravestones and I played monster mash music. I also had created a “pin the nose on the pumpkin” game and had Wii Just dance videos available but we didn’t even need them. Halloween at school was a lot of work but really fun.

Later that night I played volleyball with my team and then went to a Halloween Party hosted by another Native English Teacher. The party was low key as we all had school the following day but there was some awesome food and it was nice to catch up with some of the other teachers! Overall I would say this Halloween beats last years Halloween where I was in Botswana and just went to Linga Longa for dinner.

10/13: Events in October

Restaurant in Daejeon where they give you gloves to mix your salad

Toilet Paper Prize I got for playing volleyball

Lindsey and I at Sponge Bar in Daejeon

Some weird bar I saw at Daejeon with a robotic hostess

Planting a plant at my elementary school's booth at the exhibition

Chicks from my school

Making traditional sweets at the schools' exhibition

There were no more scheduled holidays until Christmas which meant basically working two and a half months straight! This is going to be a long two and a half months! Luckily there are a lot of different events coming up so that should keep me busy and occupied. 

                The Sejong City Office of Education loves to hold events and competitions so one Wednesday afternoon they had a school showcase type of event for students that was being held very close to my house. Juny was going and my vice principal said I was free to tag along since I didn’t have any afternoon classes. It was great too! Basically each elementary and middle school had a booth and a project that the students could participate in. Well, me being the native teacher who is treated like a student a lot of the time anyways, was allowed to participate in these events. My school is known for agriculture so at our booth we had our baby chickens and rabbits on display and had a plant planting section where students could make a plant to bring home so I walked home with a plant. At another booth they were making traditional candies so I got to make traditional candies too! These reminded me of the Chinese crackers you get for Chinese soup—really flaky and crispy! They were great! It was a really nice event and I was so happy that I got to act like a student and do the activities at these booths.

                Another event that the Sejong City Office of Education was holding was an English competition which I think I mentioned in an earlier blog post. Both Juny and myself were working very hard with the students to prepare them for the event. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to the event but Juny went with the kids. I was left to stay at school and teach all the morning classes by myself. Well as soon as my students saw that Juny was gone they realized it was a free day. I tried maintaining control of the class and we played some games and followed the textbook but it was so much harder without her. It made me realize how much she is the head teacher and I am the assistant. The kids know it and know that without Juny, I have no power. All in all, it sucked having to teach them without someone there to control their behavior.

                What else? Oh yeah, we had another VIP English Festival. This one was held at Chamsan Elementary School in Sejong City. As mentioned I live in a small town called Jochiwon within the Sejong City province. Within the proving there is a new city called Sejong that will be the new government headquarters. They basically realized they need a government headquarters so decided to build a completely new city. Chamsan Elementary is right in the middle of the new Sejong and it was the first time that I was in the city. I loved it. It was really clean and, obviously, very new. I heard one of the architects modeled it off Western cities and therefore it looks very Western and modern. Plus it is supposed to be a “green, eco-friendly” city so there are a lot of green spaces around, solar panels, etc. The only weir part is that it’s pretty empty. There aren’t that many people around and a lot of the office buildings have no one in them. The government complex building is huge and runs throughout the city but a large part of it is unoccupied and still being built and therefore there are cranes and construction tape all over the city. The elementary school was beautiful with bright colors and really modern systems like smartboards and heated toilets, lol. The festival itself went really well. I was the Master of Ceremonies again and organized the quiz section. I thought it went as well as the last one. Plus the directors of VIP took us out for shabu-shabu afterwards which is Japanese hotpot. DELICIOUS!!!

                Since VIP was on Saturday, on Sunday I went to Daejeon to meet up with one of my friends I met at orientation. She and I got along really well at orientation and since I am having a hard time making friends I decided to see if she wanted to meet up for the day. It ended up being a great day as we got to have Indian food for lunch, which was fantastic, did some shopping and just wandered around Daejeon. Neither one of us had been there before so we had no idea what to expect. We did end up in an apartment complex by accident. The day ended with some chatting over an awesome Green Tea Latte!

It turns out I would go to that exact same area the following week to go dancing at some bar my friend learned out. It had been a while since I had gone out (seeing as how I hate going out this isn't very surprising) but my friend told me about this bar she liked and together we went on a Friday night to Daejeon. The night started out by going to some restaurant with no English menu and only pictures. We thought we ordered a plate of meat but it turns out we ordered a salad with some slices of duck on top. It was so weird because the waiter brought out the dish and then handed me some gloves and gestured that I put the gloves on and mix the salad-so weird. After dinner we got lost for like an hour before finally finding the bar. The night was pretty fun filled with some dancing and talking before heading back on the 2:30 am train to Jochiwon.

                Hmm? Every Tuesday I am taking Korean lessons with my tutor and feel that I am progressing. I am learning how to construct sentences as well as increasing my vocabulary. It is still very hard for me to understand what people are saying as they speak so quickly and don’t slow down for me but I can write some sentences and begin to decipher what words are verbs, subject, object, etc.

                I am also playing volleyball every Monday and Thursday with the female teachers of Sejong City. It’s gotten better as more and more teachers become more comfortable with me and I with them allowing for me to joke a little more with them. Plus they speak more English every week which has been nice. AND there is another American teacher who began playing with us, Stacy. This is probably the best thing about it because now I have someone there I can talk to really easily and who is just as confused about what is going on as I am. In fact, we had a tournament one of the last weekends of October.  I wasn’t sure at all what to expect except that Han Sookhee (the teacher at my school who drives me to practice and speaks some English) asked if I could play in a game on Sunday. I said sure and so Sunday morning, 9:30am she picked Stacy and I up and took us to the school. It turned out to be a much bigger deal than I realized. There were four competing teams, one court and each team had their own area of the gym to have a picnic on. Han SookHee is on two teams so she was playing with her other team today yet she still told us to come sit with her other team who said hello and offered us food, good food too! Our team arrived a little later and they offered us food too: kimbap, sweet potatoes, mandarins, etc. I couldn’t believe people were eating this much before a game, oh and of course, they had a can of beer opened at 10am and were drinking. Crazy!

                Throughout the day we ended up playing about 4 games and I think we only won one game. It didn’t matter to me. I had fun and played well. During the last game, I was hitting and had some people even cheering me on using my name. In Korea they play 9 v 9 with a shorter net which really benefits me since I am so slow and can’t jump high. With so many players I don’t have to cover a lot of ground and with the short net I become a really good hitter. I loved it. Not to mention, they had a fantastic lunch. All the teams take a break and go outside to the parking lot where they had catered Korean lunch: soup, meat, rice, etc. I ate so much throughout the day and I had the chance to speak with some more of my teammates. Some of them speak English so this young teacher (English name is Sarah) took the time to help Stacy and I practice the Korean alphabet. I was supposed to go to Costco later in the afternoon with Juny but of course that never happened as the tournament took so long. But I didn’t mind. I had a fantastic time and it’s just another example of how sports make life so much better. Plus at practice the following week they told me I got a prize and it ended up being 30 rolls of toilet paper. I have no idea why they sell and give toilet paper in bulk sizes here.  It doesn't even it in my apartment! I have toilet paper coming out from all over the place. At least I won't need to buy toilet paper while in Korea.

 

10/13: Bibimbap and Ginseng Market with Juny

Fried Ginseng

 

Bibimbap Restaurant in Jeonju

 

Frying Ginseng

 

Ginseng Alcohol

 

Bibimbap

               After returning from an awesome time exploring the southern part of Korea, I only had two days of school before I got my last holiday/school day off before Christmas. I didn’t do much except lay around the house and “dingle-dingle” as the Koreans say which is to be a couch potato.

On Saturday I was supposed to go to a ginseng festival with my friend Abby and the Korean class that I attend sometimes but instead Juny invited me to have lunch with her family. I had only met her husband and son once or twice before but she asked if I wanted to go and of course I said yes. She said we would go to Chungju for lunch which is only about 20 minutes away but when she picked me up on Saturday morning she said it would take about an hour or a little longer to get there so I became really confused. It turns out she said Jeonju which to me sounded like Cheongju, the close town. The “ch” and “j” here are so similar. Either way I was fine with it. Every Wednesday at school is a special lunch which is usually bibimbap (basically Korean stir-fry) and I love it. Juny knows how much I love it, told her husband and he said we would have to go to Jeonju to get bibimbap as this is the area famous for bibimbap.

The ride to Jeonju was interesting as we wandered in and out of mountain ranges allowing me to see more of the country with Juny pointing out things along the way like statues, temples and cemeteries. She even made her husband stop at a rest-stop so she could show me the Korean rest stops which basically look very similar to the ones in the states. Even though we were going for lunch we all got little snacks so I got hotteoks which are basically cinnamon filled pancakes except the pancake is more breadlike. They got fishcakes and I think her son got chicken nuggets on a stick.

A little while later we made it to the restaurant which is one of the more famous ones in Jongju known for their bibimbap and it was delicious! There were different kinds but we got the one in a stone container which keeps the bibimbap warmer for longer and allows the raw egg they crack on it to cook. Plus there were a bunch of great sidedishes. What I love about being with Juny’s family is that it is very comfortable. I was having a hard time picking up the green bean jelly with my chopsticks so Juny told me to just use my hands or use the spoon I had. It felt great to be so comfortable.

After lunch we headed to Geumsan which is the ginseng capital of Korea. Ginseng is a root that looks very much like ginger and has a lot of medicinal purposes. I heard there was a ginseng festival going on and when I told Juny about it she assumed it was the one in Geumsan but I was talking about the one in Jongpyeon. No worries. There wasn’t a festival occurring in Geumsan but there was a traditional market that we walked around for a long time with Juny either explaining what everything was or asking what things were and translating it for me. It was great to walk around and learn what some things are. She had a friend who owned a medicinal ginseng stall and Juny bought me a huge back of ginseng candy and her friend gave me a small container of ginseng alcohol. Many of the shopkeepers there use ginseng to make alcohol and in the container carve the ginseng into beautiful designs. Her friend saw me marveling at them and therefore gave me that small batter. We also tried fried ginseng which was a little bitter but great to try.

Overall it was a fantastic day and it felt so nice to be part of a family. I miss home so much and I loved being a part of Juny’s family even if it was for just a day! Once again I am so lucky to have her.

10/13: Busan

Map of South Korea to give you an idea of where Seoul is and where Busan is. South Korea is about the size of Indiana. I live somewhere between Buyeo and Songnisan National Park, south of Seoul.

View of Busan from 75 Square on Taejongdae Island 

UN Memorial

Wearing the bright orange trash bag on my head at the Lotte Giant Baseball Game

Busan Tower

Right outside the Jagalchi Fish Market

Busan Aquarium by Haundae Beach

Busan Station

Haundae Beach

House Slippers at the hostel--Pretty much sums up my life in Korea

75 Square

Riding a huge robotic dog at the carnival

Lotte Giants Baseball Game

Jagalchi Fish Market

Gwangalli "Diamond" Bridge Busan

            Since we had another long weekend, my friend, Abby and I decided to head down to Busan to explore the awesome city. Busan is the second largest city in Korea located on the southern coast of the peninsula.

            So Thursday morning we boarded the train and made the four hour treck south to Busan. I loved the train ride as it allowed me to see even more of Korea. Korea is a very small country, about the size of Indiana and therefore the topography doesn't change that much from city to city. There are a lot of mountains (mountains/hills) and a lot of rivers that flow in between them and of course, multiple high rise apartments that dot the landscape. It’s hard for me to tell whether or not Korea is pretty. Everywhere you go there are beautiful, green, lush mountains but in front of all of those mountains are always, huge, white apartment buildings that don’t have much architecture to them and instead look like massive rectangle buildings.

            Anyways, we arrived in Busan and decided to immediately head to our hostel, Mr. Egg. Not sure if I mentioned this or not but Korea is obsessed with shoes and taking them off when you get into a building. It is really pretty weird and annoying for me, every time you go into a restaurant you have to take your shoes off and then spend time putting them back on when you are done. Anyways, we get to our hostel and of course have to take our shoes off but the house shoes they have are so, so small. We were staying in the women’s dorm so they only had little high-heeled in door shoes and they barely fit my toes. Half of my foot was hanging out the back. Welcome to Korea, land of small feet!

            We got settled and immediately wanted to set out to explore and see some of Busan. We were planning on going to the Lotte Giants baseball game that night so headed straight to the stadium to buy tickets for the game. We thought the game would be completely sold out because it was near playoffs but there were plenty of seats left so we bought our tickets and then wandered around a bit outside the stadium. It was so busy with people. There were vendors all along the streets, little kids riding tricylces in front of the stadium, people playing basketball right outside. It was a happening place. Unlike in US baseball stadiums where you aren’t allowed to bring food into stadiums, in Korea it’s totally acceptable so we bought some fried chicken from a lady off the street and headed in. Baseball food, and sports food in general in Korea, is mainly Chimek (Chicken and beer) so the vendor was so confused when we didn’t buy any beer from her, lol. When we got into the stadium we thought we were prepared with our chicken, but we had nothing compared to the spread of fellow fans. People were bringing in coolers and coolers worth of food for their families and had everything from a full pizza and full 6 pack of beer to juice boxes and boxes piled high of fried chicken.

            The stadium was relatively empty the whole night but we had a blast. They had this guy who stood on the dugout with some dancers and sang chants the whole time. Each chant/song had a different arm movement and dance to go along with it that the fans knew. It was also interesting because so many of the songs played were American songs but had the lyrics changed to be in Korean. In the 7^th inning they pass out orange trash bags but instead of using them for trash people fill them with air and tie them on their heads. It was the weirdest thing but I guess since the Lotte giants’ color is orange people wanted to show their team pride.

            After the game we took the long metro ride to see the Gwangalli Bridge located by Gwangalli beach. The bridge was a feature point in one of the Korean dramas I watched, Haundae Lovers, and I was so excited to see it. It was gorgeous! It is all lit up and it changes color at night (as do most bridges in Korea-Koreans love neon bridges). As we were walking along the bridge and beach we spotted a carousel and wandered over to find a mini-fair. Most of the rides were really expensive but there were these huge robotic dogs you could sit on and for about a dollar they would walk and you could drive them around. Since it was cheap we decided to go for it, so there I am driving this huge robotic dog around the amusement park at ten ‘o’clock at night , right next to a four year old driving his dog.  What a night!

            The following day we got up early and decided to go see the UN Memorial. After a breakfast of just coffee (Korean don’t do breakfast right!) we spent forever getting lost and wandering in circles before we found the UN Memorial. The memorial honored all the men and women who died from various countries during the Korean war. It was weird though because there were armed guards at the entrance to the memorial and before letting us enter asked us where we were from. I couldn’t figure out why they would ask, maybe for data collection?? The memorial was beautiful and the weather was fantastic so it was a great day for walking around.

            Thanks to the help of some nice taxi drivers we found the bus stop to take us back to the Busan station so we could board the “hop on-hop off” tour bus to take us around the city. However, we waited for like 1 ½ before finally getting on the bus that took us throughout the city and towards Taejongdae Resort. Along the way the bus made various stops but we didn’t get off until the 75 Square which is basically a pavilion on Jeoryeongdo Island. I am so glad we got off as we got to hike around the island a little from here and there were beautiful views of the city and ocean. We hopped back on the bus and made our way to Taejongdae Resort Park which is basically a nature conservatory that is famous for its rock beach. Once we got to the gate we purchased tickets to get on this long tram that took us around the park/island. It was beautiful with amazing views out to the ocean. The only time we got off the tram was at the lighthouse where we were able to see most of the islands out to shore including Japan’s Tsushima Island. After taking in the sights we hopped back on the tram hoping to get off at the next stop for the palace but before we knew it, we had missed the stop and ended up back at the park entrance, oh well!

            Hopped back on the bus but as it was nearing the end of the day the bus was so packed and we were crammed into the stairwell not really allowing us to see much of the city.  I wish I could have seen more because we passed Songo Beach which has a bunch of really cool statues coming up from the sand.

            Our last stop was BIFF square which was the Busan International Film Festival Square. Instead of looking at the BIFF square we went to the Jagalchi Fish Market which was the coolest market I have seen in Korea yet. There were the weirdest looking fish in so many tanks, with me not being able to recognize half of what the fish and weird looking things were. I saw vendors filleting different fish, one guy throwin a fish on the flow and hitting it with a pole, I saw sea cucumbers just floating in little trays, it was crazy and so enjoyable. Out on the patio the sun was setting behind the mountains and there was some concert going on. As we were taking pictures we heard commotion over by the concert and apparently someone had thrown one of the plastic chairs into the water causing others to pounce on the perpetrator, grabbing him and yelling in Korean. Everyone was staring but I don’t think anyone knew what exactly was going on. I think that people just had a little bit too much Soju (Korean rice liquor).

            Once we had our fair share of fish and concert fighting we wandered over to BIFF square. Busan is known for the film festival that happens there every year (that was going on during our stay) and so BIFF was really crowded. Basically it is an area with a bunch of movie theaters where people can go watch screenings of movies. But it was hard to tell what was the actual BIFF square because its located in a bunch of streets and blocks of restaurants and stores so we just wandered around all the stores and restaurants before finally deciding on a restaurant for dinner. Although the restaurant looked delicious as we walked in, I just felt the gaze shift to me and Abby. I am use to people staring but it doesn’t mean I like it. The staff weren’t that friendly either but dinner was awesome-some kind of stir-fry.

            Once we had enough of the staring, we got some bubble tea and tried to head towards Busan tower to see the city at night. We were wandering in circles and circles looking for this stupid tower asking multiple people who had no idea. Well we finally saw it and couldn’t believe that people said they didn’t know where it was-It’s a huge tower in the middle of the city! I felt like in the movie, “Rat Race” where the two dumb brothers are looking for the airport when an airplane takes off right behind them. Anyways, we finally saw the tower and decided to walk towards it anyway we could. We ended up walking through some sketchy stairwells and poorly lit alleys but finally found it. The view from the top was awesome and allowed us to see the entire city and ocean beneath us filled with bustling people, bright neon lights and streets that went on forever. It was a great end to our day!

            Our last full day was going to comprise of going to the International Film Festival to see what all the commotion was about. We headed down towards Haundae Beach and wandered upon a traditional porridge restaurant. There was only one lady working there but she was so nice and sweet. It took forever for our porridge to come out and then she had made the wrong one for Abby so our short breakfast stop turned into a long, long meal. But she was so nice! We asked her where the Busan Aquarium was and instead of pointing on the map she had her husband bring the small delivery truck around and he drove us to the aquarium! It was so sweet and a great example of the Korean generosity!

            We spent a couple of hours wandering around the Korean aquarium seeing a bunch of cool animals and the shark show, as well as going on this weird 4D ride (so not worth it). I liked the aquarium but it was a prime example of how Koreans love to boast about Korea. On one wall they were talking about eating sharks and it said multiple times how China and Japan eat shark but Korea has condemned the practice and no one in Korea eats it, yeah right! Korean news and propaganda is so biased!!

            The aquarium is right on the beach so we finished up with the aquarium but when we went out we saw that the film festival had set up all these stages on the beach where actors and directors were being interviewed about their films. We saw some Korean actors but I have no idea how famous they were. I wasn't really that interested in them but was more interested in Haundae Beach, one of the most popular beaches in all of Korea. During the summer the beach is packed with people but seeing as how it was October it was fairly empty allowing me to take some nice pictures. Plus it was featured on my kdrama so I was excited!

            Since Haundae Beach is relatively close to the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) grounds and it is full of hotels, there were a lot of BIFF staff around who were able to help us get on a bus to the theatres. I am still not sure if they realized that we were just tourists and not actually a part of BIFF because everyone else on the bus had special ID tags and looked pretty important but, hey, free ride. I had no idea what an international film festival really was but I think it’s where they just show a bunch of movies and have a lot of meet & greets with directors and actors. The list of movies playing was a mile long and we had no idea how to pick or what to pick. When we walked up to the counter they said only one movie had tickets left and when we were discussing if we should see it, the clerk told us they were all sold out! How disappointing! Instead we walked over to the Shinsegae Centum City Department Store which is apparently registered as the largest shopping complex in the world. It was pretty big. But on the outside they were selling movie tickets so we tried our luck and got tickets for the last movie available even though it wasn’t being shown til much later in the evening. So we wasted some time looking around (the stores were way too expensive to buy anything but they did have an Under Armour store), eating lunch by the indoor ice rink, taking a walk outside by the river and walking around the BIFF grounds. Finally it was time to see the movie. Oh my god, it was terrible. It was called The One-Armed Swordsman and was made in the 1970s in that terrible, Chinese martial arts movie way with horrible fight scenes and a ridiculous amount of fake blood. It felt like the longest two hours of my life. It was interesting though because it was in Chinese but they had English, Korean and Japanese subtitles. After the movie they had a Q&A with the director which we stayed for before realizing it was all in Chinese translated into Korean.

            For our last hoorah for the day we went out for Chimek which is fried chicken and beer which was delicious but, boy did we feel sick after.

            The next day all we had on the agenda was to head to Busan Station and take the four hour train ride back to Jochiwon. Nothing that special happened but since we got home early enough I was still able to go for a run and do some BodyPump in my apartment to help a little with all the food I ate.

            Overall, Busan was nice but I was not overly impressed by the city. Although it is right on the water, there are cranes and construction crews working right on the water destroying the beautiful landscape. I wasn’t really a fan and don’t see the need to return to the city nor do I recommend going. But still very glad that I got to see the city!!