Dynamic Busan Part 2

When I was living in Europe, the entire experience felt like a working holiday. Yes, I was planning lessons, teaching, and sometimes waking up at 5 in the morning to catch a train to get to work, but for a reason I can't entirely put my finger on, it felt like a vacation. Here in Korea, it's a different story if you're working in a private school. I feel as though my entire life in this country is teaching the little rascals. The foreign teachers usually have off for the Korean public holidays, 5 days in the summer, and 5 days in the winter. But teaching children all day who are constantly screaming and can only communicate with you on a very low level, can be physically and mentally draining. I now look at Saturdays and Sundays as a vacation and a privilege. Right now it seems a little bit crazy, but I know in the long run, this is a really good lesson to learn at a young age. And thank goodness I don't have to work Saturdays like the Korean teachers do.

The weekend before Christmas, we had a reason to escape our city and get away to Busan again. Although my weekends now mainly consist of cleaning (because I am too tired to do it during the week), and sleeping (to heal my now always sick body), it's always great to have a reason to get away. The best part about it was that we didn't feel the need to fit a million things in. We got a motel on Gwangali beach, walked it up and down a few times, drank hot chocolate, flew a kite, took naps, and met some friends to eat burritos for dinner. Not to mention, the weather was absolutely gorgeous for being the end of December. Sunday consisted of the same activities, plus a Musical Revue that my two friends from college were in. Unfortunately, what should have taken one cab ride 5 minutes to get to the show, it took us 3 cab drivers to get it right and an hour tour around Busan to get to the Revue. Luckily, we still made it in time to see my friends sing their hearts out, go out for dinner, and have ridiculous conversation. Around one in the morning we decided we should probably try to get some sleep considering we had to be up at 5:30 am to catch the 7:30 bus back to Iksan. But not before we drank some gatorade on the beach one last time, trying to savor all the relaxation the weekend had given us. Although we were only in Busan for less than 48 hours, it felt like a mini holiday.

Colin flying a kite

This looked like a fun ride!

Ummm....???

Merry Christmas from Korea!

Thanksgiving in Korea

So obviously Korea doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, or have the two days off for the holiday. But we expats made the best of it by having our own Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday after. We even celebrated with Englishmen, an Irish lass, a Korean, and a South African for their first Thanksgiving. Everyone chipped in and made chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas, broccoli casserole, gravy, and we even had cranberry sauce! The food was absolutely delicious! We ate A LOT, watched funny American tv shows, and played games well into the night. The non-Americans loved our holiday and the cozy, homey feel they had throughout the day.

Flower Festival

This past week or so, the big park in Iksan has been holding a Flower Festival.



The park is housing many fun structures made of flowers, food vendors, carnival-esque games, bands, and the most unsafe carnival ride I have ever ridden in my life. But even more ridiculous was the ride operator on the microphone saying "Oooooo Yeaaaaa" in a Barry White voice when the ride was bouncing me up and down even though I was screaming "No, please stop!" Needless to say, I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

It was a lovely evening in the park for families and couples.
And Colin even won me a stuffed penguin :)

Halloween in Korea

The Friday before Halloween, all of us teachers arrived to school early to help transform the Academy. They had plenty of decorations from years past and balloons galore. All the teachers dressed up...there was a killer chef, a pumpkin, a banana, rudolph, a cowboy, a cat, and kim bap (Korea's favorite small meal/snack). The costume supply is limited in Korea, especially in Iksan, so it was hilarious seeing the conglomeration of costume pieces....a witch's hat with a wizard cape carrying a devil's pitchfork. As for the adults, it was fun seeing people get creative instead of just buying the packaged costumes back home. We gave out a prize for the best costumes and played games such as Mummy Wrap, Monster Mix-up, What's in the Box, and Bobbing for Candy. It was a lot of fun seeing all the kids get so into Halloween!

On Saturday, we celebrated in Iksan by going to a house party, Sushi Tae for dinner, and Red Rock. Moe decorated Red Rock and even dressed up himself. A lot of foreigners even got their co-teachers to dress up and come out to celebrate. Despite Korea not celebrating Halloween like we do, it was a great Halloween weekend!

Global Gathering

On October 9th, a bunch of foreigners from Iksan took a bus up to Seoul for the Global Gathering festival...an all day, all night DJ extravaganza. Before heading to the festival, it was essential to eat at Taco Bell in Itaewon. I've never thought Taco Bell tasted so delicious as I did that day. There were a lot of excellent DJs, the main event being Fat Boy Slim for two hours. Thousands of people were jumping and swinging their glow sticks around. After the festival, everyone caught a train back to Iksan and slept like babies the whole way home. It was definitely worth the money and the pure exhaustion on Sunday.

Sunchang

On Saturday we took a bus from Iksan to Jeonju, Jeonju to a little two road town in the country called Sunchang to visit our friends Ruth and Andy. It was great to see the difference between Seoul last week and rural Korea this week. Sunchang was enchanting and I can't wait to go back to visit them again. Everyone knows who they are, everything is walkable, and something so simple as going to the movies is a treat in a different town. We went to the driving range where a Korean woman insisted Ruth and I hit the balls just to her liking, ate delicious sam gyeop sal, and played card games all night at the only bar in town.

Chuseok Visitors

Last week was Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving. Everyone spends the day with their families, cooking food, and exchanging presents. Our boss gave all the teachers either a big box of apples or pears for Chuseok. Fruit is expensive in Korea so it was a really great gift!

The best part of Chuseok though, was that my mom and Colin's brother came to visit. It's been 6 months since I'd seen my mom, and 9 months since Colin had seen his brother. We even managed to get the entire week off of work! It was a longer vacation than our summer vacation! It was wonderful spending time with them, as well as seeing Korea through fresh eyes again. I've gotten so used to everything here, that I forget about the strange and wonderful things about this country sometimes. It was fun reliving everything...like how difficult chopsticks really are, how every kid says "Hello, How are you? Nice to meet you" on the street and how it can still be sweet, the brilliance of noraebangs, and the little exercise machines in all the parks.

I enjoyed showing them around Iksan and taking my mom to all of my favorite restaurants and introducing her to my friends, as well as Kiwi Soju. They came to our school one day and it was fantastic seeing all the kids bow to my Omah and work really hard because they wanted her to be proud of them. She brought them Twizzlers and York Peppermint Patties, and boy, was it HILARIOUS watching them eat it for the first time. Smelling it, shaking it, bending it, looking around to see what the other kids are doing, then finally taking a little nibble. Some of them hated it, others loved it, and for some it took a while to get used to, then they asked for more!

We climbed a mountain one morning near our apartment and realized how fit and spiffy Koreans are in all of their hiking gear, passing us up the mountain. We took a day trip to Jeonju and enjoyed the Traditional Hanok Village. We spent 5 days in Seoul, which was actually my first time there as well.

We went up Namsan Tower, ate at Namdaemun Market, went to the DMZ, devoured Western food in Itaewon, and walked around Gyeongbokgung Palace. Seoul is an incredible city and has a great feel to it, but I'm also glad that they got to see our little town...the real Korea without all the tourists and foreigners.

Mokpo & Oedaldo

For our very short vacation that came upon us super quickly, we decided to wing it. We took an hour and a half train ride down to Mokpo, a beautiful and relaxing city on the sea. We found a hotel with no problem and set out across town. Our first agenda was food and lucky for us, the cab driver dropped us off in front of a hamburger and french fry joint! Anytime we go to a bit of a bigger city, we are always craving western food and boy did it hit the spot. We walked along the sea, saw a few museums, and Gatbawi Rock. Legend has it that a fisherman dropped his father's coffin into the sea and because he felt bad for not caring for his father enough, he sat on the hill with a large bamboo hat covering his face so that he couldn't see the sky. He turned into stone, as did his father who rose from the sea.

We found a small beach with a gorgeous view of the sunset. Mokpo is known for raw skate, raw croaker, raw octopus, and blue crab...so of course we opted for the blue crab. We got to the restaurant and ordered just to find out that the blue crab is raw as well. I ate it mixed with rice and wrapped in seaweed. Baby steps here :)

Day 2: We climbed Yudal Mountain which led to a beautiful view of the city and the sea. There were little statues and pagodas to rest along the way. Went to Fisherman's Park and The Sculpture Park.

Day 3: We took a ferry from the Mokpo Coastal Ferry Terminal for Oedaldo Island. Oedaldo is 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer and considered a "Love Island" for its views of the sunset. It was only 9,000 Won for a round trip ticket! In July and August Oedaldo has a seawater swimming pool that is free entry! The ferry ride itself was gorgeous and relaxing. We could tell it was raining in the distance, but as the ferry was coming up to the island, the dark clouds moved on, the sun was shining directly on the island, and the sea was glistening. It felt like a movie.

I felt a bit out of place considering I was the only foreign girl and wearing a bikini. All the girls either had on a bikini top and shorts, or a bikini bottom and a shirt. Even the men were wearing shirts in the pool! There was a big awning covering a portion of the pool that many Koreans were huddled under. I guess they value their skin a lot more than we do! After swimming in the pool for a while, we explored the tiny island and found a beautiful green field, tents you can rent to camp out for the night, and a deserted swimming beach. Oedaldo felt like our own little secret paradise!