Easter Sunday

One of my coworkers organized an Easter feast for us at the US Navy’s Seamen’s club. A group of about 8 of us took cabs to the club and we were greeted by many white faces. The food was pretty good (nothing like home cooking, but I can’t be too picky). Considering the fact that there was no kimchi anywhere, I was quite pleased. We had ham, roast beef, lamb, potatoes, salad and soup… it was nice.

After we had all eaten WAY too much we went home to try to sleep it off. I ended up walking on the beach for a bit because the festival was still going on, but then decided I could go for a nap.

Later on that evening I got a phone call from my friend Amanda saying that she bought a puppy (yay!!). I was happy to get the call because I had become slightly homesick and was thinking about how I was so far away from home and family (I can only imagine how Christmas is going to be).

Anyways, I got dressed and went over to see Amanda and her new puppy…. what a mood booster! He was so cute and he instantly lifted my spirits.

I think it’s really important to have a sense of community here, so I consider myself very blessed to have friends that can perk me up (and the puppies help too!)

April 23- Gwangalli Fishing Festival

This past Saturday was the 11^th Gwangalli Eobang (Fishing) festival at Gwangan Beach (right down the street from my apartment). I went there in the early afternoon and met up with some friends from work. It was a beautiful day and there was so much to see.

I started by walking past an area set up for kids. There were big blocks that the kids could use to make forts and hideouts. Many kids were using makeshift see-saws in the sand. It was great to see so many children having a blast together in the sand.

There were numerous little huts that displayed historical artifacts related to fishing. Others showed little scenes of different methods or types of fishing. This area of Korea is a HUGE fishing town (I believe it’s the largest sea port in all of Asia) so fishing here is a big deal.

The highlight of my day was probably watching the fish catch. There was a big inflatable pool filled with water and different types of fish (eels, trout and this brown fish that’s common here). People (mainly kids) would go into the pool with their arms in the air. When the referee blew his whistle, they would try to catch the fish using only their bare hands. Once they caught a fish, they were told to exit the pool and they could take their catch home and eat it for dinner.

The catching was hilarious to watch! Many of the big ‘macho’ boys would scream in fear when they touched a fish and tiny little girls would be able to catch huge eels in a matter of ten seconds.

There was this one little girl who was one of two people left in the pool and couldn’t seem to catch anything. She was joined by a boy who also was having tough luck. After a while the boy caught something and left the pool. When the girl realized that she was in there, surrounded by fish and all alone she stood in the middle of the pool, let her head fall backwards and started bawling. Her mom was at the edge of the pool trying to get her to come out, but she wouldn’t budge…. sad as it was for the poor girl, it was absolutely hilarious to watch! Ahh kids, gotta love ‘em!

After we walked around the rest of the festival and looked at all there was to see, we settled at the ‘beer tent’ area and ordered some beers and snacks. We were joined by some other co-workers and friends and we got a nice group together.

Sitting on the beachfront under an umbrella on a beautiful day with the ocean right in front of you doesn’t get much better. We began playing some drinking games and several hours later moved our group to the convenience store across the street (where the beers were cheaper). This continued for about five more hours until we decided to grab dinner.

As we were about to leave for the restaurant, the fireworks started and they were beautiful! I feel so lucky to live in a town where there’s plenty of things to do and see and something always happening.

We made our way to a Korean BBQ (or Galbi) restaurant and dined on freshly cut pieces of pork and beef cooked to perfection in the middle of our table. There was also an interesting egg dish… very similar to an soufflé and very tasty!

After dinner we decided to go to an area nearby where there are many bars and clubs. We went to a few different bars, played some darts, had some more beer (yes, I was feeling good at this point) and then went to a Noribang. This was my second time going to a Noribang and it was also a pleasing experience.

A Noribang is a room you can rent out that has a screen, speakers and microphones (and usually a few tambourines) and you can sing Karaoke with your friends to your heart’s content. Sing we did! We left at around 3am to come home and stopped for a falafel on the way home.

Needless to say I didn’t make it to church for Easter service the next morning….

Transport Troubles

I’m not sure that this is really ‘blog worthy’ but it was probably my most problematic day yet, so I thought I’d enlighten you all.

Yesterday I got up early and my friend Dorrial and I had plans to go to Costco to pick up some North American goodies. The Costco is fairly close to our apartments (about a 4 minute cab ride) and it is fairly well known. We hailed a cab and told the driver where we wanted to go. He began taking us in a direction neither of us had been before. Eventually we got out Dorrial’s Costco card and showed him the logo and it turns out he had no idea where he was taking us. Frustrated because the meter was going and we didn’t know where we were, I told him to stop and we got out. The nice thing in this situation was that he didn’t charge us for the cab ride and we ended up finding our way on foot.

After Costco I had a nice brunch on the beach with some girls from work and then returned back to my apartment to pack my things and head to work.

I had recently learned of a subway card that is a monthly package and it turns out to be much cheaper than what I’m doing now so I decided to go to the subway station 30 minutes early (leaving myself plenty of time) and purchase it. I went up to the machine and put the setting on English and then pressed the button to get my card. Everything was going well until my card got stuck in the machine. I had to call for help but that is difficult to do when you can’t speak Korean.

Eventually someone came to fix the machine and after quite a bit of waiting he was able to get the door open and start tinkering around. By the time I got my card it was 2pm (I was supposed to be at work now) and I still needed to put funds on it. After everything was resolved I ran to the entrance of the subway and quickly got on hoping that I wouldn’t be too late for work. Well this surely backfired when I realized that I had gotten on the subway going in the WRONG direction.

Extremely frustrated I got off the subway and decided that my best option was to ditch the subway and take a taxi (it would be faster and more direct). I got up to the street and hailed a cab and told the driver where I needed to go. (Until this point I was still fairly confident in my ability to tell people where I need to go in Korean). Well I think I was overconfident because he too took me to the wrong place. Getting evermore agitated, I called my Korean friend Jasmin and asked her to tell the cabbie where I needed to go. FINALLY I arrived at my destination… very late and very frazzled!

Lesson Learned: Doing simple things in a foreign country is always more complicated than you think it’s going to be.

A disappointing weekend

The weekend of April 16-17^th was something I had been looking forward to for quite some time. I had booked a weekend biking trip to a town about an hour and a half away. This town (Gyeongju) was famous for the beautiful Cherry Blossoms at this time of year. It was a group of about 150 foreigners from all over South Korea that were getting together to see the sights… I was pumped!

Well, Friday night rolled around and I found myself suffering with a very sore throat and cough. Later that night I was so congested that I couldn’t even lay in bed… it was horrible! I came to the conclusion that this was not the time for me to travel. I mean, I probably could have survived and maybe would even enjoy some of the trip but then the following week I’d be dying at work. Knowing that it’s bad to call in sick to work when you’ve just started a job, I decided that the responsible thing to do was to try to ‘rest up’.

Dorrial was still able to go on the trip without me, but I spent the weekend feeling very sorry for myself. On Saturday morning I decided that I was at the point where I needed some drugs so I went to the hospital. The only thing open was the emergency room, but I didn’t feel like paying emergency medical prices so I went to the pharmacy instead. I was surprised to find that medication here is extremely cheap (like 2 bucks for a pack of pills). At least one perk!

Looking on the bright side, all was not lost that weekend… I was able to catch up on my online TV, read a book and I contacted the organizer of the trip and he refunded me most of my money. There will be other weekends to take a trip out and explore Gyeongju.

April 10- Wandering

Sunday was supposed to be a festival in an area of Busan called Sasang. I invited Jasmin to come with me and we stopped at a little restaurant on the way for lunch. This was a VERY Korean venue. We had to remove our shoes and sit on the ground. Our table was about six inches off the floor and we had an assortment of dishes in front of us (around 20 or so). We were served hot clothes to clean our hands with throughout the meal and we didn’t have our own plates… everything was shared on the middle of the table.

There were two fish (which still had all of the bones in) and some turnip, a pork stew, a Korean kimchi ‘pancake’ and many other dishes as you’ll see in the picture. It was delicious! I can’t say that I’d want to eat it every day but it was very interesting to try everything. After the meal, we were served this drink that was very sweet and had a different texture. Well it turned out to be fermented rice. Apparently if you soak rice in water for long enough, it begins to turn sweet. It was quite good, but unlike anything I’ve had before.

After lunch we went back on our way to the festival. This turned out to be a bit of a disappointment because the festival wasn’t really a festival but more like 5 guys on stage who were drunk and attempting to sing…. We met up with some friends there and decided to go for a stroll on a nearby path. The timing was perfect because the cherry blossom trees were still in full bloom but they were starting to fall, so it was very picturesque.

Our walk was very nice and then we decided to do a bit of shopping and head home… overall a nice day!

April 9- Igidae

Last Saturday Dorrial, Amanda and I set out for a walk to Igidae National Park. It’s about 40minutes walk away from my apartment and it’s a mountainous area just on the cost of Busan. We had all heard great things about the place and it was a beautiful day outside, so we decided it would be the perfect place to go.

We set out on our adventure and when we got close to the entrance of Igidae we stumbled upon what I thought was a market. When we walked closer we found that it wasn’t a market, rather it was a bunch of little seafood huts where they had tanks and tanks of live fish (and eels, octopus and other creatures). They’d cook the fish up right in front of you. The whole idea is fairly interesting but I don’t think I could eat something that was just wiggling around. We noticed that people would just stare at us when we walked from vender to vender and they would often shout “Meeguk” which translates to American. It was an interesting experience but I don’t think something that I would ever want to eat.

When we made it to the park I was overcome with a sense of joy. It was so beautiful and scenic. The combination of rigid rocks with green grass and bright blue water reminded me of the Bondi costal walk in Australia… it was such a nice escape for the day! One of the nice things about Igidae is that it is built up a bit but still maintains much of the original natural beauty. I was grateful to the fact that there were little paths, bridges and steps because they assisted greatly in getting around.

While we were walking we came across this little path which had systematically placed stones. We looked at the sign and realized that this was a reflexology spot. People would remove their shoes and sometimes socks and walk across these stones. I didn’t try this, but I would imagine that it’s not particularly enjoyable… many of the stones were fairly high and pointy—ouch!

These kids were playing a game where you stand on one foot and try to knock the other person over... their parents and siblings were so into it-- cheering them on! It was hilarious to watch!

The day was filled with beautiful scenery and sights looking out at the ocean—it’s breathtaking and very relaxing. After about five hours of hiking, we decided to start heading back and grab dinner. I decided to splurge on cheesa-dunkasuh, which is basically pork schnitzel with cheese in the middle, served with rice (very heart healthy!)

That night we had planned on going out to a bar for drinks, but after over six hours of walking, I laid down for a quick nap and didn’t get up until the next morning.