Christmas came and went...

...and now it's New Years Ever?!

Wow, time is flying !

I guess this must be what it's like to work during the Christmas Holiday. Svein and I had about 2-3 days off from school (including the weekend) for Christmas and those few days flew by! We celebrated Christmas morning with traditional Stocking and Christmas Tree gifts.

Then we decided to head out for a verrrry cold and windy run - even though we would much rather have stayed in the warm apartment. But, tradition is tradition!
We prepared an awesome Christmas dinner, sans turkey, which at first seemed kind of intimidating! We don't have a proper oven and we have very limited kitchen space so making a Christmas dinner was somewhat challenging!

Needless to say, we were able to produce some damn good stuffing (a la frying pan), mashed potatoes, garlic bread, veggies, roasted chicken and dessert!

Svein's friend Matt, from back home in New Brunswick, joined in our Christmas dinner celebration!

We'd like to thank everyone for all of their wonderful Christmas wishes, notes and gifts! It was so nice to hear from everyone during the holidays! Christmas isn't the same without you all so it was so great to hear from you! Love to you all! xoxo

It's been awhile...

... but does anyone notice? We're not really sure how many blog followers we have out there, so to those of you who are reading, we apologize for our absence.  :)

We are getting really excited for Christmas! We recently went out on a Christmas tree digging excursion to find the perfect 'live" tree! We had to go out at night as to avoid the gawking koreans and we ended up pulling out a beautiful little charlie brown tree (... it is somewhat crooked and not very evergreen-like, but it's perfect!).

We are also looking forward to our Thailand/Cambodia vacation in January/February! We are planning to spend a few days in Bangkok, then heading to Cambodia (Siem Reap) to explore the Angkor Temples for a few days.  After that, we are planning to spend our last week in Southern Thailand, exploring national parks, doing some hiking, snorkeling, beach bumming and island exploring via motorbike.

We actually have another vacation at the end of February, so we are thinking of heading to either Indonesia or Phillipines....or Japan. Who knows. It really all depends on the flight prices at this point.

Back here in the dong, we have been getting ready for our Winter Camps at our schools. My good friend Matt Goss from out east has also made his way to Korea, so it's great to have a friend close by. Literally, he's a 5 minute walk from us.

All for now! I should go back to drinking my Soju and eating my rice cakes. Yum!

~Svein.

Local Exploration

The last couple of weekends Svein and I have decided to stick around our place and explore the surroundings! First off, we ventured through what we like to call "real Korea".  This area is located just south of where we live and it is actually where my school is located as well. The streets are very narrow, windy and lined with little shops and restaurants. There are fruit vendors ready to make a sale almost every 100 feet. There are very few sky rise apartments in this area, unlike most areas of Busan.  Instead, the area is filled with two to three story buildings that house quite a few families.  I've been told by my school that this area is very poor and so the students are "very bad" and not very bright. Well, despite this fact, the student's, as well as their families, do not give off that impression.  Everyone in this area is very put together. There are no homeless people wandering the streets or beggars on the corner.  Despite being coined a "rougher" neighborhood, you really wouldn't be able to tell!

So, as we made our way down through the maize of streets, we found a little pottery/plant store. This place offered quite a few gift ideas for our lovely friends and family back home :)

Just down the street we found a GIANT warehouse that seemed to be some sort of wholesale produce store.  The large warehouse offered so many different kinds of fruits and vegetables; mainly in bulk.  Everyone was very friendly and beckoning for us to purchase from them. We decided that maaaayybe a giant crate of persimmons would be too much for two people to eat, so we headed out empty handed - well, except for the many photos taken.

Our next adventure in our area was on Sunday when we decided to trek around Oncheondong, which is one subway stop away from us.  We went out in full hiking gear because, well, you never know what will happen when you're walking around Korea.  The area is 70% mountains!

We stumbled upon a Botanic Garden at the base of Geumjeong Mountain.  The tropical looking plants in this garden were beautiful and we made note to return to this place in the springtime when we are sure everything will be in bloom.

This garden happened to lead up to a hiking trail into Geumjeong Moutain - thank goodness we were prepared! We ended up hiking for about 2.5 hours up and down the mountain.  The rocky peak gave way to beautiful views of our area (Geumjeong-gu), as well as neighbouring regions.  Svein and I were also able to spot our schools from uptop!

 As we hiked down the mountain we came across a group of middle aged Korean men - ajosshi's - taking a break uptop a GIANT boulder. They were singing along with a harmonica players tune and eating fruit. There were also quite a few ajosshi and ajumma (middle aged korean woman) couples stopping for a mid mountain hike break. It is so great to see how active this demographic is here in korea. Not to stereotype, but your typical middle aged couple back home, on a sunday afternoon, wouldn't be out hiking a mountain and eating fruit. No, they would most likely be sitting on the couch, watching either Football or a movie and eating junk food. If only North American could adopt some of the Korean ways.

After exploring our area for a couple of days, we've realized that there's quite a bit to offer right on our doorstep! What's next ? Maybe some pottery classes, cultural events a Hongbeopsa Temple and more hiking!

Busan International Fireworks Festival

This past weekend we headed down to Gwangali beach for the Busan International Fireworks Festival.  This festival was scheduled to last three days - Thursday, Friday and Saturday - with fireworks displays every evening. We were really excited to head down to the beach to see how spectacular these asian fireworks shows were!


We headed to the beach around 5:00pm on Saturday as we had heard there could be quite the swarm of people prior to the start of the show (8pm). Needless to say, we underestimated the amount of people that were headed to the beach! The closer the subway train came to our exit, the larger the crowds boarding the train became! Every stop had Korean guards trafficking people onto and off of the subway train. The train became so crowded that the Korean guards could not fit a single tiny Korean onto the train! We were crammed in there like sardines. Once we finally reached our exit and made our way up to street level, we were again shocked at the large crowds of people bee-lining it to the beach! Once we made our way down to the sand, all you could see was people rushing up and down the main drag scrambling to find a seat on the beach, on the sidewalk or on the road! It was madness! Luckily, some of our goods friends had extra room down on the beach for us, so we headed down there with them!

The view of the bridge was spectacular that night as it was fully light with spotlights and other coloured lights. Now, if this was Windsor, we would all be sitting down by the Detroit river, freezing our butts off, waiting for the show to start. Well, in Korea, they know how to do things right!  They had set up entertainment screens in four different locales across the water infront of the bridge. This allowed for them to broadcast live music events for the eagerly waiting spectators. The entertainment was amazing and it definitely helped ease our patience as we waited for the fireworks display!

The fireworks eventually started and the theme for this show was "Sail around the world". Every ten minutes or so the giant broadcast screens would light up with a short introduction about a different global region - Asia, "America" (bah, what is "America" anyway??) Europe, etc. Each fireworks presentation was choreographed with music, which was appropriate for each region (and somewhat stereotypical haha). The combination of music, choreographed fireworks and spotlight movement definitely created a more dynamic and captivating show than any fireworks display back home. They didn't really focus on the loud "bang" effect of a fireworks display, instead, it was more creative and dramatic. There were quite a few different effects that we had never seen before! For example, they had fireworks that would shoot into the water, float around for a few minutes, and then burst into the air again! They also had flying fluorescent birds that would zoom throughout the sky and randomly light on fire! The third, and I think the most creative part of the show, was when fireworks started to stream out from underneath the bridge, creating a raining effect.

The finale of the show consisted of the biggest fireworks I have ever seen! It was spectacular!

Jinju Lantern Festival

Last weekend Svein and I decided to head over to Jinju for the Lantern Festival.  The floating of lanterns down the Namgang River in Jinju takes place every October and symbolizes the military efforts during the battles between Korea and Japan. Korean soldiers used to fly lanterns high into the sky and along the river in order to communicate with other Koreans soldiers outside the area.

So, Saturday morning we jumped on a bus for only 7,000\ (about $7) and traveled 1.5 hours to Jinju for the festival. Once there, we decided to roam around the Jinju Fortress, which gave us some amazing views of the city. We also decided to tour around the silk factory store where we saw quite a few beautiful silk pieces.

Scattered along the riverbank we found many little vendors selling various types of food and knick knacks.  Although most of what we found under the tents was more or less dollar store items, we were lucky to have stumbled upon this place for it had begun to downpour the second we stepped inside. As the rain continued to collect ontop of the tents, the street vendors felt it as necessary to empty this rainwater into the middle of the tent and splash the unfortunate bystanders. It was quite interesting to watch as the tent vendors expressed no empathy for those getting drenched in water.

By this time it was starting to get dark, so we headed down to ooh and ahh at the bright and colourful lanterns on the Namgang river. The colours of the lanterns seemed to pop out against the black sky, which really made for a stunning display.

We also decided to create our own lantern at one of the lantern making tents. We decided to stick to a basic lantern design as we were told lantern making could take quite some time. So, the following picture is Svein with our lantern in one of the very cool lantern tunnels at Jinju.

Thankfully they were kind enough to let us take our lantern home, instead of hanging it at the festival! So, now our lantern has become a nice new addition to our home decor!

Blazers, Lazers and Subway Soju

So, if Chuseok wasn't enough fun, we were lucky enough to put up our fine friends from China - Nikki and Nate - for the week! They arrived on Friday via the KTX from Seoul and we thought it would be a good idea to show them the area around our place - Pusan National University. There's a great shopping core in this area as well as many coffee shops, bars and restaurants. It's pretty nice to live in an area that is catered to people our age.  We never have a hard time finding somewhere to eat economically or just sit and people watch.

Anyways, the weekend got off to a good start when we decided to go and check out the Nampo-Dong area, which consists mainly of the Jalgachi Fish Market and the snaking vendor markets throughout the Nampo-Dong area.

Throughout the hustle and bustle of the market, we stumbled upon the slap chop man!! This man, however, was the korean version of the slap chop man! He was excellent too! Although we had absolutely no idea what he was saying, his gestures were right on! I guess you can never be too far from home!

Later that night, we decided to meet up with a bunch of our EPIK friends! The bar we decided to go to was not just any bar; it was in fact a German bar. Who would have thought! A German bar in Korea? Well, cheers to the man who opened this bar because we found THE best beer in Busan at this very spot! The Hurshimchung Brau Haus was the name and they more than succeeded at making a delicious pint! To top it off, they even had live music! You would think they'd be playing German music, right? Oh no, remember, this is Korea! You never know what you're going to get here! This bar had a Russian 6 person band! They were playing hits from Sunny and Cher to Kpop! They were amazing!

After quite a bit of beer consumption, we decided to head down to Kyungsung (another University hot spot) to continue the party. So, we jumped on the subway with a bottle of Soju. This was the first time we had brought alcohol onto public transportation as we had been somewhat hesitant in the past. You see, in Korea, you can drink anything, anywhere. You name it, you can do it. So, we decided there was no better time than now to break open a bottle of soju on the subway. We tried to conceal our beverage, however, it probably made it even more noticeable. We had quite a few judging looks from fellow passengers on the subway. Needless to say, I can see why most people don't crack open a bevy on the train.

Once we got to Kyungsung we met up with everyone at Kino Eye (one of the foreign bars that we have been very loyal to). This bar always plays great indie, dance and alternative music. Nikki was definitely a fan of the dance music, namely, gaga. For those of you who know Nikki, you'll be interested to know that Nikki + Soju + Gaga = watch out! Let's just say that we have never seen her dance like she did that night. Later, we decided to shake things up a bit and head over to our late night destination - Ghetto.   We seemed to develop a strong infatuation for lasers this weekend and Ghetto provided the perfect setting.  It was pure lasers, all night long. Now, you may think, why are they so crazy about lasers? Well, we don't really know the answer to that one. We can only blame it on the Soju. We also decided to wear blazers because it rhymed with lasers. Obvious decision.

The majority of our time at Ghetto consisted of an extreme amount of dancing with large crowds of Korean boys.  This was Nikki's favourite part. The Korean boys loved her as much as she loved them. I have a feeling she may be considering switching Asian countries next year!
So, all in all, the weekend was great! We were able to see our friends from back home, who we hadn't seen in awhile, as well as our new friends here in Busan! Hopefully next weekend we will discover some new hiking destinations and lay off the booze - well, maybe a little Hite beer for the top! 

Drunken Spa Adventure

The day after our big hike we decided to go a traditional Korean hot spring spa (Hurshimchung Spa). We ventured out of our appartment and grabbed a cab that took us a mile down the road to the biggest spa in Asia! We met up with Carly and Matt, not knowoning what to expect. I mean, we were a little intimidated. We heard that eveyone goes naked, and the guys and girls spa is separate. Sounds like fun right? ugh..Anyway we walked in to the change rooms and put on our spa uniforms! Kinda like scrubs but with crazy patterns-Actually we ended up stealing the uniforms as a momento, and to have crazy foreigner spa parties in the future. Anyway, we changed and went downstairs (with clothes on) to the common room where we met up with the girls. Everyone in this area of the spa had clothes on. First we went into a 10 degree room, followed by 55 and 80 degree saunas. It was crazy hot especially with full clothing on. We then decided to walk down to the cafeteria to grab something to eat, and happily noticed they sold beer for about $2 a pint! We sat down, started drinking and talking about how it would be much less awkward if we got a little drunk before heading into the spa. So, we sat and had 4-5 drinks until we were feeling good to go! Matt and I headed up to the guys changing room, and Sarah and Carly to the girls. We undressed and headed into the spa, still feeling very awkward I must say.

It's hard to get used to the fact that you are walking around this spa with hundreds of other naked men. Anyway, there was a massive warm pool in the middle with about 10 other pools and hot tubs surrounding it, including an herbal medicine bath. We stayed for about an hour getting a sample of everything the spa had to offer. They offered massages which we opted to pass on, however the girls took full advantage! I think it cost them $15 or so. All in all the spa was a great experience, and for only $8000 won (about 7 dollars), we will be sure to return again soon!

Hiking and Suicidal Transportation

So, Chuseok has come and gone and now we are faced with three lonnnng months of lesson planning.  I really hope we get some sort of vacation between now and Christmas because I think we will definitely need it!

On a happier note, however, our Chuseok consisted of a solid week of well needed rest! I can honestly say that the Monday after Chuseok was probably the first day I didn't yawn while teaching. The teachers no longer say "oh Sarah, you look tired. Eat this, good for health". So, thank you, thank you, thank you Chuseok!

During our break we decided to stay in Busan rather than venture throughout the country or explore other areas of Southeast Asia.  Although the latter sounded verrry appealing, we were unfortunately lacking the funds to travel.  Our dear and lovely schools thought it would be wonderful to hold out on payment as long as they could.  A $300 settlement allowance? Who would ever want that when starting up in a new country! Definitely not Svein and me! Oh, and I dare not mention the flight allowance and monthly salaries! When we would get them was completely up in the air. You see, in Korea, they like to fly by the seat of their pants. For us Guest English Teachers (GETs) applying for the opportunity of a lifetime (teaching overseas!) we are expected to meet every guideline and agenda the Korean Government (EPIK) sets forth for us. Obviously we are right on the ball with doing everything and anything to help secure our chances of teaching in this country. So, now that we are here, you would think that Korea, in general, would follow similar suit.  Oh, no no no my dear readers.  Asking your Korean co-teacher when you will receive your settlement allowance is like asking her to fly you to the moon. Along with this goes the strong communication barrier.  In my situation, my co-teacher has the English proficiency level of about a kindergartner - and that's being generous! Svein on the other hand has been blessed by the gods with a wonderful, fluent in English co-teacher (Danny).  So, luckily we can resort to throwing the majority of our questions, problems and difficulties onto him! So, back to what I was getting at. Svein and I unfortunately were not paid a single cent prior to Chuseok and well, the line of credit really couldn't stand to see any additional withdrawls.  So, we, and a wonderful group of EPIK teacher friends, decided to stay in Busan for Chuseok.

On Monday we decided to hike Geumjeong Mountain, which is has the highest elevation of all the Busan mountains (800m - but nothing compared to Skaala in Norway!).  Svein and I are lucky as we live in the valley of this mountain, so it is very close to travel to this great hiking destination! Before we started the hike we visited Beomeosa Temple, which is located about 1/3 of the way up the mountain. We decided to take a taxi to the temple as a very friendly taxi driver offered us a group rate up the mountain.  Well, how could we resist?? So, the five of us piled into the small cab and started our way up the mountain.  For those of you who haven't experienced Korean taxi drivers, well, they are insane. Especially when ascending or descending a mountain. This also includes buses, but that is another story. So, if you like being thrown down/up a mountain in what seems like a roller coaster, then, well, you would love the public transportation in this country. We finally reached the Temple and it was pretty spectacular (Svein says it was just okay haha).

After we looked around the temple and took some photos, we started our hike up Geumjeong Mountain.  The hike seemed quite a bit more challenging than we expected.  You see, throughout Korea you will notice these ever so trendy, middle aged Koreans mountain climbers in their brand name, coordinated hiking gear. They also like to cover every part of their bodies to block out the "death rays" of the sun - even in the deadliest heat! 

So seeing as these hiking enthusiasts were so conscious of their appearance (like the majority of koreans are), we thought this mountain climb would be more like a mountain jaunt.  Luckily, however, we got a pretty decent workout out of our trek.   The views from the top were incredible, despite the overcast skies.

 
Our hike down the mountain ended up lasting quite a bite longer than we had intended it to.  Somehow we ended up hiking down the wrong side of the mountain and ended up in a little village on the outskirts of Busan.  As we walked through the village we managed to find a bus stop and sniped a ride home on what I like to call the suicidal death bus from hell! This bus ride was a million times scarier than the short taxi ride we took up to Beomeosa Temple.  Either the bus driver thought it would be funny to scare a bunch of foreigners or he was an absolute loonatic! As we thundered down the mountain, the bus rocketed through switchbacks at over 70 km/hr.  I think we all saw our lives flash before us as the bus nearly flipped at every turn.  Let's just say we were very relieved once we reached the bottom and the beer that night never tasted better!

Finally!

So, as it is Chuseok here in Korea, we thought there wouldn't be a better time to start up our blog.  We are very lucky to have this whole week off in celebration of South Korea's version of thanksgiving - Chuseok.  Here in Korea, they spend their holiday visiting their families and paying respect to their ancestors.  They also eat disgusting amounts of Songpyeon.  Now, this might sound intriguing, however, I warn you now, it is not very tasty! Imagine eating round globs of slightly sweetened, thick and chewy noodles.  The Koreans then decided to throw in a little sweet surprise in the middle, be it red beans, a watery sweet liquid, or something sesame.  Now, maybe we just have had the right songpyeon.  Maybe this Chuseok we will be lucky! Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, Songpyeon is actually made out of rice.  The koreans call it a rice cake.

SONGPYEON

So, aside from eating Songpyeon, we've been lucky enough to try a lot of different Korean dishes! We've had bibimbop, Korean barbeque, or gogi gui, Korean medicine soup, Japchae (a vegetable noodle dish) and Bulgogi (grilled, marinated beef). There are still so many different types of food to try, but so far, the bibimbop is my favourite - maybe because it has the smallest amount of meat in it haha.  Aside from the main courses, we haven't really found a wide selection of desserts.  For me, this was a problem. That was until Svein informed me of the ultimate dessert dish.  I have yet to try it, but I believe it consists of ice, some sort of ice cream/whip cream, berries and other fruit and red beans.  Svein tried it with his coteachers and he said it was amazing.  So, my goal in regards to food this Chuseok, is to try this ice bean dessert.  The Koreans are really good at providing other sweet alternatives.  For example, there's Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts, Mr. Donut, Paris Baguette and Coldstone Creamery.  Those are just a few.  It's funny too that they also like to place these stores right next to each other.  So, for example, you may be walking down the street and see a Baskin Robbins and think, oh wow, that's nice. Then, as you look next door their's a Coldstone Creamery.  The same goes with coffee shops, street vendors, food vendors, etc.  Either they are all trying to compete with each other or, they're thinking that well, if someone hasn't given in by the seventh deep fried squid stand, their's something wrong with them.


NAMPO DONG STREET VENDOR (There were at least six of these stands in  a row haha).

So, aside from eating a lot of food, we plan on doing a lot of hiking during Chuseok.  Today we are planning to head up Mount Geumjeong.  This mountain has a total elevation of 801m (the highest in Busan) and it is located right in our backyard (Svein and I have been living in Geumjeong-gu)! So, along with a few of our wonderful new friends, we will check out Beomeosa temple and then spend the rest of the day hiking the trails. We also hope to hike Mount Jangsan later in the week, so, stay tuned for more details of our hikes!

On Saturday, Svein and I are lucky enough to travel to the Andong Mask Dance Festival with a bunch of other EPIK teachers. We are not entirely sure what will be happening at this festival, other than the obvious mask dancing, but we are very excited!! We will be taking a 4 hour bus ride up into the northern area of South Korea for this event.

So for now, as we get ready to head out for our hike, I must figure out whether we have indeed been washing our clothing in fabric softener.  I guess this just goes with the sometimes frustrating but always challenging language barrier that we are faced with! 
-SM