I'm sorry I haven't written in a while but I've been really busy and so much has happened since then! I'll start with Busan. Busan is the second most populated city in Korea and it is on the south eastern coast. On the high speed train from Daegu it takes only about 45 minutes to get there. They say that on a clear day you can see Japan from Busan! I went to Busan with 5 other friends to visit our friend Kevin who we became good friends with in orientation. We boarded the train on Friday night and thought we would start off a good weekend with some beer and a few bottles of soju. We had heard that it's totally legit to drink on the train. Apparently it wasn't. We were asked to quiet down multiple times and I'm pretty sure everyone on the train hated us. I later learned that people take the KTX because it's supposed to be quiet and people want to sleep. Sorry, people! We lost a few more friends when we arrived to Busan and hopped on the subway with beers in hand. Apparently just because it's legal doesn't mean that it's kosher to drink on the subway. One Korean lady was particularly angry and yelled at us for a while in Korean. It's actually a lot funnier when you have no idea what the person is saying. Now we had upwards of negative 40 friends in Busan. The plan was that we would all stay at Kevin's apartment on his floor but that meant that there would be 8 people in a studio apartment because Kevin's girlfriend, Ruth, was visiting from Seoul. We decided it would probably be a good idea to get a 'love motel' instead. Because Korean children usually live with their parents until they get married 'love motels' are really popular. They are small motel rooms that you can rent by the hour or the night and usually cost around $40 a night. Don't ask me what they cost by the hour haha. I've heard that many love motels are actually pretty nice for the price but some can also be pretty bad. I think it's kind of a hit-or-miss type of deal. Well, I think that we missed on ours. The first thing we noticed when we walked in was the bright yellow cement floor and the cockroach on the ceiling. The wallpaper was stained with who-knows-what and apparently smelled really bad. We ended up having to sneak the boys in because we told the hotel lady that there were only three of us when in actuality there were six. Do you remember what Korean showers are like from my previous blog? Well the water drains into the floor. When six people are showering and using one bathroom it gets pretty disgusting after about ten seconds. Whatever. We didn't care that much. We were in Busan on the beach! It was probably around 80 degrees and we were really excited to see Kevin and the other friends that we had made in orientation who were living in Busan. We spent the weekend partying, eating and lounging on the beach. I don't think I've laughed so much in 2 days than I did on that trip. On the Sunday that we had to leave we decided to go to the most famous beach in Busan called Hyundae (like the car). We were all taking a nice nap in the heat when I hear a man trying to talk to my friend Lara. I suddenly sit up to see what's going on and this old Korean man is squatting in front of Lara with a small paper cup and two toothpics in his hands. He is trying to give Lara something and she is shaking her head in protest. I finally figure out that the man has a cup of boiled bug larvae and is offering her some. He notices that I sit up and he begins to walk over to me. My instinctual reaction is to open my mouth. Please don't ask me why. Apparently opening of the mouth universally means "feed me." Needless to say he pops a few boiled bug larvae in my mouth and I begin chewing. Before this I like to think that I can at least tolerate everything that I have eaten in my life. Not anymore. Everytime I even smell the cooking of these larvae I begin to gag and have to run away. I really hope that no one tries to feed me these ever again. Besides this one event Busan was really incredible and we've already made plans to visit again within the next few weeks. Apparently Busan has the biggest fireworks show in the world (?) and it takes place in October so we will hopefully be going for that.
Two weekends ago was one of my coteacher's last day as she is going on maternity leave until after winter vacation. My two coteachers and I decided to go out to dinner since we wouldn't see her for a while and just to hang out. Emily and I had been talking about going out for makchang for a while. Makchang is pig intestines that the restaurant gives you raw and you grill it up yourself. Each table has its own little grill in the center, and like much Korean food, the servers bring it to you and you cook it. I had eaten tripe in Ecuador and really liked the flavor but I always had trouble swallowing it because it is so chewy and I could never break it down enough to swallow it. I would chew it for a while to get the flavor and then spit it out. I hoped that the makchang would be easier to swallow because I didn't think it would be as appropriate to spit it out in front of my coteachers at a sit-down restaurant (in Ecuador we ate it off the street). We ordered spicy and regular intestines and, like normal, we got tons of different Korean side dishes. This is one of the greatest things about Korean food. You get the meal and included in the meal are many side dishes with various types of food. Always included is kimchi, which I love. with the inestines came tree leaves that you were supposed to make a little wrap out of with the different side dishes and sauces. Apparently the leaf is very high in iron. Lots of barbequed meat is served with these leaves. The intestines and all the side dishes turned out to be delicious and I was even able to swallow it with a little extra chewing. I think these were of higher quality than the ones I often ate in Ecuador and this is why I was able to successfully complete the eating process.
After we ate dinner we walked next door to the norae bang. Norae bangs are the karaoke rooms that Koreans are so very obsessed with. You can seriously find a norae bang on every street corner. I was a little bit nervous because I have rarely sang karaoke in front of other people completely sober. If I sing back home it is after having a few drinks and the entire group I'm with takes the mic and we perform a hilariously ridiculous ballad and it is completely a joke. In Korea karaoke is not a joke. My two coteachers and I paid for an hour in the norae bang and we opened up the song book and started choosing songs. I was pretty relieved to find out that my coteachers were no Celine Dions like I imagined all Koreans to be. My intimidation flew out the non-existant norae bang windows and I let loose. My coteachers and I ended up having a really fun time dancing and singing. I closed the hour with an epic performance of "Ode to my Family" by the Cranberries.
This past week beginning on Tuesday was a mini-vacation for Chuseok. Chuseok can be compared to Thanksgiving in the states. People travel to be with their families and they cook and eat and do different things. Because of this I didn't have to be at school from Tuesday through Friday. All the EPIK teachers traveled to different places and I decided to go to Seoul and hiking with a group of five other people. We signed up for a pre-planned trip through a travel company called Adventure Korea that caters to foreigners. They plan trips all over Korea and lots of people really like the company. This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday was a hiking trip to the Seoraksan mountains. Seoraksan is the biggest mountain range in Korea and apparently is pretty well-known. When i told my coworkers that I was going there they said, "Wow! Seoraksan! Good!" hah. So we headed to Seoul on Wednesday morning where we would stay for two nights before the hiking trip. Full of "Seoul" puns, the trip turned out to be a blast. I couldn't believe how huge it is. Seoul is one of the biggest cities in the world with over 12 million people and the 3rd largest subway system in the world which we dominated. When I say 'we' I mean the other people in the group. We took a trip to a palace which is located in the city at the base of a mountain built in the year 600 something! The king of the dynasty during this period lived here and it was destructed when Japan took over but rebuilt later. We also visited Seoul Tower which is on top of a mountain and overlooks the entire city. We were not the only ones who had this same idea. In fact I believe that about 98% of Seoul had the exact same idea. My allotted 15 seconds of viewing time was pretty incredible as the sun was setting right when we were there. Earlier that day we walked down the Han River and took a little rest in a park and that night we wandered around the city. Seoul has amazing shopping and food and I would definitely like to spend about a week there. I don't think I could live there though. Everywhere you walked there were about a bazillion other people. There would definitely be something to do all the time though. While I was there I met a friend from Willamette, Brett, who has been living in Seoul as a teacher for the past month. Before we graduated we both talked about meeting up. It was really nice to see someone from home!
On Friday morning with an hour and a half of sleep we had to get up to go on the hike. I was pretty much dying of exhaustion but thank God for the 3-hour bus ride. I was able to take a little nap before we hiked the mountain. We get to the mountain with our group of 75 (way too many people) but then i realize that the Korean idea of hiking is pretty different from my own. Hiking this mountain, which means you literally climb the entire mountain, are thousands of other people doing the same thing. From babies to 80 year olds, the mountain was drowning in people. It got really really frustrating having to wait behind a long line of slow people or waiting for the people going the opposite direction to go past. The hike to the top of the mountain proved to be pretty treacherous as it was super steep and there were so many people. I was astonished at the way the really old people and young kids could climb this mountain. Before the recent waves of Christian missionaries Koreans have been predominantly Buddhist because of the history of Chinese domination. Now Korea is one of the most Christian countries in the world which is kind of sad to me. Many younger people reject their Buddhist heritage for Christianity but the older people tend to stick to their traditions. I would guess this is why there are so many older people that religiously hike the mountains. I've noticed that when I go hiking on my mountain that the majority of the people hiking are probably around 50 or 60 years old. Mountains are sacred in Buddhism and temples are usually built on or at the base of mountains. One of the most interesting things is that on so many mountains, and in public spaces in general, there is "work out equipment." Apparently the government places workout equipment in the middle of a mountain where old men in suits can go to "work out." Right when the get off work they must climb the mountain to work out without changing their clothes. It's really strange but hilarious because we would view these machines as pretty ridiculous. To me they seem like playgrounds for grown ups. The machines don't really work you out to say the least and you will have a good laugh watching someone so seriously 'working out' on these machines in their professional dress. Anyways hiking wasn't exactly as I imagined it but it was an experience. On Saturday we went to the beach instead of doing the 11 hour hike and we lounged in the sun and rode mini electric motorcycles. My favorite part of the 'hiking trip' was ironically the spa. But this ain't just any ol' spa. Spas in Korea are very popular and everyone is very naked. First you go into the 'shower' where you undress and hang out naked in your choice of about 8-10 different tubs. These tubs are more like mini pools and each is a different temperature. They have cool and hot pools, saunas and an outdoor hot tub like pool. The water they use is apparently mineral water that i believe is from a hot spring. People also go to the shower to, you guessed it, take a shower! They bring all of their bath stuff and sit in front of mirrors with shower heads and bathe each other. Yes, they rub each other down from head to tow. My friends and I were pretty comfortable after a few minutes but we never reached this level so we decided to bathe ourselves. When you are done in the 'shower' you put on these really stylish shorts/tshirt uniforms and go to the 'spa' area that is integrated with the men. Here there are about 10 different saunas at different temperatures and even a cold room that is totally iced over. You can also hang out in the center and lay on the ground to watch TV. We decided to pay an extra 1,000 won (85 cents) to do the massage chairs. This was the most intense 10 minutes of massage that I've ever endured. All in all the 'hiking trip' was fun although we did have a few complaints with Adventure Korea. We may not be booking another trip through them.
OK I really must go. I've started to get sick and I really need to go to bed. I'll leave you with a few pictures that I took in my 4th grade special class. I taught a lesson on clothing and took pieces of my own clothes in. We played a game where they had to put on my clothes. It was pretty funny.
Stay tuned. Hugs and Kisses <3
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