BUSAN AND FOOD POISONING
Because of a Korean Holiday called Independence movement day (their version of our 4th of July), we had a three day weekend a few weekends ago. My friends and I decided we would go on a little trip to Busan, Korea's second largest city. I'd been wanting to see Busan for a long time, so I was really excited to finally be going.We left after work on Friday night, taking the KTX bullet train, which gets you from Seoul to Busan in about 3 hours. We arrived late at night meeting a college friend of 2 of my coworkers, who was such a great host and let us stay at his apartment. This was great because we didn't have to get a hotel and it saved us some money. Right after we got off the train, we dumped our stuff off at the apartment, and headed to a local bar for a few drinks. We stayed out pretty late, but ended up waking up pretty early to watch a hockey game between Canada and Slovakia (with the exception of 1 person, everyone I was with was Canadian). After the game, we were pretty tired, so we just kind of hung out and had a relaxing day.
Busan is a port city, so it was nice to see the ocean. Before dinner on Saturday night, we went on a short walk on the beach, and then ate at a Western style restaurant called The Fuzzy Navel. They served a lot of Mexican food, which was great because Mexican food (especially good Mexican food), is hard to find in Korea. I had a burrito which was great. We went out to two pretty nice clubs afterward, and had a lot of fun.
On Sunday, I decided to get up early and try to find a Catholic cathedral I had found online. All I had was the name of the Cathedral,the subway stop I needed to get off at, and the name of a park it was near.I figured that since it was a big church, I could just ask around (and by ask around I mean looking lost, approaching someone and saying the Cathedral's name). When I got off the subway I saw a boy, around 16 years old working. If I was to ask for directions at home, I would always go to adult. But in Korea, I always ask young people because it is more likely that they will speak English. He wrote down the name of the the park in Korean so I could show it to the cab driver. As it turns out, the kid really didn't understand me, because the cab driver brought me to a parking garage. When I shook my head and said the name of the church he responded saying something in Korean I didn't understand. I shook my head yes, and went with it. I figured, what the hell, I'm already lost, let's see where he takes me. I guess that since I'm a foreigner, he thought I would enjoy the shopping district (great guess), so I got out and starting walking around looking for the church and asking people where it was. No one had any idea what I was talking about. I even found foreigners to ask. As luck would have it, the first person I asked responded with a strong Eastern European accent that I couldn't place "Sorry, I speak no English." Great. This was the first time in Korea I had ever encountered a white person that didn't speak English. The other people I asked were tourists who had no idea.After about 20 minutes of looking like the dumb foreigner, I decided to give up. I was really craving Dunkin Donuts, which are pretty popular over here, and usually easy to find in shopping districts. So, I decided I would try to find one. While I was randomly wandering, a Korean woman passing me asked "Where are you from?" This is not uncommon, it happens to me all the time. When I turned to respond to her, I noticed that she had a rosary in her hand, so I figured she was Catholic, and would know where I needed to go. I asked her about the church, and she offered to walk me there. This was great, because even with directions, there is no way that I would have found it by myself. Some of the streets weren't labeled, and we were taking all kinds of turns. Further, the church did not look like the church I thought I was looking for. Let me explain. When I looked up cathedrals in Busan, I found that there are two. One is more famous, and looks like your typical Cathedral. The other is pretty small, not well known, and from the outside, doesn't even look like a Catholic church.. There was a picture of the famous one on the website I found, but I had written down the name and information of the smaller one.
This was one of those moments where you just have to say "Wow, that's God." I had given up, and was wandering aimlessly, and just happened to cross paths with this woman, who I would have never noticed if she hadn't spoken to me. You can call it luck, or coincidence, but to me, it's a sign that he really is looking out for us.
Even though, the church was not what I was looking for, I'm really glad I found it. The church had a small grotto outside, which I loved, because it reminded me of Notre Dame. Also, I had intended on going to an English mass, but this church only offered mass in Korean. I think it is kind of neat going to mass when it's in another language. Because Catholic mass is the same all over the world, and in every language, even though I don't understand what is being said, I always know exactly what is going on.
The Grotto outside the church
The Grotto outside the church
After church, I decided to do a little sight seeing. Yongdusan Park happened to be right next to the church. Busan Tower is located in this park. I decided to go to the top (the picture at the beginning of this post is from the top) and the view was amazing. It was really cheap, which was nice, and was less than half the price of going to the top of the St. Louis Arch. While I was there, they had some traditional folk musicians performing on the grounds.
Busan Tower
Busan Tower
Views from the top
Here is a video from the top of Busan Tower...I accidentally call it Seoul Tower at first...funny thing is, I have lived in Seoul for over 6 months and have never been to Seoul Tower
Yongdusan Park
Here is a video I took in the park, and the traditional musicians. At the beginning you can see people playing traditional Korean games as well.
A little later, I met up with my friends who had decided to sleep in. We went to Busan Shinshagae, the world's largest department store. Shinshagae is a pretty high end department store, and only has really expensive stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tiffany's, etc, so we didn't go for the shopping. We decided we would do lunch there (they have a huge food court), and look around. By the time I got to the food court, I hadn't eaten all day, and was starving. It was pretty crouded everywhere, and I didn't feel like waiting in line, so I decided I would get a shawarma (this is a type of middle eastern food...it is kind of like a cross between a taco and a gyro) because the line was short. This would come back to haunt me later.
Ice Skating Rink inside Shinshagae
Part of the department store... check out the guy in the lower right hand corner haha
We left Shinshagae and headed to the Water Temple. This was a Buddhist worship area a long the shore. It was absolutely gorgeous. Here are some pictures.
People stand on the bridge in the above picture, and try to throw coins into the baskets in the picture below. Supposedly, you will have good luck if you make it.
people put coins on these statues for good luck
We left Shinshagae and headed to the Water Temple. This was a Buddhist worship area a long the shore. It was absolutely gorgeous. Here are some pictures.
people put coins on these statues for good luck
After we left the water temple, we headed back to the area where we had been the day before. Because of Independence Movement Day, there were huge bonfires on the beaches, which was pretty cool. We decided to go back to the Fuzzy Navel for dinner. On the way, I started to get sharp pains in my stomach. I had experienced these pains only one other time in my life when I had a bad reaction to the Z Pack antibiotic. I tried to eat, but I had no appetite, and couldn't finish my food. As the night went on the pains started to get worse and more frequent, and within a few hours I had thrown up, and was having to go to the bathroom. Food Poisoning. It definitely came from the shawarma, which I thought tasted funny when I was eating it. I'm guessing it was from the meat inside of it.
That night, I stayed in with my friend Christina while the rest of my group went out. I spent most of my time lying on the couch in misery. I was starting to feel a little bit better the next day, and my stomach pains were less frequent. So, I thought it would be a good idea to eat. Wrong. I would later find out that you are not supposed to eat solid foods until 24 hours after you get food poisoning. Later that night, all of my symptoms intensified. The next day I missed work (luckily we had a teacher's workshop so I didn't miss class) and went to the doctor. This was an interesting experience. He gave me drugs which stopped all of my symptoms except, of course, the horrible stomach pains which didn't fully subside until Wednesday night.
Bonfire on the beach...right before the bonfire started in my stomach
Bonfire on the beach...right before the bonfire started in my stomach
Anyways, getting back to Busan, I really loved the city and had a great time (minus getting sick).There was a lot of cool things that I didn't get to see, and I definitely want to go back before I leave Korea.
The Olympics
I love the Olympics. While I don't know much about any of the winter sports, and never watch them when it's not the Olympics, I always look forward to those few weeks Olympic excitement every four years. It was really interesting being in a country other than my during the Olympics, and getting to see it from a different perspective. For example, all of the commercials on tv showed Korean athletes, not Americans. And obviously no one was rooting for the same athletes that I was rooting for. However, while I always pull for the Americans to win, being in Korea also made me excited to see the Korean athletes, specifically figure skater Kim Yu-Na. Her face is everywhere in Korea, and people were so excited about her. By chance, I happened to see her finals performance during my lunch break when I went to the bank. People were crowded around the tv watching and cheering. I left the bank right after her scores were posted and saw a crowd of people watching on a tv outside a convenience store. They were all celebrating. Even though I 'm not Korean, as a sports lover, this experience gave me the chills. These people were complete strangers who just happened to come together for a brief moment to celebrate someone from their country. Seeing the pride and excitement in their faces after her performance was really cool. It really reminded me what the Olympics is all about.
Another unusual experience for me was watching the gold medal hockey game (USA vs Canada) with mostly Canadians. These people love their hockey, and there was definitely a lot of trash talking going down. I wasn't really involved in this because I don't know a lot about hockey, I was outnumbered, and I was still lying on the couch with food poisoning during the game. While I obviously, wanted us to win, and was so proud of our guys for making it as far as they did, I couldn't help but be happy for Canada after they won. Let's be honest, how cool was it for them to win the gold in front of their country? Maybe if I was a bigger hockey fan I would have been upset. But, I just couldn't be mad when Sidney Crosby, who I love, scored the goal that won the game.Congrats Canada, and good job Team USA on making it further than all of the experts predicted!
Kim Yu-Na...what a cutie!
Sidney Crosby...how could you not enjoy watching him ;)
PRESCHOOL GRADUATION
Right before I left for Busan, my school held it's preschool graduation. I was really sad that this meant that I would no longer be teaching Justice class (all of the classrooms at my school have inspirational names like Motivation, Friendship, Sharing, Justice, etc...My new preschool classes are Ambition and Kindness classes). However, most of my students, with the exception of one whose family moved, are all still at my school in higher level classes, so I still get to see them :) For graduation, each class does speeches that revolve around a specific theme. Our theme was "Jobs." Each class also sang a song. I picked "This Little Light of Mine" for Justice class.
Here is a video of Justice Class Singing "This Little Light of Mine" The video quality isn't very good, so if you are wondering what they are holding, I bought them flashlights and taped tissue paper to the top so that it would look like they had candles. You can see me/hear me in the background sometimes directing them haha. They aren't exactly on key either, but I still think they are too cute :)
Here is the intro to our speeches, as well as Min Kyung giving her speech about English Teachers
Here is the intro to our speeches, as well as Min Kyung giving her speech about English Teachers
Class picture after the kids got their diplomas. It is custom here for the families to buy the graduates bouquets
SIX MONTH IN KOREA, SIX MONTHS UNTIL HOME
March 11th officially marked my 6th month in Korea, and is also the halfway point in my stay here. I can't believe it has already been 6 months! Time flies. I have started to realize that there is so much that I want to do before I leave. I'm in the home stretch now, so I need to get them done!
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