Last week was Korea's Lunar New Year holiday. The Lunar New Year is more important here than is Christmas or the Western January 1st New Year's. Its a holiday that in size is comparable to Chuseok. Both are a time in which Korean families travel to come together, eat food, dress in traditional hanbok fashion and pray to their ancestor's.
Jason, Scott, Brian and I decided to take advantage of our days off from school and travel down south to Busan. We left early on Wednesday morning, catching a bus from Wonju. The ride lasted a little over 4 hours, not as long as we'd expected actually and we only ran into a little traffic. Then it was a long subway ride to our hotel. Busan is a big city on the very southern tip of Korea, right on the beach. It was a lovely, bright city with a simple network of subway transportation. If Seoul is big like New York, think of Busan as Washington DC.
It was easy enough to find our hotel, located near a large Lotte Department store, Busan Tower and the "world famous" Busan fish market. Our hotel was nice and cheap. Actually it was what is known as a "love motel" in Korea. Its primary market is for those couples sneaking around, or men meeting a special "lady friend" for the first time. Don't worry, it was nice and clean, but it had an old feel to it. Love motels are very cheap and sometimes you can get charged by the hour instead of by the night. They have full beds and bathrooms, some even with small saunas or jacuzzi tubs, and they can also help you find an "escort" for the night, if you call one of the ladies whose picture adorns the cards left near the front door in the late evening. There is also a large selection of movies on hand, from PG to NC-17. All in all it was a pretty decent place. I had heard about these kinds of hotels for a long time so I was excited to finally see what one was all about!
After checking in we decided to wander around near the hotel, we were waiting to meet up with a larger group of EPIK teachers that I hadn't seen since orientation, who happened to be staying at our same hotel! Right next to the hotel was a park were Busan Tower was as well as a few fancy statues of dragons. The park was elevated and you could see the port areas of Busan all around. The weather was beautiful, warm, clear and bright. I was in love! After the other EPIK folk arrived we walked down into the nearby shopping area to (finally!) get some food. We found ramen and eagerly ate. Then we went back to Busan Tower as a whole to take the elevator to the top. It was kind of like Seoul Tower, but not as big and not as popular. The view was amazing though! Before us in the glimmery sunlight lay the city. Busan is sprinkled among the mountains and bordered by the sea. With no crowds in the tower we were able to take lots of pictures and sit eating ice cream from the cafe watching the sunset. From the tower we could see not only our hotel, but had clear views of the large port system, fish market, shopping districts, it was a great way to orient one's self!
The rest of the night consisted of us wandering around the downtown shopping area that surrounded the park. We had a "Busan style" dinner aka it had squid in it and then ended the night at a swanky looking bar, followed, of course, but norebang! We finally returned to the hotel around 3am.
The next morning we, not surprisingly, we didn't wake up and get out of the hotel until about 11am. Because it was the actualy the Lunar New Year, when we got into the shopping area of town near our hotel, it was deserted. We finally found an open resturant and had bibimbab. We walked over to the fish market but the major part of it was closed and no boats were unloading, it was a holiday. So I will have to return in the future! Scott said he wanted to go to the beach while the rest of us wanted to go to a museum. We were going ot part but the longer we stood outside in the warm, fresh air, we realized we would rather stay outside too. Scott has been to Busan before so he knew what beach was good to check out. We took the subway and emerged on a street that reminded me so much of Downtown Long Beach, near the convention center! It was lined with shops that led to the sea.
Here the city was much different. Near our hotel was a port area so it was little more grimy and dirty, but not bad. There were also many people who were obviously dock workers. But at the beach it was all posh and tourism! And it was crowded! We spent some time on the sand, looking at the waves, until Scott decided he would take a walk on his own. That left Jason, Brian, Eric and I to find food, we were hungry. Right when we walked up to the beach we noticed these American skater punks trying to do tricks in the small skate park. (I say punks because they had baggy pants, t-shirts and spiker hair, they CLEARLY stood out.) But as we walked by them one of them came up to Jason and I and was super nice, he gave us a promotional card for the bar he works at, a Mexican place with TACOS! We definitely wanted Mexican food but the place didn't open until after 7pm and it was only 2pm. So we had to break down and settle for... TGI Friday's. I said we were in a tourist zone! They had all sorts of a American food and chains. Our group savored our food... nachos, burgers, good drinks... yum!
Afterwards we attempted to visit an aquarium and then a museum. The aquarium was too crowded and we had the wrong directions for the museum. So after a quick subway ride, we arrived back at the beach to meet the larger EPIK group. We decided to go to a casino in one of the hotels because foreigners get free entry (Koreans have to pay.) It was a most depressing and not fun casino. The most funny/most annoying part was when we entered the casino. They looked at our IDs before they let us in. Obviously it was no problem for Jason and I, but for Eric, who is Korean-American, they looked a little closer. And then for Scott, who is Japanese-American, they were really suspicious. They thought he was a Korean trying to sneak in. This rightlfully made Scott upset. The guard tried to speak to Scott in Korea and he didn't understand. Then Eric told the guard Scott was Japanese and the guard got flustered and apologized in Japanese! Jason tried to recover the situation and say, no, Scott is a "mikuk" or American but it was too late. Scott was frustrated at being called Korean and then Japanese instead of just America. Like I said, it was amusing but if I were him, I would have been annoyed.
After the casino we went back to the beach at night, which was beautiful with all the lights of the buildings shining on it, then we had some coffee and split again from the larger group. We ended up at Papa John's for dinner. We just couldn't resist. (Or maybe I couldn't resist.) It was so good, just like pizza at home. The night ended back in our area of town with Cold Stone ice cream, chatting with fellow foreigners down from Seoul, a couple games of pool (we had also played the night before) and a walk through the neon light streets around our hotel. Scott and I walked around alone which was really fun. We saw lots of semi-illicit institutions were you can go have drinks with girl escorts. I'm not sure how far their services extend. We did see a very suspicious building though. We kept walking in front of this dark building, with blacked out windows. Yet the bottom floor was lite and just looked like an empty ballet studio with TVs pushed up againste the wall. Glass doors led inside. Yet out front was a guard, in ordinary enough clothing, yet with a ear peice. And the more times we walked by, the more we noticed other men with ear peieces, stratigically placed around the area, but looking like civilians. I'm convinced it was a prostitutes den. (And I really think I may actually be right!)
The next day was our day of travel home. Before that we tried the fish market one more time but it was still pretty much shut down. Eric bought some raw fish but I think we overpaid. We also made it to the museum that day. It was an exhibit on "Trick Art" -- basically a place to take tons of really funny pictures! They take famous works of art and then paint them to look like the are popping out at you, etc. You can "hold hands" with people in pictures, etc. and it all looks real! It was mindless silly fun that took us quite some time to find. A quick Starbucks later we hopped on the subway towards the crowded and busy bus station.
Busan was a great trip and a great city. It was more fun than I expected to just wander around without a plan or sense of time. We laughed a lot and just let our whims take us, a nice way to travel that I am definitely not used to! And if you can tell, we ate A LOT of junk!
Next on the agenda... Thailand and Cambodia for two weeks!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Put my ski jacket to the test!
In December a group of friends and I took a trip to an outlet mall in Yeonju. Not only did it have two Starbucks, it was filled with countless high end stores and American retailers. My goal was to find and buy the perfect down jacket. For weeks people had been telling me that "to survive winter in Korea you must have a down jacket." Whether that is truth or not, I took the advise to heart. Finally at the end of the day we wandered into a jam packed Nike store. There in the 30% section was a bright pink and purple down jacket. I quickly tried it on, it was perfect, not drab nor too short. It was mine.
Ever since, whenever I wear it to school I am bound to have at least one person, student or coworker comment, "so are you going skiing? haha" While the jacket is cute, it is not exactly "professional work attire." I also did not realize when I bought it that it was a "ski jacket" and not just a winter jacket. Koreans are very specific about what types of clothes are worn for specific events, i.e. hiking gear for hiking, work out gear for working out, ski gear for skiing, evening wear, school uniform, etc. Perhaps I committed a slight faux pas. In conclusion how often I wear the jacket has steadily declined.
But yesterday my ski jacket was put to the test! We went skiing! This week is Lunar New Year in Korea so Wed/Thurs/Fri are national holidays. We previously requested Mon/Tues off as well. Originally we were hoping to go to Japan for the week but after looking at the cost of airfare and train tickets, it just seemed too expensive at this point. So instead we decided to get up early on Monday anyway and head out to Phoenix Park.
Phoenix Park is one of Gangwon provinces most popular ski resorts. It is only about 45 minutes from Wonju by bus. Pyeongchang, the region its located in, hopes to be the host to the 2018 Winter Olympics. They have made the bid (for the third time, hoping to be successful this last time!) and are now just waiting. As I've said before the area is beautiful, filled with mountain after mountain, tall and looming in the horizons, with winding rivers and small clearings in between.
Since Jason and I obviously don't own ski equiepment or ski gear we had to rent everything at Pheonix Park. They made it extremely easy to do so. You walk in to a huge open area, with ski and snowboard rentals to your left, and clothing rentals to your right. Upstairs is the food court and the entrance to the slopes. Also upstairs and outside in a near by building we discovered Starbucks, more restaurants, an arcade and bowling alley. These are to serve the various large hotels near by.
We got to the resort around 11am but couldn't start skiing until 1pm. That gave us time to rent snowboard pants and eat some lunch. It was really cold outside and I was worrying about freezing on the slopes. I had about four layers on (ski jacket of course) but was still cold. Jason was so nice he picked out a new head band, long thick socks and gloves for me while I was changing. When I came back to the store he was ready to buy them! I was so impressed that he even picked out cute girly things! (What a great guy.) We had an American lunch at Popeyes and shared a Peppermint Mocha at Starbucks. By then it was time to purchase our tickets and gear up! Jason wanted to snowboard while I decided to ski. I'd only been skiing one other time before this, when I was 12 (thus 12 years ago!) but Jason is a decently experienced snowboarder. I didn't realize this meant he had never skied before and when he was attempting to guess at and teach me the basics I kept wondering why I didn't choose snowboarding too!
Ski boats are ridiculous to walk, I think everyone looks like robots the way they pick their feet up, but I made it outside carrying my skies. I snapped in and Jason pushed me around on the flat ground for awhile. All I could remember from my pervious experience was that to stop you made a snowplow. I was trying to watch what other skiers were doing and Jason was vainly trying to instruct me how to turn. I made one successful run down a slight incline and we decided we were ready to head up the hill to the bunny slope. We easily made it onto the chair lift, to my relief, and when we got off were greated by the many snowboarders who were plopped over in the snow, strapping themselves onto their board and unable to move. Jason insisted it is extremely difficult to stand up without sliding once you have both feet locked into your snowboard so that was his first time getting on the board. Eventually we started to make our way down the hill.
Things were going okay for the most part, it was a bit scary to try to dodge all the people on the bunny hill who were stopped or fallen over or zig zagging out of control in front of me, but I managed. I just kept snow plowing so I would go slow. Jason was really good at snowboarding from the beginning, able to pace himself and stay with me. We almost made it to the end of the slope when suddenly there was a rather steep decline, right at the end, especially steep for the bunny hill.
I gulped as I looked down at it. Skiing was already terrifying enough for me. While zooming through the breeze was fun, there were definite moments where I wanted to panic. I don't think winter sports are necessarily my "thing." I'd already complained to Jason quite a bit about how dumb this all was. I even compared skiing to playing softball, something else I loathe. Jason said he was going to tell my Dad I was a wimp. But after my successful trip down the slope I was loosening up a little. But it didn't help that right as we approached the final drop and end to the bunny hill we saw this little girl zoom by down the slope, out of control fast, she hit the snow, flipped and was done for. She sat up only to cry. Her dad quickly fell over next to her, attempting to get to her as fast as he could. It was not an encouraging sight. I wanted to walk down but Jason said I couldn't. And I knew I couldn't so I finally decided to just go for it.
Exactly as I thought would happen I picked up speed, lots of speed. My snowplowing wasn't working, I was trying to turn a little from side to side but wasn't good enough to have that much control. On my right was a fence marking the edge of the slope, on my left were people. Directly in front of me were people. I tried to turn to the right but definitely didn't want to hit a fence. The kid in front of me, 30 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet in front of me wasn't moving, he was stopped in the middle of the slope. I knew I was going to hit him even though I tried to move. And boy did I! Slam! Right into him I went. The kid, probably about 11, went right over me as I knocked him out of his skiis. I slid under and wasn't hurt one bit, or even really knocked over. He pretty much broke my fall. And I thought I had broken him. His Dad quickly rushed over and I mumbled "I'm so sorry!" over and over. He looked like he was kind of laughing at first, or was he just surprised? He and his son had matching stripped wolf hats on, complete with ears. Jason quickly zoomed over as did the safety skiers with their first aid. They asked if I was fine, I was. They asked the kid. He just kind of sat there not saying anything at first but then, so I gathered, said yeah, he was fine. He had goggles on and I think he kind of hit himself in the face, or I hit him, and then he landed on his back. He was fine and he and his Dad slid away as I stood shaking trying to get my skis back on. Needless to say I was not happy. I was super sad and felt really bad. And was convinced that I was right and skiing was a horrible dangerous sport. Confidence shattered Jason encouraged me until I went down the rest of the way.
But we didn't stop, we went back up the lift and started down the mountain again. This time when I got to the same spot I stopped again, looking down at the path below. I felt like I would never make it down the stupid hill now! I sighed and went for it. I don't think I really needed to, but because I felt like I was getting too fast again and because there was a man far below me on the same path, I decided to just sit down, while skiing. I couldn't stop any other way so I just tried to fall back. And it worked, I stopped, a ski popped off but I was totally fine. But then to my left I heard some yells and saw a girl falling and then saw Jason. In trying to come over to me and help me up he had run in front of some girl, whom he startled and caused to crash into him. Then I was even more upset because now not only had I hurt some little kid, now my inability to ski properly had caused more potential injury! (Again everyone was fine.) Even though I was crushed at this point I knew we couldn't stop, we'd paid $100 and had only been down the slope two times! Instead of making fun of me Jason knew I just needed to pitifully vent and hear some encouragement so up the mountain we went again. This time we didn't stay together, which was much better. And when I neared the bottom again I just sucked it (and waited until it was as clear as could be in front of me) and went for it! And I made it!
After that we did a total of about 8 runs before deciding to call it quits, the slopes were becoming icy and littered with more and more falling snowboarders and young skiers, thus it was becoming more and more obsticle ridden. I was very impressed with Jason, before skiing and skating I didn't know he was so athletic. He looked a lot better than most people and was easily able to stop and control his speed. Me? Well I did improve but I was still wasn't good at speed control. I would zoom down the mountain, praying no one would get in my path because I could not have avoided them.
I'm not sure skiing is for me, but it was a really fun day! Maybe if I had a private course I could get over that fear of hitting something? Haha, I'll keep dreaming. My reward for the day was one more Starbucks right before we boarded the bus back to Wonju. I enjoyed getting away and spending so much time outdoors, which in the end wasn't so cold. And the scenery was beautiful, mountain after mountain covered in snow.
Ever since, whenever I wear it to school I am bound to have at least one person, student or coworker comment, "so are you going skiing? haha" While the jacket is cute, it is not exactly "professional work attire." I also did not realize when I bought it that it was a "ski jacket" and not just a winter jacket. Koreans are very specific about what types of clothes are worn for specific events, i.e. hiking gear for hiking, work out gear for working out, ski gear for skiing, evening wear, school uniform, etc. Perhaps I committed a slight faux pas. In conclusion how often I wear the jacket has steadily declined.
But yesterday my ski jacket was put to the test! We went skiing! This week is Lunar New Year in Korea so Wed/Thurs/Fri are national holidays. We previously requested Mon/Tues off as well. Originally we were hoping to go to Japan for the week but after looking at the cost of airfare and train tickets, it just seemed too expensive at this point. So instead we decided to get up early on Monday anyway and head out to Phoenix Park.
 |
| Yes its a ski jacket! And it changes color! |
Since Jason and I obviously don't own ski equiepment or ski gear we had to rent everything at Pheonix Park. They made it extremely easy to do so. You walk in to a huge open area, with ski and snowboard rentals to your left, and clothing rentals to your right. Upstairs is the food court and the entrance to the slopes. Also upstairs and outside in a near by building we discovered Starbucks, more restaurants, an arcade and bowling alley. These are to serve the various large hotels near by.
We got to the resort around 11am but couldn't start skiing until 1pm. That gave us time to rent snowboard pants and eat some lunch. It was really cold outside and I was worrying about freezing on the slopes. I had about four layers on (ski jacket of course) but was still cold. Jason was so nice he picked out a new head band, long thick socks and gloves for me while I was changing. When I came back to the store he was ready to buy them! I was so impressed that he even picked out cute girly things! (What a great guy.) We had an American lunch at Popeyes and shared a Peppermint Mocha at Starbucks. By then it was time to purchase our tickets and gear up! Jason wanted to snowboard while I decided to ski. I'd only been skiing one other time before this, when I was 12 (thus 12 years ago!) but Jason is a decently experienced snowboarder. I didn't realize this meant he had never skied before and when he was attempting to guess at and teach me the basics I kept wondering why I didn't choose snowboarding too!
Things were going okay for the most part, it was a bit scary to try to dodge all the people on the bunny hill who were stopped or fallen over or zig zagging out of control in front of me, but I managed. I just kept snow plowing so I would go slow. Jason was really good at snowboarding from the beginning, able to pace himself and stay with me. We almost made it to the end of the slope when suddenly there was a rather steep decline, right at the end, especially steep for the bunny hill.
I gulped as I looked down at it. Skiing was already terrifying enough for me. While zooming through the breeze was fun, there were definite moments where I wanted to panic. I don't think winter sports are necessarily my "thing." I'd already complained to Jason quite a bit about how dumb this all was. I even compared skiing to playing softball, something else I loathe. Jason said he was going to tell my Dad I was a wimp. But after my successful trip down the slope I was loosening up a little. But it didn't help that right as we approached the final drop and end to the bunny hill we saw this little girl zoom by down the slope, out of control fast, she hit the snow, flipped and was done for. She sat up only to cry. Her dad quickly fell over next to her, attempting to get to her as fast as he could. It was not an encouraging sight. I wanted to walk down but Jason said I couldn't. And I knew I couldn't so I finally decided to just go for it.
Exactly as I thought would happen I picked up speed, lots of speed. My snowplowing wasn't working, I was trying to turn a little from side to side but wasn't good enough to have that much control. On my right was a fence marking the edge of the slope, on my left were people. Directly in front of me were people. I tried to turn to the right but definitely didn't want to hit a fence. The kid in front of me, 30 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet in front of me wasn't moving, he was stopped in the middle of the slope. I knew I was going to hit him even though I tried to move. And boy did I! Slam! Right into him I went. The kid, probably about 11, went right over me as I knocked him out of his skiis. I slid under and wasn't hurt one bit, or even really knocked over. He pretty much broke my fall. And I thought I had broken him. His Dad quickly rushed over and I mumbled "I'm so sorry!" over and over. He looked like he was kind of laughing at first, or was he just surprised? He and his son had matching stripped wolf hats on, complete with ears. Jason quickly zoomed over as did the safety skiers with their first aid. They asked if I was fine, I was. They asked the kid. He just kind of sat there not saying anything at first but then, so I gathered, said yeah, he was fine. He had goggles on and I think he kind of hit himself in the face, or I hit him, and then he landed on his back. He was fine and he and his Dad slid away as I stood shaking trying to get my skis back on. Needless to say I was not happy. I was super sad and felt really bad. And was convinced that I was right and skiing was a horrible dangerous sport. Confidence shattered Jason encouraged me until I went down the rest of the way.
But we didn't stop, we went back up the lift and started down the mountain again. This time when I got to the same spot I stopped again, looking down at the path below. I felt like I would never make it down the stupid hill now! I sighed and went for it. I don't think I really needed to, but because I felt like I was getting too fast again and because there was a man far below me on the same path, I decided to just sit down, while skiing. I couldn't stop any other way so I just tried to fall back. And it worked, I stopped, a ski popped off but I was totally fine. But then to my left I heard some yells and saw a girl falling and then saw Jason. In trying to come over to me and help me up he had run in front of some girl, whom he startled and caused to crash into him. Then I was even more upset because now not only had I hurt some little kid, now my inability to ski properly had caused more potential injury! (Again everyone was fine.) Even though I was crushed at this point I knew we couldn't stop, we'd paid $100 and had only been down the slope two times! Instead of making fun of me Jason knew I just needed to pitifully vent and hear some encouragement so up the mountain we went again. This time we didn't stay together, which was much better. And when I neared the bottom again I just sucked it (and waited until it was as clear as could be in front of me) and went for it! And I made it!
After that we did a total of about 8 runs before deciding to call it quits, the slopes were becoming icy and littered with more and more falling snowboarders and young skiers, thus it was becoming more and more obsticle ridden. I was very impressed with Jason, before skiing and skating I didn't know he was so athletic. He looked a lot better than most people and was easily able to stop and control his speed. Me? Well I did improve but I was still wasn't good at speed control. I would zoom down the mountain, praying no one would get in my path because I could not have avoided them.
I'm not sure skiing is for me, but it was a really fun day! Maybe if I had a private course I could get over that fear of hitting something? Haha, I'll keep dreaming. My reward for the day was one more Starbucks right before we boarded the bus back to Wonju. I enjoyed getting away and spending so much time outdoors, which in the end wasn't so cold. And the scenery was beautiful, mountain after mountain covered in snow.
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| Ski monster! |
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| That's me in action, in the center with the black pants. Watch out if you know what's good for you! |
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| Looking up at the bunny slope. |
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| Phoenix Park |
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| He said he only fell twice. |
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