From the Aquarium to the Cat Cafe

Last Friday Jason and I once again headed off to Seoul. This time we decided to stay in a hostel for two nights instead of doing our usual day trip. I realized this might have been one of our last trips to the big city before we are done with Korea come August. Time is ticking fast! I bet we'll probably sneak in one more trip but we've become so used to visiting whenever we want on a Saturday that it will be strange to no longer just pop over on the bus.

We were stuck in Friday night traffic on the road from Wonju to Seoul and then once we arrived had to ride on a crowded subway for another 40 minutes or so. Our hostel was in Hongdae, a really hip young area right next to Hongik University, which is an art school. We checked in to our simple accommodations, a private room with two single beds and (thankfully!) an air conditioner. The location was great, the streets were bright and vibrant filled with cute boutiques and coffee shops. We wandered around some and settled on dinner at Dos Tacos. We though the Mexican food in Daegu had been good, Dos Tacos is definitely the best I've had in Korea! There was even cilantro and frozen margaritas to chow down on! After that we walked around some more, taking in all the bright lights, funky street art, throngs of eclectic young people and blaring music. We ended up at a bar we'd visited before and played some pool.

Cute shopping in Hongdae

The most depressed looking Garfield I've ever seen.  Overworked to say the least.

Hongdae

Street food: pineapple on a stick

Saturday morning we woke up early so we could catch the subway and ride 45 minutes to the opposite side of Seoul. My last birthday gift for Jason was to take him to the Aquarium since he said he'd never been to one before. I did such a good job of keeping it a secret until he guessed it the night before! The aquarium is inside the huge COEX mall. We'd never visited the mall before but left wondering why not! The place was huge, with tons of stores and food and things to see, plus an IMAX theater. We had to walk all the way across the mall to find the Aquarium. I really enjoyed our visit. It was a small aquarium so it only took about two hours to get through, which was probably just enough time before we got bored. There were lots of little kids and US military families. My favorite thing we saw where the Clawed Sea Otters! They were so cute and so fast! I couldn't get a good picture of them. We also saw two manatees but they were just sitting in the bottom of their tank, apparently asleep. Of course there were lots of colorful fish, sting rays and sharks. It was a fun experience and I think Jason enjoyed it.

Jason's little helper. It was both of their first trips to the Aquarium, haha.

Jason with fish swimming in a circle

There are fish in the frig, next to my head on the right! Really!  It was fish art.

A sample of "Dr. Fishy" treatment, little fish nibbling on my hands. I wanted to stand there until my hands were smooth but we moved on.

Its a sea otter, really! It's just too fast for my camera.

Don't feed the fish!

There's a sea horse hidden in there. Can you spot it?

CRAZY seahorse that looks like a plant! It was fascinating and kind of creepy for some reason. Jason looked at this and said, "now tell me there's no such thing as evolution!"

Party their path to avoid the shark. Cool picture.

Ahh we were eaten alive and were happy about it!

After our fun morning Jason and I split up. I went to meet Amber so we could visit a cat cafe and Jason went to the Seoul electronics market. I had read about this cafe called Gio Cat Cafe online months ago and Amber and I both wanted to visit but we just now got around to it. When I say it was a cat cafe, I mean that literally. In this cafe you pay 8,000 won to enter and sip on an iced coffee, surrounded by 30 live cats!!

We quite easily found the cafe, slipped off our shoes, donning slippers instead, and walked inside. We were met with the faint smell of cats, but that quickly went away. The place was small, like a normal coffee shop, and crowded. Even though there were no tables available at the moment (they were assigned) we were told we could still hang out on the floor and visit the cats. Apparently that's what everyone was doing, even if they had a table. There were girls and cats everywhere! Oh, and a few unfortunate boyfriends who were dragged in as well. Amber and I wondered why we couldn't just sit at one of the many empty tables but oh well. The whole experience was a bit bizarre... not quite as much fun as it initially sounded to me. (I was super thrilled to get to play with cats!!!) Perhaps that was because it typical cat fashion a lot of them would simply wander by or scamper away, or were sleeping. There were lots of spots for the cats to climb throughout the cafe, a fake tree, a cat tree, windows, benches, baskets. The only time a cat would really stop and sit with someone was if they were being fed. You could pay extra and buy treats for the cats and then they would be all over you. A few girls did this and they were covered in greedy cats, who would promptly abandon them after the treats were gone. A few cats were asleep in some peoples laps, that's all I wanted. But you weren't allowed to pick up the cats, which I think also made it a little less fun that it could have been. Finally Amber and I did get a seat and our coffee. That was much nicer. Some cats stood on our table and hung around us even though we didn't have any food, which was nice. One crazy cat kept trying to eat Amber's hair!! He chewed on her bun about three times. We stayed for a little over an hour and then left as Amber is allergic to cats and was staring to react. All in all it was still a really fun, strange, thing to do that I'm glad I can cross off my list! Who would have thought such a place would really exist! I guess its Korea's answer to not having a pet in your private residence. A lot of Koreans are afraid of cats too, so this seems a new trend.

This is what we saw when we first entered Gio Cat Cafe. Utter chaos.

That's not his latte. So chic, isn't he?

Does he have eyes?! I don't know!

Employees

Lazy dayz

She had treats so she was mobbed. The lady on the right was super pushy.

We finally got a table.

Attacking Amber's hair!

The girls just couldn't get enough

After our little outing we met back up with Jason and ran into a few of our other friends. Our primary reason for going to Seoul on Saturday night was to see our friend Shannon's art show. She is also an English teacher in Wonju who went to school for art in Kansas. She become friends with a Korean woman connected to the art world of Seoul who told her she could set up a show for Shannon in a local Hongdae coffee shop. Before the show Amber, Jason and I ate (again!) at Dos Tacos, it was just so good! We then met everyone else at the coffee shop around 8pm. Shannon's art is part performance, body art, public art, photography and video. We had some wine and coffee (what a mix!) and enjoyed watching her videos and viewing her photographs. I would like to talk to her more in person about her work but I didn't have much time that night. I was very impressed with her though, especially her willingness to show her friends her work! We thought she was so brave, to expose herself like that! She made one video about her first months in Korea and her attempts at learning hangul (the Korean alphabet) that was really great, I totally related to it.

Shannon's art

The night ended simply enough and we got up early to head back to Wonju. Oh did I mention, it was pouring rain again by that time? Oh Korean summers.

It's Raining Cats and Dogs

Its been raining hard here in Korea for the past night and day, and its scheduled to continue until Sunday. I've been told this is Korea's rainy season, but I remember it raining a lot in late August and early September when we first arrived in Korea. The rain is really beautiful, it keeps the sky dark and the clouds are continuously swirling above. I read on the weather report that the rain tomorrow will actually be from a tropical storm! The rain does make it a little more difficult to get around quickly and to keep dry, but its a nice change from the super hot and humid temperatures we had last week. Yesterday morning I had to walk to the bus stop to take the one hour ride to my country school. The bus stop is about a ten or 15 minute walk. Yesterday was quite the obstacle course though! I had to dodge hordes of students with umbrellas, puddles, cars and rain! By the time I got to the bus, my shoes and socks were compleatly soaked! Luckily there is a pair of sandals waiting for me at my country school, so I was able to let everything air out during the day. Some of the boy students did notice my less than fashionable shoes (they were lent to me by the school for the year) saying they were men's shoes. We all had a good laugh.

Other than the heat and the rain we've been doing very well lately. We haven't been up to much since Sokcho a few weekends ago, but the last few days of teaching are quickly approaching. We have one more week until final exams and then the majority of the school goes on summer break. I'll be teaching for two weeks of the break, two classes in the morning and one two hour conversation class in the afternoon, the same schedule I had over winter break. I'm pretty positive about the classes and am just planning on having some fun with the kids before I leave. I mean it is their summer break too, so why not make it a little fun? So far I'm planning on watching Shrek, Tangled and an episode of Glee. After each show we'll stop and do worksheets and talk about what we see. I also think I might do a photograph scavenger hunt and then make a slide show to show the kids. I also have a few fun lessons like "How to Survive a Zombie Attack" and how to make a PBJ sandwich, to which we will then make the sandwich in class. I just hope the students are easy to deal with. I know a few of the girls who signed up for the conversation class and they are really sweet.

Anyhow, like I said only a few weeks left of teaching! There are a lot of students I'm really going to miss! Remarkably I've had a few really open up to me, which is I guess what teachers say always keeps them coming back. One girl likes to talk with me about America, another told me she is a lesbian, one boy asked for advice on how to approach a girl he likes... warms my heart and makes me feel so proud of them and happy to be here! Oh course in the end I can say things like that, now that is over! I do think if I were staying a second year things would be much easier, but I also think I'd get more and more bored.

Last weekend Jason and I visited Daegu to see our friend Tim from UCI and Campus Tours. There are just so many of us in Korea! Daegu is a big city, like Busan, so there was a huge variety of shops and restaurants. We didn't do much but eat Mexican food and walk around, but it was a nice time. It would be such a different experience in a big city! Everywhere we went in the popular downtown Tim ran into foreigners he knew, they were just everywhere! Plus we went in two apartments and they were tiny and old, mine is 10x nicer! And while variety would be nice, a few bars and resturants wouldn't even take in foreigners because we would have just overan the place. I could totally understand the Korean's not wanting a loud group of foriegners crowding up their space. The city was really nice but I feel like I get a better "Korean" experience being in Wonju.

Also in Daegu we had our first experience with a taxi driver trying to rip us off. That never happens in Korea! Our friend Tim lives about a 10 minute drive outside of the center of Deegu, he takes taxis back late at night all the time and it always costs 15,000 won. We got in and drove a little and then the driver pointed to his meters saying something like "oh, no meter, its 25,000 won." Tim argued with him right away, "no 15,000," to which the driver replied, "no, 25,000." This went on for about a minute before Tim just had the taxi pull over and we got out to find a new one. By this time the fare had gone up to 3500, not much. But Tim said no way were we going to pay. We jumped out of the taxi and immediatly flagged down another one, quickly got in and told the man to go. But our original taxi had not left, and the driver was out of his car. He came over to the window where Tim was sitting and yelled at him, demanding money, Tim kept saying no and speaking English to him, but I think that helped, he was explaining why we wouldn't pay in an angry tone, even if the guy couldn't understand him. The two taxi drivers said a few words to each other. Tim finally said, "no, your service is bad!" and the guy said "good service!" Tim told the new driver how much the first one was going to charge and he scoffed, obviously knowing it was rip off! The original driver went as far as to open the passenger door where Tim was but then finally just walked away muttering under his breath. I was really proud of Tim for sticking to his guns! I would have given in long ago! Who did this guy think he was though, that was a huge overcharge! The new driver was really nice and agreed we were being overcharged, asked us if we were teachers and then pointed out that he lived near to Tim. Exciting times!

The only other update I have is that in August Amber, Jason and I will be going to Taiwan! We leave on a Saturday and return the following Sunday! Not a super long trip, but I think we can still do and see a lot! The flight is only 2 1/2 hours from Seoul, it will take us longer to get to the airport on the bus from Wonju. Should be really fun and we've got to get planning!

A Sokcho and Seoraksan Weekend

Last weekend was another long weekend, with a national holiday falling on Monday. Jason, Scott, Amber and I decided to head north and up the coast to visit friends in Sokcho. We left early Saturday morning. The bus ride was 2 1/2 hours and unlike when I went to Sokcho with my family, the bus was not excruciatingly hot. Instead the bus driver was ancient and quite possibly the worst driver I've ever ridden with, he was constantly stomping on the brakes at totally random times, so nauseating.

Glad to exit the bus, we grabbed a taxi and headed to our friend Janine's apartment. We met Janine and her husband Ben during our EPIK orientation in Seoul during August. We've only seem them a few times since then but I've kept in touch with her through email. She's Canadian and he's Irish and they are both very laid back, fun, warm people. After chatting with Janine for awhile we walked to the beach (get that, we walked! So awesome!) The weather was much, much warmer than I had anticipated (curse you google weather!) The beach was beautiful and people were swimming in the water and chilling on the beach with drinks and blankets. The water was really cold, worse than the California coast, but that didn't stop Scott from stripping down to his boxers and jumping in. (It took a long time for him to finally decide he was going to jump in, since he hadn't brought his swim trunks.) The rest of us just sat on the beach and in the shade of the boardwalk. We were wearing jeans and no sunscreen, totally unprepared!

After a few hours Janine left us to meet up with a friend and we headed off to get some food. She told us to ask the taxi driver to take us to "Food Town." But what we heard was "Fuu Town." Her Canadian accent had foiled us! We told the taxi driver "Fuu town juseo!" and he looked at us like we were crazy. Luckily Scott had also memorized the name of a popular restaurant in the same area so we made it. When we met up with Janine later we all had a good laugh about our misunderstanding.

After our galbi dinner we hopped back in a taxi to go to Daepo Harbor. The Harbor was mostly under construction, they were adding a new park area, but there was a small sliver of shops lining a curving street that we were able to walk down. There were vendors on both sides selling fish and sea food of all kinds. We enjoyed taking in the sites but didn't buy anything but slushies. We could have bought tempura or squid stuffed with rice and vegetables.

The harbor took less time than we thought it would and soon we were left with nothing to do for an hour until Janine was to meet us again. So we headed to the Family Mart across the street, bought a bottle of wine, and waited. Soon Brian and Shannon joined us, as they were also visiting Sokcho for the day. So basically we ended up hanging out with the same people from Wonju we always hang out with. Too funny! Sitting in front of Family Mart always turns out well though and it’s nice to sit outside in the fresh air, in most restaurants you can't. Quickly enough though we all ended up at Janine's and sat talking until bed time.

The next day we woke up and Amber made us a great scrambled egg breakfast. We had planned to go to Seoraksan mountain that day but unexpectedly Ben came home. He had been doing a long overnight hike at Seoraksan all weekend. He had decided to come home early and told us the road into the base of the mountain where we were going to head was backed up for miles and would take hours to get through on the bus. Sadly we decided we'd better come up with a new plan. We decided to get up early the next morning and hike quickly before going back to Wonju.

With Ben back with the car (they bought a car in Korea and he can drive!) we decided to head further up the coast in search of, supposedly, the old summer home of Kim Jong-Ill, the leader of North Korea. Apparently he went there as a kid before the division. All we knew was that it was located near a lake close to the border. We drove around the lake a few times but never saw where to go! Unfortunately for us! I was beginning to doubt it really existed but I've since looked it up and it does, we just didn't find it. We did find one house though, which we at first thought was the right place, but it turned out to be the old summer house of the first President of Korea, Rhee Syngman. Funny how years apart two famous men had homes near each other! We went in the small museum dedicated to him and although there were only a few sentences here and there in English, I did learn about how democracy came to Korea after the Japanese occupation. Mr. Rhee was educated in the US at GW University, Harvard and Yale. His diplomas were even on display, and written in Latin! He also married a Hawaiian-American wife but apparently she adapted to Korean customs perfectly and became regarded as a true Korean. That doesn't often happen! 

Again the weather was perfect and we stopped to eat in a small town near the lake. Then we headed back towards Sokcho and stopped at a bird watching sanctuary, which included another lake. We took a long walk around the lake because Ben and Janine knew of a really cool working traditional village beyond it. As we rounded a bend in the road there lay a perfect working village, a picturesque site in the lush green hills. It was so cute, the houses had thatched roofs and there were rice paddies surrounding them. But they still had electricity and cars. There was also a huge swing set made of large wood poles, about twice the size of a normal swing set. Jason and I eat took turns on it, Ben pushing Jason and Jason pushing me! Our walk was lovely, warm and sunny and surrounded by farm land and lush landscape. We even saw a snake! There's not much wildlife in Korea so this was pretty cool! (Korea has no large mammals living in its hills, no bears, no tigers, no deer, just small animals and not many at that. Once there really were tigers and bears but they were all killed to extinction when the Japanese occupied Korea. People think everything in North Korea must also be killed by now since people are starving there.) 

The eerie thing about driving up the coast was that we were only about 5 miles from the border and the DMZ. We considered driving to the DMZ but we had four people in the back seat of the car and were worried they would frown at that since they do car inspections when you drive in. We saw signs that we were entering the tense border region anyhow. On the two lane road we drove up every so often there were spots were overpasses covered the road packed tight with boxes of charges. So if the North invaded, someone would light the charges, they would explode and tumble down on the road, blocking it. But in contrast, Ben also told us about the Trans-Korea road that is still being built. It’s a highway that connects the north of Korea all the way down to Busan. It’s also advertised that when it’s finished you can drive through to China and Russia! But it will never be finished. Unless North and South Korea unify. Yet the road it still being built on the South Korean side, so when reunification happens they will be ready. We remarked that if the North invaded, all it would have to do is drive down that road. Bizarre. Amber and Scott thought it was a hopeful sign but Jason and I just found it eerie and naive. Janine told us it is in the national curriculum that students learn in elementary school that South Korea does want to reunify with the North and that the day will come. Yet she said some of her teachers actually don't want that to happen, but they must teach it and they must tell their student's that is what they believe. Instead she said some teachers, logically and expectantly I think, believe reunification would destroy the South Korean economy and everyone's current way of life. I think it would too. 

Finally it was time for dinner, and a big dinner it was! We had been waiting all weekend to have a special dinner Janine reserved for us. It was roast pumpkin filled with roasted duck inside. They roast it for 4-5 hours to perfection. It was a glorious, glorious meal. The pumpkin was simply delicious. One of the most delicious tastes I have ever experienced! And there was also a pumpkin puree that was to die for. I wanted to bottle it up and take it home with me to eat every day. I chowed down to the extreme. Pumpkin duck is quite expensive at 50,000 won, but it was well worth it. I could eat it every week! 

We ended our day with a relaxing soak at a jimjilbang. This one was awesome because it had a coed part with outdoor hot tubs of various temperatures. And you got to wear a bathing suit instead of going nude. We spent a few hours soaking and dripping sweat in the sauna rooms before heading back to Janine and Ben's. It was great sitting outside in the warm evening air looking at the mountains and watching the lights of the town come on. 

The next day we woke up at 6am to go hiking at Seoraksan. We wanted to beat the traffic and the heat, plus we didn't want to get home too late. Janine and Ben stayed home but the four of us headed up the mountain. I tried to convince everyone to ride the cable car and do the easy, shorter hike, but I was out numbered and we decided on the 4 hour round trip hike up to Ulsan peak. The hike started out easy but Scott and Amber were much quicker than the out of shape Jason and I. Scott even carried a whole watermelon up in his backpack so we could snack on it at the top! Half way through the hike there is a small restaurant. We saw old man carrying huge packs filled with boxes and bags up the trail to deliver goods to the restaurant, it was majorly impressive. There was also a Buddhist temple half way up carved right into the side of the mountain. I didn't get to look long but inside there were miniature Buddha’s carved right into the mountain! The hike got really difficult at the end though!! Like, horribly difficult! Like I wanted to die and give up difficult. There were 800 stairs for us to climb... straight up the rock!! It was simply awful. When I got to the top I grumpily proclaimed "I have determined I get absolutely no enjoyment from physical exertion, like hiking." I'm so dramatic. The view was beautiful from the top but that was about it. We had some great watermelon and then headed down, which was much easier. The whole thing took about 3 1/2 hours. We quickly saw the huge Buddha at the entrance to the mountain and then were back on the bus to Janine and Ben's. 

We said goodbye to them and were on our way back to Wonju. Janine had made cookies so that was a plus. Ben dropped us at the bus station and we saw the Wonju bus just pulling out onto the road. We groaned because we had just missed it! But Jason gestured to the bus driver, which was now sitting at a stop light, if we could get on, and the guy gestured back, yes! So we ran across the street, quickly yelling goodbye to Ben, and jumped on the bus! We were so lucky! Otherwise we would have had to wait over another hour and it was already 1pm. We were also lucky we got on that bus because our driver was a champ. Although I slept pretty much the entire ride, I did wake up from time to time to see the intense, stopped traffic on the highway. Yet instead of getting us stuck on it, our driver knew how to take the tiny, one lane parallel roads that were off to the side of the highway. I woke up wondering why we were going over so many bumps only to look out my window and see countryside and country houses. I wondered why they were next to the highway until I realized we weren't on the highway. I could see the highway to my left and saw stopped cars and buses. If it wasn't for our driver we would have been one of them! 

Instead we arrived in Wonju around 4pm. Jason I ate some kimbab, lesson planned and watched TV the rest of the night. Another good weekend under wrap!

Seoul Lantern Festival for Buddha's Birthday

The night I returned to Wonju from the USA I immediatly met up with my friend Liz. Liz is an old friend from UCI who was also a campus tour guide. She is currently working as an English teacher in Japan and had come to Korea for her one week of spring vacation. She had been travelling around Korea for the week but wanted to come hang out with me in Wonju. We both arrived in Wonju Thursday night around 8pm via bus so it was very easy to meet at the station. We took a taxi back to my place and talked until I finally decided I had to go to bed because I had work the next day.

School on Friday was Physical Exam day so the students had no classes. Which meant I was free to sit and do whatever the heck I wanted. I told Liz I would walk back to my apartment around 10:30 and bring her over for a tour of the school. She was really eager to see the similarities and differences between a Japanese and Korean school. Right away we met some students in the hallway who squealed "you're beautiful" and "I love you!" to Liz. She said this was very flattering and much more forward than a Japanese student would be. After going to the English Room and talking for about an hour we wandered downstairs to find out what was going on with lunch. We happen to run into two of the women I eat lunch with and Mr. Byeon. They suggested we all go out to eat together (even though I never eat with Mr. B, I think he just wanted to talk to the new foreigner.) We went to a simple restaurant where they tried to suggest pork katsu and tempura to here, to which Liz and I exchanged glances, as this is Japanese food, but Korean's will try to tell you it is Korean. We ended up with a noodle dish and kim bab, which is Korean. They asked her a lot of difficult and nervewraking questions like, how do Japanese and Korean students compare, what do you think of Korea, etc. She managed to field them pretty well although I could see the look her face when they asked certain questions, to us it seems so bold and a little rude but to them they don't see that at all. Lunch was nice though and they did treat us.

After that Mr. Byeon was all too happy to give Liz the master tour of Sangji, just like he gave my parents. Again Liz was a great sport and had a lot of fun. We visited numerous classrooms, she met the VP and lots of other teachers and saw the high school. She was interested in the cafeteria because in Japan they don't have any, the students eat lunch in their classrooms, so we went in and ended up having tea with the super nice lunch ladies! Liz was also given a Pororo bubble blower (a popular animated character in Korea) by one student and gave her a pen in return. Every room we went in Mr. Byeon had her blow bubbles, so odd!

Around 4pm we finally went home. I never get so detailed a tour and introduction to teachers I have never met unless a visitor is here. We were tired after that so we just relaxed around my apartment until 7pm when Amber came over for dinner. We went to a near by galbi place (grilled beef) which they both loved! Amber headed home afterwards but Liz and I went to grab a drink at a local bar called Pub. Where she lives in Japan is really small so she enjoyed getting to go out, even in a casual way, with a friend. We headed home about midnight even though two very shy Korean men tried to get us to stay and drink with them.

The next day we headed back to Seoul with Amber. We wanted to see the famous Lantern Festival held in Seoul for Buddha's Birthday. We left the apartment about 10am but didn't get to our hostel where we would stay the night in Seoul until close to 3pm in the afternoon, after all the bus and subway travel. Then we headed to the Myeongdong area to eat and do a little shopping at Forever 21. We had CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) because we were craving a little western food and it was the only thing I knew for sure where it was. We enjoyed strolling around Myeongdong, it was busy as ever! And I had a very successful shopping trip.

Around 8pm we walked to the City Hall area to see the start of the parade of lanterns. Although it was crowded, it was less so than I thought it would be and we were able to get right up next to the towering 10 feet high + lanterns! They were beautiful, made out of paper and sculpted into perfection. There were huge warriors, fish, mountains, flowers... and they were all light from inside. To move them men grabbed poles on the outside and pushed them along the street. The parade was a little harder to see but it looked beautiful as well, it was huge and filled with group after group of people dressed in traditional Korean outfirst walking or dancing down the street, each carrying a different kind of hand held paper lantern.

The area was starting to get more crowded so we walked down a side street in hopes of finding the buddhist temple we had heard was at the end of the parade route, where all the lanterns would be placed. We didn't find it but ended up walking in a huge circle. It was no matter though, because the night was warm and clear and tons of people were out enjoying it. We ended up seeing the main Gyeongbokgung palace again and the statues out front of it. They were light up in the night and lhanging lanterns lined the main streets. I was all really beautiful, I wish they always stayed up.

Finally we asked some people how to get to the temple and they pointed us in the right direction. Soon we were back in the throng of people, but this time it was filled with the performers from the parade who were rushing to get on the subway and go home. We saw some foreigners with paper lanterns in their hands and asked how we could get our own. They said the performers just gave them to them. Not a minute later, an old women in traditional wear walked up to Amber and gave her a baskeball size and shaped hand made paper lantern, with a lit candle inside. Then one was handed to Liz. We kept walking and an old man gave me one shaped like a lotus flower. We were so pleased! As we kept walking though, people tried to give us more and more! Liz refused a first but she and I ended up with three each! Unfornately with so many it was hard to keep them from getting damaged with all the people bumping into me. Amber had the better idea, only keep one perfect one. It was so hard to refuse though, I could see the old women look at us, hear them utter "waygook" under their breath (foreigner) and next thing I knew they were handing us a lantern! They just wanted us to be happy and included. And we did feel that way.

After almost walking in the opposite direction of the buddhist temple once again we finally found our way after almost throwing in the towel. And we are so glad we didn't! The temple was definitely the best part. As you walked up its front entrance you were sheltered by a floating carpet of lanterns. There were thousands of them, strung together and of all different colors, bright green, red, pink, yellow, orange, all glowing with the warmth of the candle within. Theye led the way to the temple itself, where sat a large golden buddha (wish I had known about this place when my family visited!). Out front was a stage and milling around were visitors and people in traditional costumes, dancing and playing instruments! It was just breathtaking. I would have been happy to sit and stare for hours at the colorful lanters, some which made shapes in the carpet above or spelled a word.

Determined to take our lanterns back to our respective homes we boarded the subway to dump them at our hostel before going to Hongdae for some night life. We got many stares on the subway. We ended the night eating chicken and beer, a must before Liz went back to Japan.

Sunday morning we munched on Dunkin Doughnuts before saying our goodbyes. it was a nice warm, sunny day. (Soon it would rain for the next week!) It was really nice seeing Liz and hearing her talk about Japan. It brought back good memories of UCI that I really enjoyed.

Lunar New Year's in Busan

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!

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.

Yes its a ski jacket! And it changes color! 

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.

Ski monster!

That's me in action, in the center with the black pants. Watch out if you know what's good for you! 

Looking up at the bunny slope. 

Phoenix Park

He said he only fell twice.