Busantown

School has been busy lately, hence the lack of blog activity. I just finished my after school classes so now I will have more free time. I uploaded pictures of a few adventures around Busan -


Lotte Giants games - the most popular sports team in Busan, and probably second in the whole country behind the national soccer team. The fans are great - they cheer for runs, hits, strikeouts, walks, foul balls - pretty much everything, and they go for 3 hours straight. It is a sight to see 30,000 people all tying orange plastic bags to their heads for the last inning.

Dr. Fish - this little cafe is one of the last ones in Busan. Though its popularity has died out in recent years, you can still find a few places that let you stick you foot into a tank of small fish as they nibble off any dead skin you have. I mostly tickled and it was hard to notice any difference afterward, but still a fun experience.

The Ballerina and the B-Boy - a very good play I saw about a ballerina who falls in love with a break dancer. It was actually more of a dance show as there weren't any lines. The break dancers were awesome! After the show, the announcer said something in Korean, told everyone to close their eyes, and when we opened them, the whole crowd was pointing at us (I assume he said pick someone you want to see dance on stage). So me and my friend Kyle got to show our moves in front of everyone. Check out the video.

Sand Festival - this annual festival is held on Haeundae beach and has many events, ranging from a volleyball tournament to a sand museum to a fashion show, and of course, the sand castle building competition. We spent all day on the beach enjoying it and even tried building our own sand creature.

World Cup - always fun, but especially awesome this time around because I am with people from all over the world. I watched the South African game with a bunch of South Africans in a pub. Then went to the soccer stadium which was full of 50,000 screaming Koreans for the Korean domination of Greece. Then stayed up late with my fellow Americans and a few Brits to watch the England USA match. For the next Korea game, I am going to watch on Haeundae beach, where they set up huge screens right on the beach and pack 100,000 people in the cheer on the Red Devils.

all of the pictures

Deok Jeok Do

I went to Deok Jeok Do (island) last weekend with a bunch of people. It is a small, almost unihabited island off of the coast up near Incheon (close to Seoul). Culturally, there wasn't much happeining there, but there was a huge beach and we had a full day of sunny weather to enjoy. Other than playing some beach volleyball, soccer, and swimming, we took a hike on the cliffs right by the shore, went to the local noraebang (karaoke room), and dined on makeshift s'mores and western breakfast for the first time in Korea.


Deok Jeok Do

Seoul

I finally got around to visiting Seoul last weekend. It was a good trip, although very busy. I took the KTX high speed train, which gets you across Korea in under 3 hours (normally a 6 hour drive).


Almost nothing historic in the city is an original. Most palaces, gates, and temples have been destroyed and rebuilt at least once by various Japanese invasions or the Korean War. My favorite parts of the trip were the palaces and Seoul Tower. I also went to a few cool markets. Definitely will go back at some point.

pictures up----->>>

Teacher's Day

May 15th is teacher's day in Korea. My principle gave me a present this year - flower scented body lotion. I will feel so manly wearing it's scent to school tomorrow.

Gyeongju 2

We got last Wednesday off for Childrens' Day so I took a trip to Gyeongju. I had already gone a month ago but didn't get to see few of the famous sights there.

The first place I went was Bulguksa Temple, one of the first and most famous Buddhist temples in Korea. It is known for its stone carvings, stairways, and pagodas. Just up the mountain from Bulguksa is the Seokguram grotto, built around the same time. Seokguram is a man made "cave temple" dug out of the mountainside. Inside it contains what is considered the best Buddhist carvings in Korea, and the main stone Buddha in the center could be the best example in the world. As with all Buddhist temples, you are not allowed to take pictures, but I managed to find a good one online (it's the picture above this post).

The rest of the day I went to a few more places around the city, the best of which was Anapji pond. The pond was built as sort of a vacation home for the royal Silla family (Gyeongju was the capital of the whole kingdom for about 500 years starting in the 6th century). The buildings and pond themselves were not that impressive, but the scene as the sun was going down and the lighting of the place was awesome. Check out the pictures on picasa.

Sports Day

We had Sports Day at school last Saturday. All of the kids come and compete in a few different events in front of their parents and teachers. I was a blast and we had perfect weather.

Check out the pictures ------>

korea is dynamic

They kept telling us in orientation that Korea is dynamic. Scary how many times I find myself thinking they were so right. Here's an example:

All of the kids except 6th graders had a field trip all day, but I teach 6th graders today, so I had planned all of my classes.

Yesterday - I get told that since Wednesday there is no school (Children's Day), forget about my lesson plan and make up a fun game to play.

1st period - Kids show up and we play pictionary the whole time
2nd period - No one comes to class. My co-teacher and I ask and the 6th graders have decided to play games outside instead of attending 2nd and 3rd period. We then proceed to make bets on whether they will show up for 4th period. We spend the time eating some lunches that the teachers forgot to bring on the field trip.
4th period - No kids again. I lose the bet and now have to buy ice cream for my co-teacher.
Lunch
5th period - One of the 6th grade teachers asks me to help him use the English Center projector system. They are watching Avatar. I stay and watch for a few hours.
7th Period - Kids do not show up for my afterschool class, but at least I wasn't expecting them to. I go play ping pong with some teachers for the rest of the day.

Best day ever. The End

Dongbaek Island

Dongbaek Island is a tiny piece of land located at the end of Haeundae beach in Busan. It is not even an island anymore as a land bridge has formed over the last few hundred years. It is famous for its natural beauty, trees, views of the city, and had a few landmarks too.
The first is a statue of Choi Chi-won. He is famous because he rose from a lower social class to become advisor to the Chinese emperor. He then moved back to Korea and became an important scholar and politician. A story says that he retired from politics and began to wander the country. When he came across Dongbaek Island, he decided to build a house there, and carved Hae-un, which was one of his pen names, into the rocks. This is the origin of the name Haeundae, where I currently live.
I also visited the Nurimaru APEC house (nuri=world, maru=summit) which was the site of the 2005 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

There is also a bronze statue of a mermaid who, according to legend, was married off to a King in the area. She missed home so much that her grandmother gave her a magic jade that she could see her home through when it reflected the moonlight. The statue is of her holding the jade and looking out towards the sea.

Pictures of Dongbaek on Picasa

Yongdusan Park

Pictures up of Yongdusan Park. Yongdusan means dragon head in Korean. Apparently the hill the park is on top of resembles a dragon climbing out of the ocean. It was cloudy so the pictures aren't fantastic but the park was really nice and you could see most of the city from the top of Busan Tower.