Seasons Greetings

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, to all my friends and family back home and abroad! Christmas isn't really the same here as in US, but I was able to take a little trip to Seoul for 3 days. On the 22nd I went up to Seoul and met a Korean friend I had chatted with a few times online. She left for Canada to study a semester on Christmas day, so this was the first and perhaps only time we will meet. Anyway she was gracious enough to show me around a bit and keep good company. I went shopping for shoes and actually found some in my size!! As I wear size 14 I have problems finding the right size (as do most of my family). But there was one place that had all 14s it seemed. I tried on about 8 pairs before I found the best ones. They still didn' fit that great (no arch support) but I bought them, Steve Maddens, for about $80. The guy said this is the only store in Korea with shoes this big, and he's probably right. Nothing in Busan at all, unless I want to wear something cheap and ugly that falls apart in a few weeks. Then across the street we found a nice sweater for $15.

Next day I ran into a Canadian friend from Busan and his wife, and we strolled about for the day; feeble attempts at shopping and then some ice skating in a huge shopping mall. I'm not very good at that, but I managed to not fall at all. My friend's wife was terrified and fell once, but she mainly hung onto the wall, pretty funny. Later we met up with more of his friends, and mutual acquaintances of mine as well; one more from Busan and one from another city. We had some dinner with a few Korean people, then went to drink some traditional Korean alcohol, and then to a foreign bar (not Koreans). I was okay except for the soju at dinner, and it really hurt my stomach the whole next day. If you ever get to drink soju, you have been forewarned! Its cheap and not well diluted.

Sunday I came back to Busan and just relaxed much of the day and night. On Christmas day I met a Korean girl (not gf, just a date, so far) and we saw the new 007. In my opinion, it was a nice change, but also a bit dragged out during the lovey-dovey part. I liked the fact that there were few cheeky lines and this guy was more aggressive; interesting to see how the next one goes, because his accent at the very end changed to sound more like the other Bonds.

All in all I didn't feel homesick, had a good time with friends, and got a few days away from Busan; but Seoul was a madhouse of people! Hope you all enjoy your holiday season, keep those happy thoughts coming :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!!; Japan

Well, the holiday came and went here in Busan, not much to talk about. I did go out to eat with some friends at a place called Seamen's club. Its basically a diner type place, with Koreans working there who generally speak good English. It looks like a stuffy '50s restaurant, and the food was mediocre, but it was nice to eat turkey, and see some familiar faces.

Also I included some pics from a trip to Japan. Compared to Korea, Japan is much cleaner, and more expensive. People dress nicer and are actually smaller than Koreans. I wasn't in a big city (Fukuoka, approx. 1.5 million ppl) but it was a nice city. I actually had to go 3 times, 2 more than expected. Why so many times, and why go there? I had to go for my work visa, so I don't get deported or get caught working illegally. Anyway, I basically didn't realize all of what I had to do to make things work efficiently. First time there I missed my boat back by like 10 minutes, because a taxt dropped me off at the wrong ferry terminal (I take the boat there: 3 hrs, $90) Second time I didn't make it to the Korean consulate on time, so I had to stay the night anyway, and they make you wait a day for the visa. Couple years ago it used to be you could get it done in one day. All it is is fill out a form, have a small picture. Boring stuff. So, my second trip I couldn't find a hotel room, because there was some kind of conference in town. So I went to over 20 hotels trying to find a room, walked the streets all night and tried to take a nap on a cold concrete bench. Not the best night, but it could've been worse.

Third time was the trick! Got the paperwork done, went out to a few bars, stayed in a nice hotel (in the pics) and did everything on time. And I dont plan on going back anytime soon! But I think I'll try to plan a trip next spring to another country around here, since I'm close. And my friend John pushes me to do these things because its a good experience. So we'll see how that pans out. Enjoy the holiday shopping!!

My apartment, weather

Hello, all! I finally got my apartment situated with all the furniture I need; didn't have a dresser for over 2 months, just a huge hockey bag in the corner full of clothes. So now that I got the dresser I decided to take some pictures. It's really an improvement over my first apartment here. Location is way better, lots of daylight, better insulation (no more freezing showers in the winter!) and 8th floor view. Its hard to get good pictures withe my camera because norman mode is zoomed in already, so I did the best I could. Hope you get an idea.

Also wanted to talk about the weather here. Since about September, its rained maybe 5 times total, so its been really nice for the most part. Occasionally windy, but generally sunny and always comfortable temps. Just in the last week its started to get a bit cold as winter approaches. I've enjoyed riding my bike in this weather. One weekend a friend and I took our bikes to the northern part of the city, just to go for a ride and have lunch, enjoy the weather. I can't wait until spring comes around! As for now, I'll have to get some winter gear on my bike. There are big mitt type things you can put on your handlebars to cover your hands in the cold, apparently about $20. And I was told to start wearing long-johns under my jeans. Anyway, I should be prepared by that time.

The bike is running well; a good investment. Classes are going well, too. I've learned a lot about dealing with kids during my time here, like how important it is to have a reward system in place to motivate them to do their work. Otherwise they just run around and hit each other! Its not always easy, but I no longer get as stressed about things. I think there's another blog coming soon...

New bike, N.Korea

Well here are pics of my bike that I'm driving these days. Its a Daelim Magma, year 1997! Yea, its old, but this bike looks like many parts were replaced and maybe even the bike was repainted, or just garaged all the time. Anyway, it doesn't snow in Busan, so I can ride this bike all year round, depending on rain. Its a 125cc, so no worries about popping wheelies on this beast. Its adequate for city traffic, which is great, and I always cut between cars and buses, at stoplights. A real time saver. Don't have a pic of me on it, but remember, its built for Koreans, so I do look a bit large for the bike. But such a nice item to own. Yea, Joe, I'm thinking about getting a bike when I move back as well. Then we can drive around, have some high speed fun (I drive safe, mom :-)

As for that N.Korea stuff, I think I remember seeing some stuff on the news one night, but also I don't really speak Korean. So I have no idea how much people here are talking about it. And I don't have a TV now either. But life goes on as usual in this big city. No things out of the ordinary, and I really didn't ask any of my korean friends. I do know that there is opposition to an FTA bill getting signed. This could put a lot of farmers out of work, as I was hearing from one korean friend. Would really drive down the cost of rice, and force a lot of change among the agricultural sector. But I don't know enough of the details to fully speculate on that topic. Almost settled in with my full time work, one more trip to Japan coming up. Maybe I'll take some more pics there, but not too much to see in Fukuoka. Until next time!!

My new place

I heard my blog wasn't working; I think, if I don't post for over a month, maybe it just stops? Anyway, I'm mostly settled into my new place. I only have outdoor pics this time, but its much better than my first place. I live on the 8th floor. Its on a busy street, but the windows keep it very quiet, which is nice. And I can see the sky! Wow, what a difference! So now I have a plant sitting on my window sill and its growing well. These things make me happy: sunlight and plants.

So I did purchase a bike, but its turned out to be a lemon, can barely get above 50km/h, or about 30mph. It started out better, but has gone downhill quickly. After taking it to a mechanic whom a friend recommended, apparently 3rd gear just doesn't work, and there is a problem with the head valve. Lesson learned, and not too expensive; I paid about $500. So these same mechanics helped me find a better bike, same model. I took it for a test drive; like night and day. The new bike is quiet and much faster, and higher top end. So probably next month I'll get that one, and swap parts from the old one, for the best of both bikes. I'll have a pic of the better bike later.

Its been a slow month workwise, filling in for a friend a few jobs. But already have teaching stuff lined up for next month, i.e. next week. Thanks family for worrying about me, I love you too! Threw in a few pics of Busan, from the north side. Yesterday a friend and I took a cable car up to the mountaintop, and a picture of Gwangan bridge. Enjoy!

Recentries

No pics this time, sorry. Just want to catch you guys up on some news. My current contract ends next week, at which time I will move into my new apartment! Its much nicer than my current one, I think. Its a bit closer to the beach as well, but pretty far from where I am now. I'll show pics later. Also I will stay at my current hagwon another week to help out until the next teacher comes, and since my contract expires my pay scale will change as well (go up). I have a morning kindergarten job lined up for at least a month, starting the first week of September. My visa was extended until Sept 26, so I have some time to find another hagwon which will sponsor my visa. I will have to make a visa run, destination unknown thus far. Also looking to get a motorcycle for more convenient transport. And for fun, I entered a fantasy football league with 9 other guys here. I'm not big on football these days, but this will help me get back into it, and keep up on the Lions (even though they usually let us all down). I may also set up a Kodak acct online, where I can post a bunch of pictures, but you can't leave comments. If I do I'll leave an http address on this site. Thats all for now, more to come!

Stupid Blogger

I've heard from a few people that my blog site is not showing up, so I hope this post actually is viewable. Everything is going fine for me here. I will stay another year, in Busan. Planning to move into the same building as one of my friends, so that will be nice. The rainy season, which lasted almost 2 months of June and July, has finally finished, making way for some beautiful weather. Also I had a mini vacation these past few days, so I've ben going to the beach and getting some sun. Thats one of the nice things that keeps me here in Busan - the beach. This next month its going to get hot and very humid, so its nice to have that option. Up in Seoul, it gets even hotter and more humid; I would probably be sweating the second I walked out the door. Humidity here is close to 100% on some days.

Anyway I don't have any new pics to post right now, but maybe I can get some more of the beaches, and me sitting around with my friends or something. In the meantime, keep sending emails and don't forget about me!!

Happy 4th July!!!

There was no celebration here in ol' Busan, for the birth of the United States. But my friend and I got together for some pizza and beer, and me doing a recording for one of her classes! Woot!! In other news, most of my pics come from a few weeks ago, when I went back to Beomeosa with a friend, to do a thorough job hiking the mountain. It was a great day. I started out sweating like an old man until we made it to the summit, then the clouds rolled in and cooled me off. My hiking partner barely broke a sweat. I guess I'm getting back into American form (i.e. kinda fat in the midsection).

On another ridge we found some guys para-gliding. I've never seen that in person before, so it seemed so cool to me. They gave me a business card, in English, so we'll see what happens with that. On the job front, I do plan to stay here another year, but I am debating whether to stick around here in Busan or try another area. Obviously I already know Busan well, and have many friends here. I will let ya know what happens with that. In the meantime, France v. Italy!!!

World Cup Fever

I know the World Cup is not really a big deal in US, but Koreans are fanatics about it! Ever since 2002, when they hosted the event, they get into a high-pitch fever about it. Randomly in class, kids will chant for Korea. The chant is "Day Han Mean Gook! clap clap! clap clap! clap!" Everyone knows it, and it didn't take me long to learn it. All the kids are wearing red shirts, supporting their team. Even businesses make their employees all wear the same shirt on certain days.

So Tuesday I went to see their first game against Togo. Korea eventually won 2-1. At the bar, at least half the people had red shirts on, including our group. They must've done the daehan mingoook cheer over 100 times during the game. At the end, the people went crazy! Our group went outside to see the streets filled with people, all in red shirts, some with red light-up horns on their heads. No cars could get past, they had to turn around. People were climbing up on telephone booths and subway entrance tunnels. Police arrived eventually, but they didn't need to do much, because Koreans are so well behaved. They just gently direct the crowds and the people know well enough. No fires, no tipping cars, no vandalism; just loud people filling the streets. Very interesting to watch; I doubt such a scene could happen back home. Any large gatherings I was witness to back in college ended in huge fires in the middle of the road, burning cars and furniture, and tear gas and riot police... Go Broncos!!!

Hapkido

Well, for whatever reason, I decided to start taking Hapkido, which is a Korean martial art. Maybe because I wanted some kind of exercise for everyday, or maybe because one of my best friends does it and she loves talking about it; either way, I had a coworker help me find a place to train. Found one about a 10 minute walk from my apartment. I'll get some pics of the place and my uniform sooner or later.

I am the only foreigner at this place (no surprise there) and I think I am getting preferential treatment. The main instructor, who is a 4th degree black belt (4th dan, or sa dan in Korean) can speak a bit of English, enough to help me. But we also rely on a lot of nonverbal - him showing the moves and what makes it effective. I think he is a really good teacher, and perhaps I am also a good learner at this point. In the class there are a few 3rd degree black belts, maybe 1 or 2 1st degree, a yellow and 2 other white belts besides me. Interesting point: the newest white belt is actually one of my students from school. He is 13 I think, so he likes to just run around and play a lot.

The school accepts everyone in with open arms. As part of breaking the ice and building a strong unit, we all went out for dinner after class one evening. We had sam gyoup sal (fried pork) and soju (Korean version of Saki, very very cheap, probably poisonous). After 1 1/2 hours of eating and drinking we went to a noraebang (karaoke in Japanese, literally means singing room). At first I was not very willing to sing songs, but after watching one of my other foreign friends go all out, I realized that its the most fun when you really get into it. I can't remember all the songs I sang, but we had a great time. I had to cheers with everyone several times, so I was pretty drunk. Thankfully, this all took place within walking distance of my apartment.

I can go to the class every night, after teaching finishes. I am usually able to go 3-4 nights a week, and even have the option of going in on Saturdays, which is nice. Its good to have a hobby, otherwise life becomes pretty boring here. And I don't want to be like some foreigners here who just drink all the time. I also started going to the beach recently and playing volleyball with another group of foreigners, so I'm finding things for fun and social activity. Maybe I'll post some pics of them next time!

Children's Day/Auto Show

Friday, May 5th was Cinco de Mayo, Buddha's Birthday, Children's Day, and a day off for me! Children's day is where adults buy gifts for their kids and they get the day off. In fact, most people get the day off, to spend family time. The irony is that some schools, since they had Friday off, made their students come in on Saturday :-( But not our hagwon :-) So I took this opportunity to go the Busan International Motor Show (BIMOS) at Bexco Center in Haeundae, the up and coming area of Busan; lots of money in that area.

From the pictures you can tell that the Korean auto show is much more sexy than, for instance, most western auto shows. When compared to NAIAS in Detroit, BIMOS puts much more emphasis on the women. And that made it very fun for me and my budd John. Contrary to my normal interest in new cars, I didn't sit in a single car. John and I spent our time taking pics of as many girls as we could (that were worth taking pictures of) and posing with a few as well. I took about 100 pics, but had to delete some due to unfocused images. Later that night I went to a bar that kinda celebrated Cinco de Mayo, even though there are no hispanics in Busan. Just an excuse for a cover charged, theme night, and sell tequila and Coronas (which are more expensive here than Budweiser). Saturday night saw more of the same, and Sunday night I went out with a group of friends, one of which had her sister and her husband visiting in town for a few days. So we played some drinking games and went to a singing room, which I am very good at signing, it appears, on a good night. All in all a long weekend full of interesting experiences and much alcohol. Its like being in college again, but less responsibility! (j/k kinda)

Gyeongju tashi kaja

Means lets go to Gyeongju again, and I did! So much better this time around, as you can see from the pics. A few of my friends chickened out at the last minute, so it was just me and a coworker. Everyone else had the same idea, though, so we were stuck in traffic for almost an hour on the way in! But once we got into the city area it was easy going. Apparently there is another city southwest of Busan which has even more cherry blossom trees, but my coworker said that place would be way too packed with people.

Another funny thing that I forgot about, but which my coworker (Katy - she's Korean) noticed, was all the people staring at me. I've learned to turn that off for the most part, as I was paying attention to the surroundings. But once she mentioned that, I started looking at people and so many would be staring at me, and staring at her wondering what she was doing walking around with me lol! Its not that they are rude, they just do not see many foreigners, so they get a good look when they can. And I didn't see any other foreigners while I was in Gyeongju that day.

On the way out, traffic was a breeze. This was about 3 or 4pm. The inbound lane was backed up a few miles! Then again its only 2 lanes each way. OK, I'm rambling so just look at the pics :-)

Gyeonju

Last weekend I went with a fellow teacher and her family to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of South Korea. Of course there are the major temple and buddhas to be seen there, but the real attraction in the spring is the cherry blossom trees. For about a month ( April) all the blossoms are in bloom, and the streets are lined with the trees full of white flowers. In fact, so is much of the lake in the area.

Unfortunately we went there too early, and there were no cherry trees in bloom. The weather was a bit chilly also, but that didn't stop my teacher and her family from showing me some of the local attractions. From what I understand, almost all Korean students take a field trip to see this ancient capital city at least once during their scholastic career, usually at a younger age. It is amazing to realize that tha dated history of this area goes back to the 8th and 9th centuries. Korea has a rich cultural heritage which I didn't really expect, because its such a small country. I checked out Wikipedia online for more information. We didn't see all the ancient landmarks, such as burial mounds and the Buddha on the mountainside, but I took a few pics of some interesting things. I may go back later with some friends to see the trees next month. If so, I'll post more pics.

Beomeosa

Last weekend I went with a few friends to the North end of Busan. I live on the south end, so by bus and subway it took about 1h 30min to get there. There was me, my friend John, his girlfriend, and 3 other girls. Beomeosa (Bo mo sah) is a temple in Busan. People can do temple-stays if they want, for a nominal fee. I didn't see any monks while we were there, though.

I took a pic of a couple big statues. After I did, I felt this might have been offensive, as everyone else who walked by them placed their hands together and bowed. Oops! But I kept the pic anyway. We only hiked for about 1 1/2 hrs because it became a bit cold, and we were kinda lazy. Someday I will go back and actually hike the whole mountain, and see some nice sights, weather pending.

I had a pic of the place where I live, but I lost it. You can only see the first 2 stories, then there are another 13 floors in the same building, but separated. This is a common structure in Korean buildings, to have the first 2-5 floors for businesses or apartments, then floors 6 through whatever are just apartments. Its different but can be a benefit, like having a party shop on the first floor of your building. Teaching continues in the same fashion.