another saturday in busan

i went into busan again yesterday to meet up with Kat. our friend Angela who lives in Tongyeong (further south than us, near the ocean) also came in... we only met up at five so i didn't have much time with them since i wanted to come back to gimhae. we walked around what is known as Foreigners Street for a while. it's a really strange area. it was originally named for foreigners because many US soldiers would hang out there during the Korean war. over the decades it has evolved and is now known as a sort of chinatown. i didn't take enought pictures! sorry, i'll go back and really shoot it up... anyway, though it is known as chinatown now, it is mostly occupied by russian foreigners. there are phillipino restaurants, russion shops, chinese restaurants and lots of other little stores and restaurants. it wasn't very happening at 5 pm on saturday so we decided to suss out something more fun. but before we left the area we went for dinner at a korean barbecue buffet. this was one of the most interesting restaurants that i've been to in korea.

in every table there is a grill and you go to the buffet and pile up on all kinds of meat: chicken, pork, beef, duck, and squid. you bring it back to your table and cook it yourself. there are a bunch of side dishes - pickles (which are nothing like the kind you know - they pickle everything here, we had some kind of white vegetable, not sure what it was, but it was tasty), a sort of kimchi (not cabbage, something else, again, language makes it virtually impossible to know what you're eating), garlic, onions, hot sauce, sesame seed oil, soy sauce, apple salad (very popular here, it's apples mixed with mayonnaise - a little weird, but ok...) anyway, we ate a feast and checked out our maps to decide where to go next - Gwangalli beach.

here's a photo of Gwangan bridge - no tripod makes for difficult photo taking at night. i have to get one asap... (didn't bring mine - it was too heavy). anyway, Gwangan bridge is the country's longest marine bridge at 7.42 km's. it combined a central suspension bridge with a duplex carriageway, each level has four lanes... haven't crossed it yet, but i will! if you check out last weeks' post on busan, you can see it from the other side in the day... since it runs from near Haeundae beach, which is where we went last week. after walking on Gwangalli beach for a bit, we went to a restaurant/bar for a drink - 17 floors up - in a building by the water. i had to leave early for my hour and a half trek back to gimhae, so i left at 10. i still don't know what time the last bus leaves the subway at, so i didn't want to chance missing it. i actually made it home in record time only and hour and fifteen minutes! call me lame for leaving early, but i have a cold and didn't feel like spending the night on the floor of a bath house - which is what the girls were planning on doing. this is one of the cheapest ways to stay overnight somewhere. it only costs about 7-8,000 won (about 7-8$ cad) but again, you sleep on the floor. this is a picture of a sign for a bath house/motel. if you read it in korean it says "shiti motel" - had to take a picture of that, especially since the sign for bathouse looks like a steaming pile of dog poop! i just couldn't resist. hope you enjoyed this installment... please leave comments, email me, or just keep in touch in general... it's nice to know that i'm not writing this all for nobody... and that i actually have a few readers out there. stay tuned for more adventures - this week is chuseok and i'll be away in Ulsan for a few days and then Kat is coming to Gimhae and then we're off to Jinju for the annual lantern festival (more reason to find a tripod)... so this should be a good week for posting if i find the time.

i'm a millionaire!

in korean won anyway. i've FINALLY been paid!!! i still have no faith in the korean banking system... or the board of education... if this happens again, i'll have to bring out the "big guns" - not sure what those are yet, but i'll figure it out. technically this whole thing has been a breach of my contract, so if it happens again next month i'll have to do something. anyway, i'm happy now and hopefully will be able to transfer money to my canadian account in time for payments to all of my "obligations". i'm off to busan again today - meeting up with kat and our friend angela who is coming from somewhere in the west of the province - a two hour intercity bus ride. hope we can actually find each other, i need a cell phone. that's next on the list. hopefully this week... though it is chuseok, so i don't know what will be open and what will be closed and i will be out of the city for a few days, but i'll keep hoping that i can get around to it.

yay! money! ;)

home sweet home

i was waiting to post pictures of my apartment until i felt it was ready, but i don't know how long that's going to be... so here it is. i tidied up and put everything away - as best i can with no shelves... and took these videos with my little point and shoot... no sound, but it's not really needed anyway.



and since you can't see the bathroom, thought i'd shoot a separate one of that for you... it's also known as my shower.



ahh... my home for the next eleven months... i lucked out with the size of my place, kat's apartment is smaller but she has more furniture. the other places i saw were about half the size of this one.

argh

i'm really pissed off right now because i still haven't been paid. i was supposed to get it monday (the 25th) and now it's friday, the banks are closed... that means waiting until monday and if they don't get it together by then, then it'll be another week because next week is the holiday of chuseok (pronounced: chewsock) which means everything is closed tuesday to monday. it's nice to have a week off, but if i don't have any money it won't be a very nice holiday... argh. i'm really angry, but there's nothing i can do and no one to freak out on. i WASN'T expecting this from the board of education... maybe from a private academy - that's where you usually hear about things like this happening - that's why i got a job with the government, so i wouldn't have to worry about shit like this. maybe i'll go in on monday and tell them i'm going home until i get paid. and they don't see it as such a big problem, like it's okay to wait, "hey, it's the first time, we need to work out the kinks" - what's so hard about tranferring money to my account? apparently korean banking is more screwed than i thought it was. now i don't know if i'll have money in my accounts in canada to cover the bills that come out automatically... then what am i supposed to do? can't wait to have to call the bank in canada and sit on hold forever... argh... today couldn't be any worse.

random bits and pieces

just posting some random photos that i've taken along the way that never made the cut before but that are kind of neat. can you tell i'm bored? just you try watching korean tv for longer than 30 seconds!!! and hey, there's only so much discovery channel that one can watch!!!

i tried to figure out what this was for - i know, it looks like a bookcase - but i never figured out what it's really for. it was just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk in gimhae. it looked like something you might keep salt in (to salt the roads in winter) but i don't think they do that here. then i thought it could be some kind of electricity transformer, but since i don't speak korean i couldn't ask any passerby's... it does look cool though.

"be careful about stairs" you never know when they'll attack!! i couldn't resist snapping this at the busan tower last weekend... and since i'm the clutz that i am, it's a good thing they had a sign for me! hahaha... one of the best things about korea is being able to laugh about all the really bad english everywhere... i'll post more as i get them.

more bad english. this is on the back of a van that is often parked a few blocks from my house. i'm assuming they're trying to say "if she's rockin' don't come a knockin'" but who knows!

you know how they say that everything in asia gets turned into a cartoon, well, in korea, every city has a sort of mascot which is always a cartoon. this is the gimhae turtle - these little signs are posted ALL over the place.

this is one collection of old boxes (they are also all over the place). this one is right across the street from my school and is one of the smaller ones i've seen. old people are always hanging around these things, like homeless people collecting cans in montreal, old people here collect old boxes. i should find out why they do it. i keep imagining that they get paid for it somehow... but the boxes never get picked up, they're always there... i'll let you know.

"Hot and Ice" a vending machine in the busan subway. more funny english. it actually surprises me that so many things are written in english here when so few actually speak it.

i missed the textbook musuem :( how sad. it was located near KNUE where i had my orientation, i suppose i could make a special trip back, but i don't think i ever will... what will they think of next? the musuem of pencils? (it probably exists somewhere)

BOWLER HAT CROSSING - SLOW - this is in gimhae... i know, i know, that's a speed bump, but really, it does look like a bowler hat...

that's it for now folks. hope you enjoyed this installment. there will be more coming... especially since tomorrow i have no classes (there are exams all day) but have to sit at my desk all day - reminiscent of my TD days... sitting and doing nothing. i think i'll study some korean and surf the net a bit, so send me emails, comments, cheesy forwards, links to cook websites, anything to help me pass the time! it'll be a long day... and i think i have to repeat it on monday. keep your fingers crossed that i get paid tomorrow... since i still haven't. it was supposed to be done today so should actually be in my account tomorrow... pray for me!

korean text book dialogue.

this is why i'm here... these are just two examples of the dialogues that students practice in class. i am forced by my co-teacher to use these in a few of my classes. they're just so un-natural, don't you think? worth a good chuckle at the least.

A: Hello, can I talk to Mr. Brown?
B: You’ve got the wrong number.
A: I’m sure this is the correct number. Mr. Charlie Brown doesn’t live there?
B: Oh, you mean Charlie Brown?
A: Yes. May I speak to him?
B: This is he. Who’s this?
A: This is Marcie.
B: Oh, come on, Marcie. What’s up?
A: Did you do your homework?
B: I’m doing it now. It’s very easy.
A: It can’t be. It’s difficult even for me!


A: Excuse me, do you know how to use this machine?
B: Sure. First you should put your card here.
A: All right. And then what do I do?
B: Then you enter your pin number and the amount you want. It’s easy isn’t it?
A: Yes. This is the first time I’ve used it.
B: How do you like the machine?
A: I like it a lot! Thank you for teaching me.
B: You’re very welcome.

King Suro's Tomb

This is the hottest thing to do in Gimhae - sadly. well, it's in all the tourist brochures anyway. it's more like a big park than a national monument. it is "historical relic no. 73. according to legend, King Suro originally came down from heaven to Gujibong and founded the kingdom of Garak. he died at the age of 158 in the year 199. this earth mound is believed to be his tomb. it measures 22 meters in diameter and is six meters high. there are tombstones and statues erected around it - from various centuries and kings - see pics below. "in spring and fall, sacrificial rites are held at the Seungseonjeon Shrine, which houses the tablets of suro king and his wife. this event has been designated as gyeongnam intangible cultural property No. 11." i got that straight off the wall at the tomb.

like i said it's like a big park, with these building in the middle. i went on sunday afternoon and the place was full of picnickers and families. it was actually very lovely. here are the pics. this weekend i'm going to his wife's tomb. did i mention these are in "downtown" gimhae? not that there aren't shops and restaurants... i'll have to get a map of the city scanned into the computer somehow so that you can see how it's all set up... i can't find a good one online. anyway, enjoy the pics... it's something like a small version of mount royal, without the mountain...

i'm an alien!

it's official! i'm an alien - fully registered and legal. it's about time! after leaving my passport with the authorities two weeks ago, i got it back along with my alien registration card. it's my korean identity card and i need one to get a mobile phone... which will hopefully be happening this week... just waiting for my pay... which was supposed to be in my bank account yesterday. i'm assuming it isn't there because they probably forgot about me. korean teachers all get paid on the 17th, so i'm the only one in my school who was getting moola yesterday, and it probably just slipped their mind... i hope so anyway. i'm gong to have to ask tomorrow when i go in. it has been over a month since i was paid and things are tight... anyway, at least i'm legal now (maybe that's what they were waiting for?...) and i can safely walk down the street without worrying about being stopped. yes, i've heard of this happening here, random checks in the streets... what is this communist russia?!?!?! it isn't but they can still stop you at any moment and ask for your card. it's a big weight off my shoulders... hoorah!

as promised... pictures

the outdoor "mall" in ulsan. this is where i saw oh-so-many foriegners...


the eternal hunt for nachos did not end at the WA bar... as you can see, these aren't really nachos, and when we asked for salsa they brought us cheese sauce... they weren't very good... but i did manage to find some in busan... next post.


these are the million and one bottles that they had at the WA Bar... kind of neat.


kat with beer and nachos.


me and chris - the new guy in ulsan.


me and my pint... it was already about 2 am when we got this... i should have declined...


our new korean friends who insisted on taking photos with us and tellng us we were beautiful... oh no, there goes the ego again!!!!

Busan on a saturday.

so after leaving Kat's apartment in Ulsan on saturday afternoon, we made the trek into busan - about two hours. when we got to the subway we met some other foreigners, one of which, as it turned out, lives in gimhae! so i have a new contact in my city, which is nice. i just need to get a phone now. anyway, one of the two guys, Ryan, came along with us to Haeundae Beach... we just wanted to check it out since we had heard that it is the nicest beach on mainland Korea. it was nice... i was wearing jeans and running shoes and didn't feel like taking them off (could have something to do with the pints the night before) so i just walked along the length of it taking pictures. Kat was more adventurous than me, though, and actually stood in the water... i missed the shot of her getting splashed by a wave, but it was funny to watch anyway. next time we go to the beach we're going to check out the aquarium, which is supposedly one of the biggest in asia. it was a little too expensive for us yesterday since we're getting our first paychecks on monday... but we also want to check out the "swim with sharks" tour they've got... more on that when i have it. so we walked along the beach for a while, and saw some greenery (trees and stuff) at one end and decided to check it out. here are some photos from the park that we walked through:







after the beach Ryan told us that we should check out the "busan tower" - so we did... it's sort of like a smaller version of the CN tower. it was more or less like every other tower that i've seen, touristy and not very exciting... of course there was a nice view from the top, but i felt a little vertigo... it seemed like the floors at the top were crooked and slanting towards the windows, so it felt like you could fall out at any moment. it was all right, but i don't really like heights that much, but it was ok.







it gives you an idea of how big Busan is... the other 3/4's of it lay beyond the mountains you see... in other words, it's huge. after the tower, we headed to o'briens bar, in search of the elusive nachos... i had heard somewhere that they have real nachos with cheese and salsa and sour cream (which is almost impossible to find here - i think they ship it in). sorry i didn't take any photos of the place, i probably should have, but i was so tired by the time i got there all i wanted were these:

i was so happy to see real salsa that i could have cried. i told the owner that i loved him, they were really good... tasted just like nachos anywhere in montreal, at least now i know where to get some. next time i go i'm bringing a tupperware with me and i'm gonig to buy some salsa from them! the bar was nice, they had stella artois on tap, and even had some real molson canadian (which i don't like, but was neat to see) next time i go i'll take some pictures of the place. they have a bout 6-7 booths and each one represents a foreign country - naturally we sat in the canada booth. i contributed a montreal metro ticket to the display... we'll see if it's still there next time i go.

two of our EPIK friends met up with us there and after a couple of beers, i headed back to their place (a half-hour walk from the bar) and kat went back to ulsan... it was great to spend the weekend with some english speakers and to get out of gimhae for a day or two... all in all, an ace weekend. stay tuned for more adventures...

a quickie... or not...

i've got a few minutes and nothing to do while i wait for katrina to get ready. she's my friend who lives in Ulsan, which is north of Busan (i'm to the west) i arrived here last night and met her at the bus station around 7:30. i've been starved for foreigners and she told me there are tons of them here, so i figured i'd check it our for myself... and she was right! i haven't seen so many since i left orientation - it was kind of weird actually... at first i was dazed by it and couldn't stop staring at all the white people - i've only seen one in my neighbourhood and he more or less ran the other way (am i THAT scary looking??). so it was definitely different to be seeing them on the street. i know i'm talking about them as if they were something odd, but it really is a strange sight for me.

we proceeded to go for dinner - we had tak galbi, which you might remember from a previous post. i asked for "less hot" and it was really tasty. then we went to "holly's cafe" for some iced coffee and some of the best cheesecake that i've EVER had! that's where the foreigners started appearing... just walking down the street... very strange. some russians tried talking to us, but neither of us speak russian, so that was a bust. none of the english speaker came anywhere near us, let alone talk to us.

i wanted to check out an ex-pat bar - since we don't have one in gimhae (that i know of), so we went to MacKenzies. i was imagining an irish pub style place, but when we walked in the door it wasn't a "western" - in the sense of american western - bar, it was a "western" in the sense of cowboys bar... kind of funny... but the staff didn't speak any english and the place was empty, so we left.

we proceeded to look for Benchwarmers - a 'western' sports bar - and after getting incredibly lost and wandering around for way too long, we finally found it! there were english speakers and white people, some germans and a couple of Koreans. oddly enough, none of the english speakers really talked to us, the germans were really nice and hung out with us off and on and there was one korean who sat with us. it was a little annoying since we get together so that we. don't. have. to. speak. super. slowly. like. we. do. at. school. but it was all right. kind of funny too.

at one point in the evening the korean pointed at his chest and cupped his hands to imitate the shape of a breast, then said "Korean women small breast." while pushing his hands down to show a flat chest, then while pushing his hands back out said "american and canadian and british and australian women large breast." i was blown away... but it does get better... then he pointed at Katrina and said "silicone?" !!!!!!!!!!!!! it was incredible! i almost fell off my chair! that is just one example of the way Koreans don't have any qualms about asking extremely personal questions only minutes after meeting you. it was hilarious at any rate. i must note here that kat's boobs aren't ginormous (super huge) she's an average canadian girl... a little bigger than mine.

anyway, the evening was really nice, i should probably say night, since we left at about 1 am... we hopped into a taxi and headed to the north of the city and kat's neighbourhood. she wanted to take me to the WA Bar near her house for last call. it was a really nice place with huge pints - i'll post some pics when i get home. anyway, the table of korean university students sitting next to us "loved" us. they kept talking to us and taking pictures with us... it really is an ego-inflating country... everyone is always saying "i love you", "you're beautiful", "you pretty girl"... at this rate, i'll have a head the size of montreal by the time i get home!!! it was nice though... they make me laugh.

later on (around 2:30, another foreigner (the only one in the WA Bar) just walked up to us. he looked a little lost and scared, so i invited him to sit with us. his name is chris and he arrived about 2 and a half weeks ago... we works at a hakwon in kat's neighbourhood, so at least she has a new friend... i think he was really happy to see us. we're supposed to see him today, but the cell phone number he gave us is wrong, so who knows... anyway, got in at around 4 am and slept until 10, now we're off to busan for the day to check out the 'biennale' should be a good time... tonight we're headed to O'Briens, an ex-pat bar in busan... hopefully to stay over with a friend there... stay tuned for more!

oh ya! had some korean nachos last night... more on them next time!

lucky (?) bus number seven

so after work today i decided to explore Gimhae a little bit... how did i plan on it? well, i just got on a bus and went where it took me... unfortunately i got on the wrong bus... number seven... had i gotten on the eight or the one or two my ride would have been about ten minutes but since i got on the lucky number seven it took 45 minutes! oh well, that's part of the experience and a little funny actually... so i ended up in what i think was "downtown gimhae" - a very nice area with expensive shops and lots of restaurants...

i did walk further "out" of the main area and found a lovely little river with a cool bridge going over it - not to mention the smaller 'stone bridge' right next to it, and couldn't resist going across it.











of course, i was hungry since it was way past dinner time so i stopped at a little stand (where other people were eating) and got some chicken on a stick... they also had fries on a stick (wish i knew how they kept them together like that) but thought they were a bit too odd looking and the chicken was greasy enough.








and i couldn't resist taking a pic of this shop selling all kinds of herbs and what appear to be sticks but must be spices or herbs or something, i thought it looked very "korean"...