at long last...

this weekend was another one for getting things done... things that i haven't done before. on saturday a bunch of us headed to Beomeo-sa (pr. bomo - sa is temple in korean). it is one of the largest buddhist temples in korea and i've been trying to get there since october. it was on my "to-do" list before leaving, and as with many things you always think there is so much time, but there really isn't - with only 6 weeks left til i'm home (and two of those in thailand) i'm really running low on that particular commodity.

so, we left the g-spot at around 11 am. we stopped for a korean lunch when we got into busan and then headed up the mountain. we could have taken a bus, but we all decided that we could make the 2.6 KM walk up... it wasn't too hard, some of us were huffing and puffing more than others, but we all made it up.

the weather was pretty crappy but it was my last chance (as well as d and a, who will be leaving (?) at the end of the week) to see it, so we went anyway. the clouds made the trip kind of nice actually because it wasn't too hot and they were really pretty once we were up the mountain.

the view before getting to the temple... we were in almost in the clouds.

Beomeo-sa was built in 678 AD by the Great Buddhist monk Eusang. it sits, along with 160 other temples and hermitages on the slopes of mount Geumjeong. the name translates to "Fish of the Buddhist Scripture Temple" - "beom" means the sky where a fish played and "eo" means fish. it is said that a golden-coloured fish descended, riding on a colorful cloud, from brahma-deva and played in a well on the mountain. the well never dries up and the water is the colour of gold, thus the name of the temple.

ancient 'graffiti'

on the walk up to the temple you have to pass by tombs and burial markers, as well as what is referred to (in my south korea guidebook) as ancient graffiti. names of visitors past who took the time to carve a little peice of themselves into the mountain. better than carving your name in a tree, i think.

waegooks at the "iljumun" - the first gate.
(L-R: Scott, Nate (in back), Kim, Abbey, Me - Dave is MIA and kelsey behind the lens)

the iljumun is the boundary between the mundane world and the sacred world, it is the first of three gates to enter beomeo-sa. this gate was built nearly a thousand years after the original temple sometime around 1614 AD. (most of the buildings and gates etc.. were re-built in the 17th and 18th centuries.)

one of the devas.

the second gate, or cheonwangmun, holds the four devas who stand guard. this one also had what someone called the "evil doers" though i'm not sure if that's what they are. i've never gotten a good shot of these before because they are often behind strips (or bars) of wood, so i was surprised at the clear shot i could get of these ones.

one of the "evil doers"

finally after passing through another gate, walking up some steps and around a building we were in the main temple area. this is where the 'three story pagoda' sits. it is typical of a Silla Dynasty pagoda and is believed to have been built in the 9th century.

three story pagoda

on the other side of the courtyard sits the stone lantern, which is though to have been part of the original temple built in 678.

the stone lantern

the Daewoongjeon

in the middle of the courtyard are the steps up to the main hall - or Daewoongjeon.

a monk performing a service - in the Gwaneumjeon

to the right of the main hall is another - the Gwaneumjeon - where the goddess of mercy is placed. there was a service going on while we were there, and the chanting was peaceful and sort of mesmerizing.

there are a ton of other halls at the temple, but those were the main ones that i took photos of. then we wandered around for a while, i took some 'artsy' sort of photos, so here are a couple.

nice wall...

the perfect roof shot.

"no in" - what a positive way of saying "keep out"

this is just a funny sign that we passed on our way out, i couldn't resist getting a shot. after the temple nate, kelsey, and scott decided to hike the three hours over the mountain and through the geumjeong fortress. i saw some photos and it would have been awesome to go, but i went with kim, abbey and dave to the hurshimchung spa.... more on that next time, this post is already long enough... but yes, i finally went to a bath house... stay tuned.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

i realize this is a day late... but i was in no state to be posting yesterday. i was recovering from (korean) canada day! turns out that canada day celebrations can be just as much fun when you're outside of the country.

of course, i've been in quebec for the last twenty or so, so i guess i wasn't really "in" canada! haha.

on saturday kim, brandy and i headed into busan to go to starface, where they were holding their third annual canada day party. we went out for "western" food at outback steakhouse and headed to the party. we paid our 15,000W (~17$) for our all-you-can-drink cups and started the party.

i was drinking rye and ginger all night - which was awesome because the last time i saw ginger ale was in japan, and before that was last summer when i was in canada! i didn't think that it existed in korea, but i have photographic evidence now. the bartender w/couldn't tell me where it came from, so i'll have to wait another 2 months for some more... :(

canada dry!!! woohoo! and it's even written in korean "jin jaw ale"!

me and a couple of honourary canadians.

another honourary (eileen) with her country's flag... note the lighter in one hand!

what kind of canada day would it be without some gitch?

it was a great night, much of which i'm sure is stored somewhere in the recesses of my memory... but for now i can't find that part! we ended up leaving starface as they had complaints from the neighbours and we headed to a foreigner bar called U2, where the partying continued until the wee hours of the morn.

i spent sunday glued to my bed...

hope all of you in canada had a great day!!! i know i did!

see sand, feel sand, enjoy sand

SAND! that's right, this weekend was all about sand. the haeundae sand festival was on so a bunch of waegooks headed into the big city. i made plans with kat (of the amazing adventures of kat and liz fame) and deb (a good friend from orientation i hadn't seen in 6 months) to meet for the occasion. i spent much of saturday afternoon wandering around the beach on my own as all the other waegooks headed to the baseball game... i had to meet kat an hour after the game started so i didn't go. still had a good time though wandering among the various activities on the beach.

no smoking campaign

a mermaid!

volleyball tournament

lots of kids and families playing in the water

the sun and clouds didn't really co-operate with the organizers of the festival, but it was still warm out (25ish). when the sun did show itself it was really nice, but the best part was the sand! no, seriously, i LOVE sand... the feel of it squishing between your toes... nothing beats it! well, almost nothing.

saturday night i forgot my camera at the motel, so i have no pics, but it was a good chill evening. we sat on the beach for most of the night after meeting some waegooks visiting from seoul. one of them was so drunk by 11 pm that his friends were trying to get him back to their hotel so they could go out clubbing.

this guy kept telling us that he had a hot tub in his hotel room and that he was having a hot tub party... and would we pleeeeeeeeeeease come? eventually we all ended up at a bar called U2. his friends explained to me that they just wanted to put him to bed and then go out and would i please agree to go to the hot tub party just to lure the guy back to the hotel. so we did.

the "hot tub" in question, was actually just a really big bath tub with jets in it. he kept saying you could fit 8 people in it, but i say two, maybe, three (if they were tiny koreans). it was hilarious. anyway, we got to the hotel room, and then said "oh, we have no beer! we have to go get beer!" the guy knew what was going on and kept saying "aww, they're not coming back..." i felt really sorry for the guy, but he was really drunk and it was probably for the better that he just pass out.

as we were walking down the street a few minutes later a cab zoomed by. a hand stuck out the window and i heard "thank youuuuuuuu" screamed out the window. guess the guys got to go out like they wanted.

just a totally random thing that happened. a story to tell the grand kids maybe! haha...

sunday was spent lying on the beach trying to get a tan... if only the sun and clouds would have properly participated... or maybe i just shouldn't have put on that sun block... oh well, better to be safe than get skin cancer!

all in all, a good time was had. it was great to (in no particular order): see kat and deb; eat indian food; see the sand; play with boomerangs, kites, and frisbees; meet some crazy waegooks from seoul; dip my feet in the water; see some awesome fireworks; feel the sand; sit on an office chair on the beach; eat turkish food; drink sake in a japanese-style bar; get outta gimhae - even only for a night; enjoy the sand.

happy teachers day!

what a fantastic holiday. teachers day is not what it used to be (or so i hear) but just getting an extra day off is a gift unto itself! i spent my teachers day at the beach, soaking up the rays, with a few friends. a couple of them got loads of presents and gift certificates, where i got a pink balloon and a note. oh well... like i said, a day off is a day off!!!

the koreans were out as well... we found these ones buried in the sand!

wes, dave and abbey chillin' in the sand...

down the beach.

the sun didn't seem very strong, but i've come away with my first (and hopefully only) burn of the year. i had sunblock on (only 15 spf, as that's usually enough) but i guess i should take a hint from the stores which sell almost exclusively 30 spf. point taken... it won't happen again. don't think this will peel... and will hopefully be a nice brown in a couple of days.

it was a great day for relaxing on the beach... thanks guys!

it's happenin'

i'm going to japan next week for two days!!! i know it's only two days, but still, i'm going to JAPAN!!! when is the next time i'm ever going to be able to hop over for the weekend? probably never... so i might as well take advantage. i picked up my ferry tickets today - it's a three-hour ride from busan to fukuoka - and i also booked my hostel - Khaosan Fukuoka International Hostel... i know it won't have enough time to do all the things i would like to, but i'll try my best!

i also made my trip to immigration to fix up the re-entry on my visa and amazingly there were no problems. i was in and out. since i was in busan i figured i might as well check out the nampo-dong area (one subway station over) since i had never really been there before. it was a really cool area with lots of shopping and street vendors. it seems like an area where you can get anything...

from dried squid...

to kimbap and other street food...

to neck ties...

and don't forget the "feminism fashion" !!!

this was just a neat statue i happened upon.

i didn't even see all of the area, i just wandered around for an hour or so. there were clothing stores, camera stores, outdoor stores, shoe stores, anything you could possibly want. i passed by three different mcdonalds, two pizza huts, a kfc, and many other restaurants. i was hoping to find a subway, but i still don't know if there is one in busan or not... the two things i wanted were the two things i didn't find - a video game store and a subway restaurant. oh well... maybe i'll find them in japan!

my illness was compounded by the not-at-all-fresh air in the city. i bought a face mask and wore it on the trip home, but i felt like a moron... we'll see how it goes... i might wear it and i might not... it just feels weird to have it on. the illness isn't gettin any worse, but it's not really getting better yet either... so all i can do is hope for the best!

a day at the beach

yesterday was - as far as i'm concerned - the first day of summer in korea. yes! summer. technically it's spring, but it felt like the first summer day would if i were in montreal... of course summer in montreal only starts in about two months time... anyway, it was over twenty degrees and the sun was shining as only it can. it kind of made me think "if it's this hot in march, what's it going to feel like in july?!?" but it was a lovely day.

ahh... the sea...

we (Abbey, Kim, Emma, Andy, Kelsey, Nate and I) spent the day at haeundae beach in busan. the water was too cold for swimming, but there was no problem with dipping toes and hangin' out. my nose is a little pink today - no sunscreen or hat :( - i wasn't my "prepare" self... i just wasn't expecting it. anyway, no real harm done... i hope.

our little friend

we made a 'little' friend when we were hanging out by the water. she was adorable, except for when she threw a handful of wet sand in the air and hit kim straight on! (wonder where she got that idea?!?!)

sand flinging with our feet!

typical me...

and more typical me...

all in all it was a really relaxing day that was most necessary. it was just so nice to feel the sun on my skin and the sand on my toes... *sigh... i think we'll end up spending a lot of time at the beach this summer... i hope so anyway! thanks for a great day guys! (and for twisting my rubber arm to get me there.)

starface and sfunz

sorry no posts for the last couple of days, i went to busan on the weekend. i met up with kat, jess (her sister who was visiting from canada), kevin (a friend from orientation who lives up north), and chris... along with a bunch of gimhaens.

we went to kebapistan for dinner and then it was on to haeundae to go to starface - a bar i've been hearing about for weeks but hadn't made it to yet. you pay 15,000W (~17$cad) for an open bar. not bad. their gin and tonics were really nice. they had a pool table, but it wasn't as readily available as the one at fuzzy navel, so i didn't get to play at all. they had a live jazz band too, which was really cool... it's been so long... reminded me of the good old days at luba lounge in montreal.

the band at starface

after the band finsihed playing the music was 'do it yourself'. which i thought was awesome. they just had a computer with winamp and a huge playlist and anyone could play whatever they wanted. that reminded me of house parties with ranya.

DIY DJing...ah, the memories...

we (me, kat, jess, chris, and kevin) left starface around 2am and headed to the noraebang. we sang for about 2 hours and then went back to the motel that we were staying at - the sfunz.

our motel - the sfunz!!!

there are tons of hotels and motels in haeundae beach - it's the biggest beach in korea, so it's a popular holiday destination. we just liked the name! not to mention that it was only 40,000W (~45$cad) for a room, and split between us (three in one, two in the other) it was next to nothing. the rooms were decent and it had a great location.

girls room - already messy after five minutes!

bathrobes included.

a massive king size bed.

it was a good night... i can't say as much for the bus ride home on sunday... i didn't want to move... my stomach was being super loopy and after only about five or six hours of sleep i was in no mood to be taking the subway and bus for an hour and a half... so i got an intercity bus from down the street of out motel... straight to gimhae... so happy i remembered that it exists.

it was a great weekend... i always have a good time when kat is involved... and it was even better because i got goodies from canada... caramilk, smarties, salt and vinegar pringles, starburst, cuticle oil, advil, nytol, minty aero... and on... it's great... enough junk food to get me through the next six months! thanks jess!

lazy days (?)

not much to report on this lazy sunday afternoon. the weekend has been spent celebrating my friends' impending departure to the UK. they've been here a long time now, and they're on their way home. so, friday, for the first time since gimhae has been 'home' we went out in my 'hood.

the bar is junco, they have great food, and a decent atmosphere, and a fun time was had by all. i made it an early night and left at around two... walking home for once was way cool, as i usually have a 15 minute cab ride at the end of the night...

then saturday night we headed into busan to the now famous fuzzy navel. a bar that is quickly becoming one of my favourites in busan. the only word kim could have said to get me into busan yesterday wsa kebapistan... so we went for dinner first with bill, ben, and mark in tow. it was yummy as usual... i promise a full review the next time i go, complete with pictures... i know i keep talking about the place, but i never get "into" it, so i will.

we got to fuzzy navel where i was going to stay for a drink or two and then head home, but it's just such a great place. free fooseball and pool... what more could we want?!?! we played a bunch of fooseball - all that practice with ranya paid off... i still haven't lost what little of the 'touch' i had for it. pool was terrible... i need to get playing again. anyway, after nearly seven hours of hanging out at the bar, i was finally in a cab on my way home to gimhae. thank the heavens' above!!! it was five am by the time i got in my door... and it was supposed to be a "light night" out... oh well, the best laid plans, eh?

i had a great time though, and staying late was definitely worth it, and i didn't even end up wasting my sunday as i got up at a decent hour. now i'm just kind of bored. watching some telly. eating some japchae. thinking how nice it would be if i lived closer to anyone that i know... happy lazy sunday everyone.

saturday night fever

this past weekend was the birthday of one of the gimhae ex-pats - kerry. she'll be going home to the UK at the end of february and so wanted to go out in busan to her favourite bar - the fuzzy navel. i wasn't sure if i was going or not since i'm on my way to seoul this coming weekend, and a night out in busan can get expensive... i also didn't want to destroy my sunday by having to recuperate from saturday... we usually get back to gimhae somewhere around 5 am when we go...

but after being persuaded with tales of "a light night out" and "not coming back late" i headed in around 7pm with a bunch of friends from gimhae... we headed to the seomyeon area (of nye dinner fame) to have dinner. we ended up at one of the most kitsch (sp?) (ie. cheesy) restaurants i have ever been to in my life! it was called 'gorilla':
that's one of the waiters... the food was pretty good. kim and i shared a plate of fried rice with cheese and a big chicken salad with kiwi (!) dressing. the boys had different varieties of spaghetti... poor bill ordered a pork cutlet that ended up being covered in a sauce containing soya - which he is allergic to - and didn't feel so hot for a while... then we headed to the fuzzy navel.

with much calling around and asking for directions, we still couldn't find the place. we finally got hold of someone at the bar who volunteered to come get us... by this time there were about 10 of us, as we'd met up with a bunch more gimhae-ens. we got to the bar after 10pm - i knew then that my dreams of a light night were out of the question... oh well... not reason to not have fun!

the bar was nice, they had a pool table, a fooseball table and a giant dance floor. there were a ton of waegooks there celebrating kerry's b-day and a good time was had by all... they also served gin and tonic - my drink of choice - so it was a really great night.

kim was playing fooseball with dave for a lot of the night... notice the table has lime and corona for players? i love it.
we spent a lot of the night on the dance floor too. this is bill and the lasers... thought it was a great shot... the best of the night actually... i thought i took more pics, but they aren't very good... so these will have to do. sorry. anyway, our light night turned out to be until around 4am when bill, lauren, and i, cabbed it back to gimhae... sunday was spent recuperating... so much for climbing another mountain... it'll have to wait til i'm back from seoul...

this week i'm teaching grade two winter camp... so posts may be few and far between as it really isn't that exciting... next week i promise full disclosure on seoul!

a new years eve to remember

like christmas, new years eve (nye), didn't feel like what it was. there was no hype, no days of planning, looking through 'the mirror' to figure out where we should go... no pre-going out drinks at my place... come to think of it, it was the first new years eve that i haven't done that in about eight years... usually people come over to mine and we get ready to go out... my first nye not in my apartment on addington. usually people all came back with me after the bars closed and we would finish off the night at my house sometime around 5 am. sorry, just getting a little nostalgic... but this was a nye to remember anyway!

a bunch of the gimhae-ites met at the bus station at 6 pm: kim, bill, james, rob, fliss, meili, steve, and me. we took the 6:30 express bus to dongnae subway station in busan.

Bill and I on the bus

then we all hopped on the subway to Seomyeon where we were meeting Kat and then going for dinner at VIP's. it's a western style restaurant... i can't think of an equivalant, but it's basically like a steakhouse. the best part though is the salad bar - over 90 items! (as the promo goes) the best part of the salad bar was the tacos and fajitas that i have sorely been missing since coming to Korea. they also had about 25 different salads, soup, shrimp, smoked salmon, pizza, fresh fruit pastries, ice cream... and on and on. it was delicious... next time i'll have to get a steak... i didn't this time just because of the tacos and fajitas... i was stuffed after an hour of eating!

after dinner we headed back to the subway to go to the Busan National University area of town. a lot of young people hang out around there and there are a couple of "foreigner" bars and a few people we knew were already there. we ended up at Moe's Lounge - which is where we spent midnight.

Kat, Rob, Fliss, Chris, Me @ Moes

James, Bill, Kim, Charlotte, MeiLi, Steve

at midnight there were no noise makers, confetti, or balloons (like i'm used to) but we did our own countdown and then sang Auld Lang Syne.

Me and Kim

after a few hours at Moe's we went down three flights to the basement of the building to a club. - the name of which is eluding me at the moment... sorry. we stayed there dancing and playing pool until around 4 AM. then we all went for a bite to eat and then cabbed it back to gimhae.

it was a night to remember, not only because i managed to stay out so long, but because i realized (again) what great friends i have found here in korea... without them, my stay here would be unbearable. it's nice to know that there really are such great people in the world, and that i am lucky enough to have found them! thanks for a great night guys! (Abbey, you were missed... but i'm sure taiwan was great!)

Moe's - we pretty much had the place to ourselves!

Kim and Chris - they went to the SAME high school and know the same people... what a small world!

Chris, Kat, and Me - self portrait

Self portrait (kat loves 'em) they're always so much fun!

really, it was a great night... and one i know i'll never forget! happy new year to everyone!