Photo Sunday: I Got a HOPE!

Yesterday I walked in to my house to find Hope at my table! My family, Hope, and YC planned it for months. I had no idea she was coming home.

Needless to say my weekend was made. She will be here for two whole weeks!

In her honor, here is my absolute favorite picture of us.

Hope does not enjoy this picture as much as I do. I think it is the best. Also, we look exactly the same even though this was high school. Love it.

Be prepared for a post about our wonderful reunion extravaganza!

Anyone else have as super awesome of a weekend as I did?

-Alisa

Adventures in the city of bubble tea and dumplings : Taipei

Sunset at a beach just outside of Taipei

We recently had a 5 day weekend and my friends and I decided to capitalize on it with a trip to Taipei. All in all I only ended up having about 3 1/2 days in Taipei but I loved every minute of it! Taipei was a wonderful refresher from Korea. First of all, it was way more green. Now, don't get me wrong, Busan is a pretty green city, but that is primarily because we are surrounded by mountains, not that the city itself houses a lot of greenery. In Taipei it was like walking into Princess Mononoke, anywhere there wasn't a building, there was the jungle. I also saw a lot more house plants decorating balconies, roof-tops and shops than I do in Korea. I hadn't realized how much I missed that. Taipei also had a more international feel about it than Busan does. There were more foreigners scattered about town and the general populations level of English seemed to be higher. The aspect I found most refreshing however, was how much more socially progressive Taipei seemed. Our hostel was situated in an openly gay community, something Korea doesn't even seem close to. Scratch that, if I am being completely honest, their transportation system might have been what I loved best. They had proper queuing lines for the subway, here you are lucky if you get off the train before people start pushing there way in. The sides of the escalator were also respected, one side for walking, one for standing. Loved it! It is amazing how much little things like that can influence your trip or overall impression of a country. Oh, and of course the people were incredibly friendly. I'm not even kidding when I say you just have to put on your puzzled face for a second before someone will offer to help you!

I am lazy and also don't wish to bog you down with a ton of information so I will save the sights for another post. I would be curious to hear what has impressed you most about countries you visited. What are some turn-offs?

-Hope

Namhae: a little slice of paradise

Last weekend my friends and I made the trek to Namhae island. Namhae is perhaps best known by the foreign community for it's German village and Oktoberfest celebration. We chose to visit with out all the commotion and I must say I think it was a great decision. While Namhae put our limited Korean to the test it was vaguely refreshing to actually have to work to get around in another country. Not that I am complaining about all the English signage in Busan but it is a little unnerving just how much of it there is and how it has almost become a sort of status symbol. But that's another conversation. Anyway, Namhae. Great place.

We caught the bus from Busan and the trip was about 2 1/2 hours to the main bus terminal on the island and then another 45 minutes to where we were staying. The island is essentially the top of a mountain so most of the roads and settlements hug the coastline making getting anywhere on the island a bit of a trek. Buses are certainly the cheapest way to get around costing between 1,300 won and 2,900 won depending on where and how far you are traveling. If you get motion sickness bring some pills because the roads are windy as hell but make sure you keep that camera handy as well because the views are spectacular. The buses were also the trickiest part of our whole stay. Some of them don't come very regularly so be prepared to sit around for 30 - 40 minutes.

The sites we focused on for our trip included the rice terraces at Daraengi village (where we stayed), Boriam temple, Sangju beach and the German village. All of them were great but if I were to cut one out it would have to be the German village. It isn't exactly German and all of the "German" food was really expensive. Personally I think the best part of Namhae is the scenery, so my suggestion would be to focus on the natural sites rather than the tourist traps like the German village if you find yourself pressed for time.

I may write another post with more details on each site we visited, our favorite coffee shop etc if that is something you guys would be interested in. For now I just want to share some pictures!

Sunrise at Daraengi village

Cherry blossoms!

Spring has arrived! Riding in its wake is a stream of Cherry Blossom festivals all over Korea. These beautiful flowers are not only gorgeous but signify the beginning of Spring. They are so revered here that Starbucks has even created a seasonal beverage, mugs and other delectables to mark the occasion. The festivals themselves seem more like open air markets. Street food, various wares and some small rides for kids make the bones of the festival held here in Busan. Mostly it seems a nice excuse to go out and enjoy the warming weather and admire the beautiful flowers. Here are a few photos I have managed to capture of Cherry Blossom season.

My friend Kat and I walking along Cherry blossom street!

Hope

Holi Hai!

As I'm sure many of you know, Holi is a Hindu spring festival. You have probably seen pictures of revelers adorned in white throwing colorful powders and paints at one another. Holi is celebrated all over the world and has become an increasingly popular festival for travelers to take part in. The Indian population in Busan has hosted a Holi celebration at Haeundae beach for the past few years, attracting the foreigner population and a few locals to celebrate along side them.

The festival began with delicious samosas and logistical stuff like passing out the colors and caps. Once everyone was settled in the countdown began. The initial release of colors was spectacular! Everyone had a smile on their face as they sprinkled their friends and neighbors with color. The music and dancing continued for some time after that. We joined in a dance train and greeted one another saying, "Happy Holi!" We couldn't have asked for better weather. After we were danced out we took naps in the sun, worrying for the first time in months that we might burn. I would recommend attending Holi to anyone regardless of what city you are in. If you have the opportunity it is a beautiful festival filled with joy and laughter.

Me and the ladies after the festival

Catch-up!

Sorry guys, I completely spaced on the blog front. The new semester started at the beginning of the month and I have been busy adjusting to that. Fortunately (or rather unfortunately) there isn't much to catch you up on. I tend to retreat into hermitdom during the winter so I haven't been out and about much. Thankfully it is starting to warm up here so I should have more to talk about in the months to come.

During my absence I did go on two trips worth mentioning, I met a friend in Gyeongju for the day and attended Holi Hai here in Busan! Gyeongju was once the capital of the Silla kingdom and houses a vast network of historical sites, two of which are World Heritage Sites. Gyeongju itself seemed pretty small, especially after Busan, though some of the sites worth seeing are outside the city proper. Though we went on a relatively nice day, I would suggest going in the fall or spring. Many of Gyeongju's historic sites, such as the burial mounds are outside and I am sure are much more attractive when covered in grass and there are leaves on the trees. We were able to walk to all of the historic sites within the city proper, including the museum, but would have had to take buses to the temple and lake resort. The museum is free and worth a visit. I would suggest getting an audio guide or getting their for one of the free English tours (I believe they are just on Saturday's) because the signage isn't great. Perhaps I never noticed it in the States because I know the history better, or perhaps we really do have better signage but in any case if you don't know Korean history well like myself the sites can lose some of their meaning. Whether or not you are a big history buff, it is a nice city to wander around, they have a great outdoor market and you can rent bikes and enjoy their vast park. My last tip would be to avoid Anapji pond. The model at the museum makes it seem a lot bigger than it is and all that is left of the palace is a few pagodas. For one of the few sites we had to pay to see, I don't think it is worth it.

A Buddha statue from the National History Museum

Please feel free to comment about your own experiences in Gyeongju or post suggestions for my future trips!

I'll save Holi Hai for next week. 

Hope

Tokyo

We arrived in Tokyo in the early afternoon allowing us to drop off our stuff at the hostel and get settled before we headed out to see the sights. Senso-ji was the closest spot on our list so we headed there first. After all of the spectacular temples of Kyoto Senso-ji seemed like a big tourist trap. There was a market leading up to it selling "traditional" Japanese items and the temple itself wasn't that big. I have heard that it is cooler at night when it is all lit up so if you are there for the sights and not just the shopping perhaps try it out after the sun sets. After that we headed to Odaiba, the recently completed man made island. As soon as we got there I was reminded of what Alisa said about Indonesia being a giant mall. From what we could see Odaiba was covered in shops, office buildings and restaurants and that's it. We ate at a Venice themed mall that had a small car museum attached to it. We did get to see the giant Gundam statue and a replica of the Statue of Liberty.

Historic Kyoto Day 2 & 3

Our second day in Kyoto we  were able to take one of the sightseeing bus routes so we got an all day pass for 500 Yen. Kinkaku-ji (the golden pavilion) was our first stop. We were lucky enough to run into a foreign language class that gives tours to foreigners every Saturday for free (in English). While it wasn't the most comprehensive tour, we learned more from them than we would have just wandering around by ourselves. Seriously, where are all the signs? As I've said this was one of my favorite sights. It was a bright sunny morning so the pavilion looked particularly beautiful. I only wish we had been able to peek inside. From there we walked to Ryoan-ji, it was maybe a 20 minute walk. Luck struck again for there was another student giving tours. The temple itself was pretty barren but you go to this one for the zen gardens. Walking the grounds was pleasant, and the only problem with having a tour guide is that I didn't feel free to wander.

          Ryoan-ji Zen Garden

Historic Kyoto Day 1

My brother and I spent 3 1/2 days in Kyoto and were quite exhausted by the end of it. We saw a lot of amazing temples and shrines and ate the most amazing ramen on the planet but as you can imagine all this involved a lot of walking. A little side note, if you plan on hitting Tokyo and Kyoto on your future trip to Japan, do Tokyo first. We were so exhausted and templed out by the time we got to Tokyo that we didn't see as many sights as we could have had we done it first. But I digress, on to the pictures and travel tips.

Day 1:
Quite by surprise, we had run into a fellow Busan EPIK teacher at our hostel the first night we were there. Friday was her last full day and she hadn't done Fushimi Inari yet so she tagged along with us in the morning. As you know from my last post, this was one of my favorite sites. Perhaps because it had just rained, or that we had most of the hike to ourselves, the whole place had an almost mystical quality about it. I took a billion pictures here. There were so many little shrines scattered along the path and of course more than 1,000 gates to take pictures of.

Strings of brightly colored paper cranes hung along a wall before a small temple

Highlights of Japan

I would like to sit down and break down my views on the two cities my brother and I visited while in Japan but for now I will just give a brief overview.

We flew to Osaka from Busan and got there early enough to go check-out the castle. It was kind of rainy so we quickly took some pictures around the grounds and got on a train to Kyoto where our hostel was. While in Kyoto we saw many shrines and temples as you can imagine but my top 3 were the Fushimi Inari Shrine, the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) and the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji).

 Fushimi Inari Taisha

Whoopsies, a really late Tteokbokki Tuesday

My apologies friends. The holidays have been a hectic time and I become a bit of a hermit during the winter, so I'm sorry I haven't been very good about keeping up with this. I am still not convinced that I have evolved beyond hibernation, but that's another story. Anyways  I wanted to share some pictures from my last Busan adventure before I head off to Japan for my vacation. I promise to write a nice long post upon my return.

So without further adieu, here are some pictures from my Seokbulsa temple adventure.

Seokbulsa is one of Busan's smaller temples. Starting from Geumgan park we opted to climb our way up rather than take the cable car, and what a climb it was! From the top we continued laterally along the mountain until we reached a small village (follow signs for south gate 남 몬 and naman village) , a collection of restaurants really, for lunch. Beware these mountain top restaurants are pricey! After lunch we left the village and went down into the valley, following the river before heading back up to the temple. (Head to the foot volleyball courts and turn left, continue along the river till you reach a paved road, turn right and continue past the work out park). All in all in took us about 3 1/2 hours to reach the temple. The temple itself is quaint. Walking around the entirety of it, including time for pictures took between 15 - 20 minutes. The images hewn into the rock face were spectacular to behold but felt disproportionately spectacular to the amount of hiking and huffing I had to do to get there. I would suggest the cable car unless you are in the mood for a day long venture. 

Hope

Tteokbokki Tuesday: Seafood edition

Last weekend we went on an adventure to Toseong. We took a bus from Busan station to the park entrance and walked to the lighthouse. It was a lovely little walk along the coast and only took about 20 minutes. The views from the lighthouse and the lookouts along the way were spectacular and well worth the somewhat brisk weather. After we had soaked up the ocean views we exited the park and meandered down to the cove itself. All along the water front were these ramshackle restaurants with eager ajumma's (older woman) trying to corral us into their's. The food seemed a bit pricey in comparison to the a typical Korean restaurant but damn was it fresh and their was plenty of it. We got two orders of shell fish for eight people and that was plenty.

One of the shellfish I chose not to try

The view from our restaurant's "window"

What is the craziest thing you have ever eaten?

What was the best meal you have ever had while traveling?

Hope

Tteokbokki Wednesday?? : (

Well, at least I am only a day late this time. I was busy yesterday with my school's festival, a teacher lunch, and planning for vacation. So  I thought I would share with you how joyously intense a Korean school festival is. I will say one thing for my students, they know how to put on a show. There were so many wonderful and wonderfully silly dance performances and some great singing as well. It was really great to see the students being silly and doing something creative that they clearly enjoyed. Normally when you ask them what they do in their free time they say study and the most common answer to what do you like to do for fun is sleep.

So without further adieu here is a picture of some of my 3rd grade boys dancing in skirts. They think dressing in drag is hilarious here.

This second picture is from Sports Day a few weeks ago. The "sports" were more silly than they were athletic but the students had a lot of fun and even asked me to be one of the teachers than ran against them in a relay. I won. But barely. 

Teaching in Korea can be tough and kind of depressing sometimes when your kids are always napping in class because they were at a hagwon (private academy) after school till between 7 and 10pm. However, there are definitely opportunities to be silly with them and get a glimpse of their personality. 

Hope

Cultural Musings 3 세

Sorry about missing Tteokbokki Tuesday but I didn't really have any new pictures to share. I shall work on taking more pictures. Anyways, I learned some interesting tidbits at my language exchange last night that I thought I'd share.

Musing 1: University
So last night we were talking about what everyone in our groups major in university was/is and I asked how they chose these majors, innocent enough question right? No! It took us awhile to overcome the language and cultural understanding barriers but I think I finally got it. So I had already heard that students take an exam during their 3rd year of middle school to determine what kind of high school they can go to, which in turn can influence where they get into university. No pressure. So what I learned was that high schools here are primarily broken up into two areas of concentration, sciences and society. I am still a little unclear as to what that means precisely but the two girls who said they went to society high schools either didn't take science at all or stopped after their second year. So anyways, majors. Seniors in high school take a huge test that determines what universities they can get into. Think SAT/ACT but with like 10x more pressure. Your score on this exam plays two roles. First, which universities you can get into, similar to how schools in the states said you need an SAT/ACT score of .... to get in. Second, which major you will choose. So from what I understand each major within a school is also given a score, for example they said you needed to get at least a 1500 on the exam to major in English. So instead of choosing based on interest like I did, they chose based on the score that they got.

Musing 2: Animal Control
I don't know too much about how animal control works in the States, all I can say is I don't see half as many strays walking around. Even when I lived in a city, not a huge city, but a city nonetheless, I didn't see this many strays. My alley alone must be home to at least 3 or 4 cats. I also saw a stray dog crossing a huge road this morning. I don't know what he was thinking crossing it 3 times, but it nearly gave me a heart attack. Not much else to say with this one. Just be prepared and watch were you are walking, the street is their toilet, when you visit Korea.


Here is an old, but pretty picture to make up for Tuesday.

I used some kind of magical filter on my camera and now it looks like a painting!

This is from our trip to Jeonju hanok village

I am now curious how you guys chose your majors?

Does anyone have a system to Korea?

What do you think about such a system? Pros? Cons?

Hope

Tteokbokki Tuesday: Oops It's Friday

Oops sorry guys. I went to a friends to watch the Holiday and drink hot cocoa on Tuesday, sorry about that. Anyways we celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend which was a blast. We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie to keep it traditional. But we also had pumpkin pancakes, fried chicken and ate with chopsticks to add a little somethin somethin. In true American Thanksgiving tradition though we did consume our weight in alcohol. I highly suggest playing the whisper challenge, that shit is phenomenal. But in all seriousness if you are away from home for the holidays celebrate with your friends, it really takes the edge off those holiday blues and there is a lot less stress!

Here is the only picture we managed to capture of the night. (Thanks Meghan Borland for the photo)

The Traditional Vegetable Turkey

Happy Holidays everyone!

Hope

Cultural musings: part 2 둘

As promised here are more of my observations on some cultural differences you might come across in Korea. Again, these are simple observations, I am not calling out anything as good or bad inherently.

So here we go.

Hospitals:
I have not been to one yet so I can not speak about what goes on inside of them. But what I can tell you is that your Korean friends and co-workers will suggest that you go to it for every little thing. For example, a co-teacher tripped while running in a race against students and went to the hospital. I started getting a cold and immediately they all began suggesting I go to the hospital and get some medicine. I am from America, the land of expensive health care and so I am not in the habit of going to the doctor often unless it is an emergency. We also have two separate facilities in America, we have doctor's offices which are for general check-ups and minor issues and then there is the hospital which is for major operations, diseases or injuries. In Korea, because of the way their health care is set up it seems the general doctors also reside in the hospital. Either way, be prepared for this to be suggested for every ailment under the sun. Be careful though, my friends who have gone have mentioned the crazy amount of pills they send you home with, sometimes without explanation of what they are. I am not sure how it is where you are from but in America our doctors and nurses always explain what they are giving us and why.

The other thing you might notice, as I have, without even having to step into a hospital is the freedom they give their patients. Because people go their for all manner of things and seem to stay the night more often then they would in America, there are an abundance of fairly healthy people in the hospital at any given time. As they are quite healthy or because Korean's believe in the power of fresh air (I am not 100% sure) you will see people walking around in hospital garb a lot. They are not escapees as I once thought, they are simply out for a stroll. I even saw a guy walking around toting his IV one time. It is perfectly normal. Better than being stuck inside and bored to death I guess.

Escalators:
This isn't really a cultural difference as I have seen people posting about it around the world, I just think it's funny.

Anyway I do think the escalators move at a much slower pace here, but maybe that's just me. But what I wanted to mention is the reliance on escalators. They are everywhere! I get it for multiple floors or something but sometimes it seems a bit like overkill. Perhaps it is because the escalators are so slow that I find this need to wait in an overly squishy line for the escalator so amusing. People are basically lapping you on the stairs people, that is how not fast you are going. My favorite instance of Korean's love affair was escalators was when one of them had stopped working in a subway and yet people will still lining up and getting all up in each others space to get on the thing. Even though it was now just stairs... with less room. I know this happens all over and must say something about us as a whole and our reliance on technology or our sheer laziness and how ingrained habits become but I think it's funny.

I am definitely guilty of an over-reliance on escalators too, and elevators for that matter. Oops

Next time I will write about something that is actually different between our cultures but I just couldn't resist talking about the escalator mania.

Also, sorry this post is lacking in pictures but I didn't want to be that creepy person taking pictures of strangers. Sorry guys.

-Hope

Tteokbokki Tuesday: Seoul

So this past weekend I took my second trip up to Seoul. I went with some friends from Busan and we had a ball. I shall write at greater length about my trip soon. But for now pictures. The first picture requires some background. So we left right after work on Friday and thus decided to have a potluck dinner on the train. Our dinner consisted of gimbap, peanut butter crackers, nuts, fruit, fruit by the foot and what I am calling Korea's fruit cake. We also had some soju and sprite (or lemonade) to wash it all down with. We thought it was awesome that they let you bring drinks on the train.
Anyway here is a pizza of the fruitcake pizza thing.

It was essentially this doughy bread with assorted fruit, peas and a mystery substance on top.

Tteokbokki Tuesday: Gamcheon Culture Village

I realize that it is Wednesday and not Tuesday but it was my friend's birthday last night so I was out celebrating. Apologies.

Anyways, last weekend I went to Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan with some friends. Gamcheon village was first created as a refugee camp during the Korean War. Since Busan was the last place free from fighting its population shot up rapidly, particularly in areas close to the port such as Gamcheon. These hastily erected shacks were built up with the help of Chol-je Cho and his followers. (Chol-je Cho is the founder of Taegukdo) It wasn't until recently, 2009 in fact, that the village became a cultural icon. The Ministry of Toursim enlisted the help of artisans and the village residents to transform the city into the art hub it is today.

The village is also sometimes referred to as the Amalfi coast of Korea or Korea's Santorini.

Tteokboki Tuesday: Street Art Edition

Hey guys! I am still working on uploading some pictures from recent trips but I thought I would share this nerdy street art which it just so happens is on my own street! This master piece showed up magically over the course of a few nights. I have seen a lot of cool artwork here and will try to document it in the future. 

Please share your own favorite street art, I would love to see it. 

Hope

Korean cultural musings 하나

So I wanted to just state a couple of things that I have noticed differ between American culture and Korean culture. I am not making any judgement or claiming that either way is better I am simply making some observations and I would be curious to hear what difference struck Koreans visiting America or really anyone living in another country.

So without further adieu, here is what I have noticed.

From my hike in Seoul!