Thanksgiving in Korea

This past weekend I was blessed to be able to participate in two taste bud pleasuring, gut-busting Thanksgiving dinners. The first dinner was with a small group of friends that has been meeting semi-regularly to have nights of cooking. Believe it or not it started out as four guys but has grown to include two girls(for some reason). As it turned out we over estimated on food(like usual) and made enough for somewhere around 30 people. Not to worry though as there was a potluck with people from the church the next day and the leftovers were warmly welcomed.

The food was fantastic, but the thing that got me was the smell. As I walked into the room, turkey and cinnamon wafting through the air, I was reminded of years past; the family, the friends, the familiar. While this year has brought many changes, I once again have much to be thankful for. Just to list a few things in Korea that God has blessed me with: caring friends, a warm church community, Annabelle, challenging experiences that provide growth, food and shelter. Life!

Tourist?

I ate at this restaurant. Does that make me a tourist?

Public Transit and Wet Socks

It was Friday night and I had arranged to meet a friend for supper, the only problem was that it was raining. This wasn't a major problem, but it meant that I would not be taking Annabelle but rather relying on public transit. Normally this would also not be an issue as the public transit in Korea is fantastic but this night was an exception.

I made it to the bus stop five minutes before the bottom of the hour because, as I knew, the bus, trusty 120, came every thirty minutes. The time flew by keeping myself busy with my cell phone as I have been taught by watching the people of Korea. But unlike my neighbours, I did not use my phone to catch up on the latest TV show but rather to reply to texts that I had neglected all day.

Time flew by and before I knew it I was looking for a cab just incase the bus did not show, unfortunately cabs are as abundant in my neighbourhood, as food in North Korea. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8720870.stm) Finally the trusty 120 revealed itself ten minutes after it should normally have but as it neared, it seemed to be, yes... it turned the block before it got to where I was standing.

I had noticed upon coming to wait for the bus that the normal bus station sign was no longer in place but I due to the many changes going on in the area I thought nothing of it, until now. They had just finished building a new bridge(not the one in front of my school) and opened a new road connecting us to the "metropolitan" Su-wol. It appeared that this had effected the bus route.

No matter, if I was fast enough, I could catch it coming out the other side. It was off to the water filled, puddle riddled races. While I did get quite wet, I did not arrive in time to catch the bus. I did happen make it just as another bus was pulling up so I decided to take it to the terminal. I sat in the back to get a view of the what came up behind and who should appear but the ever trusty 120. All I would have to do is hop off at the terminal and stride over to my bus.

Upon arriving at the terminal the driver decided not to open the door until he had made sure that I would miss the trusty 120, still I ran. I managed to catch the bus at the next stop after two blocks of frantic umbrella dodging. I tell you, it should be an Olympic sport(lets make the decathlon a hendecathlon), so that I can get the gold.

The point is that I caught the bus. Turns out that I was only 3 minutes late for my appointment, certainly mildly moist, but almost on time. Regardless, we had a fantastic time over an average dinner and called it a night, or so I thought.

I once again opted to take the bus, after all it was the most cost efficient, earth friendly option available to get me home. I had never taken the bus home from this location but, I thought, how hard could it be. Just catch the trusty 120 and I would be home faster than I can bake a cake.

After a short 6 minute wait I was on the trusty 120 headed for home, except that we were headed in the wrong direction. No worries, I comforted, you are just paranoid because you feel insecure with out Annabelle, as if you went to school in your underwear, as if you went hiking and left your arm in a canyon, as if you left your heart in San Francisco. If only I would have taken Annabelle, she would take care of me.

My comforting words did little to comfort as we were still headed in the wrong direction and by now I was the only one on the bus. Finally the driver stopped as if to park, but not as if, actually to park. He shut of the bus, with it went the lights and my hope to make it home faster than I can bake a cake.

Thankfully my Korean is almost fluent, so I went to ask the driver what the deal was, and found out that apparently my Korean isn't nearly as fluent as I imagined it to be. I did manage to get that, if I didn't feel like walking home from who knows where, I would be there for another 30 minutes.

At first this distressed me a little, but as I came to my senses I realized that this was a perfect opportunity for some time to think and reflect as I had literally no distractions and even less excuses. I used the time to pray for friends and family back home, think about life and all the blessings that I have received over my time in Korea.

When you think about it thirty minutes isn't a very long time for one of those things let alone all three and so before I knew it we were, as my main man Willie would say, "On the Road Again." The trusty 120 dropped me off just outside my house, I put on clean, dry socks and climbed under the covers for my nightly nap.

Mountain Climbing on Kajodo Island

This past Sunday the weather was to gorgeous to waste so I climbed a mountain. I'm not sure what the mountain is called but it is the tallest peak on Kajodo Island, the one with the orange bridge(that I climbed here). I have wanted to climb the mountain but have not been able to find the trailhead. Thankfully today I had a guide who lived on the island and was from Nepal no less. 

We parked at the restaurant in the middle of the island, right where the road splits up, followed the right fork of the road for 50 meters until it veers right. Keep straight on what looks like a driveway for about 100 meters, the trail is on your left just as you pass the first house.

The climb itself is not very strenuous but seeing as I spend more time with Annabelle than exercising, my fitness is not what it once was. In short, the mountain had me huffing and puffing. It took us just over 30 minutes to ascent and it turns out that the mountain is a tall 331.9 meters high. The view was a little hazy but on a clear day it would give a nice view of the Samsung shipyard. 

331.9 meters never felt so much like 332 meters.

The sun. The water. The trees.

Our guide.

The view.

Deciding how to get down.

All things considered it was a great way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Good Restaurant

You know it's a good restaurant when... they have a sign saying that they are a good restaurant.

Pepero Day

November 11 in Korea is celebrated as Pepero Day. What is Pepero Day you ask? Pepero Day is a celebration manufactured by Lotte Corp. to sell it's tasty, chocolate on a stick treats. Interesting... Read all about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepero

This is what one of the mothers bought in to for the 5 year old class:

This is about half of what my students brought me:

What a great display of marketing... or consumerism...

Mirror Image

One of my students drew this picture at her art school and gave it to me. I asked her who it was, she said that it was me and seemed a bit surprised that I didn't pick that up. When I asked what part of the picture was like me, she said that I have a red shirt. How right she is...

My not so Lucky Charms...

are all gone! Thanks dad and mom they were great while they lasted...

Get Lost

The other day I looked out the window and decided that the weather was conducive to going for a motorcycle ride so I decided to the store to pick up a few things. On the way to the store I decided that it was too nice to go to the store so I just kept riding instead.

I rode all the way off the island and then on to another little island that I had seen from the bridge. I took a little bit of a break there, but being afraid of getting lost in the big world of non-island Korea I made my way back to safety.

Upon coming back on to Geoje I noticed Nambu, the name of a town I had never visited, on a sign and so I decided to try and find it. It turned out to be harder than I thought. I assume that I drove right past it because I followed the signs until there were no signs. No Nambu. But I had gone farther South than I had ever been on the island. I also stopped by the puzzelingly popular pebble beach of Hakdong.

Although by the time I got home it was a little cold out, the time with Annabelle definitely beat going to the store. Here are a few of the things that I saw:

Busan Fireworks Festival

Last weekend I had the privilege of going to the 7th Busan Fireworks Festival hosted by Gwangalli Beach and the Gwangan Bridge. I had the desire to go but I did not have the desire to stay the night in Busan. The fireworks show was scheduled from 8:00-9:00. The buses stop running at 9:00(as I found out on the way back from China Read about it here)  This meant that if I wanted to see the fireworks I would just miss the last bus and need to find something to do with the 9 hours till the 6:00 am bus. No longer my idea of a good time.

But then something happened. I was sitting at home and my phone rang, I hesitated to answer it having received a number of calls in Korean lately but got up to see if I recognized the number. Turns out I had won a round trip ticket to the Busan Fireworks Festival in a private car all I had to do was say yes.(Oh the life of having friends with cars, it's something else, let me tell you) The invite(I mean victory) was pretty short notice only allowing me enough time to put on some clothes and grab a few slices of sustenance before needing to run out the door.

We got to Busan and were greeted with the typical backlog of traffic. We inched our way closer to where "the action" was going to take place, we began to catch sight of droves of people making their way on foot. It appeared that we should have already parked. All too soon the traffic parted and there we were, about to cross the bridge. Thanks to some quick thinking we managed to avoid the bridge. Thanks to our foreignerness we managed to get past the police line and parked just a few short blocks from the beach.

Due to the length of notice I received, I did not have time to look out my window to see what the weather was doing before I left. As a result I was not prepared for the rain that had decided to join us on our evening out. All I could do was pull my non waterproof sweater hood over my head and hope I would find a cute Korean girl with her own umbrella that would be kind enough to share with me...

One thing you may not know about Korea is the amount of Koreans there are here, this country is full of them, they are literally every where you look. The country of Korea has been rumoured to have the highest number of Koreans(per capita and outright) of any country in the world. Let me tell you, it seemed like they all had decided that they wanted to see things explode(as if they didn't see enough of that in the 50's).

There were so many of them our view looked like this(thankfully we were tall and Koreans are generally sma...rt):

The fireworks themselves were like nothing I had ever seen before. That is not entirely true, they were fairly similar to every other fireworks show that I have ever, seen put together and multiplied by a couple or two. The volume of fireworks going off at any given time was pretty out of hand. They would have a sequence, like the one above and below, that would last 20-30 seconds, volleys after volley.

They lit off the fireworks both from the bridge and from barges in the middle of the bay. It was great! I can only imagine the safety procedures needed to shoot fireworks off a bridge.(I literally can only imagine, no one actually told me)

As you can see from the pictures it was still raining and I did not wipe my lens very often, as a result, a whole album of gems has turn in to an album of goat feed. It's more about the experience though, and this was up there.

Bonus story: After a while of taking pictures from behind a lamp post I decided to find a better angle. I managed to find a nice little space a few rows from the water and as the fireworks alternated from bay to bridge the people shifted enough to allow me to get right to the front. What did I find when I got there? A cute Korean girl who offered to share her umbrella with me. What are the odds?

Storefront Surprise

Saw this in a storefront the other day. Nothing to see here folks, just a typical day at work.
Wait a minute...

EarPeace: Peace For Your Ear

A few months ago I started teaching a class that was unbearably loud. Try as I may, they would not lower their volume, it seemed that they could not grasp the idea of being quiet. So I decided to take matters in to my own hands and look for something that would protect my ears. Something that would allow me to hear speaking but would take the edge off the shrill voices of the children.

Having rejected standard ear plugs for their distractive visible qualities and over protection for what I needed, and not understanding the Korean language enough to look in to more technological options, I was at a loss.

That is until I stumbled across a company called EarPeace(www.earpeace.com). They seemed to offer just what I was looking for. They promise to cut 11 to 17 decibles off the top of any noise in the area while still allowing your to hear normal voices. They are designed in a way to keep their visibility at a minimum. They are made from silicone making them washable and durable. Plus it comes with a carrying case to keep them clean while you are not using them. All this for $13.

I ordered off to a pair of them right away.

They arrived quickly and looked just as advertised. They did take some getting used to as I don't normally stick things so deep in to my ear that I wonder if they will come out. But there is a nice pull tab to get them out. They also work as advertised, doing a great job of lowering the volume enough to be comfortable while allowing you to converse at the same.

A few weeks of use the thing I feared the most became a reality. As I went to remove them, one of the tabs detached itself from the body leaving it stuck in my ear. Thankfully there is a tube in the middle of the body that I was able to pull out and with the help of a pocket knife able to pry the object out of my ear canal.

There were 3 included in the package so I was still able to use them but I promptly emailed the company to let them know what had happened. They replied quickly and positively. Letting me know that they were aware of this and had already redesigned it so that it would be stronger. They offered to ship a few my way promptly. There were a few complications in the process but I did received them. I have been using them now for the past 5 months and have been very pleased with them.

For what they are Ear Peace $13 does sound a bit steep, but they offer a lot more flexibility and repeated use than standard ear plugs. They have filled the role that I bought them for and I am quite happy with them. Plus at the moment my price per wear is $0.13 and by the end of the school year it will be down around $0.07. This is a small price to pay to be able to hear whatever you will want to hear when you are 75 years old*.

*(There is no scientific proof backing the idea that EarPeace will allow you to hear whatever you want to hear when you are 75 years old.)