Mountains!

Hello lovelies! How are all of you? I had a truly wonderful weekend. Friday night went out to dinner and bars with friends. I love love love that my new friends enjoy dancing as much as I do! We all stand in a silly little group and shake our asses until sunrise, pure fun!

Saturday morning was a little bit rough, after coming home at 5 am, I woke up at 10 am to go mountain hiking. Nate was the only other one who shared a similar story, while Taylor and Stephanie felt rested. We took the subway to Bukhansan National Park where we hiked up a mountain that was about 800 meters high and about a 4k each way. The fall colors were amazing! It was so nice to get outdoors and to physically challenge myself; hey I am from the Midwest, aka flatland! The hike was a breeze for Nate (who has attempted to hike the Pacific Trail for goodness sakes!) and Taylor, who not only looks like a mountain man, is one. Koreans are serious hikers! They all wore professional gear head to toe and came supplied with fruit and other various food. The best part about mountain hiking in Korea is that Koreans are so nice to you! We received many smiles, words of advice “watch out its slippery!”, and fruit from many fellow hikers. Taylor wore his flip-flops, weirdo I know, and all of the Koreans who we met got a good laugh out of it, quite a contrast to their attire. The video posted is at the top of the mountain, you can see Seoul, other mountain tops, and the Yellow Sea. My fellow hikers were not aware that I was taking a video at first so their reactions are a little dull. But Nate does a ‘big bird’ impression (That really ugly thing he has on is Taylor’s, who he stole from his college roommate, who got it from an outdoor shop where he use to work for free because they couldn’t sell them…the ‘fleece’s’ name is also ‘big bird’). I was amazed that on top I didn’t feel any fear of heights, something I thought for sure I would. Instead we all stood in complete aww as we looked around at what surrounded us. After awhile, we bid our goodbyes to the spectacular view and made our way back down the mountain, ending our hike just as the sun set.

Sunday we gathered enough foreigners to play kickball in Lake Park. We had so much fun kicking the ball around, but did have to yell ‘game off’ and ‘game on’ as Koreans walked through our field, oblivious that they were walking in the middle of a game. We gathered quite a crowd of fans to watch at first, probably wondering what they heck we were doing! I made a couple of spectacular plays but jammed my finger – ouch still hurts! Love you and miss you all! I have been brainstorming about a few blogs just about cultural differences that I hope to get to this week. Night!

Busan!

Last weekend I adventured to Busan, the most Southern city of South Korea. Christina and I had decided to visit Busan a couple weekends back when we had heard of the Pusan Film Festival, which is one of the largest, if not the largest film festival in Asia. The Pusan Film Festival seemed just as good as an excuse as any to visit another city in Korea. After asking around, we accumulated four others, Nate (originally from Oregon, had lots of discussions on his 7 week cross country trip which consisted of visiting mostly national parks around the country – complete amazing madness!), Tailor (from Minnesota whom I am going to climb a mountain with next weekend with - hehe), Greg and Danielle (couple who is also from Minnesota who are complete fun to hang out with, Danielle and I do yoga together). Danielle, Greg, and I all work at the same campus and work around 1-8 pm while Nate, Tailor, and Christina all work at the other Poly campus and work 9-6.

After work on Friday, Greg, Danielle, and I caught a bus to meet the others at Seoul Station, where journeyed in a fast pace train (went up to 304 km/hour) to Busan. Koreans take their train rides very seriously, they act reserved and are stocked with electronic gadgets. On the contrary, we were especially giddy holding cans of Hite.. A senior Korean man hit the back of my chair and yelled “quiet!” Christina’s reaction, who considers herself to be a ‘hothead’, contrasted the rest of our silence and said ‘don’t let him bully you!” Let me remind you that Korea is a patriarchal country that believes strongly in ‘respecting your elders’. Typically, because we are all ‘white’ we are excused from customs, this older gentleman did not believe this to be a situation where we were exempted. Quiet we weren’t for the rest of the ride, and arrived a little after one am.

After settling in to our hostel, Nate, Christina, Taylor and I headed out to explore central Busan’s nightlife. After walking around we decided to make ourselves comfortable at ‘Fuzzy Navel’, an establishment both Frommers and Lonely Planet recommended. After the bar I am sorry to say that I fought the law and the law won. Before I explain, let me provide background information. Chicago, as you all know is known for jaywalking, however in Korea it is illegal. However, law here is more of a suggestion then an absolute, so when breaking a law, you can easily negotiate if you have a few thousand won available. So, we entered a busy intersection and I being use to jaywalking (need to get myself out of this habit) walked across the street and stood in the middle until I could make the rest of the way through. Nate, being a good friend, followed me halfway, while the others stayed behind. All of a sudden I saw a policeman running towards me from the other side of the street! He stopped traffic and then instead of helping us cross the other half of the street, escorted us back to where we started. I simply played dumb and told him that I do not understand where to cross the street?! He then showed me the tunnel you take to cross over and I smiled, said “kamsamnida” and quickly went on my way, no wons needed!

The next day we traveled to Busan’s most famous beach, Haengdae, which really is a great beach. During the summer months, this beach is so packed that you cannot even get in the water! Luckily the cold weather pushes beach bums away and we were free to run. We spent Saturday going through the beach area, saw two movies (go see 5 five minutes in heaven) and then met up with the rest of the crowd to eat at the fish market. Since it was nighttime, the fish market was mostly closed with the exception of a few restaurants. After dinner we all found ourselves cozied in a large booth with pitchers. It was a great way to end a fantastic day.

Sunday we saw Abnormal Activity, not sure if it was because we hadn’t slept much all weekend, but I wasn’t in a state of hyperventilation that I am accustomed to while watching scary movies. Koreans in movie theaters is a complete trip! They are very expressive while watching a movie so we constantly heard nervous sounds from the audience. For those of you, who know my dear aunt Joan; imagine a movie theatre full of Joans! We then traveled through the rest the fish market during the day which was a much better experience. I am not sure what it is about fish markets, but they make me so excited! I love that people search out into ocean, catch these live animals and then bring them here for you to not only look at, but to eat! I took plenty of pictures and talked to all of the creatures that were still alive! While saying ‘hello, oh hello’ to one of the craps, the man behind the counter responded, “Hi! How are you?” I jumped, since most Koreans do not speak English to this extent, looked up, smiled and said “umm hi!”

The way back we were all exhausted but agreed that Busan is a place to revisit. The next time we go will be to go to the aquarium where you can swim in a large fish tank that holds numerous sea life such as fish, turtles, sharks…hehe..CANNOT WAIT! Anyway I hear its good old Columbus Weekend back in the states, so hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well. Love you all, email updates por favor!

My Chuseok Weekend

Chuseok, aka, Korean Thanksgiving, was this past weekend. Most schools have just short of a week off; however, since I work at a private, for-profit school, I was only given Friday off. Hey, a three weekend within the first month I am here, cannot complain!

After work on Thursday, I participated in an average night out in Ilsan, which includes dinner with friends of Korean BBQ, a stop at the Frog and Toad (a bar that attempts at being an Irish Pub, but plays mostly American pop music) for some beer and card games, then heading out to other bars in the area where all are enjoying Korean beer, tequila, soju, and dancing. The night finally concludes itself when we are either danced out or eating dinner number two; you guessed it, Korean BBQ again! For whatever reason, nights here always end the earliest about 5 am….establishments do not close in Korea and time flies!

Saturday I went to an amusement park called Everland, pronounced, Everlanddd, think Great America, a zoo, and Disney Land combined. We started by going on one of the most intense roller coasters I have been on in my life, needless to say I made myself go on it, but was excited when it was over. We spent a large amount of time in the Zootopia area, where I went on a safari ride and saw a liger (they really do exist….and it looks exactly like you think it would, a lion with some half ass stripes), took many of pics at the animal cages, and saw two animal shows, one of which has a monkey riding a pig – hehe. The remaining time was spent in Holland Land – that’s right! Holland land is filled with ‘Dutch’ things to eat and drink, like French fries, roasted chicken, and beer….well at least they have the beer right.

The pic included is of Everlanddd.

Well Saturday night I hurried home to go out with others to Hongdae, which is the main area to go out in Seoul and is surrounded by the three main universities. Hongdae is filled with expats, GIs and Koreans. My first time there we befriended, a Swedish girl that one of my guy friends still mentions from time to time, a Dutch guy, who me and this guy Patrick, a co-worker, got into a debate with about socialism (because clearly, at 3 am with a few drinks, politics seems like the only reasonable thing to discuss…haha), and a Korean who is more then interested in one of my friends. Needless to say, you are bound to meet a diverse crowd and enjoy a late night of dancing, drinking and some good laughs.

Sunday I experienced my first Korean movie theater! About a little more then half of the movies shown here are American, but come out a lot late. Inglorious Bastards has yet to come out and my fellow expats were mighty impressed when I had said that I didn’t just see it, I saw it twice! How is that possible they first exclaimed! Hehe. Most things are less expensive to do in Korea then in the states; movies are the one exception to this rule. It is still about ten dollars for a ticket; however they have assigned seating, turn off all of the lights, and serve ice cream – yippee! And you don’t even notice the Korean subtitles at the bottom!

That’s it for now folks. Next weekend I am heading to Busan, the most Southern city of South Korea, for an internal film festival. Pusan Film Festival is the largest in Asia. I am going with a least of group of six, but two more might join us. Looking forward to the festival and seeing another part of South Korea.