Weekend of Exploration in Busan

I had a great first weekend here in Korea. Where to start... Saturday, I woke up with ambition to explore my small city of Seochang. It was VERY cold that day (low 40's). So after wrapping up in my scarf, gloves, beanie, and big winter coat, I was ready to go! First step, figure out where I live. Joan, one of the other teachers gave me a ride home from school the night before. I thought I knew where I lived but I got completely lost, go figure. Took a few pictures in case i got lost, i could attempt to ask someone. Here's what I got about where I live :) This first picture on the right is along the main street (Seochang-ho ro). This is the landmark I use to turn the corner onto my street. Hard to miss right? lol. Once I go up a little hill, I look for a church and the high school (in picture on the left). I live to the left of this picture.
Then once I pass that, there is a small street to the left and I live right there in this builiding :) No idea what it says inKorean but there is an A and B building so I can read that lol. And yes, my building is the B lol. Then my address... Yea i don't know how to say it right. But i can find my way there so that is the important thing. lol.
So..... on my day of exploration, after taking a walk trying to figure out where I live (yes i literally walked the streets to make sure i knew how to get home, etc) I took a walk into the city. I plan on walking as much as I possibly can. Lord knows I need the exercise lol. Plus the tempature was in the low 40's maybe high 30's so it was a bit chilly. I needed to warm up. The streets were pretty busy on a Saturday. I found the Lottemart (Lotte pretty much owns the city. Lotte department store, lotte mart (korean walmart), lotteria...aka korean mcdonalds), found more little markets, cell phone store (since i got a new one :)), clothing stores :), etc. So after I located everything, I took a walk the opposite direction of the main road from my apt. I found a little park area (and yes that is workout equipment in the back YES!!) and sports area. There is also a lot of hiking around there. I'm very curious to check it out. I think that could be a lot of fun!! And yes there is me being the perfect tourist lol. I am hoping when it warms up al ittle bit to get the energy to run up to the park in the mornings... by morning, I mean like 10 or 11 am lol since I don't work till 2.
After the park, i decided I needed to attempt to take the bus by myself to school. I was very nervous about this. Not only does no one speak english but all the buildings look the same. I could use cash or get a bus card. I decided on the card. Getting it was an interesting experience also. Trying to convince the young girl at the convenience store that I wanted the card and also to charge it (no english). Good thing I used to be an actress. Charades is coming in very handy lol. So I bought a MYbi card... good for the outer and inner city buses and subway in the city. I was originally told that I could take any 'green' bus. They all stop at the school. Well 25 minutes later, the bus stops at an apartment building. We did not pass my school. So I walked to the other side of the street, hopped on the bus going opposite direction. 3 stops later, on the way back, I found my school... lol. ELC... English Language School. 4th floor of this building. I was pretty proud of myself. I rewarded myself by stopping at the bakery across the street. I deserved something to eat. Of course, i couldn't figure out what was what. So I settled on this... actually not bad. Fresh bread with the middle carved out and filled with veggies and little pieces of ham... cheese on top. I learned today to ask for it tattatan (prounounced this way)... warm. This bakery, Paris Baguette, is actually a popular chain in Korea. There are also good sandwiches and chocolate milk, coffee/tea, etc. I like it :) So after I ate, i stopped back at the convenience store for something else to drink. I decided to be adventurous. I 'inny minny moed' the bottled section and landed on a white tea with a pretty bottle lol. I"m such a girl. Usually like I white tea, but I was NOT a fan of this. Note to self: pretty bottle... yuck! But at least I know now and moving on. Took the bus home, found my land mark and everything was good :) Just some extra photos of the city of Seochang.It's definitely not a big city but still a good city. I like it :) It's home now. Basic bar... a place I"d like to check out when i meet friends some day lol Hof (beer), Soju (still have yet to try), and tea. Just my style. Then there's the fish truck. Something just going down the street like nothing. ha ha. just not something i'm used to seeing everyday. So when I got home, i started playing with my new cell phone that my director gave to me. It is in english but sometimes not quite accurate english. I wound up pressing buttons, etc and all of a sudden the screen went blank and was asking for me to type in my PUK code 10 times. WHAT?!?! I freaked out!! I was supposed to meet my friend in the city later. I had no idea what a PUK code was and was afraid to ask for help that they wouldn't know what it was or read english, etc. After completely venting to 2 of the only 5 people I knew in Korea and asking in panic what I should do, I finally just settled on going to the store. The girls in the store were young and didn't know much english. Some how I managed to get my point across. Technically they are not allowed to do anything to the phones without my ID card (which i will get in 2 weeks or so) but since it was under a Korean name, they wound up fixing it for me...either that or they were tired of dealing with me lol. Ultimately, Disaster averted. I could relax. Note to self, don't explore the phone too much.
So after my explorations, I wound up hitching a ride into the city with my nice co-worker Esther. We drove with her 2 kids. I don't know if it's a Korean thing or a careless thing. For several blocks one of the kids, 4 y.o. standing up in the backseat, no big deal. Neither had their seatbelts on the entire time, no big deal. It is not my place to judge or say anything but I was definitely a bit shocked. She dropped me off at the Haeundae Beach (very popular beach) subway stop where I was to meet my friend Taylor. Taylor and I had been emailing for months. She was a friend of a friend who has already been living in Korea for a year...aka my contact for everything! We ran around a bit and then had dinner for my first Korean BBQ dinner. How the Koreans don't get fat with all this food, I have no idea. Especially since traditionally, they drink beer with dinner. I like this tradition lol. It's actually not a lot. 1 big bottle to split. Taylor was a pro. Cutting the meat with scissors (yes they use scissors... no knives here), when the bottom bbq rack gets black how to change it out (if ur meat burns, you will die... or so they say here). After going back to her place, changing, etc we went to a bar in the area of Seomyeon to visit her friend Jenny who just got a job as a bartender (illegally of course but she worked out a great pay deal!). We met one guy who was soooo drunk he was hilarious... apparently used to be part of the Korean mafia, etc. Quite a character. After a few drinks there (yes normal drinks like vodka tonic... tho their tonic is a bit sweet... different), we went to the PNU area (Pusan National University... known for the foreigner bars... yes i am a foreigner aka english bars). We explored a few until we stayed at one. Lots of Canadians. The wanna be DJ for the night, Michael, was all over me... kinda weird. "i love you. You are so beautiful. I just want to kiss you" and he would keep hugging me and kissing my forehead and cheeks, etc. Kinda weird right? Pretty sure he was like almost 40, yuck! Granted the guy was hammered! But it was still funny and a nice welcome to Korea... yea this guy is from Seattle lol. Nothing new there. Then I met Yoon. Korean girl who had lived in Japan and Canada... great English. She was constantly telling me all night how 'huggable' I was. Is that a 'short' reference? I don't mind being huggable but I thought i was supposed to fit in with everyone here height wise lol. Who knows. We returned home at 3. It was a fun night. A good start to Busan.
The next morning I got up with Taylor and her friend/neighbor Jenny. We were supposed to meet up with my other friend Tina (another friend of a friend. However I realized I was low on money and hit the ATM... 2. No luck. Something about these Korean banks and ATMs. Apparently they rarely rarely work with American cards (hence why we get our own bank accounts). So weird. I was freaking out though. I had no money!! Again, Korean culture... just plain nice people!! Jenny loaned me money... granted she's not Korean, but still, just so nice and trusting. I really respect that. Jenny and I went to meet Tina at Lotte department store (and hit up Coffee bean on the way... yes there is one. I am pretty sure when she took me there she thought it was korean chain. I think I may have let her down when I said they were ALL over California lol. I still enjoyed my tropical passion tea latte though!). We then had lunch... food court type thing. We all got a mix of different salad type stuff. It was good but too much money for what it was worth... again, lesson learned :) I like learning these little things along the way. Jenny bailed and Tina and I decided to hit up Haeundae Beach for our first day of exploration. Haeundae is the most popular beach in Busan. We took the subway (i had pretty learned most of it already. Only 3 lines... just very long lines but easy to read). When I say popular, i mean you can't barely walk in the summer. Even for the winter time it was PACKED! But it was beautiful. We walked around there and it was really great. Lots to do. Lots of bars (and yes foreigner bars and korean bars), food, shopping, etc. Also known as a pricy area. The one thing I liked (and this will sound silly but actually a big deal), there was a tourist information area. They had subway maps, they had city maps, they had brochures on temple stays (yes I want to do a Buddhist temple weekend retreat), cruise information (i am thinking of cruising to Osaka, Japan), everything. Maps especially are very hard to come by here. Very few subway maps around. So this was a huge deal. I was so excited!
After exploring Haeundae, we headed back to Tinas in Seomyon. We ventured around looking for places to eat (trying to decide if we wanted street food or restaurant. The street food actually looks very good)and randomly chose a sit down chicken place. Yes, more cutting chicken with scissors lol. It was very good. They do a lot of the lettuce wrap type stuff (though their lettuce is very different). But it was good. Claim to fame for the weekend. Asking for a large beer to share. The waitress showed me the size sheet... i don't know their measurements.. seriously? I asked for the second smallest (assuming the smallest would be for 1 person. 2nd largest would be big enough to share)... OOPS... nope...she brings out a pitcher lol. Good times! Tell me where you can find a pitcher of beer in US for $7 HA! Still amazing :) She made a point to say "save room for dessert" what? I hadn't had any kind of dessert yet. She took me to a street vendor and she got this sweet bread type stuff (think funnel cake. tasted very similar), the middle mushed down, tin layer of chocolate spread on top and then sunflower seeds. It does not sounds like much, but it was HEAVENLY! Amazing! Loved it :) One of those things I probably would've never tried unless someone told me to. So glad I did :) More to come lol. Then was the mission of taking a bus back home. Once i took the subway to Nopo-dong, it took me awhile to figure out which bus I get one. I found out later that I took the more expensive bus (I love that $1.80 is considered expensive for public transportation). I will look for the cheaper one, but still not complaining about the expensive bus lol. It definitely got me home. And I was very excited to know that I could walk home and not get lost :)