I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I've written! So much to catch up on :) Hard to beat Gyeongju but there has still been a lot of excitement in my life.
I found out that at the end of the month, there is a local temple in Busan that hosts a cultural events day for the foreigners. It's free and they just teach a lot of traditional activities. In January they learned how to make kimchi (i missed it but this would've been great seeing how Koreans LOVE kimchi). This month was kite making. The theory is that you make your own kite around the Lunar New Year. You write what you hope for for the new year... your wishes, hopes, dream, as well as what you DON'T want. Then you fly the kite high in the sky :)
The bus for the Temple picked us up from the Nopodong terminal (the main subway/bus termainal in Busan) around 1:30 and took
us the Temple.
It was so beautiful. The 'see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil' statue was in the entrance of the Temple property. Gotta love it....pretty fitting I think. Then in front of the Temple itself were these big hand symbols. I know they are very important and mean something in the Buddhist religion... I just haven't figured out what yet. Whenever I see the symbol, the des
cription was written in Korean... but I will find out!! I wanted to take pictures when we were in the temple, however I am not sure if we were allowed,
and I wasn't about to be the one who was disrespecting Buddha :)
Once in the Temple, there were about 35 people all sitting in about 3 big circles on mats. We had a piece of thick paperish type material in the diamond kite shape, 2 sticks, markers, string, and then we were instructed, step by step, how to make a kite :) It was a lot of fun. My friend Gillian took pictures of the process... I'll have to get them from her. The hardest part was thinking of what to draw on it... what do I want this year? Love (maybe not from someone else, just love within myself), health, my family to be safe, healthy, happy, success (if not in money then in finding what I want to do with my life), things like that. I used symbols in representing it all.
Some of the kites were really elaborate and beautiful... mine looked like a 9 year old colored on it lol. I'm sooooo not arti
stically talented :) But it was still fun. Then we went outside to fly them :)
Luckily it was a nice/semi-windy day. The picture on the left shows most of the group flying their kites... it was a bit crowded so my friends and I went into a different area. My kite didn't like me at all. First it wouldn't go up for the life of me (i was sooo frusterated), then once it finally got up, the string got crossed with some of the other fliers causing a lot of complications in the sky lol. Then finally the string on the spool was yanked, broke, and my kite flew away to a far far away land without me... :( I hope that doesn't mean bad luck this year... I was actually hoping to keep the kite to put on my wall for decoration. Oh well. At least Gillian and Christina had fun (though Christina's kite flew away also later). Next class in March is calligraphy. That should be fun!!
This past weekend was Independence Day here in Korea (when they were freed from Japan during the war way back when). In Haeundae Beach, they host a big bonfire event called Moonrise Hot Spring Festival. Since Haeundae is the most popular beach in all Korea, I was very curiou
s to see how crowded it would get and what would happen there. The 2 nights before the festival, a friend of mine arrived in town, so we spent the evening roaming the streets of Haeundae. First off, I would like to point out the toilet in his hotel room...the most complicated/wierd/yet cleanest toilet in the world.... Yes, there is a wash or spray for everything a
nd I do mean... EVERYTHING... lol. And yes you can get a massage as well while you're sitting on the toilet lol. I almost fell to the floor laughing!! Definitely the highlight of my night.
So yea we and I just bounced around the streets all night... almost looks like Christmas doesn't it? I will always be fascinated in the fact that drinking, is an older, successful mans job. In Korea, it is customary to drink Soju or beer when you have dinner out, and with co-workers. You will often find adult men in their 50-70's pass
ed out on the street, or roaming the streets completely beligerant. This is a lot more common/accepted than seeing the younger generation out getting drunk (though they do too, trust me... but most live with their parents so I believe they control it a little it more). So yes we took a picture with this older man who was sooo excited to be talking to foreigners (though neither of us could really understand each other). I was a bit surprised he looked normal for the photo lol. At one point we ended up at a very popular 'foreigner' bar
called Fuzzy Navel (great name right). I'd heard about it but never been. There, I was 'forced' to take their famous flame shot. They piled glasses up to make a pyramid, put a shot glass on top, layered it with about 5 liquors, and then managed to put the whole thing on fire...and when I say fire, I don't mean a little flame, I mean you have to stand back 6 feet because the whole thing will blow up!!. The is a little bit of liquor on the top of each glass. The bartender, River (whom we became great friends with) , lit the top of the shot on fire, took a drink of some strong liquor, dunked his finger tips in the liquor, lit his fingers on fire, and then spit the liquor in his mouth through the fire on his finger tips and onto the shot,
creating a HUGE explosion and creating a flame on top of all the glasses. It was the first time I'd seen something this big!! U gotta see the video to believe it. Pretty cool! Needless to say I was a bit tipsy after that.
The next day, I decided I was going to explore a bit more. My friend Tina and I had previously walked around Haeundae beach but only in 1 direction, I was going to walk in another direction... plus I really wanted to exercise a bit :) This walk turned into a long 1 1/2 hour walk a
long the beach, up/over/through a hill, around a lighthouse, traditional Korean gazebo type things, a fishing area, and the APEK building. It was a GREAT WALK!! The APEK building was pretty interesting. You got to see the seats of the representatives from about 30 countries around the world. It tell you a little bit about the building, the surroundings, etc. Outside of the building is a little trail area and there are glass statue type things of every country and something that represents that country... naturally the U.S. had an eagle. Though I enjoy my walks alone, I can't wait to come back on a non-cloudy day with a friend and take really cool photos. It was beautiful!
On my way back, I noticed this HUGE pile on the beach of what looked like pine branches. I honestly couldn't tell what it was. There is a huge branch coming off the top, and about 20 kites flying off the very top of it.
I knew there was going to be a bonfire the next night for the Moonrise Festival, but Wow... this was gonna be a HUGE bonfire :) I was so excited!!
The next day (Sunday) I went to a break dancing competition with my friend Lacey (I think it's awesome to have a girl friend who break dances!). On my way into Busan, I saw this mini marching band in the middle of the
street playing around in circles... wonderful colors! lol I have no idea what they were practicing for or what or when but it looked pretty funny. Only in Korea :)
I met up with Lacey and some of her other friends in Nopodong. There were surpisingly a lot of foreigners at this competition. There were about 20 or so teams of break dancers and they literally just battled each other 2 at a time. It was so funny. The MC would talk inbetween each battle and I often caught myself listening in deep concentration.... I couldn't understand a word (besides please and thank you) lol but I listened just like I could. I thought it was pretty funny. The break dancers were actually VERY good! I was impressed and entertained for sure! I love dancing :) I think next weekend we are actually going to another dance thing... not sure what yet but the we got free tickets so I'm in!! :)
After break dancing, I met Gillian back in Haeundae for the Moonrise Hot Spring Festival :) It was definitely a sight to see. When we arrived, we saw the bonfire, it had just got lit. This pic
ture doesn't do it justice of how big it eventually got. But this gives you an idea of the setup, how many people were there (thousands!!)
It was crazy trying to walk around. In Korea, the older (as we call senior citizens) get the most respect out of anyone. If they are walking, you let them go in front of you. If you don't let them through, they know they deserve to be first so they will elbow their way through a crowd... heck they elbow their way through a crowd no matter what, no matter where. Those little Hazumas (old women) are brutal!! If there is a line, they will push your back forward making you push the people in front of you, until
there is a slight break where they will then push you aside so they can walk through. I know this is very customary and traditional, but this may be the one thing I will neve
r get used to. I've seen people fall over from being elbowed or pushed aside and the old people don't care. It's soo rude!! ANYWAY... Gillian and I managed to get pushed through a crowd to where we could see a little bit of the traditional Korean dancing and singing on the beach. It was quite lovely.
As I continue to enjoy and explore this new foreign land and culture, I'v
e really taken the time to enjoy the little things. Everyday, I take a bus to school or a bus into the city. Every single bus driver waves to each and every other bus they pass on the road. I don't know why but this just makes me smile. Listening to my kids call each other 'Unie" and "Opa" (meaning big sister and big brother). If there is a boy in your class that is 3 months older than you, you refer to him as your big brother. I understand calling friends who are older that but it's funny hearing the kids say it when they're literally the same age. As I buy food at the local grocery store, I am often just stared at... for no reason, just that I'm foreign, but blunt stareing lol. It warms my heart a little and I don't know why. Our culture is so different in so many little ways that you'll never know of until you see the opposite somewhere else. When I am out to dinner with people, I have to slurp my soup as loud as I can. If I do not slurp (and yes make the big slurping sound), it is considered an insult that you are not enjoying your meal... in America, we learn it is rude to slurp. I feel like I learn so much everyday. Culture, traditions, and language. I love roaming the streets and watching the cars drive by, knowing that they will all run the red light in front of me (apparently rules on road are purely just optional. This is very common) and know that if I am not walking far enough over on the sidewalk, I will get honked at. Forget the idea that the car move over a little... Oh no... I need to be shoulder to wall on the sidewalk lol. NEVER a dull moment in Korea :)
As I head to bed, I wanted
to share with you that I am still having minor issues in the grocery store. I really need to learn hangul (korean alphabet) cause I can not figure out what ANYTHING is in there!! lol But still managed to survive (i love that it's cheaper to eat out than to eat at home... I just wish fruites and veggies weren't so expensive!!!). But I manage to get by. I make things similar to the picture... little salads (which can be quite colorful as u can see), and potato soup with tofu, lots of fruit salad with yogurt, boxed food, instant rice, stir fry, frozen potsticker dumplings which I can make on the stove things like this :) I haven't even attempted the meat yet. I can say chicken (dalc) and beef (sogogee) but it looks completely different. One day I'll have to figure it all out... and I"m looking forward to it!
mmm. I was so happy :) We stayed there a bit, and then ventured into Kyungsun (when I say we, I mean my friend Gillian and Tina, in the pic, and my friend Albert, who is kinda my neighbor). I had never been to Kyungsun so that was fun. We wound up at a dance club and danced till 5AM!!! I am pretty sure that Korea is the first and only place I've been in my life where time flies EVERYWHERE all the TIME! My 2 months here have flown by, my days at school go by quickly, my nights on the town fly by... I can't tell what time is around here. I don't know if that's good or bad.
ed to be really good and she got free tickets. I had no idea what to expect and I was BLOWN AWAY!!! It was sooooo great. It was literally a musical... kinda. No singing and no talking. Just acting and dancing about a ballerina who fell for a break dancer. It was really funny! And sooooo entertaining They were REALLY GOOD!! It was one of the best shows I'd been to in a long time. I LOVED IT!!
