Weekend With Sohee

One of our first exploratory excursions we embarked on when we arrived in Korea was a trip to Busan. We booked a cheap hotel, our first love motel, and had an eventfully long ride down to the port city. For our last excursion we thought it would be fun to go full circle and head down to the same area and see how our experiences and the connections we had made here had changed us from the newbie expats we were two years ago.

This time we met our friend and co-worker Sohee and had her show us around since Busan is her town.

Busan is such a blast because it doesn't have just one city center like Daegu, instead it has many centers all with their own unique twist.  For this visit we were in the Nampo area.

We met Sohee at the Nampo subway stop Saturday early afternoon and started our adventure with shopping. We stopped by a few stores and then stopped for a snack for the best hoddeok in all of Busan.

 Shopping....

 Sohee and I

We waited in line for about ten minutes before we could have our own hoddeok.

Here they are being cooked in  A LOT of butter. It is fried dough with cinnamon and sugar on the inside. When it is finished they cut it open and shove a variety of seeds inside. 

Worth the wait

Here is a close up picture. You can see the seeds and cinnamon and sugar. DELICIOUS! 

After the tasty treat we walked around some more. Nick bought this awesome hat.  He'd been talking about trying to get a hat with Hangol on it for a while now, but oddly enough, those are difficult to find in the regular shopping areas. What's not difficult to find are hats with the F word on them, go figure.

It says handsome man, or flower guy. LOL

He also tried on this coat!  He actually tried on many others but this one was the only one that fit him. He's not a skinny Korean man. I loved it and thought it was worth the money. Nick's first comment was that Lon (his dad) would kill him if he wore it to church. We didn't get it but we had a great time shopping.

Next stop was bottomless sushi and sashimi! Nick has never tried sashimi until today. He always thought it would taste fishy, which is an abominable flavor for him, but it doesn't. He tried Fatty Tuna first and liked it so he had another.  They had another kind of sashimi that was right up his ally that was topped with beef, a little onion, and some sort of steak sauce. Not something I was familiar with but it was delicious!

Nick had just put the sashimi in his mouth!

Group photo!

Our next stop was dessert which happened to be macaroon ice cream. You get to pick the color of your macaroon and then the flavor Ice cream you want. I chose red with cookies and cream and Nick chose blue with mint.  His was better.

 Before

After

Dessert was delicious but wasn't as exciting as the activity that followed. We went to the fish market and checked out the many kinds of everything!

 There was so much water on the floor that my socks got wet!

 Huge crabs!

 Different kinds of clams.

 This lady picked up an Octopus for us! SO COOL!!!

A clam decided to escape from his tank. We tried to pick him up but we were stopped by the ajumma because the clams were super expensive and she didn't want anything to happen to it.

Later, Sohee took us down to Songdo beach right as the sun was going down. It was beautiful. In the water they had fake whales and dolphins that looked like they were jumping.

 You can see the dolphins back there

Sohee and I at the beach

 A cool picture of me and the lights

The bridge with color changing lights

The bridge takes you to a small island (called turtle island because it looks like a turtle) with statues of turtles and this man trying to reach the mermaid. 

 mermaid killing Nick

 Sohee riding a turtle

We had a great time at the beach and in Busan. We are so grateful that Sohee took us to some of her favorite shops and restaurants and that we didn't have a repeat of the snomit incident.  I guess the only sad thing is that they removed the caped frog that used to greet us upon our arrival.  Capped Frog, you will be missed. On the other hand, we had a blast and made some memories we will never forget.

That Buddha Temple on the Sea

Leaving Jeju was rather uneventful. Our Ferry made it to Mokpo late and we had to get up really early to catch the first bus out of there.  Because we wanted to make the most of our time but also didn't want to drag a butt load of luggage around the country, we had to go back to our apartment and pick up bags before we went to Busan.  It ended up being a day spent inside a bus. We were so tired.

 When we made it to Busan we were staying in a completly different area than we usually do. Seomyeon was a great area because it was between everything we wanted to do. We only had one full day to explore so we did as much as we could. We chose to go to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (해동 용궁사) the temple on the sea just because its been one of our favorite places to visit on the Korean peninsula.

 On our walk to the entrance we ran into the Zodiac statues. Mom is a Ram and Don's a Monkey.

There are some cute wishing wells a way off from a bridge. If your coin made it in it brings you good luck... Nick made it in and everyone that saw cheered for him.

We made it to the beach and collected some sea shells. If you look at the left side of the picture you can see us. Nick's in a yellow shirt, I'm is coral Shirt and Valerie is in gray. 

We tried out some new ice cream.  Here in Korea we hove found out there are many ways to ice cream.  One way we have tried here is the type that is made with liquid nitrogen, which is quite fun to watch, like watching a science experiment in action.  That style is actually pretty popular, you've probably heard about it back there in the States.  That picture up there is of ice cream made in a very different way.  You've probably been to Coldstone or something similar where they take the ice cream and place it on a cold marble slab and mix ingredients into it, well these guys took it a step further.  They mix flavoring into a cream and then pour that onto a cold metal plate and then work it over until it's all frozen.  We liked this way better than the liquid nitrogen, which has a tendency to be buttery in texture.

Early the next morning Mom and Don left :( Vacation was over, it had happened so fast and it was so amazing. We loved having them here and showing them some of our favorite places and going to some places we had never been to before. They gave us the excuse we needed to travel Korea.

Fantastic Weekend

Nick and I just had a fantastic weekend! We were invited over to our Korean branch building, which we are zoned for, for a barbeque. We were told it was from 2-4 so we ate a small early breakfast before we left. The bus to Miryang is about a 1 hour ride. When you arrive the church is right next to the bus terminal. We were early, but it was fun to talk with all the missionaries who were also there for the activity. We soon found out that the food wasn't until after the activity :( We were starving!

When the it finally started we were separated into three teams. We played rock, paper, scissors with our feet.

I was chosen to represent our team in the booty bump war, with the other women from the two other teams. One was a child... Before we started I apologized to both of them because there isn't a tiny Korean booty out there that could take on my booty..... everybody laughed as I shot my opponents across the room. 

Guess you can say I kicked butt at this game and earned my team some points!!
After the indoor activities we moved outside for an obstacle course. Each team had five couples and each couple had to go through the whole course. Did I mention it was raining?? First you had to get into potato sacks and jump to the next station while holding hands with your partner. Once you made it to the bobbing for apple station, you had to bob for an apple then break it in half using your hands, then eat it before moving on to the next obstacle. Nick was awesome and quickly sank his teeth into the apple and came out soaking wet. He also broke the apple in half using his hands (I was really impressed). The next obstacle was for one of us to carry the other to the limbo rope. Nick bent down for me to jump on his back, when I was on he couldn't get up... he says his feet were slipping in the mud.. the audience is laughing as I hit him and have him jump on my back. I ran for the limbo rope, we held hands and went under. Next finding a piece of candy buried in a pan of flour. I let Nick take this one and I wasn't disappointed. After he got the candy super quick  we ran for the balloons. I blew one up and we ran back to the beginning where we had to pop it by hugging back to back. Once that was done we tagged the next couple, and this video happen.

Of course our team came in first place!!! We had so much fun cheering each other on, okay maybe it was just me yelling at them to move faster... Not sure... I'm not competitive at all.

We moved the activity back inside and had an amazing barbeque. There were POTS full of  marinated bulgogi, and yummy boar's meat. We ate till we couldn't put another bite into our mouths, even though we wanted too, it was that good! They even gave us some meat for the road.

We left Miryang on the train going to Busan. We checked into our love motel and went shopping.
We slept in the next morning which was kinda nice. We took our time packing back up and getting ready for a Korean wedding. We felt so blessed to be able to attend a Korean wedding. It was really awesome.

With luck we found the right hotel along with the correct floor, and room, and I mean it took a little luck. Our Korean is nonexistent. After standing around awkwardly being the only foreigners in the room we were spotted by the groom who saved us from our awkward insecurity and took us to see the bride. So they have a little separate room where the bride sits and all the guests, as they arrive, come and get their picture taken with her.  Here's me with the bride's sister, they both are so beautiful.

 The bride, Ga-hee, she is the sister of our friend and co-worker Sohee.

Sorry this picture is fuzzy, I think it is a picture of the picture that was taken professionally.

After picture we met the parents of the bride and gave our gift of money at the money table. They have white envelopes that you put your money into and then record how much you gave and your name. We also received tickets for the buffet lunch after the wedding.

The Mothers of the bride and groom walked first and lit the candles then sat down.  They were dressed in beautiful hanboks. Then the groom walked and got in place. The bride was walked down the aisle by her father and given to the groom after he bowed and shook the father's hand. Even though we didn't understand the words it was still emotional and beautiful to watch. After they were married they turned and bowed to each other, then, bowed to each set of parents.  During this bow to the parents, the groom did a very respectful bow with his hands knees on the ground and his forehead on his hands.  I imagine that a more traditional ceremony would have had the bride also bow this deeply but in a wedding dress it's difficult to do anything but sit and stand. After the ceremony the couple stayed standing in the front while people performed various talents for them and us. They had a violinist, two teenage girls (who appeared to be related to the grom somehow) who danced, and then a bunch of young men (we think friends of the groom) got up and did an amazing dance/taekwondo performance. The groom joined in and it was hilarious and awesome. After, they cut the cake with a short sword.

When it was all over they walked back down the aisle as streamer cannons were shot off towards them. They came back in for pictures, then we went for food!

I tried everything that I possibly could. We had a great time discovering what things were. When we finished our second, maybe even thirds, we left for the bus station. We saw this outside. Wow they know how to decorate the get-away car!

We are so grateful for the opportunity to attend the wedding and to meet Sohee's family, it made our weekend entertaining and enlightening.

Vacation Season

We have entered the seasons of vacations which is nice but it is bittersweet since it is the herald of the end of summer and the start of the cold weather.  The weather isn't the only thing that is changing around here, actually our little English Village is morphing as well.  We recently bid farewell to our British friends who came to the end of their contract and are now beginning their new adventure being repatriated . 

It has been weird not having them around as they seemed like such a staple here in Korea, but that is the way of the temporary job.  Soon our Canadian friends will be going back home as well and it'll just be us Americans here.  I will miss the diversity. 
That weekend one of our korean friends took us out to a fantastic chicken restaurant in Chang-nyeong. I'll tell you what, I will be going back there again the chicken was so good. During the meal I decided to get a little crazy and try one of the little dried fishes they served us as a side dish.

I am definitely one wild and crazy gal!

The beginning of fall also brings Korea's biggest holiday, Chuseok (추석).  This holiday is comparable to the American Thanksgiving as it is a harvest festival but it is so much more than that.  Chuseok is a three day holiday that involves remembering the ancestors.  During the holiday Koreans travel to their ancestral hometowns.  Interestingly enough this translates to an abandoning of the major cities and a swelling of population for the small towns that dot the countryside.  The people then go and pay their respects to their ancestors who are attributed with granting a successful and prosperous harvest.  They then go to the grave sites of their next of kin to clean and maintain those sites.  Afterward they gather together for a feast of the harvest and family time. 

For us, though, Chuseok is a great long weekend.  We decided that we have been away from the beach too long , so we made reservations to stay near the beach in Busan.  Before the holiday though I spent some time and decorated my classroom because, dag-namit, it needed to be done.  Checkout the pics to see the transformation and the awesomeness!

It was so ugly before I started, you have no idea!

I painstakingly forced Nick to cut those suckers out and then hang them for me.  It was hard work!!

The finished wall! Ain't it purdy?

I also had Nick tack all those stars containing the state names and their Capitols claiming I was to short to reach that high.

We decided to leave Chang-nyeong on Tuesday night to try and beat traffic we thought would be worse on Wednesday. Once we arrived we hit the subway and an hour later we arrived at Haeundae Beach. We found our hotel, dropped our stuff off and went to the beach. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect. We sat and listened to the ocean for a while.           

The subway ride was an hour long... we got bored :)

Our hotel was amazing! It offered free juice, water, popcorn, breakfast, slushies, and more. The only thing we had a hard time with was the bed because it was hard and uncomfortable.

           We explored a few new places near the beach. We went to Haedong Yonggung Temple. It was really beautiful! As we walked around we saw a Buddha, Nick told me to rub his stomach so I did. After, we walked around him we read the sign that he was the ‘Buddha of Granting a Son’. We both laughed really hard, but it will be hilarious if our first child is a boy!  We will have only our selves and our inability to keep our hands to ourselves to blame. The temple was so beautiful, but what made it so beautiful was the ocean

 Korea needs more of these monuments

 The infamous Baby Boy Buddha.

If you learn one thing from this blog it should be to not go around touching strange Buddha's bellies.

 And of course the obligatory billion stairs that are required at every temple! (Cursed stairs)

           After the temple we decided to explore a little. We didn't go back the way we came. We took an ocean side road that was BEAUTIFUL! We ran into men fishing and deserted beaches. We saw a lot of crabs and other creatures. We finally popped out and took a bus back to our hotel’s area.

Let's play Spot The Creature! Ten Points to the First person who can Identify the  mobile creature in the picture!

           The next day we spent the whole day at the beach playing in the waves and sand. Nick dug a huge whole which later turned into a small pool and he made two little friends. They played and dug together. The little boy spoke good English with his parents’ encouragement. The little girl was shy and didn’t say much. After the long beach day we went back and got ready for a date. We purchased tickets to go see Korean traditional music and dance. We loved getting more into the Korean culture as we watched the performance and although we don’t know most of what was being said, we still laughed with the audience and had a great time.

           The next day we went to the largest department store, Shinsegae Centum City. There we went cloths shopping and ice skating. Nick only fell twice, Lauren zero. After we went back to our hotel and did a bunch of nothing.

our "Do Nothing Bed"

 The largest "Department Store" in the World... It's really just a mall.

Nick Modeling some FABULOUS orange skinny jeans

 He could maybe pass for a European here

Nick being an uncoordinated penguin on the ice skating rink.

           Saturday morning we went shopping for some food at Home Plus and E-Mart then we headed back home. We really enjoyed our vacation time, but we especially enjoyed learning more about the Korean culture.

P.s. This blog was mostly written by Nick!