Happy Canada Day!

So its been a while since I've posted on here. I'm still alive and well but haven't been doing all that much. The constant stimulation of things that seemed to be so new in the beginning are blending together and just seem normal now - so to speak. I do catch myself saying "only in Korea" a lot though. For example, I was walking home from the gym yesterday and went by a new bakery that just opened up down the street from me. New stores seem to pop up everyday around here (and ones I've come familiar to get torn down just as easily). Anyways - there was a promotional booth set up with a spin wheel to get prizes. I was checking it out to see if it was worth me trying to cross the language barrier and finagle a way to get some free stuff from when something caught the corner of my eye. I was surprised to see a man on stilts staring down at me on the other side of the wheel dressed up like a giant baguette yelling "Hello, I love you!!" lol I giggled and thought to myself "only in Korea" - then went on my way. It's the land of randomness which is probably why time here has flown by so quickly. I've been here for almost 8 months which is mind boggling to me. I don't think my mind has really slowed down since I got here. Like I said, it's constant simulation - lights flashing - cars here - random men on stilts over there - it's endless. I find myself looking more and more forward to my travels after I leave here when i'll be out on a beach somewhere with no one else there but me and the fish in the ocean... and my ipod of course. It'll probably take me being back in Canada before I have time to digest that I lived overseas for a year. I do miss Canada though - my family, friends, old co-workers, Tim Hortons, driving, fresh air... etc. It was a nice surprise this past weekend when some Canadian (and American) friends and I partook in some Canada Day events. One of the pubs here was serving ceasars! Anyone who's ever worked/gone out with me can vouch for how much I love those delicious contagious drinks. I ended up ordering two of them - and later found out they were 8,500 won each which is equal to two days worth of food... but it was totally worth it. I enjoyed every savory sip! I didn't order it, but I was also surprised to see they were serving poutine in celebration of Canada's 144th birthday. They were also having a Canada Day concert which I opted out of too because it was such a beautiful day for the beach. It was nice to meet so many fellow Canuks celebrating Canada Day in their own way no matter where we went that day. And, it was even nicer to feel so close to home even though I'm so far away.

At school I brought in a bunch of mini Canadian flags for my students that my old co-workers gave to me before I left. My kids were so excited to get them - they were shaking them around in the air through out the hallways all day. The American guy I sit next to thought it was a bit much, but I just laughed and told him to lighten up. Here's a picture of some of my older kids with the giant flag I brought in.... we also had a work function after school and my flag ended up making a guest appearance there too. Ok - maybe I did over do it a little. What can I say, I'm a proud Canadian :)

Student's Trip

A funny thing happened in class today. One of my students had taken a family vacation to Singapore last week and today was his first day back. Naturally I asked him how his trip was and if he saw anything interesting. He said Singapore was a really beautiful country and the people were very nice, but there were too many rules. When I asked him to explain he kept going on how there were too many to name. My curiosity grew as Singapore is one of the places I might be travelling to after my adventures here in S. Korea. He painfully went on to say that they weren’t allowed to litter, spit, or smoke in public...

That just goes to show things here are definitely different than Canada.  

Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival



This picture reminded me of my mom:)



I’m getting behind on my blog entries!!  I went to a Cherry Blossom Festival early April to check out the famous cherry blossoms in full bloom. Everyone that’s been here long enough to see them has said that I need to check them out. Trees in blossom can be seen all over Busan, but Jinhae (a city about a 1.5 hour bus ride outside of Busan) is renowned for them. If there’s ever a place where you want to get blown away from the quantity and beauty of the blossoms, Jinhae is the place to go.

One of my girlfriends and I left around 930 in the morning and arrived just before noon. Our bus ride to the “country side” was quite nice on its own. I have country side in quotations because we followed a 6 lane high way the whole way there so we weren’t that far off the beaten path, that’s for sure. The sights of the mountains along the way were beautiful. The landscape was a different story. It might just be the time of year, but I have yet to see an actual green landscape here. It’s always been yellow and brown which isn't as easy on the eyes.



View from the top



Some of the many stairs
we climbed



Upon arrival we hopped off the bus and debated where we should go first. On one side of the street was the obvious way to go – it was lined with street venders in what seemed to be a closed off street for the event. On the other side of the street was a tower of stairs that we hoped would lead us to a view of the city. We decided to do that first. It might after all give us a bearing on where we wanted to go.  We had no idea we were about to take a step to signify every day of the year. After 365 steps we finally reached the top – well, what we thought was the top anyways. There was another tower, with about 9 more flights of stairs that we decided to climb. Hey - why not! It ended up being well worth it. The view of the city, mountains, and ocean all coming together was amazing.

After poking around a bit, we went back down the main area where we tickled around some more. There were tons of kiosks shops and places to eat. We ended up getting some kabobs from one of the vendors to fill our stomaches after our crusade of the steps. We had an idea on where we wanted to go next from looking things up on the internet beforehand, it was just a matter of finding it. There was one place in particular I wanted to see - it was a bridge with blossoms that bowed down in bunches on either side. There were quite a bit of foreigners there, so we had no trouble at all finding someone who knew where to go. Once we got to the famous bridge, we had to take a minute to gather our thoughts as it was just that beautiful. I assure you, the pictures I took couldn’t capture how amazing they really were. Granted, if the streets hadn’t been littered with venders and people it would have been nicer, but it’s Korea – that seems to be the norm here.

We also stumbled across a park not far from the bridge, which was less crowded and more my stride. Here are some of the pictures I ended up taking.  

 

 

 

Our trip ended with a 1.5 hour wait to catch a bus back to the city and a 4 hour drive. Traffic was bad, and I think we decided to leave at the same time everyone else did. We couldn’t really complain though because the line up behind us grew to about twice its original size when we got in it. All in all it was a beautifully scenic day!

Temple Stay

This past weekend I decided to take some time off of being such a social butterfly and take in some well needed rest and Korean culture. I told one of my friends about it and she jumped at the chance. We booked ourselves in for a 2 day/1 night temple stay at one of the biggest temples in Korea - Beomeosa.  The temple is situated on top of Mount Geumjeongsan. It was just a short subway ride away and an even shorter bus ride from my house. It probably only took about an hour to get to it when it was all said and done. The bus ride up the lower portion of the mountain was a god send. I couldn’t imagine walking up that and having enough energy to explore the rest of it. The streets on the way up were lined with cherry blossom trees that were almost in bloom so the view was gorgeous. There were quite a bit of people out and about - all of them dressed in their neon pink and green hiking suits which made me giggle. 
It took us a bit before we figured out where to sign in, but like most things here, we eventually figured it out. There were 4 other foreigners and about 10 Koreans that were participating in the temple stay with us. Basically a temple stay is just when you stay in a temple over night and you get a glimps of what it is to be a Buddhist. The activities planned for us got underway shortly after we arrived. We started off with the dreaded "sit in a circle and introduce yourself" thing. I thought after standing in front of a room full of strange kids that my heart wouldn't dramatically increase in speed as it got closer to my time to speak - but it did. Granted, it wasn't as bad as it usually is. I think there's still hope for me:)
After we all said our piece one of the Monks came in and introduced himself (all in Korean, of course). There was a translator on hand but unfortunately she wasn't as great as the website said. It ended up being her first time doing it and she kept apologizing how lost she was in everything. The only thing she was really clear on is that most of the time there we were not allowed to talk. There was an itinerary in English that we ended up following pretty closely so at least we had that to go by. We learned some temple etiquette and after we learned how to formally great a Monk he left and came back in and we did a little chant. Then we all sat down for some tea and the Monk took questions from everyone. At this point I really wished that I understood Korean. The foreigners could only read the faces of the Korean participants but knew the Monk was saying interesting and probably insightful things. Not long after that we took a walk through the grounds to their dinner hall. It caught me off guard because there was an actual bank machine just outside of the doors. I guess even temples need funding!
By this time I was starving and still unsure what a "traditional temple meal" consisted of. We all sat down in two parallel lines with the Monk at the head of the table. In front of us was a page of instructions on how to eat... which consisted of 27 steps. This should be fun. I had to remind my now growling stomach that this is all a part of the experience. The translator was nowhere in sight. I guess this made sense because this was also one of the times we weren't allowed to speak. Step 1 - don't have wondering eyes. Great – In hopes not to offend anyone I made use of my peripheral vision and creepy side glances to watch what my neighbours were doing to make sure I was doing it right. Or, that we were at least not messing it up more than they were.

We had four bowls in front of us. One was each a bit larger than the next. The smallest was for side dishes, the next smallest for "rinsing" water, the next one for soup, and the largest was for rice. They all had to be arranged on the floor a certain way. The monk was served first, which was good because then we could just follow what he did. I was never really good at written instructions. Before accepting anything you bowed down to the floor facing the server and held out your bowl. Before placing it in front of you, you had to put the bowl to your head as thanks and then place in on the specific spot on the floor. I couldn’t help but think of my serving days and how this would never happen back home. When eating, we were instructed to always have the bowl in front of our mouths so no one could see how much or how little you were eating at a time. There was also no mixing of rice and side dishes. After we were finished, we had to put some “rinsing” water in our first "rice bowl" and tossed in a piece of pickled radish. With our chopsticks we had to manoeuvred it around the bowls in attempt to "clean" up all the sticky residue left behind. After we were satisfied with the cleanliness of it, we dumped the gunk (for lack of a better word) into the next bowl and did the same time. This was done for each of the bowls. The last bowl that collected all the gunk of the other bowls was considered our dessert. That's right, we had to drink it. It's definitely not a shot that I'd ever recommend to the general public that's for sure! We then took water from our "rinsing bowl" and give each of our bowls/chopsticks one final rinse, but this time we could use our hands for a more thorough clean. I know what you’re thinking, but no - we didn't have to drink this water, that would just be dirty! My hands are always so dirty here – everyone’s are! I’m always so thankful that everything pre-packaged to eat is accessible to consume without any direct contact of my hands. Anyways, back to the story... We emptied our remaining water into a communal bucket. There were chunks of things all through it from everyone's bowls. It literally looked like a big bucket of backwash and made me want to gag. The monk said something and one of the other participants loosely translated it to "look at all the food we wasted, now we drink because". I was glad everyone laughed because there was no way I would/could do that. I was happy at that moment I was only a tourist in all of this because we found out after that is what the Monks have to do.

After a short visit at one of the temple rooms to do some chants we were escorted back to our main hall where we were given a package of beads and a string. On the website it said that we were making 108 beads. No matter where you go here in Korea you can usually find temple prayer beads so I thought we were going to take a few hours and make a bunch of them while relaxing and resting on our own. The name of the stay was after all "Rest and Relaxing". I thought it was a little odd that we were only given one package of beads, but figured it was just the way they had it set up and we would get more after. They gave us a tooth pick and told us to thread it through every bead. Everyone was pretty chill - most of us hadn't changed out of our outside clothes because everyone was still talking and warming up from being outside. A lady came in with a giant bamboo stick and started clapping it – I remember thinking to myself “this is kind of random”. I had no idea what was going on, but we were instructed to bow. I finally caught on - we were going to bow for every bead that was going on to this necklace. We didn't even have time to take our jackets off before they started! I was sweating up a storm. We barely had 30 seconds to go into a full on bow to the ground, put a bead on the string, then stand back up - just to do the whole thing over again. Did I mention we had to do this 108 times? I really wasn't expecting it. But I will say, I’ve never been so proud of every bead on that necklace I made before. I'll also appreciate all the work that goes into the ones I see around from now on, too.
Not long after our bead frenzy the men were separated from the women and we were put to sleep. It was 9:00 so I feel I can say “put to sleep”. I can't even think of the last time I went to bed that early, especially since moving here. My school hours are from 2-9 so I usually go to bed around 2 in the morning and wake up around 10 or so. It's been the norm for me here. So, going to bed at 9 was a bit of a stretch. I had to keep on reminding myself of the schedule though... we were expected to get up at 3am for another drum ceremony and more prayers the next day. The bedding was brand new and made of silk and in bright pastel colors. It consisted of a mat, a comforter, and a pillow made of barley. It ended up being one of the best sleeps I’ve had here. Even though I woke up once thinking I was in a POW camp. The hall we all slept in was pitch black which is something I've longed to sleep in since I moved here. It was kinda funny cause the lights were turned off so unexpectedly that one of the Korean women was still changing into her pj's when the lights went out. She opened the door from the change room to the hall and said "Oh.. My, God!" as she stumbled around. Everyone had a good chuckle before trying to fall asleep.
At 3am sharp the lights turned back on. Everyone got up in what felt like 5 seconds. I guess I needed a little more time to adjust than my hall buddies. We were given strict instructions that we weren't to talk or wash our face before we went to the drum ceremony and finished the morning ritual. It was raining at the time so they had little disposable rain jackets for us to wear as we watched the Monks drum. The sound was almost transient. I have to say, it was pretty cool to watch. After we were done we went into another temple were there were 108 mini Buda statues and we did some more prayers. The sun was coming up by now. We had a bit of a break before heading up a rocky trail to some temples on a higher part of the mountain. The monk apologized for not having a better translator and then went into a big explanation on what all the symbols on the building were. It's a shame I didn't understand more. I did catch from one of the Korean participants that knew a little English say that the statues near one of the temples is made up of Monks ashes. The statue almost glistened in the light with tiny crystal like stones that are apparently found in the remains of cremated Monks. The stones are believed to embody the spiritual knowledge, teachings, realizations or living essence of the spiritual masters they belonged to. I'm glad I caught that much (after google-ing it when I came home), but it really made me wonder what other interesting things I missed.  
After our trek we had breakfast which was the same ritual as dinner from the night before. But this time we washed our bowls in a sink after our "dessert" and they also gave us some pre-mixed coffee which was a nice surprise. When we did the bucket thing again there were hardly any loose pieces, but it still didn’t look like anything you could pay me to drink.
I'm really glad I decided to go on this adventure even though there was a bit of a language barrier.  There wasn't any one part of it that I didn't enjoy. My eyes went in wide open. I didn't take any pictures while I was there, but my friend that came with me ended up taking a lovely picture of the wardrobe we had to wear while staying there. I was thinking of getting the same thing in purple cause it was just that flattering. lol
... until next time! 

Lunar New Year

 

The Chinese Lunar New Year fell on February 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th this year so we were fortunate enough to have a 5 day weekend.  One of my girlfriends and I decided it would be a great chance to head up to Seoul and explore around. The city itself is enormous... it has around 11 million people in it. We did so many things and were still only able to scratch the surface on all the things there are to do there.

Day one



We took the KTX there so it only took about 2.5 hours. I’m told the train goes about 300mph so it was nothing at all to get up there. Once we arrived I remember taking a deep breath as we squeezed our way to the nearest entrance of a subway. It was absolutely nuts. A few co-workers told me that it wouldn’t be very busy because most people go out of town to visit family so I guess we had it easy. I couldn’t imagine coming off the plane from Canada and being welcomed by literally millions of people. Busan was definitely the best choice for me. Anywho, we managed to figure out the subway tickets and were off to our first hostel.



Father and Son getting delicious Mandu



We decided to stay in a 6 bed room so we were bunking with strangers. That was a first for both me and my friend. The rest of the nights we were booked to stay at another hostel but had our own private room. We figured this would be a good experience for us. Everyone that was staying there was so nice, and after seeing our second hostel,  I almost wish we had of stayed bunked with strangers there.

We put our stuff  away and headed to one of the markets to check out the trinkets. After about an hour or so we decided to grab something to eat so we ventured to a Sushi bar. I’ve been craving sushi since I got here!  She’s never had it before but was open. Everything was on a rotating belt that surrounded 4 people creating the delicious mouthfuls of joy. I was in love – yet again – with my food.  Every bite was better than the bite before. The sushi was so melt in your mouth fresh and delectable that not even the pickiest of eaters would turn it away.

Hanok Village

When we got back to the hostel we ended up hanging out with the rest of the people that were staying there and played cards.  An older man from Japan was staying there and he must have thought my cards were dirty cause after we were done playing he took a roll of toilet paper out of the bathroom (they use toilet paper for everything here) and started wiping each individual card one by one. I kept quiet though and just gave my friend a look. Too funny.

Day two

Hanok Village Entrance

We started the day early enough. We wanted to get our bags at our new hostel and go exploring. We started off by visiting Bukchon Hanok Village which showcased traditional Korean houses. Just down the street from that was Changdeokgung Palace. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. We were also lucky enough to creep on a Korean photo shoot. I was literally a few feet away from the photographer at once point. My girlfriend couldn’t stop laughing at me – especially when the photographer turned around and gave me a “what the hell are you doing” smirk lol

Changdeokgung Palace



Changdeokgung Palace

 Day three

We started off slow and eased our way into the day with some more shopping. This time we decided to shop in a more savvy part of town. There were still plenty of vendors in between the shops, but there were also mainstream stores like Forever 21, H&M, and an Apple store. We managed to find an ice cream vendor in the mist of our frenzy that wasn’t going to disappoint. I spotted a sign that said “long Ice cream” and it was definitely not false advertisement as you can see from the pic. The funniest part was that I turned into a walking advertisement after I bought it. Everyone seemed to be staring and trying to ask me where I got it. Too much fun!

 

After wondering around, and spending way too much money, we purchased tickets for NANTA. It was under the top things to do in Seoul so we figured why not see what all the fuss was about. NANTA is a world famous non-verbal performance that’s been going on since 1997 and in 2004 it was even performed on Broadway. It all took place in a kitchen (which was kind of close to home for me) and they used knifes and other kitchen tools to create a beat and built a story line behind it. Even without the use of words there were still laugh in your gut moments that couldn’t be helped. They even involved the audience and pulled random people from the crowed, which was fun. I enjoyed every beat. I’m not so sure my friend did though. She seemed really into it, until I looked over at one point to share in a funny moment and she was dead asleep. I couldn’t help but laugh at her until she woke up. I guess it was something about hearing knifes on a chop board that was transient and put her to right to sleep.





Day four



We started off today the same as every other morning and enjoyed a breakfast sub at subway. We were both ecstatic when we found out on the first day that our hostel was a 5 minute walk from one. It didn’t taste exactly like it does in Canada but it is well worth the 5,000won! We did a little more poking around our hostel-hood before taking the subway to Namsan tower. It’s basically a giant tower that you take a cable car up to and take in all the sights of the city. The one unusual thing about it is that there’s a giant teddy bear museum in the base of it. I mean, what else should you put at the base of a giant tower, right? I couldn’t help but take a few priceless pictures with the famous bears. After we had our fill of the tower we spent our last night on the town and went to a few martini/mojito bars and enjoyed our last night in the big city of Seoul. Even though the KTX station was packed with people when we first arrived I think we got off easy. Usually the streets and subways are overwhelmingly full of traffic and Seoul-sters but we came to see that it was almost like a ghost town. There was one point that we were on the other side of 9 lanes and were able to cross without a vehicle in sight... eerie or what!



Day five

We packed up our bags and checked out of our hostel before noon. We had one last meal at subway before heading on our way home. We still had about 5 hours before it was time to catch our train back so we decided to try and find a locker at the Station to hold our stuff then go to the horse track to see if we could win our weight in money. Luck wasn’t on our side as all the lockers at the Station were full and we were stuck with our extremely heavy backpacks. Neither of us were happy about it. But lo and behold a Korean onlooker came to our rescue, once again, to help us out. Him and his wife asked us if we were looking for a place to put our bags for a few hours and as soon as we said yes they gestured for us to follow them... and so we did! There was a giant department store about 2 minutes from the Station. A woman behind the counter took our bags and gave us a number. It didn’t cost a thing! We figured it must be a service they have for people shopping in their store – I guess we abused that system, but at that point we didn’t care. We were just happy to have Korean insider info on how to be bagless in the big city for free. The nicest thing about them helping us is that they didn’t even need to put their bags aside. They helped us just because we looked lost and helpless in a town that obviously wasn’t our own. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

We then took our bag free bodies to the subway and travelled down the line to the horse track. It ended up being closed but a stop further was Seoul land. I had this in mind for plan B but never really looked too much into it so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It ended up being a zoo and amusement park. We opted out of the amusement park and went for the zoo. It was still pretty cold outside so most of the animals were housed inside. The zoo itself was gigantic and we weren’t able to do all of it before we had to head back to the train station. We were able to see a lot of animals up close and personal though.... and I was also able to get a few photo opt pictures in too. You may laugh at this picture of me, but if you could only see the bewildered look on the kids/parents faces around me you’d laugh even harder.  Some note worthy parts of the zoo was the reptile arena because it reminded me of the Jurassic Park movie. There were giant plants all around and sections sectioned off for each animal. It was almost like an indoors safari. The air was even ridiculously humid and hot for the animals that lived in this domain. Another favourite of mine was the primate section. We were able to go into caves (to block disruptive light) to see apes up close through a giant window. It was quite the sight. We were also just in time to see two baby monkeys’ have their play time with one of the zoologist.  One was an orangutan and the other was a chimpanzee. I swear I could have watched them for hours. They orangutan was in his own element hanging upside down from a rope and the chimpanzee was laughing hysterically from the zookeeper tickling him. It was adorable to watch but we had a train to catch.

The trip back seemed to last forever. I have to say it was nice to get back to my home away from home.





 

Amusement Park Fail

Most adventures I seem to have here have all been planned last minute. This adventure was no different. It was Saturday morning when I woke up in bed and had an itch to see more of South Korea. Fortunately, I wasn't alone. As soon as I signed in to facebook (for my usual morning creep) one of my girlfriends asked if I wanted to go to Daegu. Daegu is the third largest city here with over 2.5 million people. I didn't really care much about that, I just wanted to get out of Busan and explore a new place! We managed to round up another one of our friends and within a few hours we were on the road. We ended up taking a bus through Busan to the Busan Train Station which was nice change from the usual subway ride where you can't really appreciate how large a city we actually live in. When we got to our stop, we crossed the seven lanes of traffic to be greeted by sign rockers. I didn't end up bringing my camera for fear of losing it, but if you can imagine a person holding a giant sign, flipping it in the air in unusual ways and playing air guitar - that's exactly what they were doing. One guy was was jumping over his sign like it was a new kind of jump rope. I couldn't stop staring.

The train station itself was enormous. Exits upon exits, all leading to different places. It was a lot different than the single waiting room I was use to in Halifax. Or, the side of the road "Station" that they have where I grew up in Salisbury. The signs were easy to read though and we got our tickets easily enough. It was great timing too cause the next train that was leaving was in 15 minutes. We had just enough time to grab some snacks and get to our train exit. The train from Busan to Daegu took about 45 minutes. When we got out on the other end, it took us a bit to figure out how to exit the building, but we just followed the crowds to where the cold breeze was coming from.
Our whole purpose of going to Daegu was to check out their Amusement Park, which is outside... so i'm really not sure what any of us were thinking if you could see what we were wearing. We were completely under dressed. I think we all instantly heard our mother's voices in our head as soon as we stepped foot outside telling us to "Dress for the weather" or "Button up, you'll catch a cold". We were freezing, and needed to find shelter in the subway. A man that was selling fish on the side of the street saw our lost, cold expressions and said "Subway" and pointed straight. This isn't the first time that a Korean has sensed my feelings and helped out, and I'm sure it wouldn't be the last. We all thanked the man and ran for cover in the subway.
It took all three of us, but we managed to figure out how to buy a subway ticket and head in the direction we needed to go. At the next station we had to transfer trains. We were all lost in our own thoughts yet again when a subway worker yelled at us to get our attention and helped us along our way. Luckily, on our way underground to the next tracks we came across an underground shopping centre. They're all over the place here. It was perfect cause we were all in serious need of a second layer of clothing. We came across some horrendous matching jeggins (also known as jean leggings) that we just had to buy. After a quick stop at the subway washrooms (and lots and lots of hand sanitizer later) we got back on the subway and were on our way to the Amusement Park.

By the time we got there, we had a few hours left before the park closed down for the night. When we went up to the ticket booth the lady told us that they weren't running the roller coasters on account of how cold it was (I bet you thought I was over exaggerating). I think at this point we thought we’d warm up after running around the park so we decided to buy them anyway. After the first ride, we pretty much had to pour hot water on our hands to scrape them off the metal bars. But still, our stubbornness persisted and we decided to go on another ride. The coldness combined with the jerking movements of being twirled upside down and bumped all around - to the point where my scarf that was wrapped securely around my neck fell off - all that I could think of was "This is it, this is how I'm going to die". Tears were literally cascading down my face and freezing almost instantly. Nothing about this ride was fun. Actually, I shouldn't say that. It was fun until the ride started to move and we realized what was in store. But still, even after that hellish ride, we still felt the need to get our money’s worth. So, instead of calling a spade a spade and leaving we decided to walk around a bit more and see if there was anything else that might save our adventure.

One of the girls spotted bumper cars - everyone's favorite! How could that not make this trip worthwhile..... I'll tell you. After waiting in the freezing cold for about an hour one of my friends decided not to go on because she was too cold. So that meant we were down to two. I wanted to call it quits too but when I asked my remaining friend if she really wanted to do it there was almost a sparkle in her eye that she tried to hide when she said “kind of”. I couldn’t call it quits now, not after seeing that look. About 15 minutes later it was finally our turn. Most of the people that went on the ride at the same time as us were probably 14+ and mainly guys - I’ll mention this now so you don’t think I’m completely horrible with what I’m about to say - After the woman opened the gate, we both ran to our vehicle of choice and buckled ourselves in. The steering wheel was made of metal so at this point I was almost positive I was going to loose one of my fingers to frost bite on this ride. I was however happy about one thing... this is the horrible part I was warning you about earlier... I was happy I was finally able to take my frustrations of this failed adventure out on everyone around me. My strategy (yes, I had one) was to drive my car on the outer edges where no one was to pick up speed, then, target a little kid in attempt to give him/her whiplash. Horrible, I know... especially since I'm a teacher now. But, I'm just being honest and I had so much evil fun doing it. This one time, I had a certain kid in sight. He was driving a purple car and was probably 16 or so. He saw me coming but had doubt in his eyes that I would be so daring to hit him straight on. After all, what adult would do that to a  kid? Apparently he never met my kind before. I went for it laughing like a mad woman and rammed into his car. We both jolted backwards in shock of how hard the collision actually ended up being. The look on his face was priceless as he gave me the thumbs up and said "Good job!" My girlfriend that was waiting on the sidelines said she never saw me that intent to do something so evil before. She couldn’t stop laughing though and wished she had a camera to catch some of this on film. Every once and a while I’d pass by my friend in the other bumper car and would nod in approval after hitting an unsuspecting kid. Oh, my... I really shouldn’t be documenting this.

After we released our bumper car carnage onto Daegu we couldn’t stop laughing about everything. We ended our amusement park tour with going up to the “drop zone” tower which over looked the city. It was also where you could go bungee jumping under warmer conditions. The view was absolutely beautiful so we decided to grab a beer on the top floor lounge and laughed a little more about our day then went on our way.

I’m sure we probably would have had a completely different experience if we had of went during the summer, but then again it definitely made for a unique experience that we wouldn’t of have had otherwise. 

Until next time....

Busan Aquarium

I ended up going to the Busan Aquarium the other day after I got off work with a few friends. Some of the pictures I took of the little (and big) fishies turned out pretty good so I thought i'd share. Enjoy!  



Spotted Eels coming out for a look



Electric Eel

Bubba, the Froning Fish

Awesome Giant Sea Turtle and a Shark off to the right



Same Sea Turtle, different view




Oddly shaped Shark - I think he might have forgot where he was and ran into the glass




More Sharks





Glowing Jelly Fish!





Octopus - hiding in a cave





This tank was lined with colorful fish and coral



Me and the Girlies posing for a pic