Going to Gyeongju, Day 1

Two weekends ago I went to Gyeongju with Andrew and Kara.  Gyeongju is a city located near the southeastern coast.  It is most well-known for being the capital of the Silla Kingdom which ruled Korea between the 7th and 9th centuries.  We left on Friday afternoon by bus from Seoul and arrived that evening around 5pm.  Kara made us reservations at an awesome guesthouse called Sa Rang Chae.

The guesthouse was really nice.  It was run by a cute older couple and they were really helpful the whole time with directions and tips.  The guesthouse was made up of a few Korean style rooms connected in a rectangle shape so that there was a small courtyard in the middle with a little garden, picnic tables, and a fire pit.  We had reserved the "family room" which was the biggest room they had and it had a private bathroom.  The rooms were Korean style which meant we slept on the heated floors, also there was a couch and a TV.

The first night we walked into town where most of the famous tourist sights were.  There was a big park with many huge, grassy mounds which are the tombs of all the Silla kings.  Also in the park is the Cheomseongdae observatory which was built by the Sillas; also it's one of the most famous astronomical observatories because it's the oldest one still standing in East Asia.  We walked around the park and the tourist complex for a bit before looking for the restaurant we wanted to eat at.

We had dinner at a restaurant that was recommended in Andrew's guidebook.  The area is known for ssambap and so that's what we decided to try.  Ssampbap refers to rice wrapped in lettuce along with many other items that are served as side dishes, these are called banchan.  The side dishes we received included fish, soybean paste, soup, sesame noodles, pickled vegetables, kimchi, a leg of some unknown creature, and a few other items.  I was not impressed with the dinner and although it was nice to experience the area's specialty, I just wanted some meat!

Our table at dinner; many, many side dishes!

After dinner we walked through town to Anapji Pond, a gorgeous pond and park that was built by the Sillas.  The pond and the pagodas were beautifully preserved and it was especially nice to see everything lit up at night.  It was quite cold at this point so we did a quick walk-through and then headed back to our hostel to get cozy with some tea.

Andrew, Kara, and me in front of the pond at the Anapji Park. 

The reflections in the water were my favorite part. 

Historical pagodas from the Silla Kingdom. 

Seoul Lantern Festival

Last weekend I went to the Seoul Lantern Festival with my friend Kara.  It was a beautiful festival along the Cheonggye Stream consisting of over 27,000 lanterns from 24 different nations!  There were large life-size lanterns in the middle of the stream and then many other smaller ones along the sides of the stream.  The festival opened just in time for the G20 and it was absolutely packed.  Kara and I went around 9pm in order to avoid the large crowds from the opening ceremony, but it was still so crowded it was hard to get really close to the water.

The view from the end of the stream where the opening ceremony was held.  Yes, that's a Bennigan's in the background.  

Is that Bambi?

I've previously written about the Cheonggye Stream, it's a beautiful man-made stream that was part of a big restoration project that got Korea's current president, Lee Myung-bak elected.  The festival was one of the many "Hi Seoul" events, which were basically a series of projects and events to spruce up the city for the G20.

It's never to early to get in the holiday spirit!

Some of the lanterns were really amazing.  They were all beautiful, but the life-size ones were just amazing.  It was hard to get good pictures because it was nighttime, but I was able to get a few shots.  My favorite lantern was a rotating globe and standing on top of the globe were miniature models of all the G20 leaders holding their respective flags.  Very impressive.

A shot of the G20 world leaders!

Lady Liberty made it all the way to Seoul!

Also there were some cute projects for the kids to do at the festival.  One of them was making lanterns out of a cardboard cut-out.  The kids were decorating them and writing messages inside of them (not that I could read what they were writing).  They were then given a candle to put inside of it and then set them free on the stream.  It reminded me something we would do on the lake at camp; also I felt an overwhelming desire to go over to the crafts table and start helping the kids like a camp counselor!

Korean kids are too cute, look how sassy she is!

Bye Bye Busan

It was our second and last day in Busan.  It was a short trip, but we all had to get back for class on Monday (yes, we do actually go to class sometimes).  We left out motel and then walked along the Gwangalli beach for a bit.  We hadn't seen it in the daytime.  The ocean was beautiful and the temperatures were much warmer than Seoul.

We grabbed a quick breakfast at a coffee shop and then headed for the subway.  We were going to check out the famous hot springs in a northern part of the city.  There are many spas you can go to with water from the springs, but we decided just to check out the water from the springs that was right in the middle of town.  When Busan hosted the APEC meeting in 2005 they built a little foot bath with water from the hot springs.  It was really neat!  We took off our shoes and sat with our feet in the pool; the water was extremely hot but it felt good.  There were many older Koreans sitting there and like usual, they didn't hesitate to stare at us.

Felix taking a picture of Rosie and me at the springs. 

Nothing like starting your day off with a little foot soak! 

We then continued toward the base of Mt. Geumjeong, a mountain located in the northern area of the city.  We took a cable car up to the top and the view on the way up was spectacular; we could see the entire city of Busan.  At the top of the mountain is Geumgang Park, which is a famous tourist destination of Busan.  Koreans love to hike and so there are many different hiking trails at the top of the mountain.  We were most interested in seeing the Geumjeongsanseong, which is an old fortress in the park.  It was built in the 18th century to protect Korea from both Chinese and Japanese invasions.

A shot of the cable car from the top of the mountain.  In the background you can see how big the city of Busan is!

While hiking through the park on our way to the fortress, we encountered a bizarre, yet fun group of Koreans hanging out at the restaurant that was at the top of mountain.  There were all sorts of families and adults, including many kids and older Koreans.  It kind of had a "family-reunion" feel to it, although we think that it was just a big group of locals enjoying a Sunday afternoon.  Those that weren't eating or socializing were playing a game on a volleyball court that was a volleyball-tennis-soccer variation.  They were really intense about it and we realized quickly that they were playing for money.

Rosie and me at the top of the mountain in Geumgang Park.

The scenario by the restaurant was so intriguing.  We couldn't help but stop watch them play for a bit.  In no time many of the locals came up to talk to us.  Very few of them spoke English, but they asked us to join the game and even offered us food.  Rosie and Felix headed in to join the game.  It was so funny watching them try to learn the rules to the game; from what I could understand you could kick, bump, or head to ball back over the net.  At one point Rosie even "scored" and all these old Korean men rushed over to her and started hugging her and yelling something that I couldn't understand.  It was pretty funny!

Rosie scored!

I was sitting at a table watching them play but also talking with these cute little Korean kids; sitting with the kids is much more up my alley than playing the game.  The kids were so adorable I just wanted to take them home with me!

When the game was over a group of older women brought out trays and trays of Korean food.  They literally pulled us over to the table and just started feeding us.  I mean, literally, these women were so aggressive, they were shoving kimchi into my mouth!  I wasn't complaining though, they were really nice people and I think that they were just so excited by our presence.  Also they were pouring shots of Soju (Korean vodka) and Makoli (Korean rice wine) and were insisting that we drink with them.

Andrew trying to understand the wonderful and old Koreans as they merrily force-fed us. 

Displaying hospitality in any kind of situation is deeply ingrained in the Korean culture.  So although these Koreans were extremely aggressive in feeding us and making us drink, it was their way of welcoming us to their get-together.  We stayed for awhile longer and then kept heading towards the fortress.

The remains of the fortress were beautiful, most of it had been knocked down, but the main gate remained almost completely in tact.

The entrance to the fortress. 

It was slowly beginning to get dark so we headed back towards the cable car and took it back down to the base.  Andrew and I were taking the KTX back to Seoul, but the others were taking the bus and had to head to the bus station.  

Andrew and I took the subway back to Busan Station and purchased our KTX tickets and then went looking for somewhere to get dinner.  Across from the station is Busan's China Town, although very small, we managed to find a yummy Chinese restaurant for dinner.  Afterwards we wandered around some more but then headed back to the station for our 8:40pm train.  now.  All in all, it was a great trip.  We didn't do as much as I had wanted, but it's hard with such a big group.  After a quite speedy 2 and half hours, we were at Seoul Station.  Arriving back in Seoul is always nice because now it feels like home to me.

A Trip to Busan

This past weekend I traveled to Busan with Andrew, Steve, Rosie, and Felix.  Busan is a port city located on the southeastern coast of Korea and it's the second largest city in the country.  Andrew and I took the KTX train from Seoul Station to Busan and I'm really glad we did that instead of taking the bus.  The KTX is Korea's high-speed express train.  This thing moves!  We got to Busan in about 2 hours and 30 minutes, while the bus was a 5 hour ride.  The TV monitor on the train told us that we were going 289 km/h, which is about 180 mph!

We got to Busan in no time; the sun was shining and it was really warm out.  We knew the rest of the group wouldn't be arriving for a few more hours so we decided to check out the "world's biggest department store" while we waited.  We hopped on the Busan subway, which was a far smaller and simpler system than Seoul's.  The Shinsegae department store was beautiful, it is indeed certified by the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's largest department store, the Macy's in Herald Square takes second place.

Andrew and I had a lot of fun exploring the place.  There was so much to see on each floor, it was quite overwhelming.  There was an ice skating rink, day spa, and even a driving range.  Once we got word that the group's bus had arrived in Busan, we headed over to the famous fish market to meet them.

The Jagalchi Fish Market in Busan is the Korea's largest fish market and it was definitely worth seeing.  The place was huge!  There were floors and floors of aquariums and vendors and perhaps the coolest thing was seeing the live octopus.  The famous attraction at the fish market is eating "live octopus" at the upstairs restaurants.  The octopus isn't actually still living, but since it's freshly killed, it still moves around the plate.  When Andrew and I had arrived at the market the group had already tried the live octopus.  It was a bummer that they didn't wait for us but what can you do. 

One of the vendors at Jagalchi Fish Market.  All the fish you can imagine!

After the fish market we took a cab to the entrance of the Taejongdae Cliffs.  These cliffs overlook the Korea Straight, which is the water body in between South Korea and Japan.  It is said that on a very clear day you can even see the coast of Japan from the cliffs, however I could not see anything.  We took a tram up to the top and then descended many stairs to get out onto the cliffs.  The sight was beautiful! We could see the Taejongdae lighthouse and an amazing view of the ocean as the sun was setting.

The view of the Taejongdae Cliffs before getting all the way down.

Steve and me on our way down to the cliffs.

Rosie and me as the sun is setting, in the background is the Taejongdae Lighthouse.

After sunset it got quite dark so we left the cliffs and walked around to the other side of the area.  We took a look at some of the memorials that were on the other side of the cliffs and then walked back down to the base.  We jumped on a bus and then met up with Andrew who had decided to do some other stuff around the city.

We were tired and hungry so we decided to look for a motel or a hostel before it got any later.  The group found this sketchy (sketchy is an understatement!) motel outside of Gwangalli (a well-known tourist district in Busan) and decided to take a look.  All the rooms were Korean style, which meant that it was merely a floor with some blankets; no beds, no furniture.  The man flipped on the light to show us the room and cockroaches scattered into the holes in the floor!  No way was I staying there!

We then headed into Gwangalli, which is where the Gwangalli beach is located and a part of the city where a lot of tourists stay.  The beach was beautiful and the area was a lot nice than where we had previously been looking.  We had no problem finding a motel here.  The one the group chose was still sketchy and gross, but it was fine for just one night.

We headed out to the beach and walked through the sand for awhile.  It was so beautiful, even in the dark.  We had an awesome view of the Gwangan Bridge which was all lit up with different colored lights.  We bought some drinks (once again, enjoying the ability to drink legally!) and then headed to the other side of the beach to pick out our fish for dinner!  One of the main attractions of Busan is picking out a fish at a fish market and then having a restaurant skin and bone it for you and then eating it for dinner!

The view of the Gwangan Bridge from the beach. 

At the end of the beach was a huge multi-floored building.  The bottom floor was made up of 20 or 30 different fish vendors, all loud and feisty Korean women trying to sell their fish.  We bargained for a good price from this one vendor and picked out three different fish.  One of them was a flounder, but we're not sure what they other two were.  We paid about 40,000 won for the three fish and then the lady killed them right there in front of us!  She then put them in a basket and we followed her as she led us upstairs to a restaurant on the 5th floor.  Each vendor works for a different restaurant that is in the fish market complex, so depending on who you buy your fish from is the restaurant that you eat at.

The woman that we bought our fish from, she's holding our first selection!

She was just about to kill one of our fish.  Notice my head peaking in on the right, I was trying to get a better look!

The restaurant seated us Korean style, on the floor, and we ate some delicious scallion pancake and salad.  After what seemed like years, our fish was finally served to us on a big platter, all boned and cut up into small pieces.  We had lettuce wraps, rice, sauce, and a bunch of other Korean sides.  The fish was delicious.  It was like a sushi-lettuce wrap combination.  Although I enjoyed it, I much prefer traditional sushi.  Our waiter also brought us a soup which had the rest of the fish in it, including the skeleton and the head.

Steve, me and Andrew with our fish.  The vendor had just brought us upstairs to the restaurant. 

The end product, one of three platters full of raw fish!

After dinner we ventured over to a carnival that was on the beach.  We had a lot of fun watching Felix and Rosie "bullride" and we ended the night riding a big pirate ship ride.  As I'm sure you all can picture, the pirate ship ride is basically a huge boat that swings back and forth.  We were so high up that on the "up" swing that we had a fantastic view of the city!  Exhausted, Andrew and I headed back to the motel shortly after that, we wanted to get up early the next day to see the rest of the city.

Felix and me at the carnival, behind us the epic pirate ship ride.

Lunch With Some Awesome Koreans

Today after my Sports Medicine class, two people from my group, and a girl from last project's group, asked if I would like to join them for lunch today!  It was really great being invited because as I've mentioned before I'm the only Caucasian in the class.  It meant a lot to me to be included and we had a really wonderful time.

We went to the upstairs cafeteria in the Student Union, it's typically less crowded than the downstairs one.  There's about 4 different food stations, 2 Korean ones, an Italian one, and then a Chinese-fusion food station.  I ordered a meal from the Korean station that I've had before.  My classmates insisted on treating me to lunch which was incredibly kind.

I had a Korean "lunchbox".  It's a metal box with rice, mini hotdogs, seaweed topping, fried egg, and kimchi.  It also comes with sardines which I always ask the Korean ladies working there to make mine without.  The servers don't speak English so it's quite comical watching me try to communicate "no sardines please".  I usually make a fishy face and pretend to swim and then I make an 'X' with my arms, which is the Korean symbol for 'no'.  Of course, I could ask someone around me to translate for me, but this is way more fun.  And although the ladies don't smile, I know they're laughing inside.

Lunch was fantastic.  I ate with Sungha and Oohyun who are my current group mates and Haedeun who was in my group for the last project.  We had a great time talking about funny American habits and what it's been like for me adjusting to the Korean culture.  Probably the funniest moment was when they asked me if it's true that Americans from the west coast and the east coast talk at different speeds.  Definitely a random question, but it's interesting to hear what they've been told about Americans.  I explained that it's a silly, but common stereotype that people from the west coast speak really slow, in a relaxed tone and that people from the east coast speak very fast with more of a type A nature.  They especially laughed when I tried to impersonate a west-coaster!

It was a great experience to not just be included, but to have the opportunity to get to know my Korean classmates much better.  As of now my social interactions have always been with fellow exchange students and sometimes some Korean friends from Mentors Club, so having lunch with my classmates was was a really cool change of pace.

A Very Korean Halloween

This past Thursday was the Mentors Club annual Halloween party.  Halloween is not really that popular in Korea, but Mentors Club hosts a Halloween party every year to celebrate with the Westerners.  This year it was held at Club Mass in Gangnam, which was a really cool club.  I went as Madonna and Andrew was a vampire, also Kia made herself a really awesome jellyfish costume.  The subway ride there was definitely interesting, everybody was staring at us more than usual!

The club was absolutely packed.  Although we all purchased tickets beforehand, we still had to wait in a long line to get in.  It was cool because the party was only Yonsei University exchange students.  It was fun to hang out with people who live in my dorm, but whom I otherwise don't really see throughout the day.

I danced with my friends for awhile but eventually it just wasn't fun anymore because of how crowded the place was.  The line to the bar was so long, and and although we had free drink passes, it still wasn't worth waiting in.  Eventually Andrew and I decided to head back to Sinchon, the party went until 5am, but by 3 we were wiped out.  We stopped on the way back to SK Global House for some yummy Korean BBQ.

All in all, it was okay night.  The party was fun for a little while and it's really nice that Mentorsclub puts together a Halloween party for the exchange students.  I definitely missed the good old American Halloween with lots of candy and everyone wearing costumes, but this Halloween in Korea is definitely something that I'll never forget.

Kia, me and Ariane.  Notice Kia's cool jellyfish costume!

Andrew and me at the Halloween party.

I guess it's called Club Mass for a reason.  Masses of people!