a short summary of the last 6 weeks (part 1)

Please have patience with me. I have never blogged before. I am, however, notorious for incredibly long-and-babbling phone messages, emails, msn messages, text messages, etc. And record-setting run-on sentences. SO if you are expecting brevity when reading my posts, please, I encourage (nay, strongly advise) you to turn back now. I will not be offended! But you will miss all the pretty photos!

Like this one:

This is called "bob" 밥 (more accurately pronounced as "bab" or "bap") the korean word for "rice". Because yes, it is a hamburger. But instead of a sesame seed bun, or whatever north american nutters put their hamburgers on, this burger is sandwiched in between 2 thingys of sticky rice. It's the new thing at Lotteria (the korean/japanese version of mcdonald's) and it pretty much tastes how it looks, maybe a little bit better. Great food for traveling (?) but I prefer kimbap any day... (the korean version of a california roll). And kimbap is only 1,000 won for a roll - that's about the equivilant of $1.00. Woooo!

Continuting on the subject of food - I've had the pleasure of trying many many different foods, and some foods that are the same, but just more fun here. For example:

Now, yes, that's shrimp. They don't peel it here, and koreans are totally able to peel them gracefully, with dignity, and using chopsticks (or in their mouths). Me, I prefer to play with my shrimp... I mean, it still has its eyes on it... so it can talk to you!! And you can make it talk to your dinner companions, funny voices!

This particular meal was at a korean raw fish restaurant. I got to play with LOTS of my food at this dinner, and some of it played back with me. Check out the following footage:



Um, in explaination, yes, I ate that and it was quite good. As you can tell, it was also quite fresh. The following footage shows exactly how I managed to "chase" the octopus. Also, when eating this you need to chew very very well, because it DOES suction to your mouth (which tickles) and you can cholk if it suctions to your throat on the way down.




That's Tom in the video, he's another cannuck who lives here in Hogye-dong (a neighbourhood in Ulsan).

Right. So since arriving in lovely Ulsan, I've been getting up at 6:45 or 7:00am every morning. I've been leaving for work at 7:50am, and arriving, bright and ready to go, at 8:10am. I swear, I'm not some Katrina-like clone, it's really me. I'm teaching in Cheonguk Middle School, in Northern Ulsan. My classes are all Grade 1 (which is Grade 7 in the Canadian school system) and they are one-part adorable and one-part teenager. There are approximately 40-45 kids per class. (aaaarrrrggghhh!) They are fascinated by my piercing(s) and will literally walk up to me (or say to me in class) "Teacher! Piercing!". How they know the word "piercing" is beyond me, but then again, I've learned that the correct response in Korean, to answer all of their questions about it is: "anapayo". That means "didn't hurt". Or "not sick".

On to the subject of Korean phrases I have mastered. Basic greetings (anyonghasseyo, etc.), thank you (kamsahamnida), I'm sorry (myanhamnida), A pint please (seng mek-ju chuseyo), two pints please (seng mek-ju du-gey chuseyo), and how much is that (oemayayyo). I am trying to learn, but it feels a bit like I'm learning in isolation, believe it or not, because my korean is not good enough to actually (really) make a sentence, just to parrot phrases. I probably have about 100 words in my vocab?

Ulsan has "12 scenic sights" that they advertise in all of their tourism literature. I am aiming this year to see all 12 - that's one per month. So far, I've only seen the "jeonju coast - black pebble beach", on the coast of the east sea. It's lovely, but hardly something to write home about. (well, I guess it was something to write home about because it did get a mention here!) I'm a bit concerned that they call it a "black pebble beach" too, because the pebbles were not black. There were some black pebbles, granted, but more grey ones than black. It was a lovely afternoon though, my co-teacher and I just sat on the rocks, looking out to sea and talking about all sorts of things. I have no photos, so I will have to revisit it... perhaps in the winter... beaches are always so dramatic in the wintertime!

Since landing in Ulsan, I've gone up to Busan (the next city over, which is about the same size as Toronto) 3 or so times. Busan is a beautiful city... these shots are both at Haeundae beach (different days - the first one is actually taken on the beach, and the second is of Liz and Ryan, who we randomly met in the subway in Busan - he wasn't up to anything that afternoon so we invited him along with us.

Anyways, Liz and Ryan and I hiked all along the trails by Haeundae. You can see the little mountains in the background of the first picture, that's where we were hiking. Haeundae is apparently the longest beach in the country, and in the summertime it fills up with sunbathers and swimmers practically stacked on top of each other. My photos don't show it, but we really are still in the heart of the city at this point. We were able to take the subway here. Also, Haeundae is where Liz and I are going to swim with sharks, sometime in the new year. Seriously. At the aquarium.

But I think my favourite spot so far in Busan is Gwangalli beach, which we discovered at dusk. Twas a wonderful evening, just discovering things and enjoying the vibe. We set off firecrackers on the beach, ate silkworm larvae that we bought from a food cart (see photo below), drank soju and Chris shook hands with an octopus (a live one!).
We spent the night in a jinjeban (?) - a korean sauna - on the beach. It's the strangest thing. for 7,000 won ($7) you get a locker, two towels and an outfit that looks like a gym uniform. Had we not been tipsy, and had it not been 4:30 am when we checked in, I would have had the presence of mind to take photos of Angela and I, we looked like we were in high school phys. ed class, with our matching teeshirts and shorts! So there's a girls floor, and a boys floor, and a floor in between, where people go to sleep or nap. The girls floor and boys floor are essentially public baths... everyone's walking around in various states of undress (or completely nude) and hopping in and out of showers, saunas and swimming pools. The co-ed napping floor was the strangest thing I've seen in a while... imagine walking into a room at 5am, and seeing more than 100 koreans wearing the same clothes (boys had blue accents on their gym uniforms, girls had pink), all sleeping whereever they were able to pull up a patch of floor, covered in identical blankets. I was waiting for someone to bring out the koolaid or something.

Gwangalli beach also had live fish markets that were several stories high:




The video doesn't really do the "discount fish market" (as the name translated) justice... the idea is that you select your dinner from the live fish vendors, they skin it for you (and do a bit of prep, but not much), and you take your fish upstairs to eat. I love raw fish and I'm quite looking forward to trying this out, but some of those fish were a bit peculiar-looking...

The same weekend that we discovered Gwangalli beach, we also checked out the Busan Biennale, at the Museum of Modern Art. There were some quite interesting and quite political pieces. Here's a shot of Angela enjoying the art with her eyes closed.

Enough on Busan though. It's a fantastic city, and it happens to be right in between where Liz, Angela and I are all living, so we do go often and you'll certainly be hearing more about it!

Next time I write, I'll talk more about Hogye-dong, Ulsan and the nukes. Seriously though, there's about 4 or 5 posts on Liz's blog that talk about what I was up to all last week - so visit, she's much less babblier than I am, and takes terrific photographs! www.documentarist.blogspot.com