Soju Bottles of Fun!

Here's a new one: black bean tea. Let me tell you, it tastes exactly like how it sounds. Mrs. Hwang gave me this drink to try last time I was at her house and I politely tried it, said it tasted okay and took it with me to "finish" when I got home. The drain in my sink appeared to enjoy it a lot. They have a thing here with black beans, like it's a dessert or treat or something. Black beans have just a tad of sweetness to their flavor (like me), but that doesn't automatically make it a good choice for a treat. It's still a freaking bean. Anyway, making it a tea isn't a good idea, along with so many other things they try to pass off as food or drink here. The variety of teas here actually rival the variety of seafood they eat. The tea aisle at the grocery store is chock full of all kinds of different flavors of tea, with one exception ... regular. I just want to buy some good ole regular iced tea and they don't have it. Sure, let's make a tea out of black beans, but why give the people regular tea?

This past week has been pretty uneventful. Brent and I have hung out with our new Korean friends a couple more times, including one night when we all went to Mr. Pizza for dinner and Cold Stone after. Mr. Pizza is a pretty good little pizza chain they have here. The pizza has been good every time I've eaten there and it's not as greasy as Pizza Hut. That night when Brent and I were waiting for Soo and Ji Won outside the Lotte Department Store, there were a bunch of big soju bottle characters running around handing out stuff and playing with passers-by. It was really funny, because they would playfully scare people sometimes. We even got one to scare Ji Won when she showed up. I've included some video and photos below.

On Thursday night we bid farewell to Gina, who leaves for Australia on Wednesday. We went to a nice little Italian restaurant that she picked out, and hung out there until we were pretty much last people to leave. We bought a little cake for her also and really had a good time. It's amazing to think that we only hung out with her a grand total of four times, because it feels like we became such good friends. As has been explained to us, in Korea, close friendship can develop very quickly. I mean, people call each other best friends after just a couple hangouts. I think this was kind of our first taste of this kind of friendship development. It's hard to explain, but I can already tell that Gina is one of those people that I'm always going to keep in touch with and care about, as is Soo and Ji Won. There are already very preliminary plans for them all to come visit us in California when we're all back from our respective journeys. Anyway, it was sad to see her go, but in the end I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet such a cool and fun person.

One thing that has changed here recently is how fast time is going. I've now been here for a little over two months and it feels like just yesterday I was writing my "I've been here for one month" blog. It definitely feels like weeks are going by instead of days. This is obviously a sign that life here is becoming pretty routine, which isn't a bad thing. It's a good mix these days of routine and new, because we're still going places we haven't been before and finding new ways to spend our free time. At the same time, things aren't as confusing and difficult as they once were. We've kind of found our stride and that's nice. Next weekend we're going to head up to Seoul, because we have Monday and Tuesday off for Children's Day and Buddha's Birthday. I'm really excited to go to Seoul, because I always hear people say how cool it is up there. Hopefully I'll come back with plenty of stories and pictures from that excursion. I think the bullet train ride up there should be pretty cool in itself.

I've also finally figured out all my vacation days for the next year, so it's nice to have that checked off the list. My dad and Mariana are already planning their trips to come visit and I can't wait. My mom needs to get on the ball though! It's going to be so much fun being like a tour guide for them and taking them to the places that they've read about here or heard me talk about on the phone. Hopefully by that point my Korean will be a lot better too. Speaking of which, for those of you wondering about my Korean lessons, I have to say that I haven't been a very good student. Actually, the real reason I haven't been able to do my lessons as often is because we're going out so much now, that I have trouble finding the time. I did a couple lessons last week, but I really need to get on a better schedule. Speaking Korean I find quite difficult. Reading Korean is actually pretty simple, because the "alphabet" is very simple. I'm at a point where I can pretty much read anything I come across, with a few exceptions. The problem is that I don't know what the words I'm reading mean, save for a few. Anyway, long story short, I need to do my lessons more often if I'm going to get to any sort of low-level comprehension of the language. I've also found out recently that the Korean words and such that I'm learning from friends and fellow teachers here is Korean with a Busan accent, which I'm told is akin to having a southern accent in America. Not cool. I would much rather speak a nicer version of this language than a sped-up lazy version. The whole concept of accents here was actually shocking to me for some reason. I mean, it makes sense, I just didn't even think about it. I'm sure in every country, that country's language is spoken in a variety of ways throughout the country. Oh well, I just hope that Rosetta Stone is teaching me the nice-sounding Korean.

I have to use this next bit of space to thank Roy Choi immensely for introducing me to justin.tv. This website has been a life saver over the last few weeks. I've been able to watch every sporting event I've wanted to ... LIVE! This includes every Galaxy game and every Lakers playoff game. It's so awesome. I'm even able to catch replays of Raw, SmackDown and ECW, and also watch other T.V. shows that I've missed out on while here. It was even showing a replay of WrestleMania 25 for a few days a couple weeks ago! Lucky for me, everything I've wanted to watch has worked out okay as far as timing is concerned. I don't know how this website works, but it's awesome. I would encourage all of you to check it out, because there is so much good stuff to watch on there. Anyway, thank you Roy Choi. You're a pal and a confidant.

Korean Networking 101

First of all, let me apologize for how long it has taken to get this blog written. We've actually been out doing so much that I just simply haven't had the time to sit down and write one. Anyway, it's been a really fun week and a half or so, so I'll do my best to recap for you.

Last Friday, Brent and I met up with Hyo Son again (the girl we met at Busan Tower), but this time we didn't bring any other friends along. We decided to go to Bennigan's, because she had mentioned to us before that it's her favorite restaurant and we like "normal" food, making it an easy decision. When we met her and first sat down to eat, she asked us if anyone else would be joining us and we said no, to which her immediate response was, "Good!" It was pretty funny and confirmed our suspicions that she felt out-of-place the last time we all hung out. We actually had a really good time with her that night. After dinner we went to a local bar for drinks and socializing. The whole night we found her humor to be quite on par with ours, which was awesome. One thing that has been difficult here is being able to joke around with some people, because so much is lost in translation. Needless to say, it's nice when we're with people that we can joke around with and be more of ourselves. It's a lot more comfortable for sure.

The next day was quite the adventure for us. Soo was making good on her promise to show us around Busan and wasn't wasting any time. She planned a full day of activities for Saturday, which included us meeting her at 9 a.m. in Seomyeon, which meant I had to leave my place at 8:30 a.m. Brent and I both got up early and met up with Soo and her friend Ji Won (English name Jeany). Ji Won drove us out to the Haeundae area where the beaches are and we visited a couple scenic spots up on a hill to start the day off. It was a nice day, but the problem was that stupid haze I've mentioned before. I have no doubt the view would have been beautiful if not for that haze. Anyway, from there we moved on to the Hae Dong Yong Gung Temple. Try saying that two times fast, let alone five. Now, I know I mentioned in my last post how I'm kind of tired of Buddhist Temples, but this one was actually kind of cool because of it's location. It was perched on these rocks right on the water and was really beautiful in it's setting. Obviously it contained all the same Buddhist things a temple would, so none of that was really new, but it was the setting that made all the difference.

After the temple, they took us to have lunch at the Millak Waterfront Park located right on the water near the Gwangan Grand Bridge. According to our Korean friends, this is one of the most famous bridges in Asia even though it's not very old. I think they said it was built in like 2000 or something. Again, had it not been for the haze, it would have been a much more beautiful outing. Soo actually woke up real early in the morning that day to make lunch for all of us. She made Gimpop, which is like sushi rolls, but without sushi. These things are okay, but the problem for me is the seaweed. It just tastes like ocean water to me and I don't think I'll ever understand the appeal of eating it. Anyway, it was a nice gesture nonetheless and I ate it happily without complaint.

From there, Ji Won drove us back to her apartment, where we ended up catching a taxi to our next destination, which was the Busan Educational and Cultural Center for Students. Outside, they were having a kind of culture festival, with many traditional Korean elements on display and available to interact with. As the name suggests, this was really a place for young Koreans to come learn more about their country and their heritage, but it was actually perfect for Brent and me, who are almost in the same boat as them as far learning about Korean history and culture. This place was so much fun. We played traditional Korean drums, games and even made this traditional candy, which was actually just pure sugar melted with some baking powder. It was near impossible to eat, because of how sweet it was, but we still had a good time making it. We were even able to watch a little bit of a traditional Korean wedding, which we're told actually takes about three hours to perform. Yikes. That may give the guy too much time to change his mind I think. Anyway, from there we set out on a nice long hike up this mountain right next to the center, though Brent and I were unaware that's what we were doing. That was the like the second or third time we were tricked into a mini hike. We think they do it on purpose. This one was quite a hike actually, but we went at a nice slow pace, so it wasn't too bad. Believe it or not, we ended up back at that same amusement park that we went to when we went on the hike with my co-teacher and her friend. We just got to it coming from the other side of the mountain. At this point, we were really getting to know Soo and Ji Won much better and, much like Hyo Son, we found them to be really fun and easy to get along with. They too have a good sense of humor and are just as willing to dish it as they are to take it. Totally cool.

After the unexpected hike, Soo and Ji Won made good on another promise, which was to take us to Cold Stone. So we hopped in a cab back to Seomyeon and had ourselves some ice cream. Here are the main differences between the Cold Stone at home and the ones here: 1) There's no tipping in Korea, so they don't have a tip jar for you to put money in and make them sing. Maybe next time we can just bring a portable karaoke machine for them. They sure do love the crap out of that. 2) When you order the "Like it" size, you get the "Like it" size. Almost every Cold Stone I've been to back home, when you order one size, they actually give you ice cream that would fit in the next biggest size, so this was good to know for future visits, of which there will be many. 3) They don't allow you to mix and match as much as they do back home. There is a menu item where you can make your own creation, but it's pretty basic; choose your ice cream, choose your topping. So all in all, it was still really good and like I just mentioned, we will be making return trips.

After Cold Stone, we decided to go to a DVD Bong, where you actually rent movies and watch them right there in a mini-theater with friends. Most of these locations are designed for couples, but the one we went to sat all four of us comfortably. There was a large couch and a pretty nice sized screen for us to watch the movie. Brent's been wanting to see some Korean movies here, but the problem with the ones that are playing in the theaters is that there's no English subtitles. DVD's on the other hand do have English subtitles, so Soo and Ji Won picked out a Korean movie for us to watch. It was interesting and a bit confusing for me, but it was fun nonetheless. After the day we had already had, it was actually a good time to catch a few zzz's, but I didn't sleep enough to miss out on anything important in the movie. Soo was actually the one who slept through the whole thing! It's actually become a thing where we tease her about being so lazy. It seems as if every time we talk to her, she has just woken up from a nap or something.

The day continued on from there with dinner at an Italian restaurant near Kyungsung University, an area we had previously not visited. The food was good and we took the opportunity after to walk around a little bit, after which we went home. It really was a fun day. They showed us a good time around the city and the best part was that they were really fun to be with. There was never a moment when either of us felt like it was time to cut the day short, because we were all just having such a good time. In fact, we met up again on Sunday, though this time just for dinner at Burger King and a movie. Now, Brent and I have pretty much run the movie well dry here. We've seen everything we've wanted to see and are patiently waiting for the summer blockbusters to start coming out. Anyway, that left us with really two movie choices that night: Fast and Furious or Bride Wars. My vote was for Bride Wars. Sorry, but seeing another Fast and Furious movie was just not something I wanted to waste my money on. Faced with those two choices I honestly felt I would be more entertained by Bride Wars. Especially since the last movie I was forced to watch was Push. Anyway, I lost the vote and can now boast that I've seen two of the four Fast and Furious movies. Awesome. If you enjoy cheesy dialogue and bad acting, don't miss the latest installment of this ridiculous franchise.

Tuesday came around and we were invited to Ji Won's house for dinner, so because Brent and I have a difficult time turning down free meals, we met up after school and Ji Won picked us up to take us to her place. This was another fun evening, where had the chance to meet some more people, have dinner and play a new card game that we haven't played before. I'm not sure it's a Korean game though. I think it might just be a game we've never heard of before. The game itself was fun, but what was really funny about it were the cards themselves. The game is called "Bonanza" and the cards all had different kinds of animated beans on them. Everything from Stink Bean to Blue Bean was drawn on these cards with some sort of personality for each and they were so funny. I wish I had my camera to take pictures of them. Anyway, like I said we met a couple more people that night and watched our network of native Korean friends almost triple in an instant. Again, the best part about this is that all the people we are meeting are so cool.

On Thursday, we met up with Soo, a girl named Gina that we had met on Tuesday and one of Gina's friends, whose name unfortunately I'm forgetting right now. We went to VIPS to enjoy some of that comfort food I've talked about and played some pool after. We had the chance to get to know Gina more that night as well, and again found her to be so cool. Now, there is a downside to all this however. We're meeting all these really fun people, but three of them will be leaving us here, all within the next month. Soo is moving to Canada to study English towards the end of May. Gina is moving to Australia next week to study English. The friend whose name I can't remember is moving to San Diego next month to study English. So, as happy as we are to have met all of them and as much fun as we're having with them, it's kind of bummer that they're going to be leaving us so soon. Ji Won is still going to be around, which is great, but it just won't be the same without everyone.

Friday night we were invited to dinner at a Chinese restaurant by one of the people we met at Ji Won's house on Tuesday. He owns his own printing business and was having a company dinner and asked if we wanted to come. As previously mentioned, Brent and I have a hard time saying no to free food, so we met up with Soo and went to have us some Chinese food. Believe it or not, while there we met even more people, this time a nice family who actually took us out for coffee after. We spent some time talking to them and interacting with their children, one who is in seventh grade and the other who I believe is in first grade. The mom mentioned how she wants to take us to some places in the city and of course we obliged, but no real plans or anything were made. Brent and I just kind of sat back in amazement at how fast our Korean network developed, and I think just felt really thankful that everyone we've met so far in Korea, minus maybe one, have been so cool and so fun.

Now, I know all of that seems like a lot, but the biggest news of the week is that I think I may have figured out the beverage situation here in Korea. Last week, I followed Brent's brilliant lead by bringing a water bottle to school and drinking from it during lunch. At long last I was able to quench my thirst. Well, my co-teacher asked me why I was drinking water and I explained to her how in America, we have something to drink with every meal and I'm just not used to not having a drink and I need something to wash down my food with, etc. So, she says to me, "But, it's not good for your health." What?! When I asked her to clarify, she couldn't, so we pretty much left it at that for that day. A couple days later at lunch, another teacher asked me why I had the water bottle and I explained to her just like I did to my co-teacher and got the same response about it not being good for my health. She however provided a response for me when I asked her why. She said it disrupts the digestive process of my food. I shouldn't be drinking two hours before or after my meals apparently. Ha! No way I was conceding this fight. I explained to them how you're supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day and they agreed, but said it should be outside of those meal times. I then countered by explaining to them that the soup that we have everyday with lunch has water in it, and for this they really had no argument. I even kind of forced my co-teacher to admit that she needed the liquid to wash down the food. You can't eat white rice without some sort of liquid! After lunch, I even went on the Internet and found various articles where doctors mention that they've had patients ask them about drinking liquids with meals, and every one said that drinking with your meal is totally fine and in some cases better than not drinking. I showed these to my co-teacher and she still said that she will believe her doctor, which is totally fine. I'm not trying to change her mind, I'm just trying to get her to understand that I'm not crazy because I drink with my meals! Anyway, I believe this may be the reason why beverages are rarely provided with meals here. There must be many Koreans who believe the same thing that my co-teacher and other teachers do. Ridiculous.

I have a lot more to say, but this post is getting pretty long by now, so I'll stop here and be sure to include those other things in my next blog. I've included some pics and video below and also wanted to include some links to popular Korean music. These are the super popular songs and groups right now that we hear all the time. Enjoy!

Super Junior - "Sorry Sorry" (Yes, this group has 13 members)

Girls' Generation - "Gee"

Wonder Girls - "Nobody"

Cherry Blossom Paradise

BREAKING NEWS: Cold Stone Creamery has locations in South Korea!!! While out the other night near the Pusan National University Campus we came across a Cold Stone, and I honestly got so excited that I had to take a picture, which you'll see below. More about that night in a little bit.

This past Friday Brent and I took a trip to our local Outback Steakhouse, providing us with the break we need from Korean food every once in a while. It was while we were there, that I first began to realize what comfort food is. I have always heard people talk about it before, but I never really understood, I think in part because I didn't really have any comfort foods. Well, I'll tell you what, moving halfway across the globe and eating strange things for a couple months has revealed to me exactly what comfort food is. The feeling that I have when I eat at Outback or TGI Friday's is really indescribable. For those of you that have comfort foods, you know what I'm talking about. It really just makes you feel good and happy. I'm so glad they have a few western restaurants here. Anyway, after dinner we walked around a little bit exploring this area by my house called Deokcheon. We found that it's actually kind of lame, but did end up playing pool for a couple hours, so the night wasn't totally a bust. It was while we were walking around that we came across two people dressed up in the most ghetto Mickey and Minnie costumes I have seen. They were handing out flyers for something, but I don't know what. Of course, this was the one night I didn't have my camera on me to take a picture. Just know it was ghetto and it was funny.

Speaking of good food, on Saturday night I was invited back to my co-teacher's friend's house again for dinner, and this time she invited Brent as well. The food was good as always, but what was so great about this trip is that we met a really cool girl named Soo. Mrs. Hwang (my co-teacher's friend) had also invited another friend of her's along with her daughter, Soo. She speaks very good English and actually lived in Canada for a brief period. She's moving there again for a year to study English next month. Anyway, she was so nice and was eager to be our Busan tour guide. Finally! Brent and I have been waiting to find those one or two people to really show us around and take us to cool places, and most importantly, actually want to do it and not feel burdened by it. She's not only willing, but super enthusiastic about it. That night, Mrs. Hwang's daughter, Soo, Brent and I all went to play pool and had a great time. We exchanged numbers at the end of the night and already planned future hangouts. Like I said, FINALLY!

On Sunday, my co-teacher and Mrs. Hwang took Brent and me on an all day flower viewing trip to Tongdosa Temple and Gyeongju. Now, I'm not big into flowers, but my co-teacher and seemingly most Koreans are. Brent and I really weren't there for the flowers though, rather the opportunity to just see more of Korea. Tongdosa Temple was okay. I wasn't blown away by the flowers there, in fact I wasn't even really impressed. The Buddhist temple itself was definitely interesting, but I've been to a few of those now, so the wow factor on those has diminished. After this we went to Gyeongju, which is one of the more popular tourist destinations in the country, especially right now, because of all the beautiful scenery. The city itself is quite important in Korean history as it served as the capital of the Silla Kingdom for many years, and as a matter of fact, my students are currently on a two-day field trip there right now. Traffic was ridiculous getting in and out of this city. When we finally arrived to our destination, a lake in the middle of the city, it had probably been around two hours of sitting in the car. Of course, the payoff wasn't nearly worth it, but in Gyeongju's defense I'm not sure what would have been worth sitting in all that traffic. The lake and surrounding scenery was definitely beautiful though, especially with the sun setting while we were there. I actually took probably the most artistic shot of my life while we were there and I included it below. One thing I keep forgetting to mention is the amount of cherry blossom trees here. If you're a lover of cherry blossoms, then I can't think of a better place for you to be than Korea. They are EVERYWHERE! You can't go anywhere without seeing a cherry blossom tree. I'm not sure how familiar some of you are with these trees, but for literally like two weeks a year, they produce these beautiful pinkish-white flowers. But like I said, it only lasts for two weeks and then the leaves start turning green, which they are actually doing now. So basically for like two weeks, South Korea has this beautiful backdrop of pinkish-white flowers. Then it's green or dead for the rest of the year.

Soo made good on her promise to show us around Busan on Monday when we all went to the Pusan National University area. This is another lively area with a lot going on and tons of Korean youth. Obviously I guess, since it's by the university. Anyway, when we got there by subway, we hopped on a bus that took us to the top of this large hill where the actual university was, because Soo wanted to take us to some popular noodle restaurant. To get there, we actually had to walk through some backwoods type area, which was really strange, but it wasn't too far hidden in the woods. Unfortunately when we got there, it was closed, so we didn't get a chance to try the popular noodles. After that we walked around the campus a little bit and then made the trek down the hill. On the way down is when we came across the Cold Stone I mentioned earlier. Soo mentioned that there's another Cold Stone in the Seomyeon area I've mentioned before in my blogs. So awesome. I can't wait for my first Korean Cold Stone experience. We ended up eating at some chicken restaurant and then doing some bowling after. Soo had never been bowling before, so it was fun for us to get to teach her a little bit. Before we got started bowling, Brent and I had the hardest time finding bowling balls that would fit our fat American fingers. We never really did actually and just had to make do with what they had. It was a lot of fun though. After bowling, Soo took us to a small little smoothie stand nearby and then we walked down this long river path back to a subway station. The path itself is pretty widely utilized, but just not on the side we were walking on. I think it made all of us a little nervous, so we crossed to the other more populated side as soon as we could. Though we really had nothing to worry about, being as though Soo is a black belt in Taekwondo! That's right, not only have we found an awesome friend and tour guide, but a bodyguard as well. You'll notice a picture below of some graffiti we came across while walking here. Definitely one of the funnier things we've seen since we've been here. What it means, I have no idea.

Yesterday, my co-teacher, a friend of hers and I left school a little early to go visit a friend of theirs that was recently promoted to Principal at another school. The school was very far away; on an island in fact. They obviously had never been there, because we got so lost on the way there, it was ridiculous. I'm not even exaggerating when I say we stopped to talk to about 15 people asking for directions. And because it's Korea, that means stopping anywhere you want. The middle of the street included. The more I watch my co-teacher and others drive, the more I understand why Asian-immigrants are such bad drivers in America, and the more I can't understand how there aren't more accidents. It's just nuts. Anyway, after finally figuring out how to get going in the right direction, we were heading into an area that truly looked like one of those Afghanistan villages or something. The streets were super narrow with very run down-looking small buildings and homes painted in strange colors. I couldn't believe my co-teacher was able to fit her car through some of the streets she did. This was a true village and I would be totally surprised if the people living there had televisions. After stopping to ask a couple more people for directions and having someone in a truck tell us to follow him, we got to the school. The school itself was actually nice, which is strange for the area that it's in. I met the Principal, Vice Principal and some other teachers, and actually went to a couple other "branch" schools on the island. The Vice Principal drove us around and showed us more of the island, of which the population mostly consisted of fisherman and their families. We went to dinner that night at a local pork restaurant, where the Principal and another teacher proceeded to get pretty drunk. It was very funny to watch them be so belligerent, especially the Principal, because in my experience, Principals are usually just so stoic and kind of high-almighty during the day.

After the dinner, my co-teacher, her friend and I walked back to the school. This is where a pretty funny incident happened actually. All of a sudden my co-teacher's friend starts pointing to this tree that our car was parked by and saying something in Korean. Then, to my surprise, she hops over this little fence and starts pulling leaves from the tree and putting them in a bag. My co-teacher was laughing and I asked her what her friend was doing. She explained that the leaves were some sort of vegetable they use for side dishes and is very good. I said, "So you're telling me she's a thief?" That sent my co-teacher into tears of laughter. When she translated to her friend what I had said, her friend said (in Korean of course), "It's okay. I'm going to invite you over for dinner when I make these." It was so funny. My co-teacher ran into the school real quick to use the restroom and this lady just continued picking away. She took so many leaves! The tree was practically bare by the time she was done, except for the high parts she couldn't reach. It was just too funny, so I had to take a picture, which you'll see below. Then, the Vice Principal came walking up and she quickly scrambled away from the tree with her bag full of leaves. Too funny.

One thing I've noticed about Korea, is that there is this constant haze in the sky. I have yet to experience a beautiful clear day. I've heard that Korea has had pollution problems in the past, which has led to acid rain and what not, and I'm thinking that that must still be the case. It's just really strange that the sky is never clear. Even with the weather getting warmer and the spring season here, the sky still has this faint haze. It's strange.

With Easter just a couple days away, I thought I'd take the opportunity to teach my students about the Easter holiday in America. They don't celebrate the secular holiday like we do, but of course the Christians here celebrate the religious Easter, so some students have heard of the holiday. I taught them all about the Easter Bunny and decorating eggs and what not, and it was so cute when they would ask me if the Easter Bunny was real. Of course I would say yes and then I would tell them how he's buds with Santa Claus, and they all just got a kick out of that. I'm actually having them decorate eggs tomorrow in school, which should be fun. Being able to do this was no easy task though. See in Korea, as I've now officially found out, they don't sell white eggs; only brown and yellow ones. The administration workers did as much searching as they could for white eggs, but could only find yellow. It's okay, because I'm sure the students will enjoy decorating their yellow eggs just as much as we enjoy decorating our white eggs back home.

Speaking of the students, I've started meeting some of the second graders now during lunch. I actually only teach third through sixth grade, so the second graders are totally new to me, but they are so cool. I'll be sitting in the back of the English classroom after lunch, usually doing something on the computer, and they will come in and start playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors" with me. It's so cute. They call it "Rock, Scissor, Paper" though and they get so excited when they beat me! They jump around and scream every time they win, it's so funny. They actually taught me another "Rock, Paper, Scissors"-type of game, where they move their hands one way, trying to guess which way I'm going to move my face, either left or right. Anyway, they are the coolest and so much fun to play with. They especially love it when I bust out some of the Korean I've learned so far. They get so excited! One of their favorites is when I count, because they like to count with me.

I hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

Happy Easter!

Where's my French Onion Soup?!

Here's a fun little Korean fact for you: In Korea, beef broth can actually be served as a drink. How do I know this you ask? Well let me tell you. While having dinner with some of the teachers at my school a few nights ago, one of the teachers picked up the tea kettle and poured me a glass. This is pretty typical here, because you're not really supposed to pour your own drink. Especially alcohol. Granted, I've seen people pour their own drinks here, but I've also seen people grab the pouring device out of someone's hand when they try to pour their own drink. Anyway, I noticed the drink he poured me was dark brown in color. I just figured it was some kind of unique tea that I hadn't tasted yet. They have so many different kinds of tea, so my thought was not only totally plausible, but likely. Before taking a sip, I asked one of the teachers, "Tea? Cha? (Korean for tea)" and he said no. He struggled to find the English word for what my drink was and sputtered out, "Kind of beef." This just left me confused, so I went ahead and took a drink. Sure enough, he was right. It in fact was a kind of beef. The brothy kind. Now, please understand this wasn't a bad thing, in fact I finished the whole cup I was poured. All this situation really did was just further enhance the mystery of Korean beverage drinking habits. I just don't get it. I actually kind of got upset later when I thought about all the different kinds of unpalatable soups they serve at lunch everyday. They are fully aware of beef broth! Why not throw some onions in there and serve me some nice French onion soup!? Save the seaweed soup for next year when I'm gone!

The day of this dinner, us teachers actually left school early to go the movies and dinner afterwards. The students had some sort of mandatory testing they had to do, so I guess the teachers thought it would be fun to get out and do something, rather than sit at school and do nothing. Unfortunately the movie they chose to see was Push and it turned out to be just as bad as all the trailers looked. I would like to say one thing about Korean movie theaters though. Every one I've been to so far, which amazingly is four already, they all have assigned seating. This is such a brilliant idea for movie theaters, and I can't understand for the life of me why American theaters haven't adopted this oh-so-convenient feature. It's so nice not having to sit in the theater for thirty minutes waiting for your movie, because you want to get a good seat, or to make sure that your group is together. Assigned seating just takes care of it for you. If you try to buy tickets for a movie where no good seats are left, then you can just wait until the next show and pick good seats for that one. It's so easy. Come on USA! 

While we were waiting for the movie to start, I noticed that in the arcade area, there was a giant photo booth-looking machine, but it wasn't a photo booth. Upon further inspection I found out it was like a portable karaoke machine! I couldn't believe it. They love their noribong so much that they've actually made it portable. It looked like it could seat 2-3 people, however when I saw it, there was just one Korean dude in their belting his heart out to the words on the screen. Unbelievable.

This past Saturday, Brent and I met up with the girl we met at Busan Tower, Hyo Son, along with a couple other people. This girl is like no other Korean we have encountered. On the walk to the Korean restaurant we were going to, we found out she hates Korean food (Yes, even kimchi!) and loves all the western restaurants out here, with a particular fondness for Bennigans and McDonald's. I'm quite sure there were more personality traits that made her stand out from the rest of the Korean people we've met, but I can't remember them. I just know that the food thing floored us. The way she grimaced when we asked if she didn't even like kimchi was just priceless. Now, had it been just her, Brent and I, we would have made an immediate dash to the nearest TGI Friday's, but one of the other guys that was with us was pretty much running the show, so we were going to some restaurant that he and a couple others that were there had already decided on. Actually the restaurant we went to ended up being pretty good. The food was called shabu shabu. I'm sure that's not spelled right, but it's basically cooking your meat in a big pot of seasoned boiling water. The thin strips of beef actually cooked pretty quickly in the water, so you had to be on top of it and ready to take it out. I actually felt bad for Hyo Son, because she was hardly eating anything, which reinforced her earlier disgust of Korean food. Anyway, after dinner this guy asks us what we want to do, obviously not picking up on the fact that we kind of want him and the other natives there to decide that for us. Tell us what there is to do! Take us somewhere cool! We mentioned these exact things and all we got from them was drinking and noribong. Really? That's all there is to do in Busan? That's what you do every weekend?! Ugh! So we ended up at some bar down the street and drank a little bit and munched on some appetizer-type foods. I even asked about playing ping pong or pool, and he just said that there was no ping pong place around and that pool was kind of expensive. So there we sat for maybe an hour or so. After that we went home, because noribong was not in the cards for me again. The night really did feel like sort of a bust. Brent and I both figured if it had just been him, Hyo Son and me, we probably would have had more fun. I say this only because we would have had a nice western meal for one, her English was a lot better than what we originally picked up on and I think she was a little more reserved around the other Koreans that were with us.

The next day, Brent and I joined my co-teacher and her friend for our first official Korean hike. Hiking is very popular here, because of how mountainous it is. My co-teacher actually goes hiking every day after school. She loves it. We were hoping that they were going to take us on the beginner's course, but once we got up there it sure didn't feel like it. Honestly, it was a hike up the streets just to get to the start of mountain course. When I wasn't thinking about how out of shape I am, it was actually fun. Strangely enough, what hurt the most was the walking down at the end. Walking down a hill just puts your feet and legs at a weird angle and by the end it took its toll. Once we flattened out again, I was fine. While we were hiking, they took us down the mountain to this little amusement park, just to show us what it was like. It's so funny going to these places, because you just see all these Disney and WB characters painted on things and they totally get away with it here. I've included a picture below so you can see what I mean. Also while we were hiking, we came across an outdoor gym! It had weights and everything, and it totally free to the public. The only price you pay is with your sweat from hiking up the mountain to get to it. There's a picture of this below as well. My co-teacher actually invited the two of us to go hiking with her every weekend if we want, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen. At least not for now. Baby steps.

I've had a few people from home ask me if I miss my car at all. The truth is I really don't. I mean, I miss my car in that I like my car. I could still get in that thing every once in a while and catch a hint of new car smell. After three and half years, I'd say that's pretty good. I'm pretty much counting on that not being the case when I get back. Sorry dad, I know you're taking care of it, but I just have a feeling. Just keep those rocks off the windshield okay. Anyway, what I don't really miss is driving. That may change over the course of the year, but it's honestly just something I don't even think about. The public transportation here is great and I've pretty much figured it out except for the buses, so whenever I have to go somewhere I just go. I never think, "Oh, I wish I could just get in a car and drive there." I guess I've just adapted to the means of travel here. Plus, it's a lot easier to walk somewhere when it's your only option.

I finally got my first paycheck at the end of March, so it's nice to have some money in the old Korean bank account. My first major purchase with my new riches was an online subscription to Rosetta Stone. Instead of having to purchase the whole language learning system, I was able to buy a year subscription to the same content hosted over the Internet. I've gone through three lessons now and I feel like it's doing its job so far. I'll let you know in like a month how well I'm speaking or understanding things. I'm actually really excited about this, because I feel like if I can start knocking down that language barrier, than my experience here will only get better. It would be nice at some point to be able to participate in discussions at dinner or in the teacher's lounge. Hopefully I can get to a point where I can at least be talking at an elementary level.

Finally, I'd like to give a little public thanks to Mariana, Evelyn and Alvin, who provided me with some good eats, entertainment and apartment decor. I was so excited to receive that box, you all have no idea. One of the boxes of Mac & Cheese that was a part of their care package was consumed that very evening. Anyway, that was so cool of you guys and I appreciate it so much.

That's it for now. Take care everyone!