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!