Mom and Dad Beaugrand take on Korea!!

October has been an exciting month for us here, and it only got better when we found out my parents were coming for a visit!! They arrived in Yangsan on Wed. Oct. 21 and left the following Monday, and in that short time, we let them experience as much of the Korean culture as possible. They had a great trip and loved Korea :)

Love Motels
Yangsan is a small city by Korean standards (about 400,000 maybe?) and so there are no hotels in the city, only motels and we were lucky because a new one had recently opened down the road from us! It would make a perfect place for my parents to stay. Or so we thought! Looking back, there are many things that should have been red flags, but we just went along with it at the time. Before we picked them up at the airport, we went to book the motel room and get the key for a smooth check-in later. We were told check-in time was 10:00pm, so we were too early for check-in (this should have been red flag #1). We get back to the motel after 10 with Mom and Dad, tired from a long day of travel, and when the receptionist gives Mom the room key, she also hands her a little bag filled with toothbrushes, condoms and any type of lotion and gel you could think of! (red flag #2) haha. We had a laugh about it, and again when we got into the room and there were red lights over top of the bed (red flag 3?). After what felt like Christmas Day, opening all the canadian goodies they brought for us, we left them there, as we still had to teach the following morning.
Thursday morning after one of my classes, I get a call from Mom and Dad saying they are getting kicked out of their motel...what could they possibly have done??? Well, being a love motel true to it's name, customers cannot stay during the day. They would have to check out and re-check in at 10pm. Only, to make this whole situation worse, no one at the hotel spoke a word of English! They were essentially shoo'ed out of their room. Luckily, this motel called another motel that DOES let it's customers stay during the day and they were transfered to the other hotel! In the end, it turned out alright, but this being their first real experience with Korea, I was worried they might want to leave that day! Fortunately the rest of the day and the rest of the trip were much better so that incident was quickly forgotten...I think!

Meet Sinju Middle School
After getting in to their new hotel, Mom and Dad came to my school for the rest of the day to see where I work and to meet some students, and they were a hit! The students loved meeting them and (for some odd reason) couldn't stop complimenting them with "So pretty!", "So handsome!" and "So young!". I think it went to their heads a little! Dad taught them "What's up dude?" and high fives, of course! They got to sit in on a couple of my classes and meet the other teachers I work with. Even the teachers loved them, constantly offering them walnuts, tea and persimmons! They definitely got a taste of celebrity that Mike and I experience on a daily basis!
That evening we visited the water show, which I think they were impressed with and met with some of our friends for dinner, our favourite, sam gip sal (that's where you wrap meat, rice and fixings in lettuce). They got to try their first Kimchi (and to no one's surprise, didn't like it! lol). The meal, however, they did like!

Friday
I was fortunate enough to have Friday off school because it was physical assessment day for all the students. Friday we spent exploring Yangsan. We went to t he Nambu market, wandered through the stores and saw all the junk and stuff people were selling. They had fun checking out the stores, scoring bargains on a few items, and practicing the 2 korean words we tried to teach them (hello and thanks). We also had a quick visit to MIke's school and then walked to the Yangsan Tower for a gorgeous view of the city! They also got to try out the outdoor workout equipment scattered throughout the city along the walking trails and liked that a lot! That evening, we had an amazing meal for dinner which consisted of a pumpkin that was hollowed then baked, filled with rice, nuts and raisins and topped with duck! Mmm! Delish! It was definitely worth the walk halfway up the mountain to get to the restaurant :)

Naewonsa and lots of walking
Saturday morning we hopped on a bus and headed to Naewonsa Temple area to show them a temple. Mom and Dad got to experience a true Korean bus ride then! The bus was packed and they were pushed around for 30minutes by the little Korean old women and men who get to where they want to be no matter what or who is in the way! Not the most enjoyable of rides, but an experience nontheless!
We had yet to visit this temple and all we knew was that it was a bit of a walk to get there...a bit..turned into 7km very quickly! Luckily, it was an easy walk on a slight incline, but it still took us almost 2 hours to get there! (and I was later told by one student that this walk is not considered a long walk in korea. When I asked what was a long walk, he said that the walk from Seoul to Busan [which is a 5hr drive, for perspective] would be a long walk..right kid. thanks for sharing that). The walk was nice because we were walking among the mountains and the leaves we starting to change with fall coming. It was beautiful scenery with lots of look at and made the time pass quickly. The temple itself was very small, but pretty. Some buildings were veyr new and colourful, while others were so old that their paint was almost worn right off! Set in front of a colourful mountain-scape, this was a great time of year to visit this temple!
After 4 hours of walking, we decided our feet needed a break so we went into Busan in search of Dr Fish! Dr Fish is a cafe/spa where you put your feet in a tub with water and these little nibble fish will eat the dead skin off your feet leaving your feet softer and relaxed! We have been in search of a Dr Fish place since we arrived and finally found one that day! yay! For the low price of 2,000W per person, you get 30 minutes with these little nibblers. The sensation is like nothing I have ever felt before...and we all reacted the same way the first time a fish touched our feet...screamed or shreeked and pulled our feet out of the water...but not because it hurt, because it tickled!! Once we got over the tickly bit, it was really cool!! Although the fish seemed more attracted to the guys' feet, we had fun getting our skin eaten by these little fish. Dad even said afterwards that his feet did feel softer! So if anyone is looking for a Christmas gift for him, get him some of these nibbler fish! lol!

Sunday in Busan
After a looonnng day of walking Saturday and 3 long days of sight-seeing, Sunday was a bit more of a laid-back day. We took the subway into Busan in the morning for a big western-style breakfast (our first since arriving here!) and it was amazing! It had everything, including waffles with "real Canadian maple syrop"!! Since it is hard to be in Korea and not walk everywhere (on buses or subways you miss so much!) we walked along the coast line for a bit and then took a boat cruise along the coast, which gave us some great views of the city from the Ocean! We also checked out a casino, because I don't think my parents can go anywhere without hitting a casino..lol. In Korea, Koreans are not allowed in the casinos, only foreigners are. So you can imagine that this was not going to be a large casino. Even knowing this were were still amazed at how small it really was! It was one floor, with maybe 40 slot machines and 10 tables! The cheapest slots were 10c (100W), so we quickly lost 50$ between the four of us. Probably a record for shortest amount of time spent in a casino! haha!
We spent most of the rest of the day just wandering around Haeundae area, the beach, the markets, then we headed to Shinsegae to see the Guiness Book of World Records' Largest Department Store record holder! Of course, the first stop was the skating rink! After a realxing dinner, we went back to Yangsan where we said our goodbyes! Their trip had come to an end, what seemed much too fast! We were all exhausted but satisfied after 4 long days of exploring, sight-seeing and trying new things!
This was a trip full of firsts for Mom and Dad - love motels, round beds, buddist temples, fish eating your feet, food language etc. - but they tried everything we handed them! We loved playing tour guide to them (hint hint in case anyone else wants to visit!) and we miss them already! I was so happy to share with them our life over here, which is vastly different from that back home, but still no worse or no better. Just different. If you ask them if they would come back, I'm sure they would say yes, if the opportunity arose, which means the trip was a success! Yes!

Note: Mom and Dad's take of their trip will be posted very soon!

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