Jinhae and Gyeongju

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Heather, the traveler, strikes again!

So, as you may know, I’ve been quite the busy little bee. I’ve been working, and spending time with my friends. I’ve been adjusting to life in Asia, learning Korean, and trying to understand the culture more, so as to not offend anyone. Well, on top of that I’ve spent my Saturdays the last two weekends taking daytrips around Busan. Yes, I know. It’s a lot. My co-teachers tell me, no wonder you are so tired! Secretly, I have a feeling this might also have to do with my lack of caffeine throughout the school day, but either way it's an exciting life!

Jinhae

Katie and I traveled to Jinhae, Saturday, April 10th, to see the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was one of the top things I wanted to do in Korea, so I’m glad I went, but it really wasn’t that much more impressive than the Cherry Blossoms in Busan. Mostly there were just loads of people! And there were lots of foreigners. We ran into several people that we knew while we were walking around. We know like 50 people in this whole country and we somehow manage to bump into each other all the time (unless we’ve planned too…those times we can’t find each other to save ourselves!). Several times now, I’ve been on the subway and looked over to see someone I know. Weird.

Anyway, Jinhae was nice. There was a really beautiful bridge that we took pictures on, and lots of adorable shrubbery sculptures. I was momentarily lost in thought about how much the Python boys would have really liked those shrubberies (Lizzy, this is just for you!).

We also climbed up a mountain and looked at Jinhae from the tower, which was lovely. It’s a navy town (kind of like Pensacola) and we went just a few weeks after the Navy ship sank. I’ve heard that some of the events had been cancelled this year, but Katie and I didn’t really go to any events so I don’t know. We mostly just wandered around and enjoyed the scenery and the people we were watching.

We had a great lunch that we kind of paid a ridiculous amount for unintentionally. Usually when you ask how much here (in Korean of, course) they say the number of how many thousand, or if it’s more than ten thousand, they write it down. I asked a lady how much for barbeque and she said “three” so we assumed it meant three thousand. They brought us out a plate of pork, lettuce, onions, and sauce. It was more than three 3,000 won’s worth (about 3 bucks give or take), but I thought at the time, maybe it’s 3,000 each. Nope. Definitely 30, 000 won (30 bucks). Oh well, at least it was good! And we learned a fairly valuable lesson. Get it in writing!

We took the bus home, which took about an hour and then were both so tired we nearly crashed. Katie and I attempted to play Skipbo. It was odd, because later I found out that Kiersten was playing Skipbo at exactly the same time as us. Freaky. And then we met up with The Annies (two of our friends both named Annie who knew each other before they came to Korea and then were oddly placed in the same building here). We had houmus. It was lovely.

Gyeongju

Last weekend, April 17th, a group of foreign English teachers went on a school district sponsored trip to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Korea. It’s amazing! I’m so glad it’s only like an hour and a half from Busan!

First we went to the folk village, which was pretty interesting, but mostly it was just nice to see some nature. There’s not a lot of nature in Busan. We wandered around for a while, and it was interesting to see how people used to live. They lived in little rooms that surrounded an open air courtyard in the middle of the building. It must have been so cold. And wet! It’s rained a rather large percentage of my time here.

Next, we went to the rice wine and rice cake festival. They shepherded us around a bit and registered us at a special “foreigner registration” booth where they gave us these funny little wine sample cups that went around our necks. With a final, and completely pointless plea for us to “not drink too much” they took us to where we were having lunch and then just left us to our own devices. Katie, Mari, Dave and I wondered around for a while, but after a couple of shots of rice wine I decided it would probably be a much better use of my time to explore the festival and not just get silly on wine. So, Katie and I did our own thing, but I should admit that “our own thing” didn’t’t involve a single rice cake! Why? Well let me tell you.. I am not a fan of rice cakes. They are a mostly tasteless (until you get to the bean paste), chewy, stodgy bit of weirdness that should not have the word cake in it at all. Lol. Of course, some people absolutely love rice cakes, and though I’ve had a few that were ok, for the most part I try to avoid them. I hid one that someone gave me at work in my desk once and it started to grow mold pretty darn quickly. I do not mean to be small minded or anything, I just don’t like those deserts. Sorry if this little bit offends anyone. I love Korea; just not that snack. I’ll just go get a doughnut from now on. :D
After that, we went to the Royal tombs, which were pretty interesting. When they bury Kings and Queens they bury them with some of their possessions so they build a mound over them. They’re oddly beautiful. And that area of Gyeongju is so pretty! After the tombs we walked around the lovliest little field of yellow flowers. And then a group of us went and climbed a cherry tree :D It was a great trip.

Katie and I went back to my apartment, and attempted to play Skipbo. It was odd, because later I found out that Kiersten was playing Skipbo at exactly the same time as us. Freaky. And then we met up with The Annies (two of our friends both named Annie who knew each other before they came to Korea and then were oddly placed in the same building here). We had houmus. It was lovely.

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