Food, Drinks and Mr Segway

I was talking to Polish Damien in Australia today and he told me that on my blog "It pretty much looks like all I do is eat, party and travel." I think that's the first ever blog critique I've had from a Polish guy. Muchly appreciated. It's his 27th birthday today and I'm sure he'll be celebrating in style with the guys back home. Happy Birthday Damien!

In this photo is an U-dong hotpot with stuffed pockets of aerated soybean and various other goodies. On the right is some sundried chilli cashew chicken. We chose to enjoy this particular meal with some apple and kiwi soju cocktails.

Some time ago, a group of adoptees came down to Busan for a quick tour and we met up after work for some drinks. I'm pretty much the only GOA'L affiliated adoptee down here, so I feel like an ambassador of sorts.


Here's a new drinking game that Eric taught us that night. Two lines of people are on either side of the tables. Each person in turn (one after the other) has to drink the beer from their own paper cup and then put it on the edge of the table. The next person can only start drinking once the previous person has flipped the cup so that it lands properly on the table. The first line to finish wins.

We played this game a few times.

I led the group to the U2 bar in Haeundae, somewhere I hadn't been in a while. U2 is fairly nice and they serve free popcorn. The owner speaks a fair bit of English and likes to drink tequila shots.

One of the European adoptees decided it would be a good idea if we all took our shoes off and danced. Mine are the brown ones in the centre.

Then Eric thought it would be a good idea if we all went for a swim at the beach at 2am. I wasn't particularly in the mood for it, but was eventually persuaded. Catching the taxi back home with wet pants in the wee hours of the morning was an interesting experience.

I also lost my old cell phone at some point that night.

Meet Lee's new and improved cell phone. It has a DMB connection, which means I can watch free television broadcasts on a few different channels. On the screen in this photo there's a Beijing Olympics replay of Park Tae-Hwan winning the 400m.

Soon after the other adoptees left, Marie Fleur, another French adoptee from Seoul came down for a visit. I didn't have much time to show her around because of work commitments. We had a walk around Gwangan and visited this live seafood shop. That's her on the right, with her sister and sister's husband. Live seafood still impresses me to some degree and it's funny to see how the little Korean kids can just pick up an octopus like it's a toy.

Heather and I are going fairly well these days. My only regular teaching duties during the week are on Friday nights, when I head to her branch to teach an upper level reading class. That means I also get to join in their Friday night hwe-shiks (after-work dinners).

Here are the admin staff of the Hwamyeong branch. Heather received a promotion yesterday to the title of wonjang, which is the branch manager. We've both come a long way since our humble beginnings at the old Busanjin branch in 2006.

Near our house there's a small unstaffed amusement outlet. In this photo, you can see two versions of the ubiquitous punching machines here. You put in a coin and get to see how hard you can punch. You also find out how easy it is to sprain your wrist by trying to impress your friends.

Here's Anthony, one of our new additions, in the batting cages. These were entirely coin-operated as well. You just pick up the bat and a machine will launch baseballs at you.

Have you seen the new Star Wars release? It's an animation based on Attack of the Clones. I've always been a big fan of Star Wars and Star Trek, but unfortunately showing an enthusiasm for such things here results in one being labelled a nerd. Jef's definition of a nerd is when someone owns a twelve-sided die (singular: dice). But I don't own one of those.

Yet.

Heather and I found a new favourite restaurant. It's called Van Gogh's Terrace and it's in the Haeundae area near the APEC building. They specialise in particularly good Italian food and French champagne. It's right next to the water and you can see the Gwangan bridge at night. We go down here sometimes for a treat and are developing a worrying affinity for Moet & Chandon.


Most days on the way to work, Mr Segway (as I like to call him) crosses the main road at the same time as me. He's usually crossing at exactly the same time each day. This is the only Segway I've seen in Korea. He seems to like it when people look at him and ask him questions about his device while he's waiting for the lights.

These days I work in the office at our company's headquarters in Dongnae. That's my seat right there in the middle. Next to me is Brandon Na, the human resources director and in this photo he's interviewing someone via Skype. My work duties include interviewing new teachers from overseas, guiding them in and general HR related troubleshooting. I also look after the April English program to some degree.

Here's the CEO's office. We only moved in here a couple of month's ago.

And here's our dear Kelly Park, who left the company last week for greener pastures. She's been working for us since the beginning and would often be found running around to the different branches or the immigration department. She was really good at fixing problems and watering plants. A few weeks before she left, she found a snail on her lettuce and brought it into the office in a plastic cup. Then the cleaning lady threw it away because she thought it was rubbish. Oh well.

The snail had eggs though, which we kept in a different cup. Hopefully they'll hatch sometime soon.

That's all for this time. See you!

Fifty posts

Well it doesn't sound like all that many, but this post marks the 50th entry into Lee's Korea Blog. I'm fairly pleased with what it has become and plan to keep it alive for as long as there are enough interesting things to show you all.

The first for this post being the Kenny Rogers karaoke bar. This is a franchise across Busan that is apparently doing well enough to warrant more than one outlet.

Rubbish (American: 'trash') is a rather complicated affair in Korea. You can only throw away rubbish on certain days of the week, and each day has a different kind of rubbish for collection. Food waste is collected and taken to the pig farms for food and recyclables are neatly sorted. You need to buy special bags that have a 'rubbish tax' on them to throw away general rubbish. Korea doesn't have a lot of land to spare, so people are encouraged to not be wasteful. One of the side effects of this though, is the spontaneous dumping of unmarked rubbish on the sides of roads. Sometimes the ajossis here will go through it like forensic scientists to determine who the culprits are.

Here's Jef and Maya walking down the road. Although it appears that Maya is a small child, she is actually 22 years old. And she's going to Harvard.
She's going to curse me for saying that again, but I can safely hide behind my monitor because she's in the States now.

Here's Jef, Maya and Swan at a pojang macha. These are street food outlets consisting of a tent and a few stools around a portable wagon. You sit down and eat various kinds of grilled foods and drink beer or soju. They're a good place to talk for hours and ponder the peculiarities of Korean culture.

Here's our favourite ajumma, at work in her tent, called The World Cup. She originally spelled it 'Wold Cup', but someone was kind enough to come along and correct the sign for her. In these places you basically just point out the food you want in the refrigerated partition and she'll cook it up for you.

We met Yu-jong, the girl in the pink, randomly in the Guri bar. Soon she was attached to us like a lost puppy. She didn't speak a considerable amount of English, but we were able to communicate effectively through the use of charades. In this photo, Maya is displaying the universal message for 'I like you'.

Daniel has fit into Busan life fairly well. He's speaking a lot of Korean these days and getting along with the locals. Here he's speaking to Yu-jong's friend, who is displaying the correct body language for 'I am interested in what you are saying'.

This rather more explosive gesture is open to interpretation.

Later that night we went for a song or two. We're a rather musical bunch and although there usually isn't a very updated selection available, we don't mind singing the classics. Local favourites include 'California Dreaming', 'It's Raining Men' and 'Like a Prayer'.

Four hours later we found ourselves on the streets with the sun in our eyes. I usually try to go home before this time, but sometimes you just get caught out. It's bad for my biological clock.

My latest purchase was this air-conditioner. Summers in Korea are stiflingly hot and the single unit in our living room just isn't enough. Heather ordered this one online for me and it arrived 3 days later, installed and running for only $350.

The following weekend it was Shira's birthday. Her nickname is Mum and she's been working with CDI for a while now. She's the girl on the left.

A lot of workers from across the city came and enjoyed beer, wine and Jef's amazing cream cheese and salsa dip.

Here's Jareb, Maya, Swan and Daniel posing with Tim's dog. Cute dogs like this will always be the star of a party, but they just make Jef more hungry. I still haven't gotten around to eating dog meat yet, but I intend to.

Swan and Heather have been working together at the Hwamyeong branch this past week. Swan is going back to Florida soon. I've never been to the States before, but I imagine that I would be more of a west-coast person. Probably because I listened to a lot of 2pac when I was growing up and 'West-side' just sounds cool.

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to receive my second promotion in the company. I now work in the human resources department and am also the faculty manager of the April program. I'd never taught an April class before, so I was sent to Seoul last week for training at headquarters.

The Coatel hotel is where most new CDI workers stay while they receive their week of introductory training. Back when I first arrived, you may remember that we stayed at the Hotel Major in Gangnam, and we had a jacuzzi in our room.

The Coatel is not as interesting as the Hotel Major, but it was still fairly nice. I shared a room with Robin Choi, who turned out to be a cool guy. If your room-mate is cool, it makes the experience twice as good.

During the week I didn't go out much because I had to get up at 7:30am everyday and head across town. But on Thursday it was Josephine's birthday, so we went to this upmarket oyster bar nearby. Here you could buy three New Zealand oysters for $15.
We ate conservatively.

Traffic in Seoul has always been pretty bad. The standstills that occur for minutes at a time make me appreciate life in Busan. One trip to the training centre took us around 20 minutes, but on the way back there was a traffic jam and it took us over an hour to reach the hotel.

At the end of the week it was time to celebrate. We went out to Uncle Tom's Cabin in Apgujeong for some drinks. I met up with Eric and Maria, but looking through my camera, it seems that I didn't get around to taking any photos of us together. Eric just got back from a French summer camp, teaching French to young students.

This is from Club Circle, one of the trendiest places in Seoul. I also went there on the last gathering in Seoul. On this particular night, they had a Brazilian theme with dancers dressed up like they do in that festival they have there with lots of feathers and things. I'm sure it has a name.

Here's one of the dancers who was very popular with the ladies. Probably because of his quick wit and charming personality.

Or maybe it was his muscles.

Here's another nightclub called Mool, which means 'water' in Korean. These places are very expensive. A bottle of base spirits will cost you around $200.

But they're fun.

I don't teach on a regular basis anymore, filling in for teachers when they're sick or on leave. My main duties are in the office, coordinating various things and trying to keep people happy. I'm going to miss my students at the Saha branch who I've taught for the past year. They were remarkably well behaved.

For the last lesson, one of their new words was 'rifle'. Korean kids love guns and after breaktime I came back to see these drawings on the whiteboard. They're quite good and I'm pleased that they learned their new word. Although from a technical standpoint, I feel the need to mention that the ammunition magazines are curving the wrong way.

That's all for this time.

Thanks for reading!

Muju Ski Resort

Life remains busy. I spend the week traveling across town, from Korean language classes to work. In the diminishing gaps of spare time unevenly dispersed throughout the week I wedge language exchanges, CCTV viewing, haircuts, university applications and private tutoring.

There's plenty of time to rest when you're dead.

On the weekends however, spare time flows a little more generously and with it the ability to venture further than a 5 minute radius from the subway stations. A few weekends ago we went to an open house party in Dongnae held by Dylan. In this photo are the shoes of the guests. Foreigners in Korea can become so used to taking off their shoes that it ends up feeling strange to enter someone's house without doing it.

Because soju is so cheap and available on every street corner, parties like this can occur free of charge for the guests. The English teachers of Busan sporadically meet in such a fashion, before slowly filtering out in groups of 4-6 to the next agreed location. It was a good night out.

More recently we decided to make a trip up to the Muju Ski Resort. Muju is the biggest skiing destination in Korea and a package trip from Busan including chairlift, transport and rentals will only cost around $70 for the day. We had to wake up early to catch the 5:30am coach bus.

Upon arrival it became clear that the simple task of lining up for each individual piece of equipment would be somewhat challenging. A lot of leisure destinations in Korea are incredibly busy during peak season. So much so that I've acquired the tendency to purposely choose off-peak times when deciding to try something popular. Speaking broken Korean in such a noisy environment also increases the difficulty of obtaining any particular item.

But soon enough we were all geared up and ready to hit the slopes. I had only been skiing twice in my life on indoor slopes in Australia about ten years ago, so the prospect of skiing down a mountain was a little daunting.

Muju was a lot bigger than I had imagined, with a variety of slopes and difficulty levels. Because winter was on its way out, a lot of slopes had patches of ice instead of snow on them. It was fairly crowded but not too bad.

Michelle had never been skiing in her life and was given some quick lessons from her boyfriend Jordan, who was practically born on skis. Trekking out onto the snow with skis for the first time is a very cumbersome affair.

After a few short runs on a very flat surface we decided to head up to the top of the mountain. The view from the chairlifts was quite nice and nearly as enjoyable as the skiing.

Skiiers and snowboarders criss-crossed down the mountain at various speeds. I witnessed a lot of collisions during the day and was later involved in one myself. I was going too fast near the bottom of the slope and hit an icy patch. A snowboarder drifted into my path and I went rolling down the hill for a good distance. Unlike the cartoons however, my tumble didn't initiate a progressively inflating snowball reaction.

Disappointingly enough.

Some slopes were a lot easier than others. Most went for a few kilometres and there was a lot of powdery snow at the top.

Having not quite gotten the knack of skiing just yet, I've decided to leave snowboarding to the experts. I find snowboarding a lot more difficult to comprehend due to the idea that it involves the immobilisation of both feet onto the same flexible sheet of perspex.

Here's a video of a mystery teacher, who may or may not be a colleague of ours, having difficulty remaining upright.

All in all, it was a good trip out. We left early in the morning and came back late in the afternoon on the same day.

There are some people who drink tap water in Korea and there are some who don't. I've heard a lot of stories for and against, so when in doubt I think the best advice is to do what the locals do. And enough of the locals stay clear of tap water for me to be cautious. Unfortunately this usually means lugging 12 kilos of water back from the supermarket every trip which can be a hassle. Recently we found out that we could order bottled water online and have someone deliver it to our doorstep. So we ordered 120 litres in one go, along with a big bag of rice.

When the delivery guy eventually arrived, puffing and panting he said to me "Why did you order so much?" I replied "Because we like water." One day I'll be articulate enough in Korean to say something more witty.

Near our house a new Korean restaurant that specialises in tuna just opened. It's called Gobukseon, which means 'turtle ship'. Turtle ships were armoured vessels used long ago against the Japanese in naval battles. Quite admirably I might add. Try reading up on Yi Sun-sin on the Wikipedia article sometime.

This tuna restaurant serves unlimited raw tuna that the chefs slice as you request it. They have a whole lot of different cuts as well as other side dishes. It's a very filling but fun way to eat out.

While we're on the topic of food, here's a close up of a radish kim-chi banchan, or side dish from a different restaurant nearby. Kim-chi comes in so many different varieties in Korea that you really become a connoisseur after a while.

Here's another banchan, this one is made with a kind of spinach but lacking the signature red chili that features in the majority of them. Every different jjigae, or Korean stew comes with a different set of side dishes depending on the particular place you eat at.

Those two side dishes came with my samgyetang, a ginseng and chicken herb soup. A whole baby chicken is cooked until very soft in a pot. It's stuffed with ginseng, chinese date, rice, ginger and other condiments resulting in a soothing and wholesome flavour.

A common feature of Korean cities is that the neighbourhoods near prominent universities are nearly always bustling at night. This photo is from the main intersection near Kyungsung University. The crowds here are usually young and there are plenty of places to hang out and chat.

I've always been a dance-techno freak after being into the rave scene throughout university. But it was nice hanging out in this jazz club, Monk Bar, just around the corner from the Vinyl Underground. The group that played that night was pretty good. One of the guys was earlier playing on an electric bass, which reminded me of that pop group in Seoul who all played with electric violins. Sometimes I wish I could play a musical instrument. Then I remember that I can play the armpit.

Also around the corner from Vinyl is another popular place called Thursday Party. These bars are frequented by foreigners in Busan and have a good selection of imported drinks on offer. Here they also serve curried popcorn and deep fried spaghetti sticks.

Work is still going well. Our branch just renovated for the new April English program. This is the banner hanging outside our window these days. I work in the classroom above the banner.

Here's one of our students called Joe. Joe used to live in the US and loves that Borat movie. He has a repertoire of quotes from the movie that he's only too happy to share with us all as we discuss noun clauses or contrast transitions. He also likes to hold the desk up on his lap like that.

And this story was written by one of my elementary school students. I found it puzzling until she explained to me that Bubi was the name of her dog.

I also just created a new blog for our school branch, to act as a newsletter that students and teachers can contribute to. It's a little brief at the moment, but I'm sure it'll soon blossom nicely as this one has.The link is on the right. Check it out.

See you there!