Beaches and Buddhism in Busan

(Click on any picture to see a bigger version)





What is the word for "sunscreen" in Korean? I certainly don't know. And I'm paying the price for this lack of knowledge and Korean-English dictionary. I got some sun at Hyundae Beach while on vacation, unfortunately God was holding a magnifying glass aimed at my face for an hour and I'm red as a turnip now. The girl I was traveling with is Peruvian, so her skin was a tad more resistant to the evil sun rays. She woke up the next morning complaining of an imperceptible sunburn on the tip of her nose, whereas I checked the mirror and looked like a flush-faced drunk Irishman. Or Asian, if you believe in the "Asian flush" (I don't see it here, though). It was still worth it, I think. As you can see, the beach is beautiful; the sand is not too hot, the water bright blue and very clear, and it was the second half of Chuseok so most people were back at work and the beach was deserted.

We took a little ferry tour of the outlying rock islands in the Korean Straight afterwards, and saw a lot of Busan's newer developments, like a huge ferris wheel mimicking the "Eye of London", a great white bridge resembling a similar (golden) bridge in San Francisco, and a couple of other futuristic, aesthetically pleasing structures including this light house and the APEC Conference Center in Korea. Pusan is really a great looking city, and these pictures don't even scratch the surface. The other image here is of a group of women gutting/preparing the daily sea harvest of squids, eels, fish, and crabs. Grandpa, you would love the seafood here, if you would just try it. Also, I keep looking for a deep-sea charter fishing company, but they don't seem to exist here. I'll just buy a fly or lure rod sometime soon and do it myself.

To get to Busan, which is on the Southeast coast of Korea (as far from Seoul as possible, basically), we took a 5 hour bus trip, costing just 20,000W ($20). We stayed in a hostel for $15 a night, which is a great price for the quality of the housing we had (TV/Internet/Shower). Unfortunately the first night a couple drunken Brits woke everyone up at 5 am when they got back, but other than that the people staying there were very nice. We went out for drinks the first night with an Aussie named Ben who had spent the last year in Japan and was doing some traveling after school. The next night we went out with Ben and a couple of other (more sober) Brits who were taking a year off from their respective Accounting and Marketing jobs to just "travel the world until the money runs out". They didn't give much other reasoning behind it; they were roommates in university, and, one night--eight years later--after a party they attended, they came to the (less sober) decision to go gallivanting around the world, and "to hell with our bloody jobs!" For an accountant and a marketing man, I'm sure this year will be a bit out of the ordinary, and perhaps lead to something for both of them that they never dreamed about while behind a desk. That, or they will both end up broke, drunk, and jobless. I guess that's the thrill though, eh? Maybe.
Also, the bars have great names here. This one we went to was called "Who? Beer Frend." The next was called "Girl & Beers". I'll try to remember to snap a picture of the better ones, but they're all hilarious.

Another highlight of our trip was the Beomeosa Buddhist Temple. It did not look as old as its 1500-year history made it out to be, though I'm sure much of it, being made out of wood, had to be reconstructed a few times. In any case, it was fascinating to see Buddhist monks at work, leading chants, kneeling and bowing to large golden Buddhas, etc. There were many people being led in prayer, most of whom I suspect were doing a "Temple Stay", during which time they live in the Temple, wake up at 4 am with the monks, and pray and meditate all day long. One of my coworkers told us about having attempted a day-long Temple Stay, and was not happy with the fact that the monks gave him a bowl of water to wash his hands in, and then told him to drink the water (they don't like to waste anything at all). He is a very disagreeable person, and told them no, stating that he didn't see any monks drinking the dirty water from wash bowls. The two parties insisted back and forth at one another until the monks gave up in exasperation; Buddha himself would not have the necessary patience to deal with this man (he's Italian).

If you look closely at this rock I'm standing on, you'll see it has a lot of old Buddhist carvings in it. I'm not sure how ancient it is, how revered it is, or if Buddha himself carved into it, but I'll be damned if I can't take a picture of me not giving it the respect it deserves. One of the Temple workers shooed me off of it seconds later.



I also caught this cool frog at the Temple, which looked just like the frogs Dave and I used to catch out in Seymour, except with psychedelic colors.



OK, that's it. Go Rockies! Can't believe I'd be saying that this late in the season...

Thanksgiving, Korean style

This week is Chuseok, the Korean thanksgiving, and it seems as though the majority of the 18 million Seoulites (Seoulians?) have left the city for the warmer regions of Busan, in Southern South Korea. This mass exodus--that nobody told me about--coupled with the fact that I have seen a handful of broken-down hospital patients walking down the nearly-abandoned streets in their hospital gowns, dragging their I.V.s alongside them (I guess there's a small hospital in my neighborhood? that, or an asylum break-out), makes me feel like I'm in a Charlton Heston apocalypse movie. Except I don't have a shotgun, and they're not zombies apes.

I don't know the precise meaning of Chuseok yet, other than the popular description of coworkers, "It is Korean Holiday!" Apparently it is the equivalent of American Thanksgiving, but I don't think any Indian named "Squanto Lee" helped out the founding Koreans when their first rice harvest failed. I guess it is just an appreciation for the year's harvest and a time for families to get together. And, if you don't want to get together with your family, you go to the beaches in Busan. Actually, I just looked it up on Wikipedia, which states that Chuseok is a time for Koreans to "visit the tombs of immediate ancestors to trim plants and clean the area around the tomb, and offer food, drink, and crops to their ancestors. Harvest crops are attributed to the blessing of ancestors, and Chuseok offers Koreans a unique opportunity to refresh their memory and gratitude to their ancestors." However, I did see a lot of swimming suits being packed, too.

Before I knew Chuseok was approaching, at the end of last week my boss' right hand man (Colbe) called me over. He seemed unusually severe, and said he needed to talk to me and would I please follow him right now. He indicated his/my boss' open door, behind which Mr. Lee, also unusually serious-looking, told me to please sit down. By this time, I was nervous and quickly thinking if I had missed a class sometime during the week. I asked him, "Is there a Problem, Mr. Lee?" He said, "Yes." I've been amazed at how much sweat my body has produced since being in Seoul, as a cause of the heat-shield that the thick layer of smog forms above the city, but I think my sweat glands kicked into overdrive just then. I asked him if I had forgotten a class accidentally. "No." He maintained a slight crease in his brow. "You know next week is Korean traditional holiday, don't you?" I did not, in fact, know, and started thinking that the point of this meeting was to rebuke an unintentional comment or act I had made not in accordance with Korean tradition. "Well then, James, you must know...that we are giving you a holiday bonus." At this, I looked up and his brow had unfurled and he had on an ear-splitting grin. He apparently takes much pleasure in torturing his employees before any good news, and I was next in line. Anyhow, he gave me an envelope with 200,000 Won in it ($200), and told me to have a good time in Busan.

Busan, as you probably gleaned, is my destination during Chuseok. I'm going with a coworker and we're going to stay at a hostel. We'll probably see a lot of touristy stuff like palaces and temples as well as get to the beach. I can remember it being not that long ago that "touristy" was the type of trip I would grimace at. Although, if you had asked me a year ago where I'd be in one year's time, Seoul might have been 200th on the list, a close second to Darbyville, Ohio. I'll also be trying to catch a day-trip on a deep-sea fishing boat while we're on the coast. Perhaps it will be cheaper than I'm expecting, though I'm not holding my breath.

In other random news, I walked around the "younger" part of downtown Seoul with a female coworker last Saturday, and we were turned down when entering a club because "Only Koreans" were allowed in. It was the first time I had ever been turned down at a club for being white. It felt oddly cool. Is that weird? The last time I was declined entrance to a club was in Paris, where the bouncer resoundingly told us (me and the girls/guys I was with) that "Your women, they are too ugly." But in Seoul, it was especially surprising because, only minutes before, we had left a club because, upon entering, the head of the club saw us and took the hand of the girl I was with and dragged her by the wrist into the abyss of the night club (many businesses are underground due to lack of space) as I quickly followed and he sat us down at a table, quite forcefully, blathering at us and pointing to what apparently was the alcohol menu at something that had "W 100,000" written next to it. He seemed to be asking for payment, which I was not prepared to pay. When we began our pantomimed "No, thank you" gestures, he immediately cut the price by half (he wrote on a napkin), making us further doubt the quality of whatever he was selling us. I can only guess it was a bottle of liquor for the table, but I wasn't about to shell out even 50,000 Won to get shit-faced in the basement of a sparsely populated night club called "Disco and Beer". That privilege would be reserved for other fine establishments later that night. (Just kidding, mom....or am I?)

I've also tried my hand at drinking/eating Korean Ginseng. Not the pills you buy at a GNC store, but the actual ginseng root sold by old Korean women in crowded marketplaces whose faces are as rough as the roots they sell. The roots look like pale Rastafarian carrots (see picture). As for how to prepare them, I've tried it all. I've attempted to boil them, grind them, make them into tea, chew them, and add them to noodles, but I just don't feel the "energizing" effects I had heard so much about (http://www.quickchange.com/ginsengstore/faqs.html#3). Nonetheless, I will continue the various methods of ingestion until I find one that is juuuust right. Unfortunately it is kind of expensive; each of those roots cost more than $7, and those are the cheaper 5-year old ginseng. The 6-year old roots were $12+.

I went down to a park with a coworker of mine to kick the soccer ball around a few days ago. We played with a few little kids being dropped off from school by the buses you see riding around in the background. And when I say "park" in Korea, I mean "gravel pit". There don't appear to be any (significant) green city parks here, which is a major let-down. I guess space is too precious? No. Look at NYC! They have one of the most extensive park systems of any city on earth, and their Quality of Life is vastly improved for it. City revenue is even increased by the open spaces around which property taxes soar. Someone needs to introduce a proper city park to Korea. Sure, they have small little squares with a statue or two and they call it a park, but they have no grass fields for concerts or sports matches or flying a friggin' kite! To be fair, the Seoul government is spending a lot of money to improve (landscape) the green strip all along the Han river (runs through the middle of the city) to make scenic walking paths and picnic areas.

By the time the Han River project is completed in a few years, pollution will hopefully be reduced as well. Smog is a major concern for people here. You know those Asian people you see in the States walking around with surgeons masks on? Don't they look a little ridiculous? I know I've heard more than a few "SARS jokes" about them. Now I see why they do it; many people wear masks/handkerchiefs here just from fear of the carcinogenic smog. Koreans blame China for the foul air, saying it blows over their "little city" from the mainland. Whether or not this is true, I've heard the masks do next to nothing for your health.

Now, I'm off to Busan for some sun, sand, and more smog.
Adieu.

Food for Thought

As per my mom's request, here's a quick submission on Korean food...

The inevitable question asked of anybody abroad: "How's the food?" My answer: "Great." (See picture) Food in Korea is spicy, fresh, and delicious. Yes, dog is eaten. No, I haven't yet. Yes, I probably will. Now, that's out of the way. The best food, which is the actual Korean food, is the cheapest. The traditional starter, or side dish, at all food stops is kimchi, and I have grown to like it. It looks like cooked cabbage (almost soggy leaves) spattered with a paprika-like spice. My advice to people that say they hate Korean food: close your eyes when you eat it, it will probably improve the taste. I wish I had a picture of kimchi for you, but the picture wouldn't do it justice. It would most likely do it an injustice.

At Korean restaurants, the dish you order is always complimented by numerous pun-chun, side dishes, such as rice, kimchi, pear, noodles, strange-yellow-fruit, and strange-pink-fruit. You can stuff yourself on the numerous side dishes alone. Tonight, luckily, I did remember to whip out my Kodak camera and capture my dinner in a delicious still. It was my best dinner in Seoul so far, and it cost $10 (expensive--but worth it). There were four of us at the table and a gas burner in the middle. They brought out a pot of a orange Korean soup and placed it on the burner. Notice the multiple side-bowls everyone has; those are the numerous pun-chun. They then brought out fistfuls of fresh greens and vegetables and threw them unceremoniously into the then-boiling soup. A large plate of uncooked, thinly-sliced beef was placed at our side, from which we threw pieces of meat into the mixture as we liked. The beef was sliced so thin that it was browned within a 15 seconds. They continued to bring out further handfuls of mixed vegetables and mix them into the soup when it looked like we were running low. I have never had better mushrooms, sprouts, asparagus, onion, beef, or potato as those in this dish, from which everyone kept picking out as much as they'd like. Needless to say, my chopstick skills have progressed. The "communal" nature of traditional Korean eating might annoy some people I know who don't appreciate the utensils of multiple people being dipped repeatedly into community pot. Regardless, this meal was delicious.

When I don't have time to sit down and eat, there is always kimbap. I often find myself going to class on a bowl of cereal (Tony the Tiger lives in Asia, too), and, hungry, deciding to stop at one of the numerous restaurants on the four blocks in between my apartment and the school to pick up two or three rolls of kimbap (left). It is a roll of sushi wrapped in tin foil, and it costs $1. These restaurants always have a pile of them near the door, where you grab a couple, say hi, and throw a couple thousand Won on the table. I have subsisted on kimbap alone on multiple occasions, and it is not only healthy, cheap, and filling, but also tasty.

Produce and seafood are very big here because they are so easily driven in from the country/coast (Korea is smaller than Tennessee). Everywhere you go, you find farmers/fishermen selling king crabs, octopus, fresh fruit, and vegetables out of their truck beds. The food is quite good and, as you can imagine, inexpensive. The downside to these merchants is the loudspeakers that every one of them has purchased and mounted on their trucks. Every morning I wake to a scratchy Korean voice blaring from one of these produce trucks coming down my alleyway. It sounds like a 1920's gubernatorial candidate on a grass-roots campaign through farming country. Beyond their annoying loudspeakers, these trucks make it much easier to purchase fresh food since their wares are sitting in front of me and can easily be pointed to. No unnecessary Korean is needed, simply my pointer finger, an appreciate grunt, and slight bow.

My first break (one of two week-long breaks throughout the year), is coming up next week. I'm thinking about doing a "Temple Stay" for the first couple days. This is when you pay a small amount to live in a Buddhist temple as a Monk for however long you want. Why not? Could be interesting. After that, I might try to organize a fishing trip with a coworker. The trout that run in northern Asian countries, Manchurian Trout, is supposedly the oldest trout species in the world, and is easy to find (Korea is 70% hills and streams). The DMZ supposedly holds the most serene (and untouched) trout fishing rivers in Asia. I might not make it up near there for obvious reasons. Four fishermen were accidentally killed there a few years ago when they were confused for North Koreans. Furthermore, there are still landmines washing down the river out of the DMZ zone that kill dozens of farmers every year. Besides, you don't need a fishing license to fish in most of Korea! I can just hike off into the mountains around Seoul, find a river, and cast in! It sounds so simple. All I need now is a rod, tackle, and a sense of direction.

The Land of the Morning Calm...

For a country whose earliest shops open at 10 am, this nickname fits. I have now been living in Seoul for 4 days and, due to stubborn jet lag, am cursed to wake at 7 am every morning with nothing to do but wander the streets of Korea's capital for hours before seeing another living being. And, having explored some of the many markets and neighborhoods of this high-tech metropolis (which contains 18 million people more densely packed than NYC) I've decided that I made the right choice with my year after school. I still think longingly about being back home amongst friends in Boston or New York or Washington as many of you are, but I'm sure some of you are thinking the same things about me right now. Let's just say there are ups and downs to all our situations. For me, my new beginning in Seoul has been very enjoyable; the people are approachable and friendly, the language barrier is not extreme and will improve with classes, the food is pretty good (spicy and raw), and my co-workers are nice enough. This is in strict contrast to my last attempt at living abroad, in Paris, where I believed the Parisian people to all have sticks up their asses.

NOTE: This first update to my blog is lengthy and is just my thoughts on Seoul at first glance. When I post in the future, I'll be making it more fun/interesting with stories and pictures. For now, I'm just giving my gut reaction to Seoul...

It is quite evident that I am somewhat special in Seoul. I am anywhere, of course, but especially in a country of 99.9% short(er) Asian people. I've gotten used to the constant stares by now. Korea has very, very few foreigners and even fewer white foreigners. And I have yet to see a black person in Korea. I heard that a friend of my coworker traveled with a black friend of hers to a village in southern Pusan province and when the children saw her friend, they started crying and running away scared. Talk about an isolated little island.

Well, anyways, the attention I receive in the forms of glances from older people and outright staring from children as I pass on the street is somewhat amusing to me; I actually kind of enjoy it. Whenever I'm on the subway, groups of little girls run past me, slowing down when they near me and then giggling hysterically before running off again until one of them has the guts to say hi to me. If I smile and say "hi" back to the brave girl, she and the friends hiding behind her back all scream and run away giggling. It's kinda fun. (a quick note: the Seoul subway system is the cleanest, most efficient, user-friendly system I have ever encountered; it puts NY, Paris, and London to shame). Even in restaurants I find that small children will stop eating, turn around in their seats and stare open-mouthed at me as I wait for my food. Again, all I have to do is wave or say "hi" and they immediately get wide-eyed and turn away. Perhaps I'm an attention seeker, or perhaps this will soon become tiring. My guess is, a little of both.

The place where the staring is most uncomfortable is in the bath house. Before you hit the "comment" button and make a joke about San Francisco bath houses to me, they "bath houses" in Seoul are places with saunas, showers, workout rooms, massage parlors, and recreational facilities for men and women. The saunas are co-ed, but the shower rooms (which are more like club areas with TVs and loungers) are filled with naked men and groups of wild little naked boys running around. I am no stranger to gym showers, but jumping into a large hot bath with a bunch of naked Koreans who are openly appraising you is somewhat disconcerting. In the men's area, there is a service included in the $8 entrance fee whereby you lie on your back and a male attendant takes each of your limbs and exfoliates your skin with a harsh brush. He gets nearly your whole body. I opted out of this part of my entrance privilege and went to the co-ed area instead. There, they have massive TVs everywhere, saunas, massage chairs, food courts, and game centers for little kids (there are PC game rooms all over Korea, Warcraft being the national game or whatever--they even have network TV stations solely dedicated to the 24/7 showing of classic Warcraft online battles). Most people, however, grab a cushion and go to sleep on the warm marble floor for an after-work nap. These places are open 24 hours a day, so if you're ever lost/drunk/both and need a place to crash, you can do so comfortably in one of the bathhouses. Perhaps I may not partake in the exfoliation process, but I certainly plan on going again, perhaps with some friends so I am not attracting the looks of every Korean in the room.

You're probably wondering, "Isn't he supposed to by working in Seoul or something?" And yes, I am. However, the workload after a busy summer is relatively light (about 4 hours a day now, with upwards of 12 during Christmas time, Korean holidays, and Summer). I am reviewing SAT reading/writing sections with students who are trying to get into good American colleges. My hakwon (Seoul Language Institute), is actually quite famous in Seoul as perhaps the best of these type of schools, of which there are many. There are 100,000 English teachers in Seoul, to give you an idea of the demand. I was teaching full classes on my second day here, and was quite nervous for the first five minutes, but did not take long to get comfortable. I have also come to realize how to take these damned SAT tests, finally. Perhaps a little late. When I got the job, I thought it ironic that I would be teaching the SAT section once known as the "verbal section" because I scored significantly lower on it than on the math section in my high school days. But now that I'm teaching it, I've picked up a few tips on how to choose between these reading comprehension answers I once considered stupid and completely subjective and now consider just stupid. However, the question, "What is the best title for this passage?" remains the bane of my test-taking existence, I having never answered one correctly. In addition to SAT review, I also do TOEFL writing and college essay writing tutoring. I feel surprisingly useful in these roles. In short, I think I am becoming a better writer and expanding my vocabulary as a result of this job. It turns out I could've been getting paid to become a better writer here in Korea rather than paying to become a worse one in college.

My room is interesting. The former tenant graciously left me a broken TV, a Jay-Z Live in Seoul poster, and three dozen eggs, unrefrigerated. It's about 250 square feet, but Koreans are very industrious space-savers, so everything goes into or comes out of a wall (drawers, stoves, etc). The bathroom was the most intriguing. On my first inspection, I noticed a sink and a toilet. All normal, I thought. I asked where the shower was. The landlord pointed to a detachable shower hose above the sink, and a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor next to the toilet. Apparently you shower yourself off with the hose as you hover above the toilet. I'll say it again, Koreans really know how to shave off excess square feet from a room. Also, Koreans don't user clothes dryers. You hang everything on dry lines. And my window shades (not pictured) that span the whole left side of my room are broken, so I am expecting to get an angry notice from the landlord sometime soon saying he is getting complaints of public nudity from the apartment across the street.

Something that may surprise you New York financiers reading this is that I may end up saving more money after one year than any of you! Above the base $35,000 salary I will make, I understand I could make another $20,000 in overtime pay, plus my housing is paid for, and an average meal costs $5-$6. Alcohol, by the way costs $1.50 for a bottle of "soju", the vodka-like Korean alcohol. In the street markets, clothing costs as little as $5-$10 for a dress shirt. I was told Seoul was the "second most expensive city to live in behind Moscow", and could believe it if I were living in a Western style apartment (~650+ square feet), eating Western food (Burgerking, Subway, etc.), and purchasing Western commodities. But I am doing none of those things (much), and, as you would imagine, better deals for anything are found in back-alley Asian markets, which are prolific in Seoul. Whereas a pair of shoes may cost 30,000 Won ($30) at the large malls in Seoul, the same shoes (of suspicious but presentable quality) cost 2,000 Won.


I plan on taking language classes at Ewha University starting in October. It is actually a women's university and the only males allowed to take classes are foreigners. Imagine being at a University with a female:male ratio of 1000:1. That's me at Ewha. Or, will be, in October. I am also going to start Taekwondo with some coworkers sometime in October hopefully, unless it conflicts with my Korea classes. Until December, I'm only teaching about four hours a day, so I'm trying to fill my day with anything interesting. If you have a suggestion, I'd love to hear it.

I'll make my future posts much shorter, with less insights that are boring-but-interesting-to-me, and hopefully some amusing photos/stories.

I hope everyone is doing great back home (and around the world!). Any and all of your comments to my posts are happily invited.