A day in Haeundae

Hello-haseo, from Haeundae!

As you will no doubt notice, there has been a sudden surge of activity on the blog. This is largely due to two factors: 1) We have actually been able to explore the city somewhat, and 2) We have a bit of free time! I have to admit that I haven't been nearly as busy as Hannah- my school was having exams, so I didn't need to do much of anything- but I've been taking the time to decipher the office culture at my school. People generally seem very nice and casual, but it's clear that the Principal is the man in charge! He always dresses in a suit and just has a serious and business-like aura about him. I just hope I got off on the right foot around him, because I'm never sure how to behave correctly around him!

ANYWAY, as I mentioned before, the teachers are very nice and friendly, but very blunt! I came to work with grey dress pants, a white pinstripe shirt and a black skinny tie and was told by a teacher (jokingly) that I looked like a mormon! I started laughing quite a bit and told her that I had thought the very same thing when I looked in the mirror that morning. So... I guess from now on I'll do my whole dressy-casual look I usually do. Imagine that!

Are you ready to learn English, heathens?

Now, as yesterday was our first full day off, Hannah and I decided to wander about our area a bit. Turns out we're in a pretty ritzy part of town. Just 3 minutes away is a place called "Rodeo Street" (a clear play on "Rodeo Drive") that had DKNY, Solid Homme, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and a number of other top-shelf brands that I didn't even recognize. What I did recognize were the prices: 380,000 won (370$) for a windbreaker?! Jesus!

After shattering my hopes of being a fashionisto overseas, we opted to go see the Beach. Now, the reason for calling it "the Beach" with a capital "B" is because it's Busan's main attraction. There are a number of other very nice beaches in the area (Gwangalli, Gujora, Songjeong), but for some reason, Haeundae beach is the one everyone pushes. The town motto should be "Busan: Come see our beach!" Anyway, as you can see below, it's a pretty damned nice beach.

Crazy white people...

Incidentally, as Hannah pointed out, the Beach is where you will find all of the backwards white people (or, "waygookin") flopping about in bikinis and speedos in autumn! The more respectable Korean locals walking by in long pants in sweaters knew very well that 25C heat is MUCH too cold to ever enjoy yourself at the Beach! Taking note of this, Hannah and I are now very much dreading the summer :S.

Ah.... summer in Busan

After wandering about by the beach for a bit (and being pretty much laughed at by a shoes salesman after seeing my feet :( ), we wandered back up to Hannah's apartment, cooled down, and walked up to a temple by Hannah's school. After doing some digging, I found out that it's called "Haeunjeongsa Temple". This guy did a pretty good writeup about it: http://daleskoreantempleadventures.blogspot.kr/2011/01/haeunjeongsa-temple-busan-july-22-2006.html

First things first, we were immediately confronted with a huge granite staircase leading up to the main area. Hannah was still a little sore from a rather intense kendo-like lesson from a few days before, but after seeing a little old lady (ajumma) make the ascent, we decided that we could tough it out

The vibe we experienced at the top was very different from the "bali, bali!" ("Hurry, hurry!") culture of Haeundae. It was pristinely quiet (save for some children playing on the stairs), but oddly enough we both felt very tense. For one, we were surrounded by monks diligently performing their duties in and around the temple. For another, we were the only waygookin there. Finally, it was very clear to us that this was NOT a place to run around being loud, obnoxious tourists. I took a few photos, but was careful to avoid taking pictures of the monks or altars out of fear of being disrespectful. The URL I posted above, however, has quite a few photos of the altar. Maybe I was just being too careful.

Looks like SOMEONE's having a bad day!

The bell tower... complete with a bell the size of a small car!

The main hall. A service was going on at the time, so I didn't go inside.

These little beasties are guarding the temple. I thought they were lions, but they're actually haetae: masters of fire and protectors from it.

After wandering about the temple grounds, we went for weird Korean pizza, which Hannah already wrote about, and attempted to cook a chicken for tomorrow. After spending nearly two hours trying to figure out how to cook the damned bird with a talking oven, we passed out. Long day, but a good day. And, in the end, I DID cook that bird! Roast chicken tonight for Chuseok!!!

Thanks for reading, and Happy Chuseok one and all! Now, if you will excuse us, we're going to join all of those stupid, crazy white foreigners at the beach.

-Garrett

PS: On a side note, I'm REALLY glad that this was not a massage parlour!

Samgyeopsal, Samgyetang, Pizza, Beach, and more things!!

In the past few days we have accumulated ALOT of photos, knowledge, and a couple funny stories. Starting with food. We tried the famous and awesome Samgyeopsal (삼겹살). It's basically super thick bacon on a grill---oh, and the grill is built into your table. That thing in the picture? It's a grill. Some places actually put hot coals under it. 
I don't know if you're suppose to do this whole process yourself, but we could NOT figure out the grill. Thankfully the waitress lady saved us. We found out a majorly important piece of info: Kimchi is WAAY tastier grilled, and put on a piece of fatty thick bacon with some garlic. You can wrap it in Sesame leaves, lettuce, put gochujang on it, or do whatever you want. We were pretty happy.



Then there was Samgyetang (삼계탕).  We were staring at the menu outside of a random restaurant trying to figure out what sort of food they served. Then the manager came and held the door open for us in a "You know you want to come in and buy things" sort of way. So, we did.

 It was  awesome. Do you see what's in that pot of boiling broth?? It's a cornish hen-sized bird. IT FINISHED COOKING AT THE TABLE. We had to pull out the bones.Apparently Samgyetang is a ricey-porridge sort of soup with a HUGE hunk of meat,  ginseng and veggies. There was a mussel, too.  Oh, there was also a chesnut in that soup. I guess they threw it in for good measure. On the way out, they gave us a bag of ginseng candies, too. I don't really know why.



Then there was Korean pizza. We had been seeking pizza for two or three days now. I had seen two or three by my school, so we knew it was relatively common. We set out on a quest to explore the city and stop only for pizza --we prepared to stop even at a Pizza Hut if necessary (they are VERY different in korea). However, two nights in a row we found...ZERO. On the third day we decided we would just go to the one by my school. After long deliberation, we decided to go with Bulgogi (something we know is delicious, and could actually pronounce). When we ordered, the lady told us it was only available in the winter. WEEELL....We went with "Shrimp Gold," instead. Why? Only because Simon & Martina mentioned it on EatYourKimchi when they got pizza. I don't even remember if they liked it, but they ordered it--so it must be legit! 

And it was! It had shrimp (as the name promised).  And I mean, Busan shrimp--whole, straight from the ocean mothers. They were grilled with the tails on. 
The pizza also had gold, as in there was sweet potato. That part was a little weird, but we enjoyed it. As you can see, there was also pickles. I can't explain that. They made no sense. 

This isn't even all the awesome food we've had thus far!! Rice porridge = AWESOME! I got some with little bits of octopus in it!

Apartment in Haeundae!

Finally! A few moments of free time!
Garrett and I have both seen or apartments, met our principals, and wandered around Haeundae. The town is super awesome--with a motto like "Fun and Sun"it kind of has to be. While Garrett's apartment received a 7/10 on the Garrett/Hannah scale, we gave mine a 9/10.
Guess which one we're staying in?

Bathroom entrance there on the left.

This door leads to our little foyer where you must take off your shoes (or else!). To the left is the bathroom. Lucky us, we got a real shower! Many places in Korea don't have a door for the shower. My hotel room's shower was just a hand-held shower head next to the toilet.

View from our apartment!

The place is still a little empty, but that's alright! We have alot of space, and are directly next to an E-Mart (think Wal Mart). Oh, there's also a nail salon and around 50 restaurants. My school is also AMAZING. Everyone is super nice, the campus is gorgeous (we have a man-made creek with a water mill), and most of the students are pretty good :) I've already had one day of teaching, and it went pretty well. Garrett, on the other hand, hasn't got to teach yet. He has met his co-teachers, etc. and everyone is rather serious and formal. He's also teaching in a middle school, so the students will likely be more unruly. However, right now is Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and we won't be back in school until Thursday, so we have ALOT of time to work on lessons, or wander wherever we feel like.

Our school assigments

Hello-haseo!

We are still alive and little worse for wear in Korea. We just got our school assignments a couple days ago and will be shipped to our apartments tomorrow. We're a bit frazzled because we still don't know where we will be living (we find out tomorrow when we are shipped over to our apartments) or really what exactly we are doing here, but we seem to be doing something in a rambling, awkward sort of way.

I will be working at Dongbaek Middle School and Hannah will be working at Haesong Elementary. Both of those schools are in the Haeundae district, so it's richy-Rich territory. However, it also means that we will not be far apart (the schools are about 300m apart, which is beyond amazing!) and will hopefully be able to meet up easily. Haeundae is also the 'tourist' area with the famous "Haeundae Beach" (similar to the States' Miami Beach or Long Beach), so odds are it will be quite crowded during the warmer months.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day! We will meet one of our coteachers who will be in charge of the aforementioned shipping us to our apartments, as well as setting up our bank accounts, getting us oriented around our areas, helping us figure out our appliances, bringing us to our schools, etc. etc. While I'd like to think that I'll just need to buy a couple of things to get settled, the korean holiday of Chuseok ("Korean Thanksgiving") begins on Saturday and basically all of the city will shut down. You see, on that holiday, people tend to leave the cities they're in and go see their families in the countryside or where ever. This means that, as of Saturday, access to food could be limited. This makes me a sad, hungry panda :(.

...for those who don't get the reference 

I don't know what else to say at this juncture; I'm pretty frazzled (as I already said) and am stressing about everything at once, so my mind is not exactly in order. Hopefully, once we get a bit more established, we can begin talking about our experiences. We've already had a couple and have seen some HILARIOUS things!

Until later,

-Garrett

Tadah!

Surprise!
We died in a plane crash.

No, we're actually in Seoul. So, Busan is just a hop away. It is 5AM on our body clock and we feel fine! Best part thus far? Having our first real Bibimbap on the plane, with brown rice tea on the side. After maneuvering the customs nonsense here, we scurried to find our gate--not that we're leaving anytime soon. We're just both very paranoid. However, we kept getting cut off by this zigzagging train of people in traditional garb (there was a princess!). I thought it was cool, but Garrett looked like he was going to explode after being cut off for the third time. I really want to take a picture of this airport because it sooo nifty, but I don't want people to think I'm crazy. We only just got here!
I won't bore you with the rest. We aren't even there yet!

Yaay!

--Hannah

Visa arrived! Departure tomorrow :S

THIS...

...is my VISA! 

It arrived last night and, thankfully, the powers that be decided I didn't have to trek down to Atlanta to get it. I shall explain:

So, when last I left off I was in the midst of a conniption fit and decided to vent my anxiety into something productive: this blog! I decided after writing to wait until Monday to call the Consulate and find out if they received that 5$ money order I sent off. Turns out that, nope!, they didn't.

Now, I began to panic a bit and, in a desperate bid to relieve my anxiety I threw more money at the problem in the form of ANOTHER money order, this time sent down overnight by UPS. When I called the next day I found out that, not only did my panic-driven UPS parcel arrive on time (as it should!), the original snail mail one arrived as well! The Consulate now had TWO money orders, which means that I wasted about 30$ in a panicked frenzy... which, in my mind, was still worth it.

Now, while this meant that my visa would be done by Wednesday morning, it still had to get to get up to us. The ExpressPost envelope we gave them, however, takes two days to get from Atlanta to Asheville, which means that the passports would arrive a full 5-6 hours after the departure of my flight! Thankfully, Hannah's father (a pilot for Delta Airlines, to those who don't know), has a residence in Atlanta and was finishing up a series of cross-national flights on Wednesday morning. So, he was able to arrive in Atlanta around 7:30AM, went to the Consulate and got our passports around 9AM, passed out for a few hours, and drove up to Asheville for around 7PM. Needless to say, we had a very tasty supper of mango-chicken sandwiches waiting for him upon his return. If it wasn't for that, Hannah would have had to fly down to Atlanta (since she has a free flight pass with Delta, being the daughter of a pilot in their fleet), get them herself, and fly back up on the same day... THEN depart the very next day for our 25+ hour trek to Busan. Needless to say, we're both very relieved that everything fell in to place!

So, in the meantime, we have a few minor errands to run, cold/strep throat infections to get over (I got sick on the weekend and, in the spirit of charity, gave my infection to Hannah), and pulled pork at 12 Bones to eat before attempting to sleep tonight.

I would normally say that I'm a ball of nerves right now, but I got myself so buggered up over the visa thing that I haven't really had the energy to worry about the actual trip! Plus, well, it still hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm actually doing this. That'll probably change in about a month!

So, for now, I bid you all annyeong-hi gyeseyo. Now begins our "radio silence" until either I discover internet on the plane ride over or I arrive in Korea and get internet access.

Cheers,

-Garrett

...all for the want of 5$...

***DISCLAIMER!*** I notice that this post has been getting an inordinately high number of page views in comparison to the rest of our blog. It was pointed out to me that most of the views may be coming from people seeking information on the Korean recruiting agency Canadian Connection andthe Korean Consulates of Montreal and Atlanta. I just want to make it abundantly clear that the fine folks at Canadian Connection have been nothing but helpful and professional and have only my gratitude for being so patient with my rather weird experience. Likewise, I realize that the people at the Korean Consulate are professional, diligent people who are just doing their jobs. What I wrote below is intended to be an amusing cautionary tale and a way for me to vent my anxieties at the time. The original script is below.**** 


Hello, again! I was hoping to update again last week with all of my various escapades in Asheville, but I thought this little story was so delicious it deserved its own post. I will explain:

To those who don't know, I'm approaching the whole Korean work visa process from a unique angle. Typically, someone from New Brunswick should be applying through the Korean Consulate in Montreal; however, I'm doing it through Atlanta, GA since Hannah and I wanted to go visit her family in Asheville together. It's possible to do the whole song and dance with the Consulate in Atlanta, but I seem to have hit a snag....

You see, while all of my documents are in order and it's clear that I don't exactly fit the model of a comic book villain (well, save for maybe The Riddler when I'm in a weird mood.), I apparently followed the instructions for visa issuance a little too well and paid the required 45$ US for the visa processing fee without knowing that (silly me!) foreigners had to pay 50$ big ones. Fifty. As is 5x10=50$. I got this news on Wednesday; two days ago. Now, being as adept in math as most of you are, 50$(needed)-45$(paid)=5$(owed) would make logical sense. At least, it does to me. And so, upon receiving the news, I sped off to the nearest post office and sent a 5$ money order to the consulate.

Don't give me that "I told you so" look, you smug bastard!

However, we fail to factor in the physical concepts of time and space in our equation. Time being composed mainly of postage transit and space being composed mainly of the distance from Atlanta GA to Asheville NC. Though time was previously estimated as being 2 days (arrival by Friday afternoon), time, as we all now know, is relative and my money did not arrive as planned and my passport/visa is being held hostage as a result.

...and I DEFINITELY do not need that look from YOU!

So, allow me to recap: I unknowingly underpaid by 5$, I sent off the remaining amount, and it has not arrived by week's end. Factor in the fact that in a week's time I should be off the ground and heading to Korea, with the air fare already paid and non-refundable.

I called my recruiter's office (Canadian Connection) and they were able to give me at least some peace of mind: the visa was in the process of being processed and they were simply waiting on that 5$ to give me my passport back. Well, that's all well and good, but now we must add another two variables to "time": finishing up the visa process upon arrival of the money order and transit time of the passports back to Asheville. Depending on how "time" factors 1, 2, and 3 interact, I could get my visa back Wednesday (2 days before the flight), Thursday (day before the flight), or Friday (day OF the flight, which leaves at 8:30AM... which means that I miss my flight). It was suggested that, if my money does not arrive by Monday afternoon, I should travel down to Atlanta, go to the consulate in person, and get my passport, paying ANOTHER 5$, if necessary, not to mention travel, food, and accommodation costs!

Now, the convenient thing to do would be to switch my flight plans to leave from Atlanta instead of Asheville. Makes sense, right? I mean, our current flight plan was Asheville-Atlanta-Incheon-Busan, so it should be easy to eliminate one step and fly direct from Atlanta. HOWEVER, apparently I would get charged a hefty fee if I did that and was advised to make my way BACK TO ASHEVILLE to fly out. To put this in perspective, I go down to Atlanta (4 hour drive, or 9 by bus) on Wednesday, sleep, get my passport back on Thursday morning, get back to Asheville that night, and THEN depart for a 25+ hour trip around the world. Factor in all of the associated costs and this 5$ begins to become something substantially more.

I put "money eating monster" into Google and it spat out this. Isn't it adorable?

All of this is in the air. The weekend begins now and both the consulate and the post office are as of now no longer operating. In all of the phone conversations and emails I had today, I was told to "have a good weekend".... yeah RIGHT!

 I am convinced that, never, in the history of the internet, has this GIF been more appropriate! 

 So, a good weekend to all and to all a good weekend! Hopefully I'll have better news to present next week.

...all for the want of 5$...

-Garrett

Annyeong Haseo!

Hello-haseo, one and all! I decided to take inspiration from Mel and Shawn's blog about all things ESL-related and copy... er... "imitate" their effort in keeping everyone informed about our adventures, not to mention help relieve some of the homesickness I will no doubt be experiencing soon.

So, here's the status: Hannah and I have driven for about 25 hours from Saint John, NB to Asheville, NC and have sent off our contracts to the visa office in Atlanta. So, we have our contracts, our flight tickets, and a (pending) work visa... and exactly 10 days until we leave for the Far East! We're both scared and excited, but are still very enthusiastic about how much we will learn about the world and ourselves during our big adventure. All that remains to do in the meantime is enjoy all that Asheville has to offer!

As long as I'm going through the effort of making this blog I'll make a pledge: after arriving in Korea I will update this blog weekly, save for mini-updates should something hilarious or informative happen, like having a classroom full of children in surgical masks or the activation of the North's earthquake ray, respectively.

As for the name of the blog, I really can't take credit for any originality. I had read a story on Dave's ESL Cafe (eslcafe.com) of an ESL teacher in a Seoul suburb who encountered one of his students- a little girl- in the corridor between classes. She greeted him with, "Anyeong haseo", but remembering that the teacher was the english teacher, corrected herself: "HELLO-HASEO!", before getting embarrassed, hiding her face, and running away. I REALLY hope that happens to me at some point! I will give that kid a shiny, gold star!

In the meantime, annyeong-hi gyeseyo (good bye, or "stay in peace")!

-Garrett