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!
No comments:
Post a Comment