Weekend Adventure to Busan

After being in Daegu for about 2 days, I decided to take an adventure and go to Busan (Pusan).

I met someone on TravBuddy.com which is similar to couchsurfing.com but it for travelers to meet other people that like to travel. Another niche social network but it worked well for me. (I know it sounds crazy and you must think I'm living a little bit dangerously but I'm in Korea. I don't exactly know anyone and it was dangerous coming here alone in the first place!)

I went to my school Friday and had to watch training videos to prepare me to teach. After watching many videos, I had to go by the hospital and get a physical to show I'm not a drug addict. I went with this new Korean teacher who speaks good English. She lived in NJ for about six years for college and won't start working until after January. It was nice talking to someone who could understand me. My director does not speak very good English or at least she doesn't understand me all the time. (I discovered later that she can read English better than speaking or verbally understanding it). I was tired and got home to catch up on people and finish moving in all my stuff. I still had a little jet lag to get over.

I decided to take a shower which from my video you can tell is very strange. I have discovered that if I stand close enough to my sink then it will be like an American shower (meaning I don't have to take down the hose thing.) I went to bed and decided early in the morning I would meet with my friend from TravBuddy (Will) and his friend (Tim, whom he met at a bookstore) to Busan. I live near the Jukjeon metro station. I met with Will and then we went to the Daegu Train Station:
(I will have to create a page where you can see all my pictures. All my videos are on my youtube page). It took about 45 minutes to get to Busan. We passed a lot of beautiful scenery that showed the country life on South Korea. When we came into Busan, we decided to check out the fish market. The Jagalchi Market (my video) is known for having lots of fish and a very fishy smell (I wonder why...haha). We ventured through the Russian district where it welcomed foreigners. We eventually had to ask for directions but we got to the fish market!:
We found another level to the fish market that was a restaurant. We ordered Sashimi, some Hite (beer), and other food. I ate snails or it may have been sea urchins... Then after a very big meal, we ventured toward the Haeundae Beach (Here's my video). After venturing around we found a fair. All South Korean fair have for games are the stands where you throw something to pop a balloon. (I don't have a picture, sorry). We tried to go to Snow Mountain that is an indoor skiing place but it was closed. We went to all the hot spots that were listed in my lonely planet "Korea" guide book. We went to Ol'55 and the Vinyl Underground. They weren't as exciting as they said but we had fun anyway. Our last event of the night was experiencing a No-Rae-Bong (Korean Karaoke Room). You pay a small amount and get your own karaoke room. Will and Tim drank enough to be able to do it but by the end of the night we had all lost our voice. We went to our hostel: The Actor & Tourist Guesthouse that is run by Mr.Lee. After sleeping in heated beds, we awoke to a new morning of adventures and friends. I got up first and searched for breakfast. I found McDonald's and then almost got lost trying to get back to the hostel. We met a new friend there who was from Holland (I believe) and had just traveled from Russia. HE had been in Busan by himself for a week. The next day he would be leaving for Japan. He came with us to visit the Beomeosa Temple which has Buddha's bones and a lot of history. (This is when my camera died...)After the temple, we went to the cliffs and my friends have a lot of pictures that I will have to add at a later date. It was beautiful watching the sunset from the mountain. There were tons of ships on the water and it made me realize how beautiful God created this earth.

We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back to the train station. On our way, the guys were talking about this thing that people eat in the Philippines called Balot. (It is basically a chicken egg but the chicken is in it's trimester and you're eating a baby chicken fetus.) Funny thing is, we found a place on the way that served Balot! I couldn't bring myself to eat it but my friends did. We caught the train and eventually parted ways.

That should be a summary of my weekend in Busan. My next entry will most likely be about my first day teaching English to Korean kids at GnB Yongsan Campus.