Busan and Back

The last week has been pretty enjoyable, although I had my first "inconveniences." This past weekend Doug and I went to Busan, the second largest city in Korea. Besides having the best beach in the country, Busan is also home to a large naval base, so I wanted to visit and learn my way around. (As a side note, I found out you can take a three-hour ferry to Japan from Busan, so on my next three-day weekend...) The train station is minutes from work and it only takes an hour or so to get there, so Doug and I arrived with little trouble in the early afternoon. We rode the subway to Hae-un-dae Beach where we saw the craziest, most crowded beach I've ever seen. As far as you could see, umbrellas planted like trees formed a canopy over the sand. Hundreds of people were crammed under this shade on sandy blankets and tarps, and hundreds more were walking up and down the rows of these umbrella villages. I went down to the water first, and, finding it to be quite warm, jumped in for a swim. I soon realized that nearly every one of the thousands of people in the ocean were actually floating on yellow tubes, so I soon returned to shore to rent one. It was $10 to rent it, but after returning the tube you'd get $5 back. Doug opted not to swim; instead he wandered up and down the boardwalk enjoying the nice weather. I floated and swam and enjoyed the Florida-like environs of Hae-un-dae for a long while before returning. I put my tube underneath one of the umbrellas I had claimed so Doug and I could go have lunch. When we came back, the tube was gone. This was not all that unexpected, but it was still disappointing because I lost my $5 deposit. However, I tried explaining to the tube-rental guy that it wasn't really my fault and that I would really like my $5 back. Amazingly, he relented and returned my cash, despite my total lack of evidence to support my claim. We hung out around Busan for a while longer (which is when I tried ban-da-gee) before taking the train back to Daegu. Doug is a good conversationalist, so we didn't lack for any discussion on our journey. It was actually really nice to be able to talk to someone in normal English for a few hours, since I'd spent most of the previous two weeks speaking in elementary-level sentences. That night was the monthly "teacher dinner" paid for by the school, so we went to The Holy Grill downtown and ate up. I called it quits early because I was hoping to play soccer the next day.I had to get up at 6:30 on Sunday morning to meet Phillip for soccer. He met me near my apartment and we drove to a schoolyard. There I met his local team members in the recreational league, and after two hours of drills and practice, we played a few thirty-minute periods. I was playing striker for our team, but I was severely disadvantaged because I had only tennis shoes, while everyone else was in cleats. The game still went well (although I didn't score) until the third period, when the guy guarding me starting playing dirty. He couldn't keep up on some plays, so he started yanking my arm to slow me down. I let it go the first two times since he was about ten years older than me, but after the third time, I shouted that he should keep his hands off. Later, as Phillip was driving me home, he told me that shouting of any kind during a match, especially in regards to an older person, is totally against Korean culture, even if the person is playing unfairly. So I learned a good lesson in endurance (although I'd rather the other man learn a lesson in fair play). During the game I also suffered my first "inconvenience" when I lunged during a play. The field was not grass--it was sandy with small pebbles. The effect of falling on such a pitch is comparable to running your hand (or knee, in this case) over a cheese grater, with the result being that my right leg was blood-soaked from the knee down. I kept playing until the end of the game, at which point I had to look at my large, nasty wound and apply some disinfectant. Anyhow, after the game I ate lunch with the soccer players, then Phillip took me home by noon. I had intended to go to Dongbu Church for the 1pm service, but I fell asleep from my unexpectedly strenuous exertions. When I awoke at 5pm, I had little choice but to start my laundry and catch some of the Olympics. The Olympics here are funny, because the only coverage we receive involves Korean athletes. Maybe it's the same back home, but I never watched it to notice. So I washed my clothes, although it was some guesswork since all the washing machine's buttons are in Korean, then I hung them out to dry in my laundry room. While I was waiting for the clothes, I finally decided to try to hook up my Xbox onto my pitifully small TV. I'm still considering getting an HDTV, but it'll probably be next month before I do that. So I got my transformer out, got the Xbox power cable, and plugged them into the wall, only to see and hear a sizzle and spark from the power cable. Somehow, despite my precautions to put those things on the right setting, the Xbox cable got fried along with the transformer. Sad times, since I could no longer charge my toothbrush, razor, iPod (on the speaker dock), camera, wireless headphones, and, obviously, play Xbox. A minor inconvenience...Monday I determined to buy a real transformer from a Korean hardware store. One student, who wuite bewilderingly took the English name Thrall, took me down to the hardware district to find a suitable transformer. I got one for only 20,000 won ($20) instead of the usual $50, and when I took it home, it worked like a charm. The real problem, though, was the laundry. When I got home, I found that I had a smelly set of still-wet clothes in my laundry room. A neighbor of mine named Teddy was with me to assist with the transformer, and he called his parents to ask them some questions about the washer. Even though it was around 11:15pm (I get off work at 10pm), his parents came over to help me understand how to properly use all the buttons. After an hour of explanations on the best method of washing and drying laundry, we discovered that the dehydration function on my washer was not working correctly. Because of this, my clothes were far too wet (thus a little smelly during the drying process) and I might need a new washer. But regardless of that issue, Teddy's mother took some of my dirty laundry to her home to wash for me, which was unbelievably kind of her. The family also noticed my roughed-up knee, and the father went home to get some medical supplies (and lots of extra hangers) and he treated my wound. The family was actually at my apartment until 1:00a hepling me out with some of the basics of life in Korea. When I get a table and some chairs and perhaps a couch, I'm hoping to have them over for a thank-you meal. And as uncommon and amazing as that story is to me, my understanding is that that behavior is common among Koreans.As for teaching, this week inaugurates my regular schedule. I usually teach a class at 1pm, then another three classes at 7p, 8p, and 9p. This leaves me ample time in the afternoon to study Korean, have a long lunch, read a book, chat with students, write ridiculously long blogs, or accomplish other errands. The classes are pretty easy right now, because I only teach the standard "check-up" classes, meaning I only check a student's knowledge of a particular grammar point. In a few weeks I'll start getting a few other classes in my schedule (like the other teachers), which will involve me making up my own lessons on specifics of English usage or an unusual grammatical concept. I haven't figured all that out yet.My coworkers and I and are getting along dandy. They are a pretty social bunch who like to go out after work to play darts or eat or some other activity. We all saw The Dark Knight last week and this week we are celebrating a birthday.Friday I'm going to Seoul for a few days. We have Friday off of school (Korean Independence Day) so I have a long weekend. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing there other than going to church with Danah on Sunday. The train ride from Daegu is only $40 round-trip, and it takes about four hours. The bullet train (KTX) is only ninety minutes to Seoul, but it runs about $120. I hope to take lots of pictures on the trip to share next week. I'm sure there'll be a story to share, and I'll try to trim it down for next time.





Some other pics from Busan are available at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47665&l=40afe&id=561241295