I Live in Saha-gu

I live in an area of the city called Saha-gu. It's on the outskirts of town on the west side. I went for a short scooter ride to take some video clips of the area to show everyone what it looks like during
the day.

Enjoy!

Coupon Party at JLS

Our school had a party for students last week. It gave them a chance to redeem their hard earned coupons in exchange for prizes such as toys and pizza. Over the course of a term, teachers hand out coupons as rewards for good behavior and good test scores. We had contests, games, food, and everyone had a good time.

Making Kimchi at Hongbeopsa Temple

Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish that is as delicious as it is spicy. This extremely popular and ancient food (dating back to the 7th century) is also rumored to have medicinal properties. We visited Hongbeopsa temple to uncover the secrets of Kimchi and learn to make some for ourselves.

The inside of the temple is pretty impressive.

We had great instructors. You can also see the Monk who runs the temple in the background. The secret ingredients to making Kimchi are: Chinese cabbage, garlic, red pepper, spring onions, ginger, salt, and probably some other stuff too!

But, the real secret of making Kimchi is to have fun! Ha ha. Here I am with Adrienne and Amanda.

Kimchi is fermented underground to unlock the magic.

Here are some big kimchi pots used to preserve kimchi. We left home for the day with enough kimchi to eat for a year.

If you would like to see more kimchi or learn about its history, please visit the following websites.

www.kimchi.or.kr
wikipedia

Merry Korea-stmas!

Bowling in Saha

Yes, there is bowling in Korea. It's pretty much the same as back home, funny shoes included. Here is my blowing team: Alice, Sung-he, and Joh-wan.

I'm apparently good at bowling in Korea. I got 6 strikes that night.

Art Gallery and Fashion Show

Last weekend I got the chance to see a fashion show displaying traditional Korean costumes.

It was completely by accident. Alice and I had just finished visiting the modern art museum, which was a big disappointment. We then wandered next door to the Bexco building to see what kind of display they had going on. When we found out it was "Shoes and Textiles" we almost turned around. It sounded really boring. I'm glad we didn't. We got to see an amazing display of Hanbok's in a variety of brilliant colours. The pictures don't do them justice.

We had to sign up and fill out some forms before entering the building. I signed up as the CEO of my own company "Denis Inc". They even gave me a nametag.

Making Songpyon

This trip took place near the beginning of my stay here in Korea. A group of us foreigners visited a temple in Busan near the edge of town. Each weekend this temple invites foreigners to visit and experience a new Korean tradition. On this weekend we learned how to make traditional rice cake known as Songpyon, which is often made during the Korean thanksgiving named Chusok.


After learning how to shape the little cakes, we walked down to the cooking area.


The Korean women working the cookers told us that our rice cakes looked “even better then we can make”. They were being sarcastic however, since most of our cakes looked mangled.

Here we are choking down our songpyon!

They also grew lots of hot peppers outside the temple. Hot peppers are found in a lot of food in Korea. Doesn’t it look delicious?

Taejongdae

I visited a great waterfront park about a month ago called Taejongdae. It's a very popular tourist area in Busan. The views were breathtaking.




Fantastic!

APEC BUSAN!

This year's Asia Pacific Trade Cooperation meeting was hosted in my city of residence, Busan. It was a well-known fact that President George W. Bush was making an appearance at the talks, which made many people nervous of possible terror attacks. This resulted in the closure of most public schools and hogwans. Since we had the day off, Drew, Zach, and I made the trip down to the APEC meeting locations to visit the madness.

Zach and Drew standing beside the Bexco building where a lot of APEC "stuff" was going on.

Armed guards lined all the streets around the building. You can even see people on the top of that building.


Here is a large group of people in riot gear. They were expecting large riots. We didn't see any violence whatsoever.

This subway station was completly shut down.

One of the locations hosting meetings was near Haeundae Beach. We expected to see more armed guards or protestors. Instead, we found a beautiful empty beach and a man making a sand dragon.

The waters were teaming with police ships. Far off in the distance are some military ships.

The Gwangan bridge is beautiful at night.

It was impressive to see how many armed guards were on call for this event. I later read that there were some protests, but we missed that. We didn't get to see George Bush, or any of the other leaders. Security was too tight as you can see.

Visiting Yeosu

Last weekend I visited a couple neighboring towns to Busan. It was a great experience. I got to meet some new foreigners and experience the foreigner life outside of Busan.

First, we visited Suncheon, the location of a great hiking mountain. Very remarkable temples are found at the base of the mountain as well as on top. We met up with some friends of Zach’s who lives in another town called Yeosu.


Here they are: Zach (my neighbor in Busan), Christy, and Amanda.
There is a huge drum inside that temple. At nightfall the monks supposedly play it. Unfortunately, it was raining hard by the time we got there so there was no drumming.

Bamboo!


Here I am at a temple somewhere in the mountain. From where I am sitting I can see these amazing trees…

Then, we visited Yeosu. The population is around 300,000. Compared to Busan’s 4 million, it is considered a town.

Here is the cool bridge in Yeosu.

Here I am posing as Admiral Yi, Sun Shin. Yeosu is the birthplace of the legendary Turtle Ship invented by Yi, Sun Shin. Admiral Yi used the Turtle Ships to beat off the invading Japanese naval forces during the 7 year war. That is an actual Turtle Ship behind me! Read more about the Turtle Ships here.

Thanks to Christy and Amanda for the wonderful time in Yeosu!

My So Called Korean Life

Many people have asked me questions about what my life in Korea is like. So here are a few quick pics of things I see on a daily basis. Enjoy!

Here are some of my co-workers: Alice, Ale, Suzie. Don't they look fun to work with? They are awesome.

This is the school I teach at. I took this picture from the roof of my building which is accross the street.

This is my apartment building. It's tall and narrow.

When I enter the building I walk through this strange garage with a green floor. This is where I park my...

...scooter. I don't have a name for it yet. Any ideas? It's fun to go exploring around the town on this thing. Beats walking!
Next, let's have a look inside my apartment.

It's not the biggest place but it works for what I need. It has a gas range, small fridge, washing machine, and a nice flat screen TV.