Merry Korea-stmas 2006

More pics here

Jagalchi Fish Market

One of the most unique things I have found in Busan is the Jagalchi fish market.

Here you can see all kinds of fresh sea food (sometimes still moving) that you can buy moments from coming off the boats. You can see giant octopuses, a wide variety if fish and other interesting sea creatures that you can eat on the spot, even raw if you wish. The women working at the countless boots are what really create the atmosphere at the market. They look thought and will grab at you aggressively to come buy some of their fish. They are harmless of course and are actually quite nice. You can tell they work really hard and they spend all their days selling fish here, rain or shine.

I've eaten some raw fish at the market before and enjoyed the experience. We picked a fish from a tank, the chef cut it up, and we were eating it within the minute. They served the pile of raw fish with nothing more than a plate of leaves and some soju. Definitely not the most delicious thing I ever ate.

Jagalchi is the largest fish market in Korea, and definitely something to see if you're in Busan.

Look at some more pictures of the Jagalchi fish market <---

Famous in Korea?

For everyone that thought I was joking, here I am on the front page of the Korean newspaper. This paper is called the Gookje Sinmun. And yes it is a national paper.




I was also in another news paper called the Sonyeon Joseon. It's like a childrens version of another paper called the Chosun Ilbo. Here is a weblink to the article. Unfortunatly I never got a paper copy. click it to see-->kid.chosun.com

A radio station also did a radio interview with me and I was on the radio on Wednesday. The station is TBN FM 94.9. I got a tape of the program but getting it on here is a pain, and most of the show is in Korean anyway....

So that was my crazy week. Our school has been getting a lot of attention for our English program these days. I guess that means it's been a success!

I'm not actually famous here....yet. But, it was nice to get some attention.

Fireworks at Gwangali Bridge

Last year they had a huge fireworks display for the APEC summit, which I missed. I'm not sure the exact reason behind it but they had the fireworks show again this year. The beach area was so crowded you couldn't move. People were really pushy too. In fact I couldn't even get near the sand during the show since it was so crowded. The fireworks shot off from the bridge and from boats lighting up the sky for about an hour. It was a pretty impressive show. People were jumping all over each other and climbing on top of buildings, phone booths, etc, to get a good view. I waited about 30 minutes after the show to leave because the crowd turned into a stamped trying to leave. Afterwards, the beach and streets were left covered in trash!



More pics here***

Climbing Seunghak Mountain

I try to go hiking on Sundays to a hill near my apartment called SeunghakSan. This time of year the leaves are changing colors so the hike was particularly nice.



Look at some more pictures by clicking away on these words you are now reading!

Pusan International Film Fest 2006

Last year I missed my chance to get tickets to this world class event. I had no idea tickets would be sold out so quickly. So I waited all year for another chance to go. This year tickets sold out so quickly, a month before the show started, I thought I missed it again. But, by a stroke of luck a friend of mine was giving away some tickets to "Paris je t'aime." A french movie made up of shorts by at least a dozen different directors. Many of the directors came to the screening (none present that I recognized or heard of) and the ambassador to France also made a speech. It was an interesting experience to see all these different cultures mixing together. The movie I saw was screend at an outdoor theatre near the water. I loved this event, and the movie was pretty good too.



Here are the rest of the pictures. (note+++photo galleries are now fixed)

+++BONUS+++
This is unrelated but funny. I just noticed that my picture is on the website for the New Brunswick Film Festival back in Canada. I used to be a member of the NB film co-op. See if you can find me in the picture.

Sports day at Sesan Elementary

We had a fun day of cultural events, dancing, food, and games at my school. The kids did a dance with umbrellas, and performed a Korean druming show for parents and teachers. I really have to get a video with sound of the kids doing the drum thing. It's really impressive. For now, here are some pics of the sports day.

Here are a few video clips of their umbrella dance.

Seoul

During my summer vacation I also had time to go see Seoul again. This time I got to check out more tourist stuff and wander out to some interesting night spots.

Here I am at Gyeongbokgung Fortress, the largest and most important fortress of the Joseon Dynasty. Read more about the history of the Fortress here.

The fortress has some really nice ancient looking structures and temples to see. At one time the royal family lived on these grounds.

I enjoyed some tea in a traditional tea shop.

Here is the famous "63 building".

Here is the photo gallery! <----------------------------Click that way!

Korea from space

A little busy these days, but all is well. Chusok, Korean thanksgiving, is this week. That means this country is gridlocked with traffic. But, I get a few days off, so it should give me some time to relax and put some more pictures up here soon.

Until then, here is something cool. Google Map let's you see some pretty good detailed maps of Korea. Here is a view of Busan, Korea from space. You can zoom in and out to look around the city.
Here is a shot of my apartment. To find it, start at the bottom leftcorner of the huge square parking lot. Go left one block. Go down, there is a row of 6 buildings on the left side of the street. Mine is the 3rd from the top, a little bit lighter color then the other ones.
Here is my school. It's the building with the green and orange roof. If you zoom out you can really see how far out of the city my school is. But, it only takes a about 20 minutes to get there by bus since I live on the edge of town.
Here is all of Korea. At the bottom you can see an island. That's Jeju-do where I went on vacation a few weeks ago. You can really tell it's a volcano when you see it from space.

Anyway, please post here to show me your locations as seen from space.

Boryeong Mud Festival Part 2

And now for the amazing conclusion! Click here to look at the pictures of the Boryeong Mud Festival part 2.

Many people asked me what a mud festival is all about. Well here is the offical word on the subject from the organizers. Much too boring for me to recite. All I can say is that it's about mud. Their webpage also has a bunch more pictures of people full of mud if you are interested.

Also, check out my previous instalment if you dare.
Boryeong Mud Festival Part 1

Jeju Island

Jeju island is a popular tourist spot here in Korea. The weather here is subtropical, and the island is often referred to as Korea's Hawaii. The island boasts numerous beaches, resorts, waterfalls, and is made up of an inactive volcano. Jeju is a great place to relax as the mood here is more laid back than the main land Busan city, where I call home these days. Lucky for me my ex-neighbor from Busan had moved to Jeju and offered me a place to crash for my 5 days visit. Thanks Zach!

Stop 1:Manjanggul Lava Tube

Inside the tunnel the temperature was a chilling 11℃, creating a comfortable and cool atmosphere. It kind of reminded me of Canada. In the cave You can see some stone pillars and the topographical features are pretty cool. The cave is said to have formed 200,000 to 300,000 years ago by flowing lava from the eruption of a nearby volcano. About 1km of the tunnel is open to the public.

Stop 2: Gimnyeong Hedge Maze
I read somewhere in my Lonelly Plant guide that this maze was started by an American living here. Thanks buddy!


It took me about 35 minutes and I think I took every wrong turn.

Stop 3: Hamdeok Beach

The water here was seriously crystal clear. I didn't know Korea had blue water beaches like this. Even at neck deep you could look down and clearly see your feet. You could also see some small fish swimming around in the water around you. Definitely the most beautiful beach I have ever been too. I waited too long to take the pictures though, so everything looks a bit dark since it was night fall.

Stop 4: Camping at Hyatt Beach

Before heading out to the beach we stopped to buy some food and supplies for the night. That's when we saw these means looking hogs. For about 7,000wan you could rent it for an hour. And I did!

*

After the scooters we decided to go set up on the beach. Hyatt beach is a little secluded place off the beaten path. I'm not sure of the real name if the beach, or if it even has a name. It got that nickname from being near a Hyatt hotel. The entire place is hidden from view by large cliffs. Since Jeju is filled with much larger and accessible beaches, we were certain to have the whole place to ourselves.

We camped out on the sand. At night we made a fire using bamboo we found around the beach.

The tides were extremely harsh here. So we only went for a quick swim. We then washed up at the nearby waterfall.


Stop 5: Boat ride to Tiger Island
The islets off the coast of Seogwipo have some interesting caves I wanted to see. So, we bought our tickets and waited for the ride. During our wait, we ran over to the nearby waterfall park. On the way there we passed some nice palm trees and squid fishing boats.


The giant light bulbs you can see attached to the boats are to attract squid. At night you can see these boats covering the water with light.

Here is the waterfall. I believe it's named Cheonjiyeon. After seeing this we realized that we were late and literally ran back to the tour boat which was about to leave without us.

Then we were off to Tiger Island.



The caves were great, but the best part of the ride was the comedic tour guide on the loud speaker. Although I couldn't understand what he was saying myself, a friend translated his joke to me. He was saying something about some rich guy owning the island and if the ladies were lucky they could marry him and get his money and the island...

Stop 6: The Erotic Museum

By the 5th day we were running out of stuff to do. After checking out map we saw the Hilariously named "World Sex Culture Museum" and knew we couldn't miss it. I highly recommend this place our your next trip to Jeju-do. Sexy!


Stop 7: Dinner at Zach's

After Zach was kind enough to let us crash in his home, it was only right to cook the guy a delicious meal he wouldn't soon forget.

Zach before eating:

After eating:

I'm not sure it was good but at least he looks full.

Last stop: Seongsan Ilchulbong (aka Sunrise Peak)

We knew we didn't have the right footwear, plus it was raining, but we didn't want to miss seeing inside a volcano. So, we hiked up this extinct volcano bear footed.

Here is a view from the creater at the top

This is from the top of the volcano looking down the side.


After a great trip to Jeju island, we packed up our things and took the 11 hour ferry back to the mainland. Bye Jeju-do! And thanks again Zach.


Check out the entire photo album for this trip.-->CLICK
Here are some more pictures Zach gave me.--->Here too

*-pictures by zach

80s party

Here is am as Rick Moranis.


This guy wore a hilarious jumpsuit.

Everyone had hilarious custumes. Good times.

Summer Vacation

The rainy season is over so it's getting really hot around here. A good way to cool off is by visiting one of the many famous beaches. I visited Haeundea beach which is massively overcrowded around this time of year. But, who can complain when you can meet beach babes.
Another way to cool off is by visiting the beer tents. Here is my bartender for the day.

People like to wear their regular clothes at the beach instead of swimsuits. Go figure.

I think there must be some Star Wars show going on somewhere in the city because I bumped into a team of storm troopers doing rounds on the beach giving away stickers.

Then, I got killed by Darth Vader.


Check out some more pictures

Boryeong Mud Festival Part 1

Here are a few pictures from the Boryong mud festival.





A few more here.
More pictures to come soon!