Seomyeon

Seomyeon is the downtown area of Busan. Here you can find shopping, restaurants, bars, casinos, and anything else you could imagine. There are signs everywhere of places competing for your attention. The narrow streets in this area are crowded and lively.




Mmmm... squid snacks! Get your squid snacks!

Check out more picture of the Seomyeon streets and the crazy arcade there by clicking here.

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!