Busan - Southern South Korea

This weekend, I took a trip to Busan with Sarah, another teacher, and Steven, the school-director. The purpose of our being there was to attend a festival, promoting the new Global Education Center which will be opening its doors in Busan in September 2009. This, of course, was pretty awesome, since I got a free trip, free accomodations, and even got paid for a day.

We left on Saturday, at 1:40 in the afternoon, from Gimpo International Airport - about a half an hour bus ride from the school. I had one tiny problem at the airport - I forgot to leave my swiss-army-knife keychain at home. As soon as they found my 'knife', I was told to follow a guard. I thought I might be in some un-fun crap for a few minutes, but as it turns out, she was just going to a counter to put it into a bag, and to check it with the regular baggage. I have a feeling that had I done that in the US, I would've been detained for a few hours.

Busan is about 45 minutes/1 hour away by plane. I'd say it's the equivalent of a plane ride from Ottawa to Toronto.. Except instead of going South into a province, we just happened to fly accross the entire country. Upon landing, the only thing that surrounds you are mountains and mountains - it's a very beautiful city. We didn't actually have to do any work on Saturday, so Steven offered to take us to two places, for sightseeing: the first being Taejongdae, the southern-most point of the City, which has a lighthouse and a spectacular view of the ocean, and the second being a local beach.

Taejongdae was very cool - We walked halfway around the mountain, until we reached stairs that reached downards to the lighthouse. Way, way down. I've never been tired from going down some stairs before. It was worth it though. As you can see pictured below, the view made up for it.













As for the beach, by the time we reached it, it was (unfortunately) night-time - very picture unfriendly. The only worthwhile picture that was taken was myself with this giant Cigarette. We stayed there for a short while, before searching for a place to eat. A small distance from the beach was a high-class Turkish restaurant. The food was a very good balance between Western-Tastiness and Eastern-Spiceyness. We then made our way to a Motel which was near the place where we'd be working on Sunday. Now, when I heard 'Motel', I have to admit that I thought the standard would be pretty low.. But as Motels go, this one was pretty awesome. King-Sized bed, regular-sized Shower and Bathroom, a TV, and a computer in the room to boot. Not to forget the complimentary packet of Coffee, Tea, toothbrush, and (for whatever reason) a condom.

After lazying around for an hour or so, myself and Sarah went to venture a bit around Busan, and found a decent place to have a few drinks. Steven, as it turns out, had already left way ahead of us to go drinking - that's one thing I don't think i've mentioned yet.. Drinking in Korea has absolutely no stigma. You'll see people drinking in the streets, getting drunk in groups, and it's all okay. When we asked Steven what had happened to him when we looked for him, he freely admitted he went and got drunk off Soju with some other people from the company. And it's really not uncommon for people to do that. My adult students have all told me that either they themselves get drunk with co-workers regularly, or don't enjoy dealing with their spouse when they come back drunk. It's quite a culture, I tell ya.

On Sunday morning, we left the Motel at 9ish to go to the festival. The work, to be honest, was fairly easy and pretty fun. Me and Sarah manned (and womanned) a booth, where we essentially acted as Teachers would. I quizzed questions to countless kids in English, while Sarah either quizzed kids as well, or told them stories in a larger group. Two of the kids I met today were absolutely impressive - almost fluent in English. While I was asking questions like 'What's your favourite color?' and 'What's your favourite Sport?', I never expected anything more than a one-word answer. Then, a kid who couldn't have been older than 10, replies 'Well, I don't really enjoy sports, but if I had to pick one I would have to say that Badminton is my favourite'. She then told me she wants to be an interpreter when she grows up - I think she could probably start tomorrow.

We took a plane back to Gimpo at 6:00, and landed right before 7:00. All in all, it was a fun trip, and a pretty awesome weekend - and it didn't cost me a thing.

Life is good.