Firework Perfection

Last weekend Bryan and I attended Busan's annual Firework Festival. Yes, you heard me right- an ENTIRE 3 day festival dedicated to the awesomeness of fireworks. Given my love for the 4th of July (Im a 3rd of July baby), I was on cloud 9.

Friday night we were not able to make it down to the beach because we get out of work late, but we were lucky enough to have front row seats from our balcony to watch the final 20 minutes. Even from there the colors, size, and arrangements of the fireworks were absolutely amazing.

Saturday night was the main event, and I swear the whole country of Korea was in attendance. Just getting down to Gwangali beach around 4 (4 hours before the show started) was a journey in itself. We experienced our 2nd most crowded subway since we have been here (the 1st being right after a Lotte Giants baseball game).

But the claustrophobia was wellll worth it. Our friends scored us a perfect spot on the beach where we all set out our beach mats, and we had ourselves a little pre-show picnic of Popeye's and beers :). Koreans really make a day out of this event and set up the most elaborate picnics, of course accompanied by bottles and bottles and bottles of Soju :).

Our "firework faces"

Once the fireworks started at 8, the did not stop for 1 whole hour! It was bliss. They shot off the Gwangali bridge, and various boats in front of the bridge. The reflection onto the water was an incredible sight. Ok, I will stop blabbering on, and let the photos speak for themselves:

...aaaamazing

I hope all of yall are having a great week! We are super excited about the Halloween weekend which actually starts tomorrow for us with 4 back-to-back Halloween parties for our students at Reading Town :) Can't wait!

love yall,

Amy

How do they do it??

There are many times each day where I have to do a double take, or pause for a minute to take in some of the cultural aspects of Korea. One of these is the 'squatting'. It's crazy how many Koreans do this, where they do this, and how old these 'squatters' are. I might be in awe because of the history of bad knees in my own family (no offense mom..), but it is still so impressive how these elderly Korean men and women will just take a squat anytime, anywhere. I wanted to post more pictures, but this was one of the only cases in which I was behind the women, and wasn't super obvious about taking her pic.

Squatting is common at subways, bus stops, or any place that involves waiting. It is also common along the sidewalks between friends, just having a chat. Imagine: 3 old men squatting on the sidewalk, smoking, and speaking really fast Korean...now you might see why I was a little taken back at first.

I am also curious about the health of Korean's knees due to this natural position. I wonder if they are healthy and flexible and able to do this because of their diets and daily exercise...or if they actually have bad knees, and their posture is affected by this. I just don't know. All I know is that it kinda cracks me up, and leaves me pretty wide-eyed every time I see them.

Happy Friday!

Amy

"Amy Teacher" becomes "Amy Student"

I wear a few hats here in Busan, South Korea. As long as I am here, I will always have the big ol' hat that says "foreigner" (in flashing yellow neon lights), because there is no chance of me ever being mistaken as a Korean while Im here (no matter how many times I straighten my hair).

I am slowly but surely getting comfortable in the "teacher" hat, and am learning more and more each day that I stand in front of these "angels". I will always have the big ol Texas "cowboy" hat on, no matter how much the word 'yall' confuses my student's young minds. And now, after giving it a rest for about 2 years, I am wearing the 'student' hat again.

A few weeks ago, Bryan and I eagerly enrolled in a free 10 week Korean language class that we had heard about in our Busan orientation. It takes place every Monday and Wednesday morning, and is somewhat close to our house. It was a no-brainer signing up for it, and now 4 classes in, I am remembering very clearly why I have always had very bad grades in my many (many) years of language classes in my past.

Bryan has a great quality of self motivation, and actually taught himself the Korean alphabet almost immediately after we landed here. Me...not so much. I need structure: teacher, repetition, class mates, the pressure of having to read out loud in class, partner work, homework, etc. Bryan has been to a couple of the classes, but is not sure if he is going to continue taking them, because luckily for him, he can put in the effort to learning on his own at home. Lucky dog..

So day 1: Wake up early, pack a lunch, get a crisp new notebooks, smiles on faces, mind ready to soak up some Korean, lets do this! We arrive at the school only to realize that our teacher does not speak any, ANY, English. One word: KARMA. Bryan and I spend 5 hours every day teaching children a language that they don't understand, and we know ZERO Korean to try and bridge the confusion. I have surprised myself by getting easily frustrated with my students, and ask myself alll the time- why don't they get this?? Its SO easy!! Yeah. Right. Learning anything from a person that doesn't speak your language is HARD. I immediately understood the blank stares and confused little frowns that my students look at me with every. single. day.

We spent the first 2 classes learning the Korean alphabet, which was somewhat easy to pick up. It has about 30 letters, at least half of which are actually vowels. It feels weird admitting this 11 years after the fact, but it really made me think A LOT about my years in Hebrew school (ages 9-13). Learning symbols that represents sounds, that somewhat parallel the American alphabet, but include new sounds, and exclude others brought me back to my 10 year old self...that sucked at learning languages.

Struggles aside, one great thing about the class is the diversity of the students. There are probably 2o students in the class, ranging in ages from 16-60, coming from: America, Canada, India, Germany, Ukraine, Japan, China, Singapore, and England. There are a handful of English teachers in the class, but also many women that came here with their husbands for work, musicians, engineers, and architects. It has been really great meeting new people, and connecting with people on a "new kid in town" kind of level.

I was riding the subway to class #4 this morning and accidently got a little overly-cocky about my newly learned Korean letters... Subway signs in Korean? no biggie. Ads on the wall in the Korean? I can tooootally sound that out. Title of the book that the woman sitting next to me is reading? Kid stuff, please. So then, I get to class and my newly found confidence is promptly stomped on, wadded up, and hurled out the window. We jumped RIGHT into greetings, introductions, phrases, grammar, sentence structure, younameit.

Lets just say that the 16-year-old -Chinese- piano-playing-prodigy-hipster-dude sitting next to me was NOT impressed, and I think I even saw a displeased frown behind the super long black bangs covering his eyes. UGH.

I have made a goal to at least go to every class for the next 8 weeks, even if it kills me! I can not give up people! Seriously! If I post in a few weeks saying that I have had it with this new language BS then I order you to get on Skype right away and tell me no! You must stick with this Amy! Even if it kills you!

Alright, with that being said, I am going to go now, and get back to making my flashcards :)

We have many more exciting (non-school related) things to share with you, I promise! Stay tuned!

love yall!

Amy

movies, and museums, and tacos...oh my!

This past weekend can be summed up in two words: Artsy- Fartsy...and yes, I loved it :)

Busan hosted their 15th Annual "Pusan International Film Festival" (PIFF) this weekend, and we were lucky enough to score tickets to 3 really interesting (and bizzare) films. This was my first film festival (I suck at attending SXSW things...), and I loved the vibe and diversity of all the movie-goers. It was also nice because we can't read the movie titles or theaters online because we dont know Korean, so we have not been able to go to a movie since we've been here. Apparently this film festival is getting to be a big deal around the globe, and Busan had a lot of celebs here this weekend...but we did not see any (that we know of). Im gonna pretend to be a film critic for a hot second and give yall a low down of the 3 movies...heres goes nothin!

"Oranges and Sunshine"

Hands down our favorite movie of the weekend. This is an incredibly powerful true story set in England during the 1980's. The main character is a social worker (played by Emily Watson) that uncovers a horrific scandal involving a mass deportation of orphans out of the UK between 1950-1970. I don't want to give too much away, but its a 'must-see' when it comes out in the states, and don't forget the kleenex. Seriously.

"Here Comes the Bride"

The main highlight of this film was that we were able to view it at this awesome outdoor theater set up for PIFF at the Busan Yacht Club. The screen was massive, and there were probably 1000 people there to watch it. The setting really added to the excitement of PIFF, and distracted from the actual movie...which was really lame. "Here Comes the Bride" is a Filipino comedy about how the lives of 5 individuals get switched during a bizarre solar eclipse event. I think comedy is a tricky subject to try and connect with through other countries/cultures. I think the main thing that stood out was the over-exaggeration of every single expression. Now, this is the only Filipino comedy I have seen...so I could be wrong, but, it reminded me of some other Mexican and South Korean's comedies as well. It was still a fun night...but I wouldn't recommend this one. At all.

"El Extranjero Viajo" ("The Strange Trip")

Our final film of the weekend was actually an old B&W Spanish movie from the 1960's. It takes place in a sleepy Spanish towns and unfolds a mini-mystery involving a eerie looking old woman and her cuckoo brother and sister. It felt good to hear some Spanish (and recognize about 1 out of every 20 words), and B&W movies are always charming. If it ever comes up on Netflix for free, you should check it out.

Eating and drinking are communal things here in Korea. People go to get ice cream and get a large with 2 spoons...they order 1-2 dishes to share at the dinner table...and they even have multiple straw holes in the movie beverages so that you can share your sodas. Its all very romantic if you ask me. Genius Korea, genius.

In addition to some fun movies, Bryan and I went with our buddy Matt to check out the Busan Biennale at the Busan Museum of Modern Art. The theme this year was "Living in Evolution". We were lucky to be here during a year that Busan was having it. I was so impressed and inspired by the amount of creativity in this one building. Here are some of my favs:

And, last but not least: TACOS! I know we have mentioned a few times on here before when we have stumbled across tortilla chips and/or salsa in this new land far from avocados and cilantro...but those were just teasers. We found (almost) the real deal. And, the fact that these tacos are located in a tiny little hidden restaurant nook covered with post-it notes talking about how much people love mexican food makes it that much better. While these tacos were no "Maria's", they still had cilantro, jalapenos, and guac...which is all I can ask for at this point. If you come to Busan to visit us, I will take you to this lil bit of heaven...and yes, thats a bribe. I am bribing my people of Texas to travel 7000 miles for a Korean taco. Any takers?

That's all for tonight my friends. I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend full of ACL dancin' and fall weather beginnings! Miss yall and love yall!

xo,

amy

Lotte Brew-Ha!

During the last couple months of getting settled into Busan life, Amy and I caught what some refer to as "Lotte Fever." Now, don't worry; we're not breaking out into a rash.

Lotte is a company that owns the major league baseball team here in Busan, the Lotte Giants.

Rather than refer to their teams by the city they're from, all the team names are coupled with the company that owns them. Big Korean companies like Kia and Samsung have teams. This actually brings me to a topic I've thought about a lot since I've been here.

Corporations in Korea have their names EVERYWHERE. Lotte owns the baseball team, tons of grocery stores in Busan, and high-rise apartment complexes all over the city. LG and Samsung are the same business. They own apartments, stores, and businesses everywhere; and their names are everywhere, accordingly. LG and Samsung are like this all over Korea. Lotte is a more of a Busan thing.

When I first noticed this, it bothered me that a very small amount of people, or like three big companies, control a massive chunk of the culture/lifestyle/consumerism here in Korea. It was the blatancy of it that truly bothered me. This got me comparing it to life back in America. I then realized that the outstretched corporate control is no different in America. The big difference is that corporations in America do a great job of concealing the fact that their hands are in every aspect of your life. Companies in America avoid putting the 'head company's' name on all its products. For instance, how many different things does General Electric own and operate? Or how much control does Mars Bar or Pepsi Co. have in the market? The list of companies owned by GE and Pepsi is insane and extremely diverse. In addition to the obvious products, Pepsi owns: Gatorade, Frito-Lay, 7-up, Tropicana, and Quaker Oats. Each of these companies in turn, own hundreds of different products that all come with a separate name. The vastness of GE would take too long to research and talk about right now.

I realize this is a bit of a rant. I just wanted to say that, to a certain extent, I appreciate the straight-forwardness of corporations in Korea and Koreans in general. If something is owned by Samsung, you know.

Ok...back to our awesome Saturday!

So, Amy and I caught Lotte Fever pretty quickly. It was kind of easy, since they made it to the playoffs this year! Our gracious friend, Ryan, who pitches for the Lotte Giants, was able to get us and some friends of ours, tickets to the 3rd game of their first playoff series, which is against the Dusan Bears, from Seoul. Lotte won the first two games. They won the first 10-5, when they scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th! They won the second when their clean-up batter hit a 3-run homer in the top of the 10th inning, to break a 1-1 tie.

The third game of the series was in Busan on Saturday. Before the game, we met up with our friends Matt and Hailey for some Mr. Pizza across from the stadium. Then we loaded up one of Amy's trusty Blue Avocado cooler bags with brew and met up with Pete and his brother Chris outside the gates.

Ryan got us great seats along the right field foul line. Before this, we'd had the pleasure of making it to two regular season games. The fans were pretty rowdy then. They stepped it up big time for the playoffs. People from the stadium passed out massive banners that stretched over the heads of about 50 fans' heads.

Lotte had a great start, with two runs in the first inning, taking the lead 2-0. They held this lead until the 4th inning, when da Bears exploded with a 5-run inning.

During the game, I sat next to Chris, an English teacher from Ireland/England. He was born in Belfast and moved to London when he was about 10. His Irish accent didn't come out until about the 6th inning, or 5th beer. He was gracious enough to educate me on the intricacies of Cricket and its similarities/differences with baseball. In return, I tried to explain why pitchers check the runner at 1st, how often people actually steal, what a squeeze play is, and many more wonderfully obscure rules of our beloved pastime.

Lotte answered the charge from the Bears a couple innings later with a solo home run from Lee Dae Ho, the cleanup batter. 6-3, da Bears. This was right around the 7th inning when they pass out the orange rally trash bags/hats.

We scored another 2 runs in the next inning to make it 5-6.

The Giants put up a great fight, but couldn't make up that last run and we unfortunately....lost :(

Delirious and hungry, we grabbed our first meal from McDonald's in two months, which is pretty impressive for me. Unfortunately, we took it to-go with us on the subway, where it was thoroughly smashed by the THOUSANDS of people that crammed in after the game. I haven't been that crammed since I tried to get in the front row of a Rage Against the Machine concert.

A gnarled meal, a short nap, and a shower later, and we were heading to meet up with some friends at the subway in Seomyeon. They took us to a german-style brewery and restaurant.

This place was AWESOME!

The Korean waiters and waitresses dress up like Germans at Octoberfest in the 19th century. Hilarious. A German/Korean fusion band plays in the enormous mess hall (it's about the size of a school cafeteria). The girl lead singers got into it after a few rounds when they started sing/dancing on the tables.

The atmosphere was incredible, and the in-house made beers were even better. The massive 2000 liter fermenters are on display in the mess hall. They usually have three types of home-brew on the menu: Pils, Weizen, and Dunkel. The Weizen, wheat beer, was alright, but I'm not much for wheat beers anymore. The Dunkel was fantastic! And I left the Pils to be tasted on another date.

After the much needed visit to 'good-beer-land,' we met up with some more friends for some late night dance partyin in Kyunsung. We eventually made it home from our fun-packed day of awesomeness around 3am, when I still managed to have the energy to cook and eat some ramen.

What a day.