Before I talk about my holiday weekend in Busan, I'll update everyone about my open class (since everyone is dying to know). I was reallyyyy nervous for it but it went SO well! I was really relieved to have it be over. The parents told my supervisor that they really liked me and that they wish I wasn't leaving in August, so that's good! This next month is going to be a breeze with that off my back!
It was also really nice because after a super stressful week, we got a three day weekend because Monday (May 28th) was Buddha's birthday. I have very little knowledge about Buddhism but I was happy we got a vacation day! I took advantage of the three day weekend and headed down to Busan with 7 of the other teachers.
Saturday, we left early in the morning to catch our 8:45 train. It takes about 5 hours on the slow train to get to Busan. When we got there, we dropped our stuff off at the jimjilbang we were staying at (the spa/bath house place) and then went and walked around. Luckily, David, one of my coworkers actually lived in Busan for three years prior to moving to Suji and starting work at LCI. He was basically our own tour guide which was great and we were able to do a lot more things! Since we didn't arrive until Saturday afternoon, we decided just to go to the U.N National Cemetery located in Busan and walk around a little bit. We went to the boardwalk on the beach which was really fun. The atmosphere was a lot different from Seoul but I'm still trying to figure out how? Maybe Busan was more relaxed or something...
On Sunday we woke up and went to the beach! Ah, it was SO nice to be able to lay in the sand and actually be hot in the sun! The beach was full of foreigners and it was pretty busy but the water was pretty much an ice bath so not too many people were swimming. I did get a chance to go jet skiing by asking these random Koreans if you could rent the jet skis or what not, and they just offered me a ride. I made sure to ask for a life jacket (luckily, they spoke English) and then got a 10 minute ride off the coast! It was SO fun. I've only been jet skiing on lakes and that's way slower and the waves are obviously way smaller! So yeah, that was the highlight of my weekend! After the beach, we headed to one of the major temples in Busan, Yonggungsa temple. There were hundreds of lanterns all around the temple in all different colors. It was really beautiful!
On Monday, we spent our afternoon in the Busan Fish Market. I'm not a huge fan of seafood, at all really, but some of my friends wanted to try eel and crab. There are a ton of vendors there selling the same products so I don't really know how all of them ever sell anything, or how people choose who they are going to buy it from BUT they picked out a crab and two eels and we watched the guy kill them in front of us, then followed him upstairs where they cooked them for us. It was pretty interesting to see. I had a tiny taste of crab which was ok, but I actually liked the eel. It had the texture just like any fish would have and kind of reminded me of walleye (that may be because I haven't had walleye in a long time!). After we finished, we decided that we can't leave Busan without trying live octopus. It's not technically "living" because they chop off its head but the tentacles are still moving around so you have to be careful with your chewing so it doesn't stick to your throat! It really didn't have much flavor, but at least now I can say I tried it!
This week is going by pretty fast since we started work again on Tuesday. We actually get next Wednesday off too for Korea's Memorial Day which will be nice. We get a staff party on Tuesday night before that too as a celebration of open class being finished for everyone! I'm trying to do a lot more in June because who knows when the Korean rainy season will hit and I will be back moping around my apartment with no exciting news to share!
Happy memorial day to everyone back home, see you in 3 months Minnesota!
Love, Meghan
Pictures:
http://s1068.photobucket.com/albums/u451/mfaricy2/
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