Busan

We went to Busan yesterday which is the 2nd biggest city in Korea. It's at the southern tip of Korea so surrounded by lots of beaches. We took the bus (only $7 per ticket!) and it only took an hour and 20 minutes. I think the speed limit is 100km/hr on the highways, but most buses and cars go about 140km/hr. There are big signs on the highway that tell you when you're approaching a speed trap (cameras take pictures of your car's license plate), so as soon as you see one of those signs, you slow down to the speed limit. It is really strange.

Our day seemed to be filled with a lot of bad luck. We spent most of our time wandering in circles trying to find particular places. Despite our Korean phrase book, it was extremely difficult to ask for directions! We spent a good hour wandering around trying to find a non-Korean place to eat dinner, but in the end, we wound up at a Korean restaurant and didn't really touch most of the dinner. We tried to order a non-spicy vegetable stir-fry with rice and ended up getting rice with onions, garlic and carrots covered in hot sauce.

Before leaving we had written down directions to a part of the city with lots bars/clubs with foreigners and must have walked for about 3hrs trying to find it! We finally went to a "PC room" to get the phone number of one of the bars. We hopped into a cab, gave the # to the cab driver so that he could call and ask for directions. He dropped us off on the side of a street and pointed to a dark alley. Anyway, we ended up finding the bars although there were pretty much empty.

We decided to go to a "noory" bar which is like karaoke but you get your own room. It was so much fun! There were tons of English songs, so we plan on frequenting these places on a regular basis in an attempt to become professional karaoke singers.


Afterwards, we went back to the sketchy alley to see if any more people were there, but it was still pretty much deserted, so we found an old drunk man and asked him to take our picture before heading back to the bus station at about 12:15am.

When we got to the bus station, we found out the last bus for Pohang had left an hour before, so we ended up having to take a taxi back for $60. There was a mosquito in the car and the driver had the windows rolled up the whole time.

The next stop for us will be Seoul in October. Korean Thanksgiving (Choosok) is next weekend so we have a day off, but apparently the traffic is horrible because everyone's going to see their families so we will most likely go the following weekend (with lots of maps).

The Outback

Tonight we went to dinner with a 9yr old student to the Outback Steakhouse. It is probably the "nicest" Western restaurant in Pohang so I guess this is where Koreans assume most foreigners would love to eat. We went in the car with my 9yr old student, her two younger brothers and their mother, but when we got to the restaurant, the 9yr old insisted that her mother and brothers sit at a separate table.

Since arriving in Korea, we have yet to feel REALLY full after a meal until tonight. The prices were completely outrageous though...I think the steak was $33 and we had a pitcher of mango juice which was $20. All of us shared the food, so we had shrimp and calamari spaghetti, chicken mango salad, steak, onion coconut rings, kimchi (of course), mushroom soup and bread.

We were also given a "parting gift" consisting of a small loaf of bread with what appears to be strawberry cream.

All in all, a fun evening!

Soju tasting and an 8 course meal

Last night we went out to a fancy restaurant that served eight courses. We wish we could tell you what all of those courses were, but unfortunately, many dishes were a mystery. There was a lot of raw fish, there was even a "rotten fish" that smelled like ammonia. There was duck, beef, pork, chicken, noodles, rice, pickled vegetables and for dessert, some dates sprinkled with sesame seeds. It was nice to be out and to experience this kind of dinner, but we didn't think it was really worth $30.

After dinner, we went to a "Soju tasting party" which basically consisted of 30 different kinds of Soju. Soju is a very popular (and cheap) Korean alcohol that tastes a bit like Vodka but comes in many different flavours. It has a pretty strong taste and isn't something either of us would drink on a regular basis. You can buy it anywhere, even in the convenience store for about a dollar.

The popular Korean beer is called "Hite" but is pronounced "hite-uh" because in the Korean language, you cannot end a word with a consonant sound, so the word bus for example is pronounced "bus-uh." Anyway, we both actually like the taste of Hite which is weird considering neither of us drink beer with any regularity at home. Beer drinkers here tell us it is horrible tasting and really watered down so maybe that's why we don't mind it. It could also have to do with the fact that when you go out to eat, there's always water and beer and when you've just put something really spicy or gross into your mouth, beer gets rid of that taste way better than water!

Today one of my students has invited us to the "Outback Steakhouse" for dinner. She's 9. We're not sure how common this is, but she has been asking us for the past few weeks and we've run out of excuses. At first we really didn't want to go because we assumed that her whole family would be there and so we'd feel a bit awkward since none of them speak English. Then we found out that it would just be her and that her parents would give her the credit card to pay for our meals.

Anyway, we'll let you know how it goes. It should be interesting to say the least!!

Let's go to the Movies!

Our new movie is now on YouTube! Check it out!!!

Daegu

We had a great day in Daegu yesterday! We absolutely loved the city. We got on a bus in Pohang and it was about an hour and 15 minutes away. The bus cost only $7.00 and the buses were really comfortable with TV's, big seats, etc. Daegu is one of the 5 biggest cities in Korea so there is lots of shopping, restaurants and much, much more. Mainly yesterday we just shopped as you can see by the picture! We found lots of stores that we loved and bought some new clothes for work. The prices of most of the stores is either the same or cheaper than at home. We went inside the Gap though and the prices were SO expenses. It cost about $100 for a pair of pants that would be $50 at home. The other thing is that you cannot get sizes in MOST stores bigger than an 8 or 28, so if you are small like MaryAnne, shopping is not a problem at all! It's also very difficult to find shoes bigger than a size 7 for women, so MA will definitely not have a problem finding new clothes! There is apparently a foreigner's section in Seoul called Itaewon which sells lots of American food, clothes, etc in a wide range of sizes.

The people in Daegu seemed to be much friendlier and less conservative than in Pohang. There were way more foreigners and people were very outgoing, friendly and so we didn't feel like social outcasts the way we sometimes do here. We think we've definitely been getting a small perspective of Korea and Koreans probably because we're in a small city where people are ultra-conservative. In Daegu, many people had funky hairstyles and clothes and we didn't get stared at everywhere we went.

When it was time for dinner, we thought we would go to a Korean restaurant just because the prices are usually so much cheaper. We asked the server for some of the Korean food we like and she kept making an "X" sign with her hands. When we didn't get our token side dishes of kimchi we realized that we weren't at a Korean restaurant at all! We were at a Japanese restaurant! The food was GREAT!!




We left Daegu at about 11pm and got back here just after midnight. Our next adventure will be to Busan which I think is about 2 hours away and at the southern tip of Korea! It's the second biggest city in Korea with lots of beaches, shopping and it sounds like lots of fun!!

Bugs

These are the bugs that MaryAnne tried.

We are headed off to Daegu for the day which is the closest big city, about an hour and a half way....we got lost on a bus the other day which was only 10mins from where we live and ended up 25km outside of Pohang, so we are really hoping our sense of direction is better today! The bus costs just $7.00 and there are lots of shops, clubs, restaurants, etc. There are even baseball games which you can go to for $6 (baseball is very popular here) and you can bring in a backpack full of alcoholic drinks and food so you don't have to pay a dime when you're there.

Anyway, stay tuned for an update about our adventure. We have now been in Korea for exactly ONE MONTH! Celebration time! Only 11 more to go.....