A Memborable Week

My week from Monday, October 24th to Sunday, October 30th was fantastic!

Monday (24th): My head Korean English teacher invited me to attend her university class at Pusan National University (PNU). Her students were doing a mid-term examination so I basically introduced myself and helped supervise. Afterwards, she brought me to restaurant that served delicious chicken in a tangy and savoury sauce. I was hooked on it right away and I even brought the remaining sauce home to make my own curry dish (which I later made and gave to my friend Andrew who was sick).
Tuesday (25th): My pay day! I was super excited for this day because I only had 40,000 won in my bank! I sent 1.5mil back home, paid off my bills and only had enough money for food and bus. Luckily, this magical day happened and I was rich again! I immediately went on a shopping spree. I know, I know. It’s very irresponsible of me but I really wanted this blazer type of jacket for years. Finally, I had the money, the proper size, design, and colour. Most importantly the price was affordable (compared to Canadian standards). I also bought a fanned shirt (red, white and black colour), which is quite Canadian of me to do but I never owned one in my life. People kept saying that it would be stereotypical but I just wanted it. Steven tagged along in my spending spree and he bought himself a nice winter jacket as well.

Wednesday (26th): Bunch of EPIK orientation teachers are planning to attend a YG Family K-Pop Concert in Seoul on December 4th so we needed to purchase the tickets online before it gets sold out. The tickets were going to go on sale on the 27th so I sent my money in advance to the person who was organizing the event to make sure that I was 100% going to get a ticket if the tickets were not sold out. I also went to Costco with my friend Warren but I was only there to shop for my students. I bought lots of chocolates, candies and treats for Halloween prizes that my students can earn to win.
Thursday (27th): After work, I went and met up with my Korean friend Ethan and he helped me get a smart phone! Samsung Galaxy Neo! This was a massive upgrade over the previous Korean phone I owned. The old one sucked at reception, volume, design, comfort and texting! I really wanted a smart phone because I have been used to my Canadian iPhone 3G for over three years. With this new Android phone I can easily communicate with all of my friends in Korea and I even have a Kakao account (which is similar to MSN Messenger).
Friday (28th): It was a school picnic today so it was late start. I met up with the students and other teachers at the Busan Art Museum to explore Monet’s paintings. I was not impressed at all. I found it super boring and I know many of the students felt the same way too. The museum looks nice from the outside but the inside seriously needs to get better exhibitions and paintings. I guess I have been spoiled by the R.O.M in Toronto for so many years. After the museum, we went to have a picnic at a nearby park (20 minutes walk). The students started to sing K-Pop songs for me because they didn’t know what else to do for entertainment. I played songs from my iPhone and the students danced to the songs. Yes, I had my iPhone with me even though I got a Galaxy Neo. I am in the transition stage so I am slowly getting used to the Android and I haven’t added any music to it. Lunch was served by the teachers. It was kimbap, fruits and little snacks. I ate the fruits because they had seedless green grapes. Around 1pm I left the picnic and the students because I was free to leave early. So, I decided to go to the Spaland (which was really close by to where the museum and the picnic were happening). I spent two and half hours relaxing and then I headed to the Gwangalli beach around 4pm. The K-Pop Super concert was held in Busan and the admission was free! I stood in line at the foreigners line for hour and half before the gates were finally open. The concert was amazing! I loved every moment of it. I was interviewed twice, I did a survey to get a Dynamic Busan blanket, and I was videotaped many times by the videographers at the event. They were impressed by a foreigner knowing a lot of the K-Pop songs! This was truly one of the best days I had in Korea!





Saturday (29th): It was Veanna's birthday celebrations and Busan's Firework Festival! Double the fun and double the excitement! I was able enjoy the fireworks and spend time with my fellow Toronto-ian friend at the same time. I decided to make a collage for this day because I took so many photos of the firework festivities so this is much easier for you to follow along.

I also added a video I made by myself using Windows Movie Maker and the videos I captured on my Galaxy Neo. Check it out on Facebook!

Sunday (30th): I stayed at home for most of the day to clean up, relax and organize few things for work. For dinner I went and met John and Ann for the first time in more than 6 weeks! It was nice seeing them again and we ate dinner at a Cuban restaurant. This was my first time enjoying a Cuban meal in Korea so it was worth the price (15,000 won for two meals). After dinner, I just came home and got ready for work because the next day was Halloween!

EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA!

Monday (31st): Halloween at school! I dressed up as a baseball player because I had two jerseys (Lotte Giants – Lee Dae Ho, and L.A Angels’ customized jersey with my name on the back and #13), I had a baseball glove, Blue Jays baseball cap and batting gloves! It was perfect! Each class I changed jersey to keep the students confused and to keep the Halloween spirit alive. I gave out lollipops, chocolates, and other Halloween treats! I gave candies to the teachers too and I figured that I would be the only one dressed up so I wasn’t surprised. Either way, this was a fantastic day for the students and of course for me too. It gave me a chance to wear jeans to school, not fix my hair, and be surrounded with candies everywhere. I am looking forward to what November brings and to the next exciting adventure that is just around the corner in South Korea!

Checkpoint: 4 Months

Tuesday, October 25th will be my 4 month anniversary of being in Korea! I do not feel homesick, and I certainly am enjoying my time here. I am looking forward to so many events and my winter vacation too. Weekends are flying by so quickly and I still haven’t finished exploring this wonderful city. I am hoping November would allow me to check out some of the places nearby Busan. We’ll see how that goes but for now, so many festivals are happening right here in the city!

The International Fireworks Competition was held on October 22nd and it was a blast! Literally. Just check out some of these photos I took. The competition was between the USA, Poland, Japan and China! I am not sure who won but my best bet was for the States. They had a wonderful theme and they had the fire power too.


I have started to meet more people from my building and I am actually planning to have a house-warming party! Yes, it’s almost 4 months but better late than never. I might as well show off my place to few people who live close by. Besides, I just want an excuse to organize a potluck of delicious food with some of the awesome people I have met in the 4 months since I’ve been here. Now, it is time for me to do some research on what to do next in Korea!

Busan International Film Festival and KT Sonic Boom!

Thursday, October 13th I attended the Busan International Film Festival or BIFF for short! I watched an animation movie titled “A Monster in Paris” and it was similar to “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” in terms of graphics. However they had the Disney twist by adding songs into the movie. It was a great story and I can see it become successful in North America. I was fortunate enough to even attend the BIFF event because the tickets were sold out immediately. One of my Korean teachers, Sam, was able to reserve tickets for his family, friends and relatives. He was gracious enough to offer me a ticket as well! I was ecstatic that I would be able to watch at least one movie at this prestigious event. I was able to meet Sam’s three children as well who were so adorable and pleasant to talk to. His wife was so kind and offered food on several occasions. I am glad that I went with Sam and his family because I was able to gain a different perspective of a Korean family besides the stories I have heard from other foreigners or from the media’s perception (online mostly). After the BIFF event I was able to meet up with two friends that I met at Seoul, Samanta and Noeila who are from Argentina! We went out for dinner and had a wonderful time sharing stories and jokes about our mutual friend Victoria (aka Minzy).

On October 18th, which was earlier today, I attended my first ever Korean Basketball League game! KT Sonic Boom was the home team (Busan!) so I naturally cheered for them to win. Unfortunately they lost the game on the second last play of the game. KT still had a chance to win with 5 seconds left but they were unable to feed the ball to their primary star – a waygook named Charles Law (s/p). However, the atmosphere was great because I went with bunch of foreigners who were equally excited as I was to see a basketball game in Korea! The ticket was only 11,000 wons (less than $11) but the experience was priceless. Just check out the photos for yourself.
There are so many events happening in October that I am starting to become overwhelmed. I don’t want to miss out on any of these events but some are overlapping and some require money or travel but I am definitely going to attend the Global Gathering event that is happening this Saturday! I will talk more about it after I actually take part in it but until then please share this blog with anyone who might be interested in following my adventures in Korea. Thank you!

Lantern Festival and Canadian Thanksgiving Day

This weekend was busy but a lot of fun. On Saturday I went to Jinju’s Lantern Festival with Steven, Veanna, Alicia and her boyfriend Chris. We had tons of fun and before we even got the lantern festival, we walked through the Korean Drama Festival and the Silk Fair. I was so excited that I am experiencing more cultural events rather than the usual dinner and lunch events. I even decided to make my own lantern but it was harder than it looked. I was struggling so much that it took over 2 hours to finish 1/4th of a lantern. I wanted to make a star lantern in red, orange and yellow. However, they didn’t have any of those colours so I went with maroon and beige. You can see the pictures and see my masterpiece.

We left Busan around 1:15pm and we arrived in Jinju an hour and half later. We were starving so we had lunch right away. We departed Jinju around 8:35pm because the last bus was at 9:10pm and we did not want to be stranded in another city. Anyways, the lanterns were all wonderful but my top 3 are the popular Dragon Lantern, Phoenix Lantern and the White Peacock Lantern. They all breathed fire! The Dragon also had smoke coming out of its mouth. It was quite spectacular in person because I have never seen anything like that before. I recommend this festival to future EPIK teachers because it’s well worth the trip. The admission is free and the bus fare was 7,300 won each direction from Busan. There were many places to eat in Jinju and tons of food stalls were available at the festival too.

On Sunday it was Canadian Thanksgiving Day. I woke up at 3pm because I was tired from the Lantern Festival and it was my first ever day of sleeping in without worrying about my alarm clock going off in over a month. I slept like a baby until I saw all these text messages and missed call from Nav. I was informed that there was a Thanksgiving Dinner hosted by Amanda around 7pm. I didn’t know what to bring so I got 2 garlic breads, 4 vanilla roti buns and 4 coffee flavoured roti buns. Everyone liked it or at least they were eating it without any complaints so I was happy about that. There was so much food and everything tasted so delicious! Amanda was a great hostess and it was great seeing everyone again. Last time I saw them was when we all went to Busan’s Lotte Giants’ 3rd last game against the Daejeon’s Hanwha Eagles. The Giants won 20-2! Anyways, this weekend was great and I still haven’t gone to any of the Busan International Film Festival activities. Hopefully sometime this week I am able to attend it but we shall see how everything works out.

Foundation and Conquest

On October 3rd, 2011 was the National Foundation Day. During this long weekend, I was able to finally conquer Mount Jangsan. Few months ago while climbing up the mountain I got injured because of a rock slipping under my feet and leaving a gash on my left toe. After recovering for few months, I was able to finally climb the mountain and this time reached the top! I wanted to show the mountain who was the boss. I was quite proud of achievement considering 6 months ago I would have not even attempted such a journey. Not only did I get my vengeance on the mountain but I also conquered it. My conquest was completed and now I am looking forward to do more hiking in the future.
On October 7th, 2011, one of my good friends, Victoria, left the city and went back home to Toronto. She was quite an interesting person. She was a huge K-Pop fan like me, she’s from the same hometown as me (Toronto), and she was such a kid (she would say the weirdest things at the most random time). I’ll surely miss her and her great adventure ideas such as climbing the “40 Steps” or visiting “The Museum”. Although she will be missed in Busan, I am certain that I will see her again when I am back in Toronto in late June. She is now the second person who I got along very well that went back home. Coincidentally, both of them were from Canada.
Minzy Ajuma Kajun! Work wise, I have been quite busy preparing my lessons to be more engaging, interactive and include more examples that the students can relate to. I am just happy that all the students are on the same level in terms of what they have covered. I am able to start fresh and this allows me to create group works, competition between groups, and more importantly allows me to keep everything organized. October is going to be a Halloween theme so I have divided each class into 6 teams: Black Cats, Ghosts, Jack-O-Lanterns, Mummies, Witches and Wizards. This was only possible for grade 1 and grade 2 students because the grade 3 students have a speaking test coming up so they are concentrating on that instead. Halloween is going to be so much fun because I have so many prizes, chocolates, and random gifts for them! I am excited just thinking about it!