Busan

After working without any breaks since Lunar New Year in January, our school allowed us a break this weekend. The way the Korean calendar happens to work this year has most of the national holidays on weekends. This weekend, for example, celebrated Buddha’s Birthday on Saturday. Tuesday is Children’s Day (yes…a real holiday) and rather than making us come in to work on Monday, our supervisor convinced the owner of the school to let the teacher’s have it off. To the parents it was justified as a Teacher's Seminar. Michele and I went down to Busan on Sunday for the night. As the second largest city in Korea it is a necessary stop during our stay here. For even though it is a large city, the size doesn’t compare to Seoul and foreigners are much more likely to stand out. There’s also, as one coworker loves to remind us, a strong Russian influence in this coastal town which means it’s the one place in Korea where you can find pierogies. We didn’t eat Russian dumplings, but we did eat great Chinese food and fresh fish. Fish that was probably swimming in the ocean hours before it was served on our plate. First thing we did was walk around the largest fish market in Korea. Live octopus, scrambling crabs, gutted sting rays, and weird things that look suspiciously like male and female genitalia. Afterwards we headed to a mountain temple that required a trip on a cable car and a lot of help from a friendly bi-lingual Korean man. We found lots of boulders that were great for crawling over and sitting on, perfect for reading and journaling. Afterwards we headed to the touristy beach area where we watched the sun set and staked out spots for the following morning’s sunrise. Our night in the shoddiest love motel that involved cockroach spray in our room and walls as thin as eggshells was worth the twenty bucks we spent on it. Our shared double bed with no sheets and a polyester comforter did not do much to improve the situation. Frustrated by insomnia, I threw off the blankets at 4:30 and declared I was heading out to watch the sunrise. We were stumbling past bars that were still in full swing but after getting settled on our rocks we watched a perfect sunrise. The thing about sunrises is that I always forget just how quickly they come. The entire sky blushes rosier and rosier, save for one pulsating pink spot, until the sun just appears, and if you’re not carefully paying attention, and ascends into it’s place in the sky. We made up for lost sleep on the beach, getting some sun in the process, until the afternoon when we caught a bullet train back to Seoul.