Samsung tour, Kindergarten and Haeundae Beach

The 2^nd week in Busan started off with our 4^th language class. It is getting a little easier because the alphabet is finally becoming easier to read. But I still can’t remember phrases, but can read for the most part. It’s so crazy. After class was over with the 4 Lander girls got to go into the President’s office and have tea and visit with him. After discussing the KSS program with him we were treated to lunch at a really nice restaurant. We had the best bulgolgi that we’ve had so far. And the kimchi was great too because it wasn’t too spicy.

We had to hurry through our meal because we had to meet the bus to take us on the Samsung tour. At the Samsung plant we were shown a few cars and how it looks with out the full body on it. Then we got to go through the plant where they were making them. To be honest I didn’t even know Samsung made cars, I thought it was just electronics like TVs and phones. It was pretty cool watching a car be built from start to the process before it is painted and stocked with all of the gadgets. Unfortunately we could not take pictures in the plant. Today KangHoon, Daniel and I were wearing the same type clothes. Navy and white stripes.  It looked like we were ready for a family photo.

After the tour was finished we went back to the school to meet with our groups to finalize the plans for the kindergarten project. Thankfully we were surprised with dinner, everyone voted for Chinese, I wanted pizza. But the Chinese delivery was pretty good, and the method of delivery was mind blowing. It was brought on a moped in these metal containers. Our noddle dish was in it, all 30 something.  After dinner there was more rehearsing.

After a long day of class and rehearsing we all needed to have a little fun. A few turned in for the night and went to sleep, another group gathered at the soccer field. Myself and 6 of the UK kids went on a mission to find more food. We came up on a nice looking grill on your table type restaurant. Only a few were hungry but there is no way only a few can eat at this type place. Ziv and I didn’t eat while the other shared pork and beef. As always at these style restaurants soju and beer is served. There was a promotion team coming around to all of the tables to promote a new light soju, we did a cheer with them and got 2 free bottles of this.

After everyone decided they were finished eating we decided it was time to head back to campus. 2 people wanted to take the bus and 5 wanted to walk… I couldn’t make up my mind so I decided I’d feel better about myself if I walked. I knew our school is on the side of a mountain but had no clue how many steps and inclines it would take to reach my dorm. I was drenched in sweat by the time we got back.

Tuesday, the day finally came, that we could show off our project to the kindergarten class. My group was with the older group. I think they were around 5 or 6 years old. They were really cute and very smart. They knew so many of the things we taught to them in English. We all dressed up as characters. The did know who Snow White was but didn’t pick me when they got a chance to pick their favorite on to draw. We also taught ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ which they knew the words in English. And then we ended with go over the English alphabet.

The 2^nd mission was finally complete. We were treated to Outback!! So excited, even though I cold get Alice Springs Chicken I had a great hamburger. I was just glad to have a napkin at a meal for once. The napkins are very tiny and thin here. I miss having a cloth napkin at a restaurant. After a great and huge meal we got to go to Haeundae beach. This is the most famous beach in Korea. There were skyscrapers all around the area behind the beach. The water was very cold but felt amazing after walking so far to get to it from the bus. On the walk to the beach we walked through the building that the 2005 APEC meeting was held at. The water was so cold at the beach that everyone would just dip in, or be pushed by the guys, and then stand around on the shore line. But it was nice to have a little fun for an afternoon with everyone.

After changing clothes we went separate ways for dinner. Rachel, Nareen, Tom, Robbie, Daniel and I along with our buddies went to a noodle restaurant. The noodle dish I had was way too hot for me. So I didn’t eat much. It was so hot I found a convenience store to get a pop sickle to cool my mouth off after finishing dinner.  Everyone finally returned from dinner and we loaded back up in the bus to go watch the water light show. This show was incredible. It had music with water and lights going to go along with the music. On the bus rides everyone either falls asleep or takes pictures of the ones that have fallen sleep. I’m very scared because I usually fall asleep on the rides. During part of the day on a bus ride We all were passed the microphone to sing a song. When it came to me I chose to sing non other that "Wagon Wheel", I figured everyone that knows we well would be pretty excited to hear that. 

Kyoungjoo... Temples... Shuttle Launch... Bus Rides..

Our wonderful weekend started at 9 am on Friday. We all met at the bottom of the steps at the main gate to board our bus. Everyone got situated in his or her normal seats. I, as always, had “Big Bertha (big black back pack duffle bag) with me so she got her own seat. JiHyun couldn’t go with us so I had the seat to myself, which was nice because I could lie down, and nap. KangHoon made a K-Pop CD for everyone to listen to on the ride. I’m beginning to really like K=Pop, thanks to Rachel I know the story behind every song it seems.

Kyoungjoo is a very historical city in Korea. At one time it was a thriving area. We started the tour at a museum that held many treasures and some replicas. Us Lander girls were not thrilled with this museum visit because many of the things we were seeing were just like in the National Museum of Korea in Seoul or replicas of the things that were in Seoul. Thankfully the tour was only around 30 minutes. We then went to visit a tower that was use for start gazing to predict astrological things. In the same area we visited a tomb of a famous king. The tomb was like the grass hills that Native Americans are buried in in some places in Georgia. We got to go in one and see the basic structure of what the grave looked like when it was uncovered for the first time.

We were all getting very tired and irritable at this point (like a bunch of babies) we needed food and to take a rest.  We went to a local restaurant and had the normal traditional meal and rice wine. After lunch we stopped by a lotus flower field before heading on our long journey to the temple we were visiting.

The temple was a good 45 minutes away, just long enough for everyone to get a good nap in. it was way in the mountains so it was very pleasant and cool.  The most popular thing about this temple is the granite Buddha, that we couldn’t take pictures of. It was incredible just thinking of all of the hard work that went into making it so long ago. There was a great view from the temple too.  One thing I remember from the tour is the guide talking about Buddha wanting people to sweat the small stuff. We all found this hilarious.

We were finished for the day. As we checked into the hotel everyone was once again tired and hungry. Dinner was at the hotel, bulgolgi that we got to cook ourselves. This meal was delicious. After dinner we met with our groups to finish up the mission for the school project. My group is struggling to say the least. I made hair for Snow White. The other colored a background. It will be a complete miracle if we can pull it off.

At 10 pm we were kicked out of the meeting room we were using so we transferred to KangHoon and Daniel’s room. This time around instead of working on our projects we all decided it was time to treat ourselves to some beer. We had a good 25 people in one tiny hotel room playing games and singing songs we all knew.

It was then time for the Atlantis shuttle launch. It was so cool watching the last shuttle launch with kinds from the UK and Korea while in Korea. There are so many different types of cultures in the KSS group but we were all glued to the TV watching history although it was very late, around 1 in the morning we all wanted to stay up. Everyone went his or her separate ways after the launch.

Breakfast was served before we left for the day. We were informed we had to wear our shirts they gave us.  Girls were given yellow, and boys were given blue. However, I brought a pair of yellow sorts with me so I talked Daniel into trading shirts with me because he wanted yellow. Unfortunately, the yellow shorts were not in my bag for the weekend. When Ms. Kim told us we had to wear our shirts Daniel and I just looked at each other, because the night before Robbie decided he was hot and wanted to change clothes so he put on the yellow shirt that was originally mine that I was supposed to wear. But now it was sweaty and probably smelling really bad. Daniel told me he would wear it and for me to keep the blue one. Fortunately, Ms. Kim laughed when we told he the story. So hopefully I can keep blue and Daniel keep the yellow.  Saturday was spent at another temple. This one was really big it had so many different types of temples at this one sight. It was like a maze figuring out place to place. The weather decided to be very rainy, like monsoon rain. Everyone got drenched. My yellow rain shoes are not monsoon proof. Water ran down my legs into my shoes, and they are still wet. Lets hope it doesn’t rain soon.

On the way back to Busan everyone fell asleep from pure exhaustion. When we got back we all walked to a burger place, I was like a nice McDonald’s. KangHoon order 30+ combos so we would all have enough food. After we finished eating some of us caught a bus to the dorms to repack because it was pouring down rain so we all needed to downsize our bags and get dry clothes on.

We made it back to the burger joint to meet everyone. A big group of us walked to a bus stop, all of the guys were worried about me because I had to take part of my trip by myself. Allie’s buddy rode the bus with me to the big bus terminal. She got our tickets and lead me to my bus, she and Allie got on theirs. I rode the bus for 45 minutes by myself to Chonwon. I’ve never been so excited to see my buddy. When I got of we took a 20 bus ride to her neighborhood. Then walked to get to her apartment building. She lives in a really nice apartment complex with gardens and playgrounds. But of course it was raining so we could not walk around much.

When her dad got hoe we talked a little with her translating, and same when her mom arrived. Her dad took us to the store to get a snack and soju. Dinner was ready when we got back. Bulgogi was on the menu at their apartment. It was very good, nice to have a home cooked meal. After dinner I talked with her family a little bit more and then showered and went to bed. I had had a very long day of traveling.

They woke me up Sunday around 9. We had breakfast, rice and tofu. And then got ready to go visit a temple. This was another famous temple to the area. I actually got to take pictures of it (it was raining to much the day before to have my camera out). After waking around and seeing the Monks and a lot of worshipers we went into a little town for a light lunch.

They then drove me to meet Allie and Rachel in Napogong to do a little shopping. I will tell you all more about that area when we go on a field trip next week. We shopped until 6. We all got some cute things. And we found a Smoothie King, which made Rachel and I very happy. After we had dinner we left Allie’s buddy and hopped on the subway and just hoped we knew where to get off. Luckily we did. We then got the bus back to the dorms.

Later Sunday night a few others wanted to go into town for ice cream, so we joined along, between doing laundry. It is now Monday morning here, we are getting ready for class and a tour of Samsung. But for lunch we get to dine with the President. I know this will be a very good meal. 

Learning to Fall in Love with Busan

Korean class day 3 went a lot better than the previous days. The teacher finally realized we were all struggling with her teaching method. We started off the class by playing Bingo. That helped so much because we had to call out the words. I was one line away from winning sadly. After class was over we were dismissed for one hour. Rachel, Allie and I decided to go back to the dorm room and have a snack from the store in the basement.

The 2^nd part of the day was spent recording the audio for the HangGilDong story. My one line was still very unentertaining. Due to technical difficulties the 10-minute recording took around 2 hours to finish. There was a representative from the Dong-A Taekwondo team there to listen to us and make sure everything was correct. So I enjoyed the view while he was there. After finally finishing the recording we were dismissed for the day.

It was only around 4 o’clock and all of our buddies wanted to so something with us. We all decided to go to the Nambodong area to look around all the different shops. Very few people bought anything because we are going on a field trip later on in our visit. We took the subway there. The area was very cool it had knockoff merchandise and street food vendors.

We all were getting hungry by this point so we all decided we wanted bulgogi. One of the Korean students knew of a good cheap place to go. We sat on the floor and got to cook our own food. My table had pork. This was the 4^th time we had experienced this kind of meal so we were professionals at it. The meal cost only around $4, including a bottle of Soju per table.

After dinner we took the city bus back to the bus stop for the school bus and ended up waiting an eternity, as always, for a bus. Tomorrow we will go on a field trip to an old town. And tour around there. It has a lot of traditional type places.

The group of KSS students are all coming our of their shells. We all getting comfortable with one another and make friendships. I know after this trip I will have made some life long friends. I'm beginning to fall in love with this town named Busan!!


Highlights of the evening:
I ate a caterpillar at dinner and the hottest pepper that i ever ever put in my mouth.. I almost cried it was so bad. 

Annyounghasehyo... Hello

The 2^nd day of Korean class was a little bit better… I still need to make flash cards because I can’t remember all of the letters and sounds they make. But we learned how to introduce ourselves today basically. Daniel (the Korean-American) said I spoke with a Southern Korean accent when he was helping me. After class was dismissed the whole KSS group decided to go into town and have lunch. We all made the trek down the 108 steps from the main building to the street. We found a whole in the wall Korean restaurant. All 14 students piled into it. There were pictures on the walls of some food and prices. We all made our decisions form the pictures or by looking at what other people had. Thankfully Daniel ordered for our table. I’m not sure how the other table ordered but they managed. I had something to the effect of country fried pork (like country fried steak) and of course rice and some veggies. It was delicious. I cleaned my plate. The prices there were really cheap, my meal cost 3500 Won ($3.50).  After we finished lunch we all hiked back to the main building and went to class for a Korean Politics lecture. It was really interesting. I learned a lot, and will be very interested on the next South Korean Presidential election next year. The professor that did the lecture believes a lady will win. This would be the first time a female will be president.  

After the one-hour lecture we met our buddies and our group to work on our school mission. My groups project is slowly coming together. Today we made most of the artwork we will use at the school. We are all getting comfortable with one another and learning each other’s personalities and picking on one another. The group I am in is very diverse. I am the only American girl, and then the rest are from the UK. One guy is Chinese but born in London, another guy is Israeli, there is a girl that is from Bangladesh and then the lady who is 61 and going back to school. Our buddies are also in our groups with us. So with that combination there is a lot to be learned, but very entertaining.

We were released at 5 to have dinner. Some caught the bus just in time while the rest of us had to wait at the bus stop for 15 minutes. After the bus finally came back around we went to the dorm and got our tickets and went to the cafeteria. Rice, kimchi and fish were tonight’s choices. I had rice. After dinner we had to go back and work on another mission. We are sound dubbing the Korean folktale “HongGildong”. I wanted a main character part but they were all male parts. So I got stuck with the secretary part… that is one line sadly.

Ps: I am currently making note cards to study with.. joy!

Korean class begins

After being in Korea for over a week now we finally started our Korean class. Sadly I’m already lost. It is very difficult. The teacher speaks Korean the entire time, which I know is the right thing, but the class is already difficult. We learned the basic alphabet today and how to read basic words. I need them spelled out phonetically instead of listening to be able to grasp the concept. So hopefully JiHyun, my buddy, can help me.

The guy from California that is full Korean and speaks it fluently but reads on a very low level said the class was even hard for him. So that made me feel a lot better. Being able to read is the beginning of speaking the language so hopefully this will get better. Tomorrow’s unit looks to be on basic conversation.

Oh yeah, late last night around midnight the speakers in the dorm went off saying something, in Korean, so we didn’t know what they said. About 30 minutes later someone came knocking on all of our doors to check the rooms. So obviously the announcement said they were having a random room check to make sure everyone was in. we have a curfew of 12 or either 1 we are unsure. But if you are late they will not let you in so you have to find a comfy place outside. We learned random room checks are normal when asking around today.

Back to today’s events… after class we met our buddies and had lunch. Lunch consisted of a lot of different types of danishes and sweet bread. I had a danish with a hotdog in it. I’ve seen this a lot so I decided to try it. It was different, but I don’t believe I will be eating it again. After finishing up with lunch we took an hour bus ride to a small village area to make pottery.

But in order to get to the building we had to hike up a huge mountain in the heat. We were all beat by the time we made it there. The pottery experience was fun. I tried making a bowl, but the man who owned the place came and completely redid mine.  We finished off our pottery class with tea, green tea of course. We watched the man make traditional tea and we were served rice cake. Lane and Allie liked these cakes more while Rachel and I like the ones we got to make in Incheon better.

After a picture we waited for everyone to finish looking around and taking pictures of grass, like they had not ever been around grass before (UK kids), it was blistering hot. Rachel and I decided to lead the pack back down the mountain. The bus ride was very pretty we got to see the green mountainous area that we all hear about when we hear of Korea. But I decided I would take advantage of the quiet bus ride. I had a great nap on the way back into Busan.

It was dinnertime when we got back to campus so all of the Korean Summer Session students (KSS, all of the foreigners in this program) went to the cafeteria and had dinner. This was much better than the food was this weekend. We were all pleased. Rice and kimchi were on the menu as always and either chicken or pork I could not tell, but it was great. And to change it up instead of hot green tea with the meal they served what was a combination of tea and lemonade… little do they know that it is called an Arnold Palmer in the States.

After dinner we took the bus back to the academic building and met with our groups for the elementary school mission. My group is planning on doing something with fairytale characters and super hero’s. I’m really not sure of the direction we are going, but we will figure it out. I got assigned Snow White. I joked and said I had to have 7 men if I was going to be Snow White. Ms. Na surprised us all and got us pizza to snack on while we were working. We had traditional Korean pizza, from Dominos.  My group’s pizza had cheese, ham, sweet potatoes and kiwi. Surprisingly it was sweet and delicious. We were all starving because dinner is served at 5:30 every evening.

Tomorrow we have class again and then a short lecture on Korean politics. I know this will be fun for me to hear how this country’s political system works. I think tomorrow afternoon and evening is dedicated to working on the mission again. Everyone is starting to warm up to one another. The UK kids (as I call them) are starting to acknowledge us more, this weekend will be the test when we go on an over night trip together.

Maybe in my next post I will be able to say Hello and Good Night!!

PS:  Ms. Na informed me this evening that Monday the Lander students will get to have lunch with the President of Dong-A. This makes me very proud to know we are the only ones invited.

Happy 4th... from Korea

Our first Monday at Dong-A started off with orientation. We met our buddies at the bottom of the steps and rode the bus to the education building. They took us to the classroom to meet the other international students. We went over rules and the schedule and then introduced ourselves. There are 10 students from the UK, 4 girls 6 guys. And then there is a guy from California who is actually full Korean and speaks fluent Korean, but doesn’t read it well.

After the introduction of the program we walked to the cafeteria that is used for staff and had a good meal, much better than the cafeteria used for the students. After lunch we all got on the bus with our buddies and headed to the other two campuses of Dong-A, both about 15 minutes apart.  The first one we visited is the original campus and is very old looking, but is home to the medical school and art school. But on this site they have the Dong-A Medical Center. Dong-A has a pretty well known medical school. After walking through the nature trail area we got back on the bus and went to the other campus, which is the newest, and in the center of town more so. There we went on a bridge that connected two of the buildings. It was a pretty awesome view from there.

At the newest campus they also have the Dong-A University Museum. That has artifacts from the ancient days. The Lander group didn’t have much interest because we saw many of the same types of things in Seoul at the National Museum of Korea. Our buddies and the lady in charge understood us, thankfully.

Once everyone decided they had enough of the museum we went to Lotte Mart, this is similar to E-Mart that I mentioned we went to in Incheon. We got more snacks. And I got some flip flops to wear in the horrid shower. After everyone finished their tour of the 5 story store we dined at a buffet style restaurant. The food was delicious. We all went around once again and introduced ourselves. And got our “missions” for the rest of the month.

1.     We are going to a kindergarten class and have to tell a story and act it out or play a game with the kids.

2.     We have a final presentation with 2 others on something that we have learned. The topic list was given to us.

3.     We must act out a Korean folk tale… the recording will be sent back to our school.

Today was the 4^th of July. I spent is with a bunch of English kids that didn’t seem to want to get to know any Americans. Maybe they are just mad that on this days years ago we decided to leave them and run things the way we wanted to. Just a thought. Hopefully the next 4 weeks will get better with them, some seem pretty cool. If not the buddies that we were placed with are perfect matches for us. Mine is just like me, we looked at each other so many times today and could tell what each other w thinking. I am supposed to go stay with her family this weekend, hopefully it will all work out because I know we will have a lot of fun!!

Tomorrow morning we start Korean language class. It will be a challenge but I am looking forward to learning a new language. Hopefully I will be able to grasp it well so I can at least learn how to order a pizza next time we want one. Hope everyone back hope is having a Happy 4^th of July. I can see the ocean from my window… but no fireworks…                                                                 

Kimchi Rice... Pizza Hut... New World...

Our first full day at Dong-A started off with us sleeping really late. It felt really nice to not have to wake up at a certain time. After we got ready we went down to the basement to eat lunch. Today we had kimchi rice basically. And some other things that we didn’t have because we couldn’t tell when kind of vegetable it was. We were also served seaweed soup and strawberry yogurt. After this meal we decided we would have to figure out a different plan for dinner.

Throughout the rest of the day we played on the internet and napped. We were told the buses didn’t run on Sundays so we didn’t think we could go into town to look around. But we did see the buses running so we were unsure. I took a nap because there wasn’t much else to do.

It is very humid in our rooms. Air drying our clothes that we washed last night is a little difficult because of the dampness in the air. Along with straightening my hair, it goes right back to being wavy. So it is pointless. It is still very quiet around here. The students from the UK arrived late last night and this afternoon. I have not met them yet but the other girls met 2 girls that are on our hall.

I didn’t mention this yesterday but the bathrooms in the dorm are bit of a challenge to use. The shower is all in the same room as the toilet and sink. The showerhead is connected to the sink faucet. In order to shower you have to hold the showerhead. This is going to be a crazy 4 weeks when it comes to showering.

We all came to the conclusion that we did not want to eat in the cafeteria for dinner tonight so we went on a mission to figure out how to order pizza. This was hard. The Pizza Hut website was in full Korean so we couldn’t order online. The group of us went downstairs to the internet café to try to make a new friend to help us order pizza. Rachel and I got very frustrated and took a walk around the basement. Luckily Lane and Allie have patience and looked very needy and got some help. A really sweet girl figured out what they wanted and called pizza hut for us. We got a large cheese pizza but no breadsticks. We were unsure of the time it would come but understood that we need to go to the bottom of the steps and wait on the guy on the moped.

It came within 15 minutes. And it was the best pizza I had ever put in my mouth. We were all in need of a little bit of American food. The 4 of us devoured the pizza and decided we would make it a tradition, probably more than once a week. It was only around $17 delivery included, so it was definitely worth it. I’m so happy we now have the number and a receipt that we can just show someone to know what to order for us.

Tomorrow our buddies will pick us up and go to orientation and on a campus tour will pick us up. Tomorrow evening we will have a welcome dinner. So at least tomorrow we will be busy and around other people, today my dorm room got smaller and smaller. But Rachel, Allie, Lane and I are getting along great and are becoming really good friends. After pizza we all just laid around and talked like we had known each other for years. We all understand this is a great learning experience being placed in an environment that we are not used to. We are learning how to adapt while learning a lot about ourselves. I can’t wait for the next 4 weeks and what they will bring.