The picture above is the class I had for two months; just five little five-year-olds who have picked up on my silly-ness. They love hiding under my desk as they had a big moment there a few weeks back. I can't help my 'just kidding' nature that I have and kids are even better targets than adults because they're so darn gullible. I chalk up this trait to being raised by my father. Anyway, one day I walked into class after lunch when all the girls should have been there, yet not a soul was in sight. I was confused as I just saw them walk up the stairs a few moments before. I walked over to my desk, put my coat on my chair and then heard five little voices shout 'BOOOOO!!!' from under my desk. I screamed. Then laughed really hard (yuk status for those of you who know the level my laugh can attain) for about ten minutes along with my girls. I don't know if they were prouder of themselves or if I was.
This past weekend, or Easter weekend as it’s referred to at home since I have not found one Korean who observes this holiday, was spent with two friends in Busan, a port city on the southeastern side of South Korea. It was so nice to be able to get out of Seoul, see some new sights, try some new things, and reflect upon my life thus far. It’s ironic to me that I got to Busan and thought, it’s nice to be out of the big city, when Busan itself is a huge city compared to anything I have ever lived in or near before. There’s still a subway there, tons of buses, tons of people, and tons of things to do and see, with the beach being at the top of the list for the warmer months of the year.
As it is a port city, Busan is famous for its seafood, which was plentiful both in quantity and selection. Saturday was a beautiful day and we got out early to visit some p
laces around the city, with the fish market being the first stop. We stumbled upon an outdoor one first with tons of adjumas (old ladies) sitting on their haunches over big bowls of ice, water, and sea creatures. Many of them shelled shellfish as they sat there awaiting hungry or curious customers, and it amazed me to realize that this was their everyday life. Fish. Octopus. Sea slugs. Scallops. Mussels. And many other unnamable items.
Right next to the seemingly renegade fish market was an indoor one with actual fish tanks to hold the sea creatures in, and many adjumas and adjushes (old men) selling their fish. After taking copious amounts of pictures, we ran into a ‘stall’ owner who spoke English, showed us many of his products and invited us to pick some out to eat upstairs. He told us that most of them were delicious as sashimi (uncooked) and we should be adventurous and try some. He also enticed us with holding out said items to buy, most interestingly an octopus and a sea slug. I was enthralled by these two items and got
to hold a live octopus (which I later ate – still alive and squirming in my mouth) and the sea slug. Now, the sea slug looked very much like a specific part of the male anatomy and my two girlfriends and I had giggled previously over this thinking we were quite clever. When I asked our En
glish speaking seller what it was he said ‘sheep penis.’ I responded with a confused ‘Whaaa??’, which then made him do a very Korean thing of repeating something in English until he knew I understood. “Sheep penis! SHEep penis. Sheeeep PEEENis. SheeP PeNIS!.....” Finally I yelled “Okay, okay!” to which his response was to put said ‘sheep penis’ into my hand and told me to squeeze it. The result is much like you are probably picturing in your head and made me giggle quite a bit. I later ate that raw also (quite tasty actually), and found out the proper name was a sea slug.
Finding English speaking Koreans here in Korea often results in a most excellent encounter, which proved to be true throughout the rest of the trip. On Sunday we took a journey to a Buddhist temple called Beomeosa, which means Temple of the Nirvana fish. It was MAGICAL. Beomeosa is located at the top of a high mountain in Busan and it is a huge Temple compound, if compound is any sort of word to describe a sprawling temple. There were lots of people there as tourists, but also a lot of people on temple stays who were there to hang out and pray a lot. Many hikers were there also as there is a huge mountain/river right beside the temple with big boulders everywhere. On our short walk back down a group of Korean hikers, decked to the nines in gear, asked us some questions and, as per usual, were very excited with our answers. “English teachers! American! Here in Korea! Learning about temples! Hurray!” They asked us to come close to the river to dip our hands in and splash around a bit, then pushed us into a group picture shouting “We are the world!!” and alternated holding our hands and making hearts over their heads with two hands.
I was lucky to go with two friends, Amber and Vicky, who are also quite spiritual people because they also just got it about the place. As it was Easter, we were already talking about how the day contained some spiritual connections for all of us, so it was a serendipitous event to find a little praying platform in front of a small building off the beaten path that had a few Buddha statues inside. There were mats there to sit on so we all grabbed one and sat down to have a few moments. It was thrilling and made me reflect on the life I have in Seoul and think about what kinds of things I want to do when my time is done here.
Once we had our time finding (!) God again on Easter instead of him/she/it being handed to us on a crispy little wafer, we sat by a stream for a long time thinking some more. As a huge city, Seoul actually does have a lot of mountains and places to hike, but there are always SO many people everywhere. It was nice to be able to sit next to a nice stream and be more alone, with the sound of the flowing water drowning out any noise from others around. I had my Kindle in my bag, the bible downloaded, and the Old School Catholic in me it felt like it was a good time to pull it up and read a few verses fitting to the situation. Then to balance it out I sung some songs that are much more open and in tune with nature, I do believe all of which I learned at Journey’s End Farm Camp. We all felt such a strong presence of something more than us sharing that moment and it made me realize how much I miss nature and its calming/spiritual effect on me.
It was a grand trip indeed, and it made me appreciate Seoul a bit more as I got to get out of the bubble and realized I missed some things about it. City life is becoming routine to me and something that I quite enjoy what with so many things to do, places to see and new experiences to have. However, the trek over the weekend has reminded me of things that I highly value in my life that I am missing living here.
With all that being said, I am excited to enjoy the rest of my time here in Seoul as it’s made a big impact upon my life. One thing I absolutely love about this place is all of the museums; one for robots, locks (and keys), wars, kimchi (I haven’t been yet, but I sure do hope they serve free kimchi samples), Science, art, art, art, and everything traditional/cultural about Korea. A few weekends ago some friends and I took a trip to the War Museum of Korea and it was as informative as it was sad. Korea has a terrible history with most of the surrounding countries trying to take them over because they are so small. One thing I really admire about Korea is how much of a fight they put up to remain their own country. It also amazes me how much different North and Korea are, and how there was a whole three-year Korean year war that is still technically going on between them.
Seoul just had the pleasure of holding a Conference on Nuclear Weapons with people from 50 different countries. I have to admit, when I read about it the weekend before it happened, I got quite nervous. North Korea had just been telling the world that they were going to launch a long-range rocket for their ‘space program’ while the rest of the world, even China, was against it. Then alllll of these world leaders come on over the Seoul, just a couple hours drive from North Korea to discuss matters to which North Korea was fervently opposed. However, other than the INTENSE increased security in the subways and around town, nothing bad happened. Recently they just launched their ‘space rocket’, which cost $850 million dollars to make and exploded within a minute. I just don’t understand it all.
Oh my, oh my I have so much information to pass on but as so much time has passed, the volume of words becomes overwhelming. I’ll put this up now and write more later. It is now the Monday morning following the Monday morning I wrote about in the beginning, and I have just taken a trip over the weekend to a Cherry Blossom Festival, which was beautiful with perfect flippin’ weather. I am leaving for school in about ten minutes and look forward to the greeting I will get from my girls, especially since I am getting two old students back and one new one. Should be an interesting day.
Farewell for now, friends and family. I hope everyone is doing well and your spirits are being raised by the warm weather and blooming plants coming our way.
Until next time.
