Busan (or was it Pusan?)

Koreans and Americans in Daegu strongly encourage us to get out and see the country. I don't need much encouragement, but we hadn't made any plans for this weekend. So when Mr. Kim asked us where we were going this weekend, I replied “Busan” without much forethought. Busan is Korea's second largest city, weighing in at about 4 million people. It's a port city with several inlets and islands, with a river heading inland on its west side.

So we hopped a train to Busan. We got off to a late start, and we didn't arrive until after 2, hungry for lunch but determined to make it to the famous fish market before we ate anything. On the advice of Mr. Kim (and Mr. Kim), we wanted to eat at one of the fish market restaurants where you buy a fish at the stall and the restaurant cooks it for you. This was well worth the wait. We ended up having a delicious fried flounder. After eyeballing the fish on the frying pan, we were waved into the restaurant by a shopkeeper who said, “Good! Good!” We wandered in, mildly confused whether we had ordered anything, and a group of young men motioned us to their table. We sat there and glanced around nervously for awhile, but soon enough the shopkeeper who had motioned us in brought us the fish on a platter, along with the requisite variety of side dishes. The men at the table next to us ordered another bottle of soju and poured us drinks. I tried to say a few things in Korean to them, but one replied, “No Englishi.” I think my library staff are being polite when they say my Korean is good. We picked the fish apart with chopsticks, pulling out the bones and leaving them on the platter. Our tablemates encouraged us to try their dish, which was good. We encouraged them to do the same, but they were probably deterred by the discarded bones on our platter, many of which we had pulled out of our mouths... The men left, giving us a hearty goodbye and leaving me once again overwhelmed by the welcoming, friendly nature of the people in this country.

We wandered through the fish market for awhile, snapping pictures of squid and octopi. The crush of people in Busan is a bit overwhelming, and we felt pressured to keep walking. They only have a million people on Daegu, but the difference is pretty overwhelming.

We headed towards Busan tower, keeping it in our sights while we wandered through a downtown shopping area similar to Daegu's. On the way, we passed a small temple. We ducked into a parking area to discover an enclave of serenity amidst the crush of weekend shoppers. There was a little lantern garden and a stone pagoda with a little shrine with burning candles. I bowed to a monk sitting on the steps, and he replied.

Back in the streets, we found the park. We were relieved to see a road where cars weren't allowed. In Korea, cars drive right through the masses of people, and we have to step aside frequently. We followed this road up a hill, and emerged at a plaza with a temple, a statue, and the viewing tower. We caught Busan in it's sprawling glory at sunset. The city is massive, spreading up the mountains on three sides, and down to the ocean on the other. We could see two port areas with cargo ships, ferry docks, and several larger ships anchored out at sea. We grabbed a drink—I had (something) tears tea, which turned out to be brewed from peanuts—and watched the sun set. At nightfall, I was surprised to note that Busan has many less colored lights than Daegu. Nonetheless, she put on a show for us, with a few buildings changing colors and a bridge flashing at intervals. A young Korean woman asked to have her picture taken with me. I guess I'm an exotic species here.

On the ground, we discovered that all of the trees in the park had strings of lights on them. On the way back down, we encountered rows of colored lanterns with papers attached to the bottom. My ignorance of eastern religions annoys me, and I was left with the impression that I was looking at something significant. We wandered back through the shopping area until we found a large bookstore. The covers of the Korean books were so enticing, and I wish I could read them. I've always been a sucker for pretty book covers. Instead, we browsed a small English book section, and I bought a book of Korean fairy tales. We found a sushi place for dinner where I tried (cooked) conch, and made our way back to the train station. We grabbed the KTX, Korea's high speed train, for our trip back, only to discover when we arrived that Camp Walker's Gate 6 was closed. We had to walk all the way around the Camp to Gate 4 to get in, an exasperating end to an otherwise memorable day.


The roof of a cafe below the tower















Colored lanterns in a shrine















Part of Busan
















In front of the viewing tower




















A temple downtown













Busan fish market

Our New Home, Thangsgiving, and Samgyetong

I've been kind of busy, so I'm lumping what deserves three posts into one. First, we signed a lease on our home. This is a far more complex process in Korea than it is in America. We met our realtor for an inspection, and he drove us up to the house. I don't know if I've mentioned Louis before, but he's an outstanding realtor: first for finding us the place, and second for driving us to our house twice and talking us through it so we can find it ourselves. So we got there and met the landlord, who showed us the place again. He doesn't speak any English, but he conveyed through Louis that his last tenant stayed for three years and landlord drove tenant to the airport when he left.

Eventually someone from our housing department showed up. He had a clipboard, and performed an inspection on the house. He then handed me the clipboard and told me to do the same. The first thing on the list was bathrooms, and we had to ascertain that the toilets flushed, the shower worked, and there was hot water. We were running the water to test this when the housing guy rushed in and told us the hot water wasn't on yet. I asked how we were supposed to verify this, and he said we were just supposed to check the boxes. Okay... every day I am reminded that there are many things about this place that I will never understand. Anyways, Bobby got all wet and it was pretty funny. I then had to complete a security checklist that the Army mandates verifying that the house is secure. Afterwards, we all drove down to Camp Henry (5 people: Bobby and me, Louis, and the landlord and his son). We had to pile into one car because only Louis has permission to take his vehicle into Henry.

We went to housing, where I had my lease explained to me, initialed it in several places, and signed. They did the same in Korean with the landlord. I got a pamphlet about garbage service in Korea, which is very complicated and punished by a stiff fine if (when?) I mess it up. We all left pretty happy, and we move in December 10. Our furniture won't be here, so we will have to borrow some from housing. Not that we'll be able to fill that house with the furniture we have, anyways.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Of course, there is no Thanksgiving in Korea, so everything was open. We went to my sponsor's house for dinner, where we encountered dozens of Americans and a few Koreans. There was a magnificent spread, including sangria, and we cut loose a bit. Bobby and I are making plenty of friends here, and everyone is willing to help the clueless newbies, for which I am very grateful.

Yesterday was my birthday, and Mr. Pan took us out for samgyetong. This is a remarkable chicken stew, which, like many dishes in Korea, cooked right in front of us. We each received a bowl of simmering soup with a whole tiny chicken (guinea hen?) inside. Mr. Pan showed us how to pick the chicken apart with chopsticks, and it was stuffed with rice, a chestnut, a date, and ginseng. We stirred the contents and ladled some into a smaller bowl and poured in some salt. The salt was particularly to Bobby's liking, as he can't really find any here. There was another bowl for the bones. It was absolutely delicious, and I'm putting it on my list of foods I like in Korea. We plan to go back, though I admit it's nice to have a Korean friend to go with so we're not wandering around clueless. I often find myself wishing Mr. Pan were around.

All in all, another remarkable week in Daegu!

Our front door

















Our enormous room. That device in the corner is an air conditioner.













Our master bathroom.














The view from our kitchen (yes, the haze is smog)













The view from our living room. The reflection from the window is kind of in the way, but that mountain is Apsan mountain.

Our New (Temporary) Home

Hello from Camp Walker Lodge. It's not the nice digs we just left, but it's got free internet and it's about 200 yards from where I work. It's about 10 feet from where Bobby works (the vet's office, by the way, in case he hasn't kept in touch).

Today we went out to a traditional Korean restaurant and had bulgogi again. We can't get enough of the stuff! We took off our shoes and sat on cushions on the floor. These cushions are everywhere, by the way, and my Korean colleagues have them on their work chairs and in their cars. A very matronly lady served us, and she was thrilled when I pointed out in Korean that I could hear her cat. I really should capture this on camera, but at these kinds of restaurants they cook the food in front of you. So she brought the meat and vegetables, poured broth over them, and placed them on top of a burner that was on the end of our table. She turned on the burner and brought us the countless side dishes that come with every Korean meal. This time we got potatoes, which Bobby devoured. After awhile, she turned off the burner and spooned our soup into bowls. We each got a bowl of rice to mix into our soup, and we served ourselves out of the pot until it was gone. The owner was so pleased we ate so many sides, she brought us seconds! She also brought us a really sweet, tasty juice for dessert. All in all, the entire meal plus drinks was 21000 won, which is about 18 dollars. I'm not sure there's much incentive for me to learn Korean cooking, since I can eat out so cheaply.

When we left the restaurant, we decided to try a magic claw machine. These are also all over Daegu. This one involved making a little piston go into a slot, and winning a mechanical flapping apple. We threw away about 1500 won on that before we gave up.

My libraries both got the highest ratings on their inspections, by the way, thanks to my incomparable staff. Everyone is jealous of me! I will never get used to not understanding any of the office Korean banter, but I couldn't have asked for a better group of guys to run my libraries. Mr Pan told me he spent the day making kimchi, which Koreans love. You get kimchi with every meal, including breakfast. He and his wife went to the market, bought cabbage, chopped it up and cured it somehow, and buried it in the ground. He says I'll get some when I move into my new house.

Goodbye, Inter-burgo! This was the view from our breakfast room.

The Daegu Pet Expo and Electronics Mart

Today we went to the Exco for the Daegu pet expo. The Exco is a huge exhibition space, and the third floor was crammed with dogs of all sizes, many with dyed hair and clothing. People in Daegu like to dress their dogs up. This is partially practical, as it's very cold here. It's also stylish, and there are a wide variety of pet costumes for sale, well, everywhere. We had thought that no one in Daegu has large dogs, but we were proven wrong at the pet expo. I guess our fellow dog owners live in houses and villas too (one thing the realtor kept stressing was that people with big dogs can't live in the ubiquitous “modern” high rise apartments). We watched some of a dog show, and the Korean Jindo dog took the prize. One of my library assistants already told us about Jindo dogs, so we were rooting for him. There were reptiles and exotic species of all kinds, and Bobby got to hold a snake.

We then went to the electronics mart. While we didn't achieve our goal of finding a new power supply for Bobby's xbox, it was still worth looking at. It was like a gigantic indoor market, with several different retailers of electronics in one space. Korea is the home of Samsung and LG, and there were contraptions beyond a techno-lover's wildest dream. There was an IKEA like section on the second level with Korean beds, which are lovely wooden carved contraptions with heating pads. I drooled over all the intricately patterned china, and would like to return when it is time to furnish our new villa.

Tomorrow we move to our second temporary home. Though the Inter-burgo is a nice five star establishment, I am looking forward to not living across town from my workplace.


The Jindo is the one on the left.













The electronics mart. I don't think the picture quite captures how incredible it was.

Thank Heaven for Weekends

Well, I've hit the ground running here. Between racing around around trying to accomplish all the little things I need for my job—access to my computer, ID card, housing, bank account-- in the overly complicated way the Army likes to do them, I have been trying to make plans for my lovely but underutilized libraries. I had a ACOE inspection this week (ACOE=Army Community of Excellence, it's a big deal and Daegu won third place last year. This year we are finalists again). On Monday, the regional librarian is coming in from Seoul to inspect my two branches. Being new, I am off the hook for the status of my branches, but she may pile a lot of work on me depending on what she thinks.

But enough work, I'm boring myself. This weekend we intend to explore a little more of Daegu. First stop: the lovely Dongwha-sa. This is a buddhist temple complex nestled in one of the mountains behind Daegu. The elaborately carved and painted buildings set against the backdrop of the mountains is an inspiring sight, even though I don't understand much about Buddhism. There were a lot of religious tourists who bowed to each icon and prayed in several of the temples. There was a chant going on in one building that reminded me of old American slave songs—soulful and rhythmic. There were several small piles of rock scattered everywhere, and we puzzled over what these could mean. I suppose I will ask the incomparable Mr. Pan, my guide, translator, and best Korean friend.

On the bus ride up the mountain, Bobby and I befriended the talkative Dr. Lee. All Koreans take English in grammar school, and many like to practice when they encounter westerners, who are few and far between here. We have had several impromptu conversations with inquisitive Koreans. Dr. Lee talked to Bobby throughout the bus ride, and his questions included, “is your wife a good wife? How much do you like her?” Last night we visited a bar which was advertised as an expat venue but was filled with Korean English students, all of whom wanted to talk to us. I'll admit, I don't mind being popular, and I have met some interesting people.

Koreans as a whole are very friendly and solicitous of foreigners. Every time Bobby and I become confused about something like buying subway tokens or looking for a landmark, someone will step up and try to help us, even if they don't speak English. We had lunch at a Korean restaurant, and the owner's wife chatted at us in Korean a bit. I said, “mien hamnida, hongukmaleul chogon arayo (I'm sorry, I only understand a little Korean)” and she said “Choedoyo (me neither)”

I'll leave you with a description of Daegu apples. Daegu is famous for its apples, and with good reason. They are sweet, crisp, juicy, and grown right outside of the city (like everything else. The area around Daegu is full of farms and greenhouses. I can't imagine why I will ever use the commissary). I tried to buy one apple from a street vendor, but she dumped her entire bowl in my bag for the same price. Now I will have a Daegu apple feast.


Okay, I just thought this guy was cool. I think he's pointing out an ATM (all ATM's have 365 on them)



















Buddha and me. Notice the woman burning incense in the background and the shoes next to the mat. This was one of many places on the grounds where people took their shoes off and performed devotionals.










Yes, this appears to be a swastika. My realtor told me that that is a symbol for divinity on this side of the world.










Bobby and a minor god. I think he identifies.
















These are the trees that Dongwhasa is named for. I will have to come back in the spring when they blossom.

My Action-Packed view

I don't know if I can adequately describe the view from my office window. I can see the buildings of Daegu, one of which has a giant golden Buddha on top, mountains in the distance, and a helipad where intimidating looking choppers take off and land all day. Directly below my window is a guard with an M16. I wonder that I'll be able to get any work done with so much to look at.

Last night Bobby and I went questing for a new cord for his Xbox with limited success. We stumbled across what I later discovered was the only gaming store in Daegu with an English speaking staff (according to the web, that is), but the cord we found was on hold for someone else. We walked through an arcade of shops and went into a few with the misguided idea that stores that said PC were electronics shops. In fact, these are PC bangs. Bang is room in Daegu, and PC bangs are where people (mostly teenagers) can rent a room and play with a gaming system. There are also DVD bangs. Apparently Koreans often live with their parents until they marry—and even afterwards, in some cases—so young couples visit DVD bangs to be alone. Once I noticed them, I discovered that there are PC bangs everywhere.

Buildings in Daegu go up rather than out, so we have to climb lots of stairs to get places. Often a store or coffee shop will be on the fifth floor, and there aren't a lot of elevators. I am not shocked that there are no obese people in Daegu. We found a “family restaurant” that had a rabbit on a leash out on the front porch. We puzzled over the bathrooms: one said “Ladies” and the other said “Powder Room”. We have also discovered bulgogi, which is a truly magnificent beef stew that waiters cook on the table for you.

A Nefarious Alarm Clock and Lots of Wandering

A really old earth wall and a temple of some sort

One of many shopping arcades

At 5am while I was failing to sleep, I pushed a button on our alarm clock with a little light on it to illuminate the display. The light in our foyer came on. We have been trying to figure out why some of our outlets randomly fail to work, and I think I've solved the mystery. Our “alarm clock” also controls all of the outlets, lights, and climate control in our room. Knowing this does not fix our inability to make outlets work on our command, but now I know we're not dealing with an electronics imp. Incidentally, our alarm clock appears to also call for a maid or tell them not to disturb me. Who knew such an innocuous device could be a technological overlord.

Today we went to Daelsong Park, which houses the oldest standing piece of earth wall. I imagine it once kept barbarians out (to support this, Bobby and I shook our fists over the side a couple of times, saying "damn you Mongolians.") There we also encountered an animal gulag, to my dismay. I was so excited to tell Bobby that Daegu had a zoo, but it depressed him to see it. We went searching for lunch and stumbled upon a gigantic market, which seemed impossible to get out of. I hope eventually I will be going to the market to find cooking ingredients, but I am definitely not ready yet! I never saw so many dried fish.

While we were wandering, we found a massive underground clothing market and a really tall department store with different levels for every store. We took escalators up to the top while I gripped the handle and tried not to look down.

Daegu seems to be a city with tons of stores. The shops are divided into districts: the one we saw today must have been the clothing district. We also wandered through the tools and industrial implements district and the electronics district. I can see how this may be handy. If I am looking for something in particular, I have plenty of places to look before I find what I want. On the other hand, going to one store for all of my needs seems fairly impossible.

Last night we wandered into a restaurant, and the friendly owner talked to us about his trip to New York and urged me to try the dalseot bip bim bap, which was fantastic. I still haven't encountered the famous Asian sushi conveyor belt, but hopefully it's a matter of time.

Daegu, Day 1

My sponsor told me he would pick us up at the airport, but I had no idea that my entire Camp Walker staff would be there to greet us. A convoy of well mannered Korean men and my boss escorted Bobby and me to our (very nice) hotel. This hotel, by the way, is unreal. Our room overlooks a statue garden, and we have laundry service. I'm not entirely sure how to use laundry service, but I've been encouraged to give it a go (it is also covered by the government).

Bobby and I are seasoned travelers, and we are used to finding our own way around. Imagine my surprise when a car with a uniformed driver came took us to Camp Walker this morning, and we were again surrounded by an entourage of polite Korean men who wanted to know when to pick us up! We had a whirlwind tour of the base, where I saw my new office, which is about as big as our old bedroom. Mr Pan, our senior library assistant, is every bit as polite as I have heard.

We then visited a realtor, who had an apartment for us to look at. I know it's not a good idea to take the first car, house, or apartment you look at, but this apartment is perfect. It's practical—less than a mile from base, pet friendly, easy access to the bus and subway, right across from a park where we can walk Maya—but what won us over was its romantic allure. It's on the side of a mountain, and you can see all of Daegu from one window and the lovely Apsan park from the other. There's a rooftop “balcony” where we can grill. It's actually so large we can fit almost three of our old houses inside. I guess we'll need some new furniture.

So, starry eyed, we said we'd take it. Our new landlord seemed thrilled. I'll bet government funded tenants are some of the best kinds. There's a lot of red tape to go through. There are negotiations on both sides: we give the landlord our conditions, and we both sign off on them. Our really friendly realtor helped us decide what conditions we want, like internet access and transformers so we can plug in our American appliances. He also made sure we knew the places to visit around Daegu, and kept asking if there was anything else we needed to know.

So it's been an eventful day, more so because I was up at 3am. Apparently it can take weeks to get used to the time change. Koreans are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. I am not used to being treated like this! I'm sure part of it is my lavish expense account, but I'm very touched all the same.

Pictures:
Our electric teapot. That tea was pretty gross.















Our safety light: These are in every room and at intervals down the hallway. All I know is that I use it in an emergency. Our room also has coils of rope and matches in our safety box.







Our keycard holder. When we take that sucker out, the lights in our room go out. Electricity in Daegu is incredibly expensive if you use more than your allotment, so people around here are very careful about their usage.

I meant to bring my camera out today, but I forgot it. I also failed to take a picture of the somewhat creepy statue garden outside of our house. More to come.

Here We Are

I know trips halfway around the world aren't the arduous journeys they once were, but this one was still quite a voyage. At 5:00 am Charlotte time, Bobby and I entered airport world, and 24 hours later we are sitting here in Seoul awaiting our final flight. There is something very surreal about spending so much time in airplanes and airports. Maybe it's the recirculated air. Anyways, obstacles we encountered on our journey were many: I got airsick for the first time, we were sent to the customs office in Seoul when I blithely reported that I planned to stay in Daegu for two years, despite my lack of a visa, and we quested for an ATM that would accept our cards once we arrived in Incheon. The fifth one worked, and we were rewarded with coffee and dinner.

I have already encountered a few strange and interesting things. There was a white noise machine in my bathroom stall. We had dinner at a Korean food court, which is nothing like the American variety. Bobby and I placed our orders at the counter and paid for our food. We then helped ourselves to some free appetizers and waited for our number to appear over the food counter. Once it did, Bobby retrieved two huge wooden bowls of food, still steaming, along with additional bowls of soup and rice, while I got our utensils: steel chopsticks and spoons. Our utensils all came from a UV heater, which I guess keeps them sanitary. The food was tasty, though spicy, and Bobby was pleased with his pork.

Next stop, Daegu! I can't wait to take a shower.