Anmyeon-do Pension

This Saturday and Sunday I traveled to small island off the west coast called Anmyeon-do with my host family. As per usual I didn't know what to expect but the weekend ended up being pretty fun. Saturday afternoon we drove the 2 1/2 hrs to the island. When we got there we went to the beach for a couple of hours where we played in the sand, found seashells and watched a drunken group of ajummas and ajashis play a horrendous game of kickball.
Once the sun started to go down we headed to our "pension". A pension in Korea is like a weekend house that you can rent. Sometimes you can rent a whole pension (like my friends and I have done for 4th of July weekend) and sometimes you can just rent one room like my host family did. Our room ended up being very cute and it was even better because there was a big bed for me to sleep in and a big screen TV where I was able to watch some Discovery channel shows.
We had samgyeopsal for dinner on our little porch outside and then hung around watching TV/reading for a while. I was a little worried when it was only 7pm and I had heard no plans of leaving the pension again that night. Luckily though my host mom and dad decided to go for a drive. I chose to join them instead of watching terrible Korean TV with Tammy. We ended up going to the famous beach on the island to walk around. It was low tide when we got there and apparently the tides there were very extreme because the water had gone out about 1/4 of a mile from where it had been when we had driven past earlier in the day. It was really cool to see because all of the rocks and things that were under water before we exposed. We watched some people night fishing, shot off some fireworks, and then went to an outdoor bar/restaurant at the famous hotel at that beach to listen to some singers and watch a bunch of drunken old people dance hilariously with each other.
This morning we woke up early and went to the arboretum that was close to our pension. We spent a while there walking around and taking pictures of everything. It was pretty nice but we were all tired and there weren't that many impressive things to see.
Next we went back to the famous beach from the night before, but down at the other end. At the other end of the beach is an island that you can walk to during low tide. The beach around the island is also a prime spot for digging up clams and hermit crabs to eat later. My host family and I spent a while digging up clams that my host mom brought home and I can only assume will show up later this week in one of our meals.
After digging for clams we went to get sushi for lunch. We ended up at a really cool sushi restaurant where you pick the live fish you want to eat and they kill it and cut it up and then serve it to you fresh. As horrible as that may sound, it was delicious and a cool experience. To make lunch even better we had the best makgeoli I've had yet and my host mom and I got a little drunk together. Needless to say we both passed out on the long car ride home.
So surprisingly this weekend went very well. I wasn't expecting to have as much fun as I did, and it is probably the last trip I'll be taking with just my host family so it was a good bonding opportunity.
Here are some pictures from the weekend.

I used these articles for discussion in my teachers class and thought I would share them with you because I thought they were very interesting.

"Girl starved to death while parents raised virtual child in online game"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/korean-girl-starved-online-game

"In South Korea, All Life is Mobile"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/technology/25iht-mobile.html

"Game-Obsessed Korea Attempts to Save Itself"
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/04/117_63927.html

Buddha's Birthday

This past weekend was Buddha's 2554th birthday! I had Friday off from school (woo hoo!) so I traveled down to Busan early in the morning. It was a bit of a fiasco trying to get there because I hadn't realized so many people would be traveling that day and almost all of the bus & KTX tickets were sold out. I ended up finding some though and got to Busan in the afternoon. I had lunch with Seth's host family and then met up with some friends at Haeundae beach. Last time I went there was in September and at that time we were pretty much the only people on the beach. This time was the complete opposite and a bizarre experience because the beach was FILLED with foreigners. I felt like I was at the Jersey shore, not in Korea. And let me just say that after not being large groups of white people for almost a year now, we are quite an ugly and fat bunch of people...or at least the white people in Busan are. I'm anxious to see if I feel the same way when I go back home. I'm already expecting to because Korean people as a whole (or at least the young people) are thin, mostly attractive if not beautiful and dressed very well most of the time.
Friday night my friends and I went to the most famous temple in Busan, Beomeosa temple, to see the decorations that were put up for Buddha's birthday. It was just as pretty as I'd hoped it would be. I really love the Buddhist lanterns here. After the temple we went out to dinner and had some drinks at a beach before we all went to be relatively early. Saturday the weather was horrible so Seth and I mostly hung around our motel area. We met up with our friends again for some Shabu Shabu (one of my favorite meals here even though it is technically Japanese). After dinner we went to Beer Mart which is a pretty cool place for us since the alcohol selection here is pitiful and small. Beer Mart is a type of bar where you go and choose whatever bottles of imported beer you want from the coolers as well as some snacks and give it to the worker. They then bring your drinks to the table in a bucket of ice. We also went to another favorite Busan bar of mine that we call "Bamboo Bar" because the entire inside is made out of bamboo/wood/wicker. It's got a really good atmosphere and the other patrons there are usually cool. We ended up meeting a Korean guy who spoke very good English who had biked from South Africa up to Egypt with his friend. He'd also been to more places in America than I have been, as well as South America. Pretty amazing guy.
Here are some pictures from the weekend: