As most of you may know, we don’t actually live in Busan. We live in Yangsan, a city of about 300,000 just north of Busan that is connected to the city by subway. If we are hanging out in Busan, you’ll most likely find us in the Busan University area. When we lived in Seoul, we lived very close to 홍대, the very popular area surrounding Hongik University. Evan and I tend to gravitate to these university areas no matter where we are! The food is cheap and delicious, and there’s a young, fun energy surrounding the whole neighborhood. There are always fun events, random concerts, unique cafes, and interesting people.

There is a lot of content on Youtube about Korea, but most of the content creators are based in Seoul! One of the things we noticed when we first moved from Seoul to Yangsan is that there is so little content about Busan. It was such a big surprise to us because Busan is the 2nd largest city in Korea with 3.6 million people! Whenever our friends in Seoul come down to visit us, they have no idea where to go in Busan! The one place everyone knows in Busan is Haeundae beach, but the city has so much more to offer! (And Haeundae is overrated in our opinion).

With that being said, we want to share more of this beautiful city with you! We want people to see what Busan has to offer, why everyone who lives here falls in love with it, and why Evan and I couldn’t imagine moving back to Seoul! We’d also like to make it easier for people visiting Busan know where the best places are to shop, eat, get coffee, experience nightlife, and lay on the beach.

Busan University is in North Busan, near the end of Line 1. The stop’s name is Pusan National University(PNU), but it’s commonly referred to as “PNU” or 부대 in Korean. It can get confusing because we sometimes spell it with a “B” (like in the title), or we say it in Korean, or we use the acronym PNU. Just know that it’s all the same place! >.<

If you'd like to know more about PNU or have suggestions for places for us to explore in future videos, please leave us a comment!

The post Follow Us Around: 부산대 (Busan University) appeared first on Evan and Rachel.

The hiring and firing process in the ESL world in Korea is contentious to say the least.  I myself have run into a great many issues regarding both, and not only in practical terms, but also the legal issues concerning the hiring and firing of people.

The hiring process is the easiest, simply because a lot of people are looking for a job.  This is where caution is due on the Employer part.  I have made it a rule, after a few bad experiences, that I will only hire if I am 100% convinced that that person is added value to the business.  The problem I have encountered is that quite a lot of people are either delusional about their abilities to perform or willfully hiding their inabilities.  It is difficult to distinguish. From an administrative point of view, hiring is easier than firing, because there is no legal requirements to take into account to be able to hire people, apart from the requirements set by the MoE (Ministry of Education) and Immigration.  You can’t be sued for not hiring people.

The hiring process is also the most crucial one, and if you see the budgets that HR gets allocated in well established firms, it comes as no surprise that smaller operations will always get what is left …. A serious Adverse Selection problem. I am sure many start ups faced many issues regarding HR before they got enough cash rolling to clean up and increase the effectiveness of hiring the right people.  You can’t ask a $250.000 revenue generating operation to spend $1M on HR can you now.  They simply don’t have the budget.

The firing process in many ways is really the opposite.  When you hire a person, you gain certain responsibilities, not only dictated by the contract but also by the Labor Law of the country.  Very few people, who will start their own school, will grasp the complexity and will be able to create proper processes to let people go.  Not a reason not to do it.  Every person I have fired, at this point, was fired in a different way.  You could cut it down to voluntary or forced.  Under voluntary, there are 2 ways you can lose a teacher, choice or bargaining.  Any individual is free to terminate their employment on the spot, without the requirement of a “notice”.  This is something most people don’t realize.  The problem in Korea is that your sojourn and place of living are connected to the employment, making it very uncomfortable to just walk away from a job.  One could also bargain the termination of employment, if the termination is due to external situation, I will do my best to find a replacement, or assist any way I can to ease the transition.  It is a bit hard to do when the person you are letting go is due to their inability to hold a class.  The forced termination is where you make use of the 30 day notice regulation to let the person go.  Even though this is a possibility, there are situations where the employee could file a case with the Labor Law for wrongful dismissal.  You need a documented reason to let a person go.  There are situation where an employer can terminate the employment immediately, but again the onus of proof lies with the employer to show that a continued employment might pose a threat to the safety of the business or its customers.

Once you have successfully terminated the employment, there is still MoE and Immigration to be taken care of. With MoE, you need to inform them that the teachers is no longer in your employment, this is rather a simple matter of telling them.  With Immigration, there are again 2 main options.  If the teacher leaves the country, the employer needs to cancel the visa, in person.  Most believe that the visa is simply cancelled when the person leaves the country, but there is still the administrative task of officially ending your sponsorship of the visa.  The easier option is that the employee finds a new sponsor, a Letter of Release can easily speed up that part of the procedure and the responsibility simply moves from one school to the other.

I see a lot of people complaining that schools do not, to spite the employee, give a Letter of Release.  Schools don’t have to.  If I prefer to simply cancel your visa rather than transfer your visa, that is up to the school.  This is the one leverage schools have vis-a-vis their employees, the ONLY one.

Cheers

I say this here so I don’t explode on a random Korean.

It really annoys me when I share American gum or toothpaste with a Korean and they say, “너무 매워요!” It really, really annoys me. Minty stuff is NOT spicy.

Maybe this is a cultural miscommunication which is completely my own fault and experience. Yet, whenever this happens, I want to slap the toothpaste or gum right out of their mouth. Wasting my amazing, minty American goods on them. Grr.

Today’s feature is a hit 맛집 (Taste House) in Seoul with all the young people~  a small hole in the wall around Hapjeong 합정 that specializes in fun flavors of croquettes and American-style chilli, 길모퉁이 칠리차차 aka Cornerside Chilli Cha Cha!

♥ ♥ ♥

If you love croquettes or just munching on fried Korean street food with beer, this is definitely a place you need to visit!

One treat that captured my heart from the moment I moved to Japan and started shoving my face was the croquette. This little fried ball sat on my plate and I bit into it nervously wondering just what was inside… potato and vegetables in a crispy package? amazing!!!  As you can tell buy its name, croquettes are not originally an Asian food~ they are a treat that was introduced to Japan originally sometime in the Meiji era (1869-1912) and slowly over the years it found a permanent home in the heart of the Japanese tummy.

♥ ♥ ♥

Just like Japanese tonkatsu fried pork cutlet, this is a common cross-over food to find in Korea nowadays~  namely at Japanese izakaya restaurants although (like tonkatsu) I do not think Koreans view this as a Japanese or foreign food per say.  Anyway, it is delicious and the more croquettes I can get my hands on in Korea, the better!  The most common ones in Korea are the standard potato filled kind, or occasionally you can find curry versions at places like Paris Baguette, but today’s place goes above and beyond that…

길모퉁이 칠리차차 Chilli Cha Cha is a small little location that opened a few years ago and appears to be family run.  Depending on the day you go it can get crowded, so it is best to avoid times that students would be able to visit~  when we went it was a steady flow of just young people coming in and out!

You can sit down and order or you can get croquettes to go if you are in a rush!

Once you find a seat you will get a menu (much like a sushi place) where you can tick off the items you wish to order and note the amount~ next to each name is the price naturally.  This is where it can be a little tricky for tourists if you are unable to read Korean, but Cute in Korea is here to help~

Here is an easy English cheat-sheet for you!!  As you can see, the menu is fairly basic and pretty much everything is fried haha!!  If they add any additions/new flavors to the menu and we do not catch it, please feel free to send me a mail with a photo and I will translate any new items for you guys.

BTW 깡장 was really hard to translate, I had to ask 4 Korean friends but it is kinda a made up word apparently so if you try this flavor and care to share your exp of what it is please do comment below!  I have not ordered it yet XD

When you are done you can bring your slip to the back area to place your order! Seems like everything is cooked to order, or at least quickly fried again to make them warm and crispy!

Fried Squid!

one basket please!

Like most hole-in-the-wall places, the water is self serve!

I went ahead and ordered a cider because I was paranoid about the spice level of a few things, little places like this in Korea always make things super spicy! 11 years eating Korean food and I am still breaking my tongue in.  Our freshly fried croquettes came out a few moments later~ nice and hot along with some 떡볶이!!

To make the meal overkill I also ordered some chilli!!  The place is called CHILLI CHA CHA after all, this must be why! haha!  You can NOT find chilli soup easily in Korea, so I was super excited and surprised to see it on the menu my first visit! I had to confirm with Nara that I was reading it correctly XD

The chilli bowl is REALLY good, one of my favorites and totally something I make sure to order when I visit now!!  Medium spice level, lots of meat, pile of cheese, and even some fried rice cakes!  Well done Chilli Cha Cha, you are worthy of the name!  The 떡 in the chilli actually tasted really awesome~ I highly recommend ordering it to accompany your croquettes.

So now on to the stars of the show at Chilli Cha Cha, the croquettes of course!!

First up was the Basil Cream croquette, my favorite~ nice and creamy!!  One thing you may notice right away in the photo is the grains/barley mixed in~  Chilli Cha Cha mixes these in to a lot of the flavors they offer vs just potato bases. It is interesting, the result is almost like you are eating a risotto croquette!

Next up was the Corn Croquette!  This is a standard flavor, but you can not go wrong with it!  Sweet corn and potato, stuffed full in a crispy shell.

One of the unusual croquettes we ordered was the 과일 Fruit Croquette.  This one I think some people would like, but it was not for me personally.  Its a bit like eating an apple pie, but with fried breading so its a bit of a mish-mash of flavors. It had a few sweet fruits inside like apple and raisin.

The curry croquette was a disappointment for me, especially since I normally love this flavor at other shops!  This flavor is mixed with the barley as well, but I wish it was a potato base because the result was too much curry paste and dry to eat. Maybe I had it on a bad day, but yeah~ needs something else in it to cut that curry up a bit!

At the very end I caved in and ordered one more to try out of curiosity~ the Tomato flavored croquette!  This is also a barley grain base mixed with a kind of pasta sauce, but it was a but too saucy for me~ and more like a cheaper sweet canned sauce.  Once again I was hoping it would be more of a potato base with tomato sauce mixed in,  but this is more like eating a saucy sweet risotto…or spagetti o’s lol.  One bite was enough, but eating the whole thing was too much sauce for me.

Final verdict~ Creamy basil and corn flavor YUM!  Rest~ meh

Although many k-bloggers loved the 떡볶이 here I found it very standard..Korean teenagers like this dish, so I guess they are easy to please lol.  It was good, but nothing OMG special or unique like the chilli bowl~ so if you are torn between the two I recommend the chilli!  That being said, the dukboki was yummy to eat with the croquettes~ dunk them in the sauce!

Nothing like a blinding light pouring in while you try to scarf down fried food! ANGELIC!

Directions to Croquette Chilli Cha Cha  길모퉁이 칠리차차

서울특별시 마포구 서교동 400-11 1F

Hours

Monday-Friday 12:00-2:00pm 3:30pm- 10:30Saturday  3:00-10:30pmSunday/Holidays 3:00-10:00pm2,4, 5th Tuesday of every month is closed.

Tues gets a bit confusing so I just pretend they are always closed that day. lol

If you are coming by the Seoul metro, the best place to get off will be Hapjeong Station.  Both Green Line #2 and Brown Line #6 are connected and share the same station, so the best exit for Chilli Cha Cha will be exit #5 around the brown line.

Head out straight and you are going to go into a small side street to your right and stay on it as it twists a bit

A bit down it will split slightly and just keep on walking straight for a little bit!

Finally you will hit an intersection with an eye-catching sort of bar on your left (they have a lot of wood and things hanging usually plus red large flowers or something all over the side of the building ) so that will be your cue to turn left down that road!

Chilli Cha-Cha is right next door, just look for the wooden deck and blue sign~if you can not read Korean you will notice the little red chilli peppers and “Fingerfood Bar” in English!

Have you visited Chilli Cha Cha in Hapjeong before? What did you order, what is your favorite?? Did you check them out after reading this post? Do you like croquettes? Comment below and share with others!!

I thought Turkey was going to be sadly behind me but I came to the realisation a few days before my departure that, my next destination, Cyprus, was indeed partially owned by Turkey. I guess this kind of explained the cheap flight ticket that I had snapped up, as I swiftly discovered on the internet that I would be landing in the Turkish controlled zone of the island. After some frantic googling I discovered it would be quite simple to cross the border and that the arrangements that I had made in the Greek part of the island would not be scuppered. Unfortunately I also discovered that the car I planned to hire would only be able to drive within the Greek zone I hired it in.

My flight to Turkish Cyprus landed at Ercan airport and after waiting for an hour at the airport I was allowed to board a shuttle bus to the capital of Nicosia. Nicosia, similar to the Berlin of the Cold War, is split into two sections with the Turkish controlling the North. The bus deposited us in an inconspicuous parking lot and I was left to figure out my own way across the border. But first I would have to find it. Using the sun as my guide  I took the logical step to walk in a southerly direction. The only problem being it was around midday so south could theoretically be in any direction and the only direction I was sure of was that the sun was directly above me! Instead I jumped into a nice and cool travel agents and asked a very kind and fluent English woman for directions. Twenty hot minutes later I was at the border. The border, or the ‘green line’ as it is also known is a narrow strip of land passing across the island and through Nicosia. At the crossing point it is a bit of a tourist attraction and on both sides there are plenty of mazey streets and roads with restaurants, bars and souvenir shops. Walking up to the border I had to queue on the Turkish side and have my passport stamped before I could walk through the eery ‘green line’ with it’s abandoned and locked up houses and shop fronts. On the Greek side I was simply waved through. In Greek Nicosia I searched for the bus station and a haggard old woman with a tonne of slap on her face and a cigarette half-burned down and limply hanging from her stained fingers reluctantly pointed me to the correct stand, upon which I discovered another lengthy wait for a scheduled bus. Lunch seemed to be a good idea and I found a great little cafe in the Nicosian backstreets and ate some delicious stuffed vegetables to pass the time. Eventually I boarded the bus and headed to Larnaca.

In Larnaca I had organised to stay with a Polish girl called Marta but she was currently in Poland and was not flying back until late in the evening. In the meantime I had decided to hire a car whilst staying in Cyprus and headed off to a local firm that Marta had recommended. Arriving at the car hire shop I discovered it to be closed. There was however a poster in the window with a phone number. Which is great if you have a phone. Fortunately, as I procrastinated on the kerb, two local guys turned up and rang the number and fifteen minutes later the owner arrived. After some back and forth negotiating I managed to book a car for three days. With backpack in the boot of the car I got behind the wheel (legally) for the first time in three years. Like riding a bike it turns out driving a car becomes second nature and I took off on an afternoon/early evening adventure while I waited for Marta’s plane to land.

From Larnaca I headed down the coastal road. I stopped off randomly at a small island fort and took some pictures of the recently combined fields before reaching the Governor’s Beach. The beach is famous on Cyprus for its white rocks that contrast with the black sands of the beach. I relaxed on a sun lounger with few people in attendance around me and did a little reading. A young Cypriot man challenged me to a game of beach tennis and we played until the sun went down. As he went off swimming in the dusk I jumped in the car before stopping off near another beach, that I had seen when driving before, to go for a moonlight run. I cooled off in the sea and headed to the airport to pick up Marta. Marta was there on time but was unfortunately very sick with the flu and would remain that way throughout my stay in Cyprus. This meant that it wasn’t going to be quite the couchsurfing experience I would hope for, in that she would be able to show me around and do stuff together. On the plus side it did turn out she had an amazing apartment and even had a spare room and real double bed just for me.

The next day I took my hire car in an easterly direction, taking the back roads to a resort town called Protaras. This journey was not without its drama. After driving through one of the numerous British Forces bases (They keep the peace between the Greeks and the Turks) on the island I managed to drive up to a border patrol. Which would have been fine if I had brought any identification documents with me. Rapidly realising my error I did a U-Turn in the middle of the checkpoint before I was shot by the Turkish guards. A soldier on the Greek side cheekily shouted “Changed your mind?” through my passenger window as I sheepishly nodded and drove off to find where I had taken a wrong turn… Eventually I arrived in Protaras and although it was a nice resort, clean water, nice beach and plenty to do it wasn’t exactly the seclusion and adventure I had hoped for. After a quick lunch I got back in the car and headed to Cape Greco.

Cape Greco was much more what I was looking for and represented what I would eventually enjoy the most in Cyprus, its rugged and rocky landscapes. I parked my car in a dusty car park off a trail and took the short hike up the rocky headland. A Cypriot wedding party were having their small reception at the top, but apart from that the area was virtually deserted apart from me and the hundreds of lizards sunning themselves on the rocks. I hiked around the headland and moved my car further down the cape to an area with lots of coves where the water was calm and crystal clear. I spent the next few hours diving off the rocks and swimming in the warm Mediterranean waters. My peace and tranquility only being disturbed by the odd yacht or now and again a booze cruise heading in from nearby Ayia Napa. I drove back late and went out for dinner at a local restaurant in Larnaca. I had a delicious lamb dish at a place called Taratsa. If you ever make it to Cyprus I thoroughly recommend it. The roof terrace over looks the old church square and they serve traditional and delightful local dishes.

The next day my travels would take me inland and away from the beaches and rocky coastline and take me to the Troodos mountain range that dominates the centre of Greek Cyprus. My main plan was to climb the almost 2,000m high Mt Olympus. My journey began on the highway to Limassol  before taking a series of B roads that gradually became steeper and more winding the further I penetrated the mountain range. I hoped to visit one of the Byzantine monasteries that the area is so famous for but I was limited to poking around the outside of the one I chose to visit as it turns out they are less than welcoming to visitors. Instead I continued with my main mission and upon discovering a hub for many of the numerous mountain paths, I parked up my car and took off an a breathtaking four hour hike around the mountain. On my journey I encountered the now ever present population of lizards and also encountered my first snake of the summer. Despite it being rather menacing and very black it didn’t cause any concern unlike the ones that I would encounter over the next few months…

The landscape was a mixture of the barren ophiolite rocks that have been uncovered from millions of years of erosion (ophiolite is the petrified pillow lava rock from the magma chamber beneath the upper crust of the earth) and low density forest. From the upper faces of the mountain you can see out to the coastline and there were even a few waterfalls and disused mines that were scattered around. My quest to reach the actual summit was scuppered by the existence of a military observation post at the very top but I did discover that you could ski and snowboard on the mountain in the winter months, which was a little difficult to imagine when it was 35 degrees Celsius and blue skies when I was there. I headed home tired but satisfied with my trip and enjoyed another meal at Taratsa despite feeling a little lonesome.

On my final day I took the opportunity to have a nice long lie-in, fearing that I would not have a bed this comfortable for a few more weeks. My flight was in the evening so I used my day to visit Faros, a quiet pebble beach maybe 15km away from Larnaca, as well as visiting a mosque that sat on the edges of a large salt lake on the outskirts of Larnaca. The mosque was not as impressive as those that I saw in Istanbul, far from it, but it did have a unique rural charm and it’s setting against the whiteness of the salt lake was dramatic. Later in the day I returned my car and took a little time in Larnaca to photograph the sea fort, church and some of the more charismatic buildings in the old quarter of the town. I bought Marta a small gift to thank her for letting me stay and we ended up splitting a cab to the airport as she had been called away on business.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect in Cyprus. Despite being split between Turkey and Greece it is predominantly influenced by British culture, especially in the Greek half of the island. I managed to stay away from the heavy tourism resorts and tried to get a feeling of island life for the true Cypriots. Cyprus has a unique charm. On first impressions it is dry and rocky, almost desert like, but it does have character in it’s people and the few landmarks that I managed to visit. The beaches are not amazing in terms of having soft white sand, but they kind of match the feel of Cyprus with their black sands, pebbles and inconvenient and difficult to access coves. If you embrace the challenge of trying to find unique and secluded places it is possible to feel a sense of adventure in Cyprus beyond the holiday homes and tourist resorts and I’ll certainly never forget swimming and diving in the secluded clear Mediterranean water coves.

Is this touristy?  Well, yes it is!

But visiting Bangkok was nothing but anticlimactic.  It opened the door to the world of possibilities for traveling during my vacations from teaching and how accessible many popular destinations are since I'm in Korea.  It also made me realize that it would take a lifetime to see all that I want to see.

The Erawan Museum, Bangkok

Saenchai

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Seamus Heaney died today. He was 74. By no means a young man, but in this day and age it cannot be denied that one of the world’s greatest poets has left us early, and this is to say nothing of the feelings I can barely imagine his family and friends are suffering under as we speak.

I was once in the same room as him. That is the best that I can say of my personal relationship with him. It was in UCD and he was presenting on a reworked version of the Antigone, where he spoke about the challenge of translation and representing the Ancient Greek classic in the twenty first century. To tell the truth, I can’t recall if we went up and introduced ourselves or not. He struck me as I did not expect someone of his significance to strike me; down to earth, honest, and light hearted, with a deep and warm voice from which words seemed like they were happiest coming from.

I wanted to post a poem that I thought would symbolise how I felt about Heaney. One that would allow me to think of him and his place in the world, and my position next to him. I don’t really know much of his poetry, and by much I mean probably about a percent of his thousands of published works.

When these unfortunate situations come around it’s always appropriate to find the right poem, and maybe the right poem is the one we always remember first when we think of a poet, or artist, novelist, or whoever it is to be remembered.

The poem I remember is Digging.

As I read this poem I read about a man who could not match his familial talent for digging. Potatoes. Turf. Earth. These were all buried deep his background, but he found himself buried deep in books and writing, struggling to see how he could emulate his father and grandfather.

When I was thirteen or fourteen we read this poem in school. I enjoyed it and understood it, but perhaps that was all. Little connection with this seems to have been made between the poem and the man who wrote it who won the Nobel Prize for Literature a couple of years later. This connection was not established until many years later.

In the poem, what Heaney teaches me here is that it doesn’t matter how distant or untraditional your direction in life may find itself verging. Always do your damnedest and dig deep always for the good turf and your labours will be rewarded. If you feel you are not doing them justice by not following in their footsteps, there are fewer finer displays of gratitude than dedicating your success to the influence of family who went before you.

It seems like a simple message because it is, that’s why it is so effective. The idea behind this has not been lost on me despite being so far away from Ireland and my own father and grandfather. We all take different paths in life but we need good guides to show us where best to tread or footsteps.

Rest in Peace Seamus Heaney, you have finished digging. And the hole you dug is good, very good.

Digging

by Seamus Heaney

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with.

(poem courtesy of the Poetry Foundation)

This year I went out to enjoy the festivities at the Yeon Deung Hwae Lotus Lantern Festival as usual for Buddha’s Birthday in Korea!  This holiday and festival is one of the cutest and most cultural events they seem to throw, so if you are visiting Korea in the Spring or new to Korea you should check it out!

To learn more about the basics of 석가탄신일 and general info, please check out my dedicated post on the subjectHERE! Consider this post a more casual follow-up showing what we did for this year

I went to Dongdaemun which is the heart of the festivities and where all the fun takes place! If you are in Korea for this holiday, THIS is the place to go! The main highlights of this festival are the Parade of lanterns, Temple lights, and River Lights~ lots and lots of lights!

They also have a stage set up in the center of everything for performances… I think a few pop stars show up too usually, but its always a packed area so I never stay long!

Ooooo~ the confetti matches my shoes.  JUST AS PLANNED.

Last year I was a little late (I was at the Star Craft finals with Mr. Thomas!) so I missed a large amount of the main parade floats which run through the city~ but this year I came nice and early to catch them.  Traffic is a nightmare on this night (for obvious reasons) so if you are trying to get to the festival make sure you use the subway!

Outside the metro exits they had lots of smaller beautiful lanterns lit on display!

This area is always “selca” land every year~ lanterns are at a perfect level and away from huge crowds.

lol even Samsung had a lantern of a smartphone XD clever!

Naturally the ever popular “Brownie” made a lantern appearance this year as well!  Next to him was the weirdest lantern I have spotted to date… it was in the shape of a child, and had a slideshow going of all these goofy little kid photos to full in the face area.  The result was kinda bizarre *_*

The main parade began around 7:00pm as lit floats depicting various Buddhist themes, stories, icons, etc made their way down the street towards the Jogye-sa Temple temple.

I love the amazing detail of Korean lanterns~

The Seoul lion makes an appearance~ This animal is the symbol of the city

Typically each float is made by a temple in Korea, and around the float the members of the temple match holding smaller lanterns in Hanbok~ I love this holiday because everyone is always dressed up so cute and it is the biggest event to actually see people wearing Hanbok in Korea nowadays.

I love that the adorable lady waving at me is the only one that I captured in focus with my camera! I totally waved back hehe

This temple had the largest group of monks at the event!

If you want to avoid the crowds and just take photos of the floats standing still you are in luck!  The side street usually had the floats lit and on display for the duration of the festival.  I am not exactly sure if the floats return here after the drive the street, or if they keep them here while waiting to run the street~ but you are allowed to go check them out and it is a lot easier to see everything.

My favorite float set of the night was this one!  So colorful and detailed~ plus the sword looked like a light saber.

Monk Mobile!! If you are going to haul floats you should do it in style!

As the parade finished up the crowds joined in the street to make the walk to the temple.  Sometimes marchers will come out to the sides and hand you a lantern to join~ usually if you are a foreigner because this event is FILLED with them, so it kinda turns into a parade of students white people all of a sudden haha.

Walking towards the temple are a ton of Buddhist shops which stay open late for this event.  If you want a beautiful paper lotus lantern you can buy them on the street or get even more amazing ones from the shops. I wanted a HUGE one this year, but I could not decide and ended up buying nothing…shoot.  I hesitated and did not want to come home with a 50,000 won lantern and have Nara kill me hahaha.

Walking with the parade to the temple is always fun ^^

Finally we arrived at the temple~ the official ending of the parade route. Thankfully a little less crowded this year for some reason, last year it was way too packed~ you could hardly move *_*

This places is always completely COVERED in lights from wall to wall~ even the ceiling!

Suddenly it felt very awkward to make kawaii faces in the temple with monks right behind me lol

Yuri having deep thoughts about cultural stuff

In the center of the temple they always have a beautiful shrine set up covered in flowers with a statue of Buddha~ you wait in line and when it is your turn you can step up and pour water over him.  The line is always super long to do this, so I have not participated yet *_*

Just like last year, they had a tent set up on the right side of the temple with tons of little lanterns~ this is a really pretty place to take photos with someone or self shots! XD  I took a TON in here last year for my other post haha.

So Yuri and I jumped in of course!

The following night I was back in Dongdaemun for round 2 of Buddahs birthday~ a double date walking along the Cheonggyecheon river to see the lantern light show!

A few times a year they set up lanterns in this area (You can check out my visit for the Seoul Lantern Light Festival HERE just as amazing as this show, but with a focus on Korean culture )  it is a really beautiful night walk and I just love seeing all the detail they put in the pieces! Typically they keep these set up for a few weeks

Any events involving the river always make for a great date night!  So pretty and relaxing~ Nara and I went on a double date with our friends ^^

Hoshik-Oppa schooling Toki on her new camera.

Nara took a photo of Hoshik taking a photo of us lol capture the moment!

Hey Nara!

Naturally, since this event is held to celebrate the birth of buddah, the lanterns are all themed around that. Some nights get super crowded, but if you can go during the week the crowds are cut almost in half~ much better!

Depiction of the famous Korean monk 원효 Wonhyo (元曉) ~ Nara is not Buddhist, but even he knew this story!  Apparently Wonhyo was thirsty and went into a cave one night to drank from what he thought was a container in the darkness, however when he woke up he discovered he had been drinking water from a human skull!  Shocked that the mind could think something so awful was delicious till the truth was discovered, he experienced a kind of “conscious enlightenment”.

A fun thing on Cheonggyecheon river is the built in light up wishing well!  Each side has a platform you can walk out on and attempt to throw your coin into the glowing hole lol its a bit hard with all the rushing water, so I have never witnessed anyone actually get one in!  Come on Nara~!

They even have a coin-exchange machine for the wishing well…kinda kills the magic a bit, dont you think? O_O;

Usually at these events on the river a musician or two will show up to play under the bridge~ tonight was no exception.

And that concludes another magical Buddha’s Birthday holiday in Korea!

Have you attended any of these events in Korea? Which is your favorite? Have you visited the river for the lantern show? Are you from another area of Korea and celebrated someplace else that is worth checking out?  Comment below and share with everyone!

 The royal tomb of King Beopheung on Mt. Seondosan in Gyeongju.

Hello Again Everyone!!

Other than the three temples on Mt. Seondosan in Gyeongju, there were five other sites we saw. It really goes to show that Gyeongju has an endless amount of things to see, and most of those are non-touristy location, as well.

The first of these five sites was the Silla Muyeorwangneung. It’s quite a mouthful, I know. What it is is a stele for King Taejong (or Kim Chun Chu), who reigned from 654 A.D. to 661. While King Taejong didn’t unify the Three Kingdoms, he’s believed to have laid the groundwork for the unification of the peninsula through an alliance with Tang China and by defeating the Baekje Kingdom. This stele rests inside a pavilion that shelters the turtle based stele from Mother Nature. The inscribed portion of the stele is missing, but the dragon roof of the structure still remains. Six dragons are inscribed on either side of this top, and they are holding a pearl in their hands. As for the base, the turtle is expertly executed. The front legs have five toes, while there are just four at the rear. This artistically represents the turtle exerting itself and pushing itself forward. Also, the bottom of the jaw is coloured red by the stone’s natural colour to show just how much force the turtle is exerting. All this symbolism is meant to show the social power at this time during the Golden Age of the Silla Kingdom. Behind this stele is the actual tomb of King Taejong. This burial mound is joined by four additional burial mounds that are believed to be King Taejong’s ancestors.

The next place we visited, and after taking a wrong turn on our way to King Beopheung’s royal tomb, was a three tiered stone pagoda from the Unified Silla period. We knew we had taken a wrong turn when we ended up next to a cattle farm. But fortunately for us, we found this emblematic and simplistic pagoda from the Unified Silla period. The pagoda has a double base and it stands 4.6 metres in height. It’s believed that the pagoda was built during the 9th century and belonged to a temple called Aegongsa Temple. Unfortunately, the temple no longer remains; instead, the stoic pagoda is surrounded by beautiful twisting red pines.

Back on the country road, we finally took the right turn and made our way to the royal tomb of King Beopheung. King Beopheung (or Kim Wonjong) reigned from 514 A.D. to 540 A.D., and he’s one of the most important kings in Korean history in the growth and development of Buddhism on the Korean peninsula. It’s during the 15th year of his reign, and after resisting the advances of Buddhism by neighbouring kingdoms for nearly 150 years, that Buddhism was finally named the state religion of the Silla Kingdom as a result of King Beopheung approving it. Additionally, it was during his reign that the first temple, Heungnyunsa Temple (also found in Gyeongju), was founded. The tomb itself can be found past a rice paddy and up a beautiful path lined with twisting red pines and the greenest of grass. The mound itself stands three metres in height and thirteen metres in diametre. The royal tomb is beautifully framed by additional red pines and the tomb’s location is amazingly serene.

The final two places we saw, in a failed attempt to see Seondosa Temple, were the Three Storied Stone Pagoda in Seoak-ri and the Royal Tomb of King Munseong of Silla. The pagoda stands just a little over four metres in height, but the base and the body appear to have been constructed at separate times. It almost appears as though the base were lost or destroyed and an ad hoc one was constructed instead. This base is rather plain in design and not nearly as impressive as the one at the Aegongsa Temple Site. Next to this pagoda are the royal tombs of King Munseong and his royal ancestors. King Munseong reigned from 839 to 859 during the declining years of the Silla Kingdom. His rule was marked by early and active trade and followed by uprisings and rebellions. The tomb itself is beautifully situated on the side of Mt. Seondosan, and it stands 5.5 metres in height and 20.6 metres in diameter. Interestingly and a bit to the left of this royal tombs, there appears to be a commoners tomb with beautiful stone guardians out in front of the burial mound, so have a look.

HOW TO GET THERE: Without a car or a bike, this could be a really long day for you. But to get to the general area of Mt. Seondosan, and from the Gyeongju Intercity Bus Terminal, you can take bus #30 to get to the Mt. Seondosan area. After two stops, you can get off at the Seorabeol University dormitory stop. (서라벌 대학 기숙사). From there, you can let the exploring begin. What you’re looking for, if you’re in fact looking for King Beopheung’s grave and the turtle-based stele dedicated to King Taejong, you’ll need to head south and to the west to locate these hidden gems.

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OVERALL RATING:7.5/10. For the sheer amount of things you can see on Mt. Seondosan, it’s worth the rating it has. However, when you add into the mix the royal tomb of King Beopheung, perhaps the most important royal figure in the development in the spread of Korean Buddhism, as well as the turtle based stele of King Taejong, and you have more than enough reason to venture off the well-worn tourist trail in Gyeongju.

 The burial mound of King Taejong.

 The turtle-based stele dedicated to King Taejong.

 The reverse angle to this amazing stele.

 The pagoda from the Aegongsa Temple site.

 A different angle with the neighbouring red pines.

 The rice paddy out in front of King Beopheung’s tomb.

 The green grass path that leads up to the royal tomb.

 The first look at the royal burial mound that houses the remains of the Buddhist king, King Beopheung.

 A different look at the serene site.

 The Three Storied Stone Pagoda in Seoak-ri.

 The Royal Tomb of King Munseong

  A look at the older looking guardian statues in front of a person’s burial mound.

On Sept. 13, I’ll have been in South Korea for seven months. You could definitely call me a veteran now.

The thing with being a veteran is, you start to see a lot of casualties. It starts slow–one outlier here or there that got a hagwon contract on an off-month. But then, either February or August arrive and …

… it’s a bloodbath. Koreabridge becomes a bone-picker’s paradise: everything goes up for sale, from bicycles to furniture to videogame consoles, to computers, musical instruments and, of course, jobs. Lots of jobs.

February and August are, after all, the times for EPIK intakes, when old contracts end and new ones begin. Not everyone does only a year of duty and then flies home. Some stay longer. Many don’t. So, if you’ve gotten close with anyone here, it can be a bitter sweet time of year. There are plenty of celebrations, but at what cost?

About the same time as my seven-month anniversary I will say goodbye to someone I only recently became friends with. Others have come and gone in the past several weeks. And, on Friday night I said goodbye (mostly) to the very first person I met when I was got off the airplane in Incheon in February 2010, back when both of us were EPIK rookies.

Shortly before this photo was taken, we had participated in the Holi Hai Indian festival in Haeundae, where the soju and samosas flowed like water. Shortly after this photo was taken, I downed a bottle of Hite-Jinro red wine from CU, then tried out for a play. I did not wash my face. Surprisingly, I was not cast.

We celebrated traditional expat night out style: big-ass bbq at her favorite place (now one of mine), Mapo Galmegi in KSU, followed by beers at HQ, followed by noraebang where we paid for one hour and they kept refilling us for about another hour. I was not asleep until 7:30 a.m. It would have been perfect if it wasn’t for the fact we were celebrating under the specter of someone’s imminent exit (also, a lot of rain).

Jenna stayed her year and left for another year, back to the U.S., only to return in early 2012 to teach at a hagwon. 18 months later she’s left again, likely not to return again for a third round.

Well, unless you count Wednesday night, when she returns from a brief trip to Japan to see some of our friends that also once upon a time taught through EPIK. But then Friday morning, she’s off.

It’s part of the expat experience. It’s not settling down. Some do. Some have been here for years on years. Over a decade. And Korea changes fast. I just bought a block of cheese, real cheese, from a supermarket that wasn’t Costco. That’s amazing, and I can’t stand the overuse of that word, but’s true.

The thing is, everything moves fast here. Once upon a time, it felt impossible for me to last two months, away from everything I know and love, everything that is familiar. At nearly seven months, I’m thinking about a second year. But, I’m also thinking about how different it could be. Were I to stay another year, my second contract would begin in February, the next bloodbath. Who else will we be saying goodbye to?

I refuse to not allow myself to get close to those I feel close to. I can’t speak for anyone else but I imagine that would be a way not to let the constant in and out of folks get to you. My best friend from home is here now, too, since late July. Believe me, it makes a lot of difference.

But, we’re not the only ones out there.

And, eventually, we’ll be the ones saying goodbye. It’s an honor to be missed, and it’s going to happen. But …

Thankfully, today is Sept. 1. Fall is only a couple weeks away. The summertime bloodbath is just about over. Time to clean and bind our wounds. February’s not that far. There are still plenty of new restaurants to enjoy, mountains to climb, Justin Timberlake songs to sing at noraebang with new and old friends, friends arriving and departing, friends we’ll likely never see once they leave the tarmac, and those we will, if not for a while.

There’s still time, and there’s not a lot of time. These seven months gone overnight can attest to that. So, get out there and enjoy yourself, and your friends, and your Korean adventures while you still can.

Just when you thought you had seen all the adorable things on the Internet…. here is an entry into this year’s Dream Festival English competition from one of our sister campuses.

I kid because I love. But in this case I’m not kidding. I do live in a tower, a twenty storey high tower pitched between what seems like a thousand other twenty storey high towers. Although mine is made from concrete, steel, and glass, not ivory. This may or may not be a good thing.

After a long summer away in Ireland, myself, Herself, and +1 have returned to our perch overlooking the ever present traffic which persists along that big long avenue that runs through Yeongtong-dong which I have no idea of the name.

We have been told we have missed the worst of the heat, and we can well believe it as a cool breeze is now flowing through our apartment. Outside the weather is balmy indeed, with only the strong afternoon sun in our eyes to bother us as we stroll around.

This evening, the first of September, the sky was truly clear for the first time as the sun encroached on the horizon of high-rise to our west. Bright, it turned the walls of the other apartments closest to us pink from white in its glow. All else which felled a shadow was black in its own silhouette from the departing evening. As it darkened more, all those shadows tuned to dusk, street lights came on as pin-pricks of fluorescent light, and the sky streaked with a brushstroke of cloud was layered in a peach kind of pink and a typical sky blue.

It is home, I suppose.

Life is full of surprises and new beginnings. And this month is a doozy. I wanted to reboot the Vegan Urbanite with some fresh content and fanatic energy, so I’ve signed on for Vegan MOFO 2013. If you’re not familiar with Vegan MOFO it’s a month of daily blogging (EST) on vegan related matters.

September will certainly be a month of firsts. Running with the theme of New Beginnings, here is a peek at what you’re in for:

~ VU goes raw for a week. I’m a little nervous about this one but interested to see if there are any visible effects after 7 days of eating at least 80% raw.

~Moving cities. Yes, we are packing up and moving to another city  country! After 8 years of living abroad I’m returning to New Zealand with my three animal companions to begin a new career.

~Vegan sunscreen. How sunscreens aren’t vegan and my recommendations.

~An ethical and observational probe into zoos around the world (with some outrageous and disturbing pictures).

~Interview with Tobias Leenaert on Germany’s popular Meat Free Monday’s.

~Restaurant reviews and of course recipes galore! Stay tuned

Related posts:

The post Vegan Month Of FOod appeared first on Vegan Urbanite.

Anyone who has lived in Korea in the past two years or so should probably know exactly what store and which song this comic is referencing. For those of you that don’t, click here and enjoy. Be warned. It’s terribly catchy.

While hearing this song for the entirety of my shopping trips was a little strange at first, I eventually grew to love it and even started looking forward to it. What can I say? It puts me in a great mood for no real reason. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who feels this way. I just know a number of friends and I were a little heartbroken when they changed the song over the past few years to something more generic and pop-friendly.

I suddenly want to go shopping for groceries I don’t need now…

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Jen Lee's Dear Korea

This is Jen Lee. She likes to draw. She also likes green tea.

Jen Lee and Dear Korea @ Gwangju Blog Expat comic artists aim to draw fans at Comic World @ The Korea Herald 'Dear Korea' now in Busan Haps Got any questions, comments, or maybe even some delicious cookies you want to send through the internet? Feel free to contact us at dearkoreacomic at gmail dot com. You can also leave comments on the comic’s Facebook Page!

 

Working primarily as an English teacher and spending most of the last 10 years living in a one-room bachelor pad is all part of my life here in Korea. However, it is easy to think that that is how all of the other expats live in this country. The shock is when you live in a place like Ulsan where not everyone you know is a teacher and not everyone lives in a tiny one-room bachelor pad.

One of my good friends is an engineer out in the Dong-gu area of Ulsan. He is also a good photographer as well! At any rate, a while ago I got the chance to head out to his roof and get some shots. The views from the top of his apartment building were impressive to say the least. It also made me wish that I worked for a large oil company or something like that.

The area has see many changes since I lived there and it is interesting to me on many levels. The first part is that it is almost completely separate from Ulsan even though it is pretty much why Ulsan exists in the first place. It is also almost surrounded by Hyundai Heavy Industries gives it an interesting backdrop. Part industrial, part urban.

The recent changes in the area out there have made Ilsan beach a more popular destination as much of the little markets have moved on and have been replaced with upscale coffee shops and restaurants. Thus, it is more attractive for the foreign workers that live in the area.

With the numerous changes also meant that they needed to house the many workers from around the work and the local Ulsan people as well. So, many new apartments popped up around dong-gu. This have me a chance to try and get some shots of the area on a full moon night.