I've Been a Bad Blogger

Yep, I dropped off the face of the blogosphere there for a while. I blame jet-lag and mucus. I'm back in the states, but I'm in Florida with my parents until Monday, then I'll head back and be faced with reality again. It's been nice to be able to have such a long vacation. One bad thing though is that I have really slacked off in the knitting department. I have knit half a sock in the past month. In Korea, there was too much stuff to look at. In Florida, there is a Nikon D40x that keeps making me take pictures :oP

Yeah, got the Nikon on the 25, and it's the 28th and I've taken about 300 pictures. Are any on the computer from which I can blog? Of course not! I'll have pictures when I get back home. In the meantime, I'm alive, feeling 100% better, and will eventually pick up the needles. Maybe Sunday. I have too many pictures to take tomorrow :oP

Knit on...
I will eventually...

Back From Busan

Well, I made it back from a wonderful weekend in Busan. I felt a peace about this city as soon as we hopped on the bus. Yep, so of course the bus broke down on the way to Busan and we were stranded for about 30 minutes until another bus could take us on it the rest of the way to Busan. Figures :oP

Once we got there, we crashed at the Motel Busan. In the morning, we decided to head to the Jalagchi fish market and see what that was like. If we lived in Busan, I would go here at least once a week to get some fresh fish. Here are some pictures:

There were strings of little silver fish ready to be purchased.

Tanks of live octopus and squid. The squid were a little jumpy and they had to have lids on their tanks. Every now and again one would get out and you'd hear some Korean cursing and the vendor would go grab the escaped squid and throw it back in the tank.

There were rows of fish drying, rows of fresh fish, and even people cleaning fish getting them ready to cook. I could go on and on about the fish market, but I won't now. I'll save that for a presentation later on.

After the market, we hit a big park where Busan Tower is located. This gives you a great view of the hugeness of this city.

The city is huge and is spread out all around the port. It's the second largest city in Korea and the fifth largest sea port in the world. I was just in awe.

This is maybe 1/16 of the city here. They built up as far as they could on the mountains around it. It was just really cool to see. We shopped in Nampo-Dong which is a huge fashion area. It was pricey, but we can say we saw it at least.

On Sunday, we spent the day on one of the islands around Busan and the beaches.

This is one of the pebble beaches here. It was gorgeous and I love hearing the waves against the shore. There were people fishing too.

Busan was wonderful. I think I could definitely live here. The people were very nice and a lot of them were able to speak a little English, so that was helpful.

DF and I headed back Sunday night and ate at TGI Fridays in Gwangju. Jack Daniels chop steak is really good I might add. I don't think they have it in the US since it was under the Korean specials. Maybe since it came with sticky rice, that's why they put it in there. I half expected to see more kimchi.

Tomorrow we're headed for Seoul. Hard to believe this trip is almost over already. I wish I would have felt better for the whole thing, but I've still had a good time. I'll post on Friday when I get back.

Knit on...

Chinese Food in Korea

Yep, last night DF and I went out with his friend Ashley for a drink and some food. We walked down main street in seach of a Gomtang place (boiled beef soup that Naju is supposed to be famous for), but when we couldn't find one that wouldn't make us sit on the ground (we really wanted to sit in chairs last night), we just walked around until we found something that looked good. So, we found a random Chinese restaurant on Cheap Street and ate there. It was pretty good and was about the same as Americanized Chinese food, only a little more spicier, and of course, they served it with kimchee. The kimchee last night wasn't too spicy, so I actually ate a few slices of cabbage for once.

After that, we headed back and just relaxed. Today I have been doing nothing. Well, I shouldn't say I have been doing nothing, I have been playing a game. This one to be precise:

In my meaningless opinion, this is the best game currently out for PSP. It's a role playing game, but it plays very similar to Dungeons and Dragons Tactics. You have to manipulate where your characters go and the actions they take. It's got a great story, based on Joan of Arc, and the gameplay is so addicting that I played it from about 8 AM until 2PM when the batteries on the PSP gave out. So, while it's charging, I figured I would blog :oP

We're heading to Busan tomorrow. It should be a fun weekend and hopefully the weather will hold out. I'll have plenty of pictures in a few days when we get back.

And I'm stuck at about half way through a sock right now. I really don't like the wooden needles for socks and it's just keeping me from knitting right now. If I get a job here and head back over, I'll be bringing all my metal needles in my suitcase, so hopefully that will bring back the knitting groove. I could stand the wooden needles if they were longer and sharper. I really need to get those Knit Picks Harmony double pointed needles. I might have to ask for them for Christmas :o)

Knit on...

Korea Day Whatever This Is: Pizza Boxes and Yarn

Yep, I have lost track of whatever day it is here for the blog purposes, so screw it. It's another day in Korea anyways :oP I had a little adventure today which I'll talk about at the end, but first, a random musing about pizza boxes here. We ate at Little Fox pizza last night and this is how the box came to us:

I loved the bow. There's just something about seeing a pizza box with a little red bow tied around it that makes you smile. Pizza places in the States should do this. :oP

Today I walked around downtown some more in search of possible Christmas ideas to give DF. I was walking down Cheap Street when this little place caught my eye.

I saw big balls of multi-colored string at the bottom of the window, so I decided to poke my head inside. I would have taken pictures in there, but I was immediately swept up by a jabbering Korean lady who proceeded to tell me God only knows what, but I assume it had to do with yarn. Yep, I found a Naju yarn store. There were three other women in there and they were staring at my hair. One even touched it. Then they showed me around the store and pulled out balls of yarn left and right, trying to see if it matched my blue jacket OK. I picked out some purple CashWool that I was handed and was looking for needles. I did the universal knitting sign language of I need needles and the woman who swept me up goes off to the side and grabs two different circular bamboo needles with a plastic cord between them. I get to the counter and they write up that needles and four balls of cash wool would be 24,000 won. 24 bucks isn't too bad for a cashmere/wool blend and two circular needles, so I agreed and paid the woman. They all shook my hand and made the universal knitting sign at me as I walked out the door.

See, knitters anywhere in the world, even when they don't speak your language, can recognize each other. Oh, here's what I bought. The color is awful and it's actually a really bright purple.

I'll be back there before I leave for sure.

My adventure of the day started after this. I spent most of the rest of my money on yarn and needles, so I knew I wouldn't be buying anything else today until I am able to change over some more money. So, I decided to ride the 160 bus to wherever it stopped. It only costs 1,000 won, so I hopped on and rode. I rode and rode and went out into the countryside. It was nice to get outside of town for a while. I saw some signs for Gwangju and wondered if the bus was going to take me all the way there. Yep, it did. Gwangju rocks. They are civilized even since they have a Starbucks :oP Yep, no Starbies in Naju. Gwangju was huge and I walked around for a little bit with my mouth open, forgetting to take pictures. I'll be back there on Friday to catch a bus to Busan, so I'll take pictures then. I hopped on the 160 bus heading back towards Naju and made my way back. 3 hours later, I was back here, petting wool and eating a goldfish cake.

Yeah, so goldfish cakes rock. I think it's basically a bean paste inside some breading, but they are really good and really cheap. I bought a bunch on the way home so that I can have the rest for breakfast tomorrow. Anyways, that's been my day so far. Tonight we're going out to eat with DF's friend Ashley. He's a pretty nice guy from what I've seen the couple of times I've met him, so it should be fun.

Must go pet cashwool some more :oP

Knit on...

Korea Days 9-10: Let's Eat and Go Shopping

Yesterday we went to church in the morning which was an interesting experience. I could recognize some of the motions that they were going through, but I had no idea what they were saying. I did recognize The First Noel when it was sung and I sang along in English, but aside from the occasional Christo or Jesu (no s on the end of that), that was about all I understood. After church, we ate lunch with the group. I have discovered that I really like raddish kimchee. I'm not too keen on cabbage kimchee, but the raddish stuff isn't as spicy and has more flavor to it I think. Maybe if the cabbage kimchee didn't scald my mouth so much, I might be able to find some flavor there too. I'm sure I'll get used to the hyper spiciness.

After lunch we had to help out with the English class play. It's called Shim Cheong's Devotion and is based on a Korean folk myth about this girl who gave up everything for her father. DF's co-teacher is manning the play, so we had to go and help out some. All I can say is that I would never want her to be my director in a play. She was hard on those kids! You can tell that the play wasn't much fun for them all. Different culture though. After the play, we went to the hanbok store to look around and price the traditional Korean dress. All I can say is wow. It's really expensive. Since they didn't have any in stock that would obviously fit my 5'11" frame without hitting my knees, I didn't get to try any on. I'm hoping that maybe when we go to Busan or Seoul, there will be some touristy knock-off hanboks or something that would be a little cheaper. For me, it would cost about 375-400 bucks US for one. I know that they're really special and all, but I just wanted one to say I had some clothing from Korea. I'll pay 35-40 for it, but no way will I shell out that much unless I intend to get married in it or something :oP

We went to dinner that night with DF's co-teacher to celebrate her birthday. It was Korean BBQ again, so I was happy with that. They all had pork and I had beef. Here's some Korean BBQ for you:

Nothing like uncooked pork :oP That was the co-teacher's daughter and mother-in-law. Her husband was my chef for the evening.

And of course, DF and I enjoyed the meal!

We even unintentionally matched for the evening :oP

Today I decided that I wanted to head down to downtown Naju to do some shopping while DF was at work. I hopped on the bus and headed down there.

The bus stop where you get off for downtown Naju is in front of the South Gate. The South Gate is a historic site in Naju. There are four gates, one for each direction, but the South Gate is the most famous and from what I can tell, the largest of the four. I've only driven past one other gate so far, so if I go past them again, I'll be sure to take some pictures of those as well. It's really pretty, and they built the road around it for downtown. They made it a round-about there, so that's pretty cool.

I mainly hit Main Street today (don't know if it's called that, but for simplicity's sake, it'll be called that) to do some trinket shopping.

Main Street is full of all kinds of stores. My favorite so far is the French Baguette. Yep, it's a bread store. I decided to grab some bread for lunch and they have wonderful croissants. It tasted good to have some sweet bread after two days of solid kimchee and rice :oP I picked up a few trinket things and some Korean Christmas cards too. I even found a Korean dinosaur jigsaw puzzle, so I had to pick that up for me :oP On my way back to the bus stop, I walked past a fish mart and saw this cartoon on the window.

Yeah, I'd be scared too if a worm was trying to eat me from the hook. I'd also be scared if I were a fish in that market :oP

Knit on...

Korea Day 8: Temples and Kimchee

OK, I finally have some pictures that I can show you all! Yesterday, the school board of Naju put together a tour bus for some of the new teachers and those of us who wanted to tag along. We hit three different Buddhist temples and a resort/water park. It was a pretty fun day, even if it did wear me out to a frazzle and I'm sore as hell today.

The first temple we went to was called Eunju temple. It was fairly secluded and was very pretty. It was kind of funny because our bus driver stopped us at the end of the drive way and we walked about 1/2 a mile in to get to the temple. I assumed this was because they didn't allow cars or buses to go that far, but turns out, I think our driver just didn't want to drive us any further. There were cars parked up there and trucks would drive in and out while we hiked to the temple. Here are some shots:

We were first greeted by these guys. DF's co-teacher said they were basically totem poles like we have in the US, but they seemed a lot happier. See what I mean?

Once we finished hiking to the temple, I was amazed at all the colors there.

The buildings were even more colorful.

The camera didn't do it justice. After the Eunju temple, we headed to the Bul Hyae temple which was much more of a tourist attraction. This one is famous because it has over 1000 Buddhas there, including two stone laying Buddhas.

These are a few of the Buddhas. Most of the ones in this area were all carved out of the stone that occurs in this area. The geologist in me took this picture because right behind the far right Buddha is a fault :oP The temple complex also had a lot of other stone monuments, or treasures as they kept calling them.

And here is a group shot with me, DF, and DF's co-teacher Mrs. P:

Have I mentioned that I feel like a giant over here? Not only have I gotten the beautiful comments, but I have had a lot of comments about how tall I am too :oP We hiked up the side of a really big hill (still not calling it a mountain yet) to get to the laying Buddha.

That was only about 1/3 of the stairs. Let's just say that after all the walking, hiking, and other stuff that I should come back to the US much lighter :oP It was worth hiking up there though to see this huge stone laying Buddha.

Even along the way on the hike up, there were Buddha statues hidden with the natural landscape.

As we entered the rest of the temple complex, there was a fountain with purified water that is supposed to bring the drinkers good luck. Here is DF getting some luck. He took my picture too, but it wasn't on my camera, so I'll have that one later.

It was really cold and really refreshing too. Here is a view from the top of a big rock (another climb up a hill) called the Rock of Command. It lets the monks be able to see anyone who might be approaching the temples.

Yeah, had to get the rock in there too. Here's a better view of the complex from up here.

There were all kinds of shrines here too, with lots of colors again.

I really have no idea if we were even allowed to take pictures of the shrines. There were signs up in Korean, but we have no idea what they said, and no pictures of cameras on the signs or anything. No disrespect if we weren't supposed to, but since no one stopped us, we took pictures. This was one of those places where we could have probably spent a whole day here, but we only had an hour, so we rushed around everything. It was really pretty and very serene and quiet, even with the throngs of tourists there.

The third temple we went to was the Mi Ruk temple. This was where we had lunch as well. This was my first experience with traditional Korean food. It was spicy. Very spicy. I ate a lot of rice :oP At least it was all vegetarian since the monks at this temple are all vegetarians. Did I mention it was spicy. Mmmmm, good kimchee :oP

This Buddha seemed happy to me. There was a big shrine in the back with burial mounds too. I haven't looked much into it, but it seems that burial mounds are still the way that most people are buried here. There are lots of little humps over the landscape which are burial mounds. Here's the ones with the shrine.

And here is the buddha that watches over the mounds:

After lunch, we were told about how every human has 108 ills or problems with their lives. The monks there do 108 prostrations at least once a day because they said that it cures all their ills. So, as a treat for us, we got to do 108 of these things. OK, I'm in bad shape. I'll admit that right here and now. 108 prostrations about killed me. DF swears he counted at least 110. The only way I can describe it is it's like doing 108 squat thrusts. We were with a group of very fit just-out-of-college kids who put me to shame doing that much. It didn't help that I was still recovering from the head cold too, but damn, that was hard work. No wonder it would cure 108 ills :oP It will either cure them, or kill you, which in turn cures them I guess :oP Still, it was interesting, even if I skimped out on some of the 108 to catch my breath. There was a kid next to DF who started moaning really loud too about 1/2 way through the exercise.

We went to a spa after that. Yeah, after killing ourselves with 108 glorified squat thrusts, we get to go sit in a hot tub for a while! It was kind of like an indoor water park where all the water was at least warm. There was even this one spot that they called Doctor Fish where you sat in this still water area with hundreds of little minows who were pirranas in training who eat the dead skin off your feet and rest of your body. They really tickled, but DF had one spot that they kept going after. Turns out they ate a scab off and he was bleeding a little. See, pirranas in training! He was OK though, but I think we were done with the Doctor Fish part of the spa :oP

I didn't have any pictures from this because water and cameras make me nervous. I rather like taking pictures and I could just see one of the cameras falling in and getting ruined.

After the spa, we ate dinner at a Korean restaurant at the resort. It was Korean BBQ. They had pork and mushrooms, so I went to town on the mushrooms. Korean BBQ is really good and if you ever get the chance to try it in the States, go for it. It's more Americanized in the States obviously, but you have a better chance of getting beef. This is another reason I can lose weight here: they love pork and I can't eat it :oP They do have beef here though, but it's really expensive, so it's easier to just be a vegetarian. Those mushrooms were really good.

That was the day in a nutshell. I'm getting ready to head to church this morning and then head to the market this evening to look at hanbok. More pictures tomorrow.

Oh, and yeah, I'm sore as hell this morning. I weighed myself on the scale at the spa yesterday and I have already lost 10 pounds :oP Korea: The ultimate diet for Leah :oP

Once Upon A Contest

OK, so no Korea news today. I'm cooking dinner for DF's co-teacher tonight and then going on the tour tomorrow. Today was all about laundry. Good lord, there was a lot of laundry to do. Anyways. remember that little contest that Franklin over at the Panopticon put up looking for a Dolores Look-A-Like? Well, I entered it, but I didn't dress myself up, and frankly, Spooky won't sit still long enough to dress up like a cigarette-smoking sheep, so I did the next best thing:

Meet Dolores, the amigurumi. More views? OK.

Without the shirt from the front:

Yeah, I still need to write down the pattern for this, and I promise I will for anyone who wants a Dolores stuffed animal of their own.

Knit on...

Korea Day 5: Getting to Know You

I'm starting to feel more human now, but as I discovered today, I still can't push my body too much. This morning I went in to school with DF and met his co-teachers and his students. It was a fun day. The students asked me questions about where I was from and stuff like that that they had been learning in class. Let me tell you, if you ever need an ego boost, just go to South Korea. I got more "Oh, you're so beautiful!" comments than I have ever gotten in my whole life. Kinda nice when you're snotty and still not feeling 100% to get nice comments :oP

We've got a bus tour planned on Saturday, so hopefully I'll get some picture taking done then. I left the school after lunch so that I could get some more rest. I think I just need another good night of sleep and I might start feeling 100% again. Just no pushing it right now.

Hopefully there will be some pictures tomorrow. If not, there will be some after Saturday for sure.

Knit on...

Korea Day 4: The Common Cold in an Uncommon Place

OK, I'm finally feeling human enough now to get up out of the bed and write. I was hit by none other than the common cold yesterday after running around Naju. DF came in after work to find me all bundled up and sniffly. Not the best time to be catching a cold.

Oh, and Koreans think you should go to the doctor for everything too. DF's co-teacher wanted to take me to the doctor yesterday when I didn't even realize that this was just a cold and wondered if I had eaten something with pork or chicken in it that didn't like my stomach. Anyways, since I didn't go in to school with DF this morning like I had planned since I was snotty and cranky and just didn't want to be around anyone, much less middle school kids, I'm sure she'll be insisting that I go today. I have been drinking OJ, took some vitamin C, and am drinking lots of tea. I'll be fine, just give me a day or two. I was feeling this cold coming on before I left and I think the jet lag tiredness probably just sent me over the edge with it.

Oh well. On the bright side, I'll get in some knitting today. On the bad side, either DF or I will have to convince the co-teacher that the common cold doesn't require drugs, rather the opposite. Joy. Hopefully after sacking out today and getting plenty of vitamin C and tea, I'll be feeling good enough to go in with DF in the morning to show that you can get better without a bunch of pills :oP

Knit on...

And drink plenty of tea. Being sick in South Korea was not on my To-Do list :oP

Korea Day 3: Welcome to Naju

Welcome to Naju, home of the "world-famous" Naju pear. That's how they advertise themselves anyways. They're all about the Naju pear here. Anyways, that's where I'm at right now. I finally am no longer jet-lagged (at least at the moment, I'm sure I'll need a nap later on) and I even made it outside to look around. DF pointed me in the direction of the markets, so I headed down there first this morning.

This is how most of apartmets around here look. They're all about 15 stories high and you just have to know your number or else you wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Naju is pretty small by Korean standards, only about 100,000 people here. They are all pretty friendly though.

They talk about the mountains a lot in Korea. I've seen the Rockies, so when I think of mountains, that's what I usually think of. I've been to the Smokies, and they're smaller, but you can still call them mountains. This is a hill:

They would call that a mountain. It's not bad sized, but it's not a mountain. Knob maybe, but not a mountain. Anyways, I might get to climb a mountain while I'm here :oP

Naju kind of looks a little run down, but it's actually not too bad. The people are really nice here.

I had one woman come up to me and shake my hand. She rambled on for a good five minutes in Korean and kept shaking my hand. She seemed really happy at least and I said anyang haseo to her which means hello. She lit up when I said that. Like I said, pretty nice people. The guy at the market offered to help me carry the bag of bottled water I bought back to the apartment, but I told him it was OK, I could get it. They seemed impressed that I could heft that much weight. It was only 3 bottles of water and two 1.5 liters of soda, so not too much. Anyways...

The first thing that struck me on the drive to Naju was the red crosses. There must have been 50 or more red crosses in the night sky. Every church has a red cross that lights up at night so that you can see it. I found a couple of them in daylight today.

The top of that little building is one of the neon crosses. I assume the little building is a church. There are lots of churches around.

One other random observation too. There are lots of little cartoon things around, even on big street signs and stuff.

They were on the plane on the way over, in the airport, and now I've even seen them on street signs. Go figure.

That's it for today. I'm going to go walk around some more in a little while and probably take some more pictures. And I need to drink some more Chilseng Cider. It's like ginger ale, but man does it taste good. More pictures tomorrow, I'm sure :oP

Knit on...

PS: I cast on for a sock now. I only got four rounds knit on it yesterday. We'll see if I get any knitting in today. There's too much to look at right now.

Welcome to Korea

Yep, I arrived here yesterday and got to sleep about 1AM their time. It took about 27 hours total from time of leaving Kentucky to arriving here. Sorry there are no pictures for this post, but I was just too tired and lazy to take any when I got here. I'll take some in the next few days and post them.

So, I had a pretty eventful flight to Korea. When we were over Russia somewhere, the lady behind me who was 7 months pregnant went into labor. I would think that would be the most terrifying thing to know you were 4 hours from an airport that could handle a jet that big, so you were 4 hours before you could get on the ground. Good news is that there were 3 doctors on board and they got her stable. They got her off the plane as soon as we landed, so here's praying she and the baby are OK. Once we got to Seoul, I met DF and we took a 4 hour bus trip to Gwangju and then the craziest 20 minute taxi to Naju. Traffic lights are merely a suggestion here. They just honk and shine their lights when they are going to run the light. Police don't enforce that here apparently. Our driver was flying too, so we made it fast. If we took the normal non-stop bus to Naju, it would have taken 45 minutes to get there, but we got in so late that they were done driving that route for the night. About 1 AM Korean time, I was able to finally get to sleep. I slept until about 8AM this morning.

Right now I'm watching the CNN world news in English. There are a few English TV channels here DF says, so maybe later I'll flip the channels. Right now though, I want to finish unpacking and go take a shower. I feel like it's been ages since I have had a bath already and it's only been about 35 hours or so. Oh well :oP

Pictures tomorrow.

Knit on...