This weekend I travelled to Busan with some friends. We wanted to get out of Seoul before class gets difficult so we cancelled our weekend promises and went. We stayed with a Korean family who are related to my friend (the pic on the left is of my friend, the Korean son, and me in blue). I’ll tell you about my trip with pictures.

20060227 Busan collection
This is a set of random pictures from the weekend. It includes pictures of and from the apartment we stayed in, the local area, a market, Busan station and some random close-ups.

20060227 Busan Temple
So the first day, after a typically huge Korean breakfast, we headed out to a temple a little up on a mountain. It was really nice to see the traditional design again and wander around where the monks live. It was funny seeing some of the old style buildings with satellite dishes and the like; a true clash of times. It was a particularly impressive set of temples helped by the wonderful scenery.

20060227 Busan mountain temple
Soon after we headed further up the mountains to where some monks lived. Again there were homes built in the style of the neighbouring temples. It’s quite a sight. Also this set includes pictures of the scenery on the way up the mountain. We saw all sorts of animals we hadn’t ever seen before. The young girl is the daughter of the family we stayed with.

20060227 Busan beach
After the temples, we went to the beach. Unfortunately the weather was gloomy and kind of wrecked the beach’s glory. However, I was happy because I really wanted to see the sea. In Wales I can nip down to the coast whenever but from Seoul to the coast is much more of a trek. When the rain came we sat in a coffee shop with a sea view.

20060227 Busan fish
The following day we headed to some of the fish markets and witnessed some seriously fresh fish. It was a little uncomfortable watching the fish suffer and awaiting their fate as a meal or waste. It was an incredible site though. It’s the first time I’ve been to a fish market. We decided to eat in the area since we were there. My friends wanted to eat raw fish but I couldn’t face that so I ate some fried fish. It was very tasty.

20060227 Busan heights
After wandering around downtown and a consumer market we headed up a large hill onto a mountain with wonderful views of the city and the bay. There were many pigeons flying around which reminded me of home a lot. We checked out an art gallery too but I couldn’t take pictures there. After the trek back down the hill we headed to the station to catch the train that would take 5.5hours. A tiring but fun weekend.

20060219 Reunion
It was nice to meet up with my classmates from last term. First we went to a public bathhouse and had a long session enjoying the various baths and saunas. The green tea bath was interesting. Then afterwards we went for drinks and food. The pictures are from then. It was low light so was hard to get a decent shot. The shot on the left is how a lot turned out from some bad camera shake. So I only uploaded the half decent ones.

20060217 Underground bar
This is a set of pictures from my favourite bar in Seoul. The bar is in the basement of a building and some of the walls hold large African influenced artwork. Behind the bar is a wall of indie-rock vinyl and CDs. The bar staff and owner are great people, they stock a wide variety of beer, keep the snacks coming and the candle burning. The tables are made from old sewing machine desks and the decor has a lot of stone work. It really is a great atmosphere. These pictures are of me and a few friends who went out for a beer after a hard week in school. There is a kind of light/candle theme throughout the pictures.

I uploaded a couple more sets of photographs.

20060212 Exam aftermath
The night after exams finished we went out for meat and soju. Of course I can’t eat meat so I settled for rice and vegetables. The staff made me some tofu soup when they saw I wasn’t eating meat, which was very nice of them. Afterwards we went to a bar for beer. That wasn’t the best idea, the next day we all felt the aftermath of mixing soju and beer. It makes your stomach feel like hell. At least we all made it into school though.

20060211 Further odds and ends
This set has pictures of crazy art, studying in Minto’s, my good friend Min-Yong’s birthday, surprise snow, my language partners, me in fake glasses, my teacher after I gave her flowers, and finally the park after the snow stopped.

Hard week. Exam week. Yep. I had exams until Thursday and got the results today. I passed comfortably except listening which was a little low. I need to start reading aloud more so I get used to the sound of the vocabulary not just the way the voice in my head pronounces them. The teacher had a word with me after class. She said that my speaking was excellent but I have no confidence. She doesn’t understand why I don’t speak more. She said if I relaxed, use the language as I do in class and with my friends I would improve considerably.
Most of the Western students are in a slower classes because the language is hard for them but I’m in with the Asian students. It’s hard for me because in Wales I passed exams without really studying and then I majored in design so again I didn’t need to study. Everything was visual thought. Now that I’m in a place that I have to study, it’s quite a shock. The teacher explained to me that I would find it considerably more difficult than my classmates because in their home countries they would be required to study a lot harder in high school than I ever was. Three sets of exams later and I finally realise what I have to do to make my life in school easier. From Monday my new study plan will kick in and hopefully it will save me time and headaches.

Last night was pleasant. Maybe eight of my fellow students and I hit up a restaurant and then went on a mission with soju. Soju is fairly hard liquor when taken into consideration the amount of it you drink. I’m told it has 25% alcohol content. You buy bottles of the stuff and drink it from shot glasses. You never pour own drink (Korean custom) and usually “One Shot” (down the glassful) the stuff. I have a high tolerance for alcohol so luckily don’t get stupidly drunk off my face like some of the other guys. For example, some of them were pissing off a bridge onto a stream of taxis on the way home. At least there’s no violence with it like back in Wales.

Tomorrow a friend from Japan will come to Korea. I haven’t seen her since my trip to Japan so it will be great to catch up. She edits a Japanese magazine about Korean drama. I was very impressed with the design of the magazine. I could tell exactly from the design who the magazine was for and it goes further by taking chances with design usually seen outside that audience while keeping them enthralled. It was an honour to be asked for my advice for colour choices for one of the covers. Anyway, a few of us will met her for dinner and exchange recent stories. So, since this week is near an end with no extra studying to do, I’m going to take the opportunity to have a lay in.

After getting out of bed I opened my blind and to my surprise, it had snowed a lot. All weekend people were saying they are happy that this week would be so much warmer than last weekend. In a way they were right, it is warmer but it’s not something I associate with snow! Snow to me is still very much a novelty. The snow takes the colour of the land away and creates a eerie feeling of loneliness. I like the feeling of sinking into the snow with every step I take; snow falling from trees when people bump into them; children building snowmen and the expression of joy lighting up their faces.

A few days ago I took a photo of a sign that upon first site, meant to me, no trumpets. Of course, it actually means no beeping of car horns but still somewhat amusing I think.

Namsan Tower was a lot of fun. Me and Yuu-Kyong decided to take the cable car up the mountain because I had tried walking before but it took hours. The cable car was quite a joy as it shoke and swung on the cable. Yuu-Kyong was quite scared and lost her legs as she grabbed me tightly. On top of the mountain there was some Korean history to look and read about, observation points, communication towers and of course Namsan tower. The view was incredible. You could see so many of the recognisable areas of Seoul and the way the city wraps around the mountain, wasting no space as it’s built on every useable area of land.

From the tower Yuu-Kyong and I watched while day turned into night. The scenery changed too from the static white and grey shades into a array of artificial light emitting from the buildings and traffic. It was quite a change. We sat in silence and enjoyed a view that man created. Have a look at the pictures here.

Seoul life continues to be enjoyable but as busy as ever. I’m getting a lot from this gap year. For example, I’m starting to realise what needs to be important in my life and what I can do to be happy in the future. I’m glad I took the chance at coming to Korea. Maybe after I’ve finished travelling and studying I’ll get a teaching job here for a year or so. I’d like to live here as a normal life for a while to realise if I want to stay in Korea long term. We’ll see what happens after April.

I haven’t been very snap happy with the camera this last month but I did have enough photos saved up for another six sets on the photo site. Take a look. I’ll definitely take some today as I’ll be going to Namsan Tower which has a view of the whole of Seoul on a nice day. However today is cold and grey but there should still be quite a view to see.