Hong Kong

View from the condo

I wouldn't really say that I felt like I was in China SO much. Hong Kong is a very international city. I went to visit one of my oldest and dearest friends Julie who was visiting her sister and family who is living there. They are there because her husband works for PWHC and is on an assignment in Hong Kong for 2 years. They just had their second baby about 3 weeks ago! So while I got to see Hong Kong, I also got to spend some time with good friends and little ones.
Friday morning Jules and I woke up early and took a bus from Stanley to downtown Hong Kong, aka Central. Then we took a ferry to Lantau Island to see the world's largest Buddha!

View from ferry
Big Buddha

Pretty incredible. We spent time walking around the little Buddha/monastery town until it began to downpour. I mean, the kind of rain that makes you laugh hysterically because it is so strong that your umbrella is inside out and you just look ridiculous. (I'll leave those pics out)

Friday eve we do dinner in local Stanley which reminds of a casual Lincoln Parky-area with cute restaurants and bars...except that it is on right on the beach. We eat some delicious pasta at the Boathouse! Later that eve I experience my first STELLA in Asia. It tastes like sweet sweet paradise. :)
Saturday we awake to straight up' cats and dogs' raining. Such a bummer seeing as the condo that I'm staying at is right on the beach, with a pool, tennis courts, country club, etc. Although it is quite nice relaxing in this lush condo, we decide we must brave the rain. So we go into Central to eat some Dim Sum. Umm--yumm?! Chinese style dumplings with anything and everything you can imagine inside. Fresh meat, veggies, and sauces of all sorts. SO good. It's funny because they sit us at a table with about 6 other Asians and we really have no idea how to eat the dim sum. So after some laughter at our expense, a couple of them explain to us which dumplings to eat with which sauce.
As I said, Hong Kong is international in that almost everyone speaks English. You see just about as many Westerners as you see Asians. There are phenomenal shopping opportunities. Somehow I am able to contain myself and I only purchase one pair of shoes--wedges that is. Oh and a couple souvenirs of course.
Oh yeah--we also opt for reflexology--because what could be better than having someone rub your feet on a rainy day?!
We head back to the condo only to prepare for the long night ahead as the US game is on at 2:30am on Sat. evening. Central is packed. It's actually a bit overwhelming.
The streets remind me a bit of San Fran with its steep hills. We watch the first half of the game at a bar and then head home to watch the second half. Boo for losing US of A!!

Sunday we lounge and have a nice family dinner at the American Club. This umbrella accompanied me the entire trip

Later that I evening I take my hour cab ride back to the Hong Kong airport to await my flight "home." I feel such a mixture of emotions. After having this great vacation in Hong Kong, I feel a bit lost, and lonely as I return "home" to Seoul...which I guess is my home for now...but feels nothing like the home that I know so well back in Chicago.

World Cup

There are reasons to be excited about the World Cup whilst in Korea. The main one being that I essentially have two teams to cheer for! Being part of the Korean kickoff game vs. Greece in downtown Seoul at City Hall was quite the experience. The soccer fever over here was insane! Koreans love them some soccer! I don't know if I have ever seen such proud fans. It was awesome. The madness continued to intensify as Korea then made it to the final four--which is the first time any Asian team has ever done so. Dae Ha Ming Kuk!!

Amongst all of the fans at City Hall.

The USA vs. England game started at 3:30am here on Saturday. Yes, my friends and I went out to watch this game. I can't really remember the last time I walked out of a bar when the sun was all the way out. It was a decent game. Too bad England made that error that worked out so well for us. ;)

To tide us over the four hours between the Korean game and the US game we went for coffee. Low and behold we found the glorious coffee shop that is LAVAZZA. What a beautiful site to see. Mmm coffee.

Shoes.

In Korea, it is a common practice that when you enter a house, restaurant, apartment, school etc, you take off your shoes. At my school, I take off my shoes everyday. I wear "inside" slipper-type-shoes. (B you would die!) Therefore, there really is no point in wearing cute shoes to work!

When I took a trip one weekend and tied my shoes to the outside of my backpack, I got countless stares. One woman was trying to give me a bag to put my shoes in. Another man stared at my shoes for minutes on end with a look of complete confusion on his face. One guy came on the train, saw my shoes, laughed and shook his head at me, then pointed his umbrella at my shoes, then laughed again, then said, "Have a nice day!" Mal and I died laughing.

When I first arrived, I kept thinking, why do I have to take off my shoes? This seems so weird. We don't do that in the US of A. Slowly but surely it is making sense to me. If you think about it, your shoes are SO dirty. I mean SO. They go with you everywhere: the subway, public buildings, public bathrooms, restaurants--and then we wear those same shoes in our abodes!! No wonder my school and my apartment are so clean. I think I like the 'no outside shoes, inside' approach.

Teacher's Retreat

I would say that the teachers at my school work very hard and work all the time--year round that is. The CEO of my school Simon, cares deeply for his employees--and treats us very well. That being said, every year he plans a teacher's retreat, where school is canceled and all the teachers, foreign and Korean alike go spend a day and night away together.

We take a bus (that I swear is from 1907?) out to the country. Our first stop is at a park--let the games begin. First we play kickball. Then we hoola-hoop--the goal is not how long you can keep the hoop up, rather how many times can you make it go around in one minute?! Watching men hoola hoop is great entertainment. Next was basketball--yes 3 on 3. I don't think I have played basketball since I was a kid--it was SO much fun, such hard work, and I couldn't walk the next day. After that we did "Jegee" a traditional Korean game that reminds me a bit of hacky-sack. Let's just say I could only hit the "jegee" once. The last competition was long distance running (3 times around a track.) Way to save the hardest for last. My team took 2nd place overall. Not bad. Not bad indeed.



Then the bus takes us further into the country to a lovely house! I am thrilled as all I ever see are apartments. This house is on a huge lot of land, right off some water. There are cats and dogs running around. It is like a huge log cabin. First things first, the losing team starts preparing the meal. So excited to really BBQ outside!




Rice, veggies, meat, soup, and beer. All fresh
from the grill. Well--you know what I mean. Delicious dinner. Post dinner some of the group
moves inside for the evening festivities. Even in this country home, there is a setup for Karaoke. We begin singing in the main room of the house, but once it gets too late, we move to the "karaoke room." Yes, in this country house, there is a karaoke room. This room has a colored disco ball, a huge speaker system, flat screen TV, and mics galore. I fall asleep listening to some of my coworkers singing, "Dancing Queen."
Great day, great night.

The Coastal city of Busan

First vacation destination in Korea: Busan. So the third Friday in May is Buddha's birthday!! Yep--I live in a country where they celebrate Buddha's bday--pretty awes. This, in turn, means holiday for moi! Mal and I decide to take advantage of this long weekend and head down south to the lovely beach city that is Busan. I have never seen so many foreigners! You know you're LIVING in a foreign country when you do a double-take at the people that look like you.
We opt to take the Korea Train Express (KTX) down to the South-eastern most point of the country. This trek takes less than three hours because this train goes up to 220mph!! Dang. It's crazy to me that you can go from the northern most point of Korea to the southern most part in a day. Still, there is so much to see.If I may say something about the KTX--OMGLOVEIT. It is the most relaxing medium of transportation I have ever experienced. The train is spotless, you sit in a very comfortable seat, that reclines without disrupting the person behind you--genius!? You can completely relax on this trip while your view takes you through the countryside of Korea that is mountains, valleys and little villages.
Our first night in Busan we are on a mission for sushi. I mean, you come to the ocean, you want fresh, raw fish, right?! We find a place where the sushi rolls are so large it is hard to fit them in your mouth with one bite--that's what she said? Delicious but slightly awkward. Good place to go if you want to embarrass yourself.
Post dinner we find ourselves at a local bar called "Thursday Party." Sounds appropriate to me. So we have some beverages and hang out with the local foreigners. Good times.Saturday makes me realize how much A step in one direction changes everything that can happen in a day. Coincidence? Luck? Clearly, I do not have the answers. But I digress. We wake up Saturday morning to pouring rain. I'm talking London style rain. Nevertheless, we are on vacation so we must play. We decide that today would be a great day to explore one of the famous Buddhist temples in Busan--after all, it was Buddha's birthday on Friday! After waiting an HOUR for our "brunch," we head to the subway to get to the temple. I use quotations on "brunch" because although I can give it a B+ for effort, it tastes nothing like the amazing brunch you can have in the US of A. (already making a list of the meals I want upon return)

Here the day gets a bit interesting. Sitting on the slightly crowded train, a man comes up and stands directly in front of Mal and I. There is plenty of room on this train and no reason for him to stand there. He just STARES at us with the most creepy, blank, dumbfounded look I've EVER seen. I try to brush it off as in Korea we get stared at often as we look different. However, this staring is a bit extreme, and then he takes two steps and moves his body within inches of my face, basically blocking me out. So, naturally, as I feel threatened, I jump up and move to another area. Mal does the same. My heart is beating at a ridiculous rate, but the man appeared not to follow us. So we get off the train as we have to transfer and low and behold, there he is, right behind us. We are walking quickly trying to get away from him when he begins to shout at us in a vicious manner. We of course, have no idea what he is saying. I am still curious to know what was on his mind. Was he unstable? Did he hate us because we were Americans? Was he wanting to hangout with us? (If the latter is the case, I would suggest to him to be a bit less creepy when trying to meet someone.) My first reaction to this was to find someone to talk to or look for help. I see a 6'5"ish foreigner guy and I go up to him with this: "Hi do you speak English because I think we are being followed and are a bit freaked out and would love if we could just talk with you guys for a few minutes?!" And, two new friendships are born! The two guys were on their way to the Jagalchi fish market. The train is pulling up and we still were planning on our temple but the guys were like hey why don't you come with us to the famous fish market (which we were planning on for Sunday) so we say what the hell, let's dooo it!

This is a market where there are thousands of live fish in tanks. Everything you can imagine is here. You can even pick out your specific fish, clam, shrimp, octopus, etc that you want and take it in a bag upstairs and eat it at the restaurant. Talk about fresh. This is where Mal ate the raw squid.
Notice I say MAL, as I could not participate. One of the many tough women working at the market, takes the squid out of the tank, de-brains and de-organs the thing (i.e. get its guts out) by squeezing it and then she gets out her butcher knife and chop chop chop. The reason this is such a big deal is because the squid's tenticles continue to move for quite some time after it has been chopped up!! SICK. The rumor is that the tenticles can technically get suctioned to your throat and kill you. Thankfully, that didn't happen to the people I was with. I applaud them for this, however I am doing quite fine with my sushi that does not move on my plate. :D

Saturday night is another evening at a local bar, with new friends, that ends with some jumping in the ocean at about 2am. Just a bit chilly. A bit!

We wake up Sunday to the relentless rain and decide that we must go see one of the temples.


We go to Haedong Younggongsa Temple. It is breathtaking despite the rain. It is a temple built on rocks right on the ocean. Once you enter the temple grounds, you can just feel its humbleness. Most of the temple is outside and as we look at each other and laugh several times realizing how soaked we are, we decide to call it quits and head back towards the city and get ready for the KTX back to Seoul.

Although it rained for over 48 hours straight, we had an amazing time. Cannot wait to go back to this lovely beach city in the summer!!!