Tripping Over Culture: Part 1

Hello, hello, hello~

It's been a while hasn't it?

This post is dedicated to the first of two culture trips I went on recently. For ALL the good photos, please look at the photos link to the left of this post. There you will see my complete archive. Yeah. Good stuff.

Anyway, on the weekend of October 23, 2015, the Jeonnam POE (Provincial Office of Education) had a culture trip for all of it's TaLK scholars, just like when we went to Jeju (to read, view this link: http://blazianmochaland.blogspot.kr/2015/06/jeju-part-1-maze-mount-doom-and-pigs.html ). This time, however, we went to Kyeongsan, which is where you can find none other than the Infamous BUSAN!!!! I love Busan, definitely my favorite city in South Korea. But more on Busan later. We'll talk about how it started before.

Saya, Gretchen and I were tired because we were up all night waiting for Verbal Jint (and we saw him, and he wanted to hang out with us, but that is for a whole different post), so when we got on the bus at Gwangju's U-Square, we were out like a light for most of the 4-hour drive to Busan. Another great thing is that there were just few enough scholars so that we could have to seats, so I curled up and said "adios" to the world during the ride.

FINALLY we arrived in Gyeongju, which is about 2 hours from Busan, and we had lunch because we were all starving. We had some fish thing, dwenjang-jiggae (tofu Korean soupy stuff) and lord knows what else. It was delicious so I didn't really care what we ate. I ate with Mr. Yang, Mr. Bae, and Boyoung, all important officers in the Jeonnam TaLK POE. It was a good opportunity to show them that I wasn't as asocial as I seemed, but then again I was. Anyway, I managed to use my budding Korean skills to hold a light conversation before we resorted to using Konglish. It was a good time.

After our meal, we went to a Museum in Gyeongju where we saw a wide array of artifacts spanning the recorded history of Korea as a country, before it was even called Korea (or 대한민국, Daehan Minguk in Korean). As a lover of museums, I was enthralled by all of the artifacts and explanations. Yes, they had explanations in English too. The museum was cool because it showed the progression of technology and culture over a REALLY long time. Korea was once nearly stripped of it's culture, so it's good to know they were able to preserve their history.

After the museum, we went to a temple. Yes, another one. But hey, it was still one I've never been too. Temples are all more or less the same, the biggest differences being the location and the scenery, but it's nice to see that they are so important to Korean culture, even if there are a huge amount of Christians.

After the temple, we went to grab some grub at a local restaurant. We had this meat patty thing that was absolutely delicious with Bibimbap (a rice mix thing) and talked and drank and had a good time together before heading back to the hotel for the night.

The next morning, we went to Busan. My beloved Busan. In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and then we rushed to the bus to take that 2-hour drive to Busan. When we arrived, we went directly to another shrine/temple located on the coast whose name escapes me. I might edit this post after I find out. This temple/shrine had a line of statues that represent the Chinese Zodiac, and of course all the Monkey kids had to take a photo together.

Don't we look cute? Heeheehee.

Anyway, because it was a beautiful day and we were by the coast, everyone was in a good mood. We took a lot of pictures. There was a cliff where we got excellent shots of the ocean as well before going to the main temple. On the way to the main temple, there is a spot where you can toss a coin into a bowl inside a pond for good look. I think if you make it you had good luck in the first place, but it didn't hurt to try. I missed, but an opportunity did not go to waste.

After visiting the temple, we went to an APEC sight and checked out what was decent, taking a hike along a coast. It was hot, but the walk was mostly in the shade. Yay us. after the walk we went to lunch and had samgyupsal (삼겹살) before we were left to our own devices for the whole afternoon in Busan. We were strongly encouraged to go see the fireworks in the evening. We figured we had plenty of time to see the fireworks, so we went shopping near Busan National University before going to go find our friends and getting dinner near Gwangalli beach, where the fireworks were going to be.

If you guys want to see videos of the fireworks, please visit my photo archive. I have 3 videos.

We were out until 1 am because we met a few friends who were from different provinces, but still came to see the fireworks. We spent the night talking and having fun before going back to the bus and getting back to our hotel in Gyeongju at 3 am (we were supposed to stay in Busan, but there were complications...). I was out like a light.

The next morning was our final day. I almost didn't eat breakfast because I wanted to sleep more, but it's the most important meal of the day and I usually don't eat breakfast. But it was provided for me this time, so I thought "what they heck" and got some breakfast. The last thing we did was go to Mt. Mireuk. We had to wait to get on a cable car that would take us high up, then we had to hike up the rest of the way. Before hiking, though, we had lunch and then we waited to get on the cable car. The hike up wasn't that bad, other than me not being used to the lack of air pressure, and I was able to get some amazing shots of the surrounding area once we reached the top (really, the actual top). It's amazing, you see how small we are just from the top of a mountain.

Any-who, after that trek, we all boarded the bus and went back home to our cities (this ride was 3 hours). It was a good culture trip, and I had a lot of fun despite my lack of sleep.