We climbed a Mountain!...a few months ago...

So we've been busy exploring and having fun that we have sort of neglected our blog. Sorry about that.
So a few months ago we went to Geumjeongsan Mountain (금정산) and climbed the mountain to see a temple hiddne in the hills. At least it seemed like it was hidden when we couldn't find it.

We started our hike in what seemed like a fitting way by riding up the side of the mountain in a  cable car. The views were amazing and we were able to see a decent distance away. There was some smog in the air so it limited our views, but we still enjoyed the ride up.

The views from our ride up.

The cable car arriving.

I'm in a cable car.

Paul showing his manliness on a rock bridge.

We found a road that we believed would lead to the temple we were searching for, but why would we take the easy way? Instead we found a little goat trail that I would be amazed to even see a goat attempt that we thought would be more direct than the gentle winding road up to the temple. It was a great relief when the trail lead us to the temple gate. We were able to enjoy a drink of the temple water and to explore the temple.

It was amazing how large the carvings in the mountain were.

 After a bit more hiking we finally made it to the top of the mountain and enjoyed the scenery around us.

We made it to the top.

At the end of a hike you need to make sure your shoes are clean!

Finding Love at Busan Tower

Okay, so this post should have been written quite some time ago, but we must admit we have been busy over the last little while. We have been exploring new places almost every weekend, we said goodbye to one of our co-workers who is heading on a travelling adventure and welcomed a new teacher into the school and our dorm and have survived the first four days of a new school year and new semester for our school.
While we were in Nampo-dong, which we mentioned in our last blog post, we decided to "climb" a hill to check out Busan Tower.

"Climbing" the hill. Only 2/3 of the escalators were working.

Supposedly there are great views of the city from the Tower (on clear days) and it is supposed to be worth the money it costs to go up it. Of course we went on a smoggy day so decided not to venture up the tower that day.

While wandering around the tower we noticed locks, hearts and even broken hearts strung along the fence. While we don't read Korean, we were able to imagine the gist of the hearts on the fence. Star crossed lovers would profess their love on the hearts and lock it to the fence for ETERNITY...well maybe not eternity, but that is how Kendra imagined it.

Some hearts were broken, and since the couples throw the keys into the river, there is no way to remove your lock in case your relationship does not turn out, so miserable exes will go on their own and break the heart.

Since we have been together for 4 whole years we decided it was time to publicly profess our love in an artistic way, so we found the shop to buy our own hearts and a cute lock with Paul's future dog on it.  We wrote our messages, read them to each other and locked them on the fence.

After locking them on the fence I (Kendra) did not like the way they looked so we unlocked it and made it look aesthetically pleasing.

The initial attempt

The way Kendra approved of

So in case anyone is wondering, we are not engaged, we are not getting married, we are just loving our time with each other in Korea with all of the adventures we have planned.

Nampo-dong

A very busy intersection

A few weeks ago we went on another random adventure to an area we had heard of.  This time we went to Nampo-dong and explored around. This trip was more successful than our last one to Daejo. We got out of the subway station and headed to the tourist information centre. Here we found some pamphlets and brochures, mostly in Korean with a few English pamphlets in the mix.  Of course the English translation on some brochures left a bit to be desired, but we had a good laugh over them.

Walking around Nampo, where there really isn't much room for driving

Nampo is a very busy area, with an underground mall connecting Nampo station to Jagalchi station, so we wandered that area, checked out Lotte "Department Store" which is basically a mall with different designers and sections, and then wandered the street level market.

Outside the fish market

We also wen to Jagalchi Fresh Fish Market.  This is a huge, multi-level fish market with the fresh off the boat fish on the lower level and dried products and a few restaurants on the second floor. We were amazed to see all the varieties of fish available for purchase.  Ladies were showing off their octopuses and skinning live eels right in front of us.  The eels being skinned was fascinating as they would put a small nail in the head, make a small cut into the skin and pull the skin off, remove the nail and the eel would continue squirming.  There were even bags full of squirming skinned eels you could buy. Unfortunately we didn't buy anything because we had no idea how to cook it.  We will definitely return one day and bring our fresh fish to the restaurant so someone else can cook our purchase for us.

Fish being unloaded from a truck to the market

We had a lot of fun wandering the market but wish we knew more Korean so we could find out how much something cost and understand what number we are told for the price. We didn't buy anything at the market or the mall, but enjoyed our day.

Random Things

Here is a blog devoted to some of the random things we have experienced.

Escaping the rain with a Hello Kitty Umbrella.

Letting off fireworks on a Thursday night.

A sink that is at the height of Paul's knees.

Celebrating our first day of teaching (on a Monday night)!

If you have soup, these are used as a salt replacement, eyes and little legs in all.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

The view from our dorm.

Weekend Adventures???

The barbecue. You cook over charcoals at your table. Mmmmm.

So during the week we work, which means Saturdays and Sundays are the ideal time to be tourists in our new city.  On January 4 it was my birthday so we relaxed for the day and headed out for Korean BBQ.  It was delicious.

The kitten Paul got me for my birthday!!! Just kidding it
was just hanging out at the restaurant

Squid on the street!

Paul appreciating the random adventure.

On January 5 we decided to pick a train station and take the metro to that station and explore a new neighbourhood. This turned into an interesting adventure as we picked a stop called Daejeo, which is where 2 train lines intersect, so we assumed it would be a bustling neighbourhood.  Along the way we began to realize we were leaving the bustling part of Busan and most of its neighbourhoods.  We ended up in an industrial area near a very large Korea Post facility and the Probation Office.

We have left the busy city.

Not quite the wheat and canola field of home, but I guess onions are close enough.

Guard dogs: Korean Sized 

FREE TV's!!!

While this adventure did not turn out how we anticipated it, the people we live with were interested to see how our adventure went. Needless to say we can now recommend to new teachers that Daejeo is not a worthwhile place to visit, unless you like stock yards and lots full of recycling.

Hope all is well with you,
Kendra

Mystery Animal

So we currently live in the City of Busan, near Sasang, on the side of a hill/mountain. One morning on our way to work, I looked outside the hall window that looks onto the hill/mountain and saw an animal. While we were running a little late for work, I decided I needed to take a picture of this mysterious animal. Paul did what any good gentleman would do and waited for me "patiently" at the bottom of the stairs. I was excited to show him this fox/dog/raccoon/who knows what animal.

The Mystery Animal

A look at the Mystery Animal's Face

Last night as I was looking at websites I came across a picture of my mysterious animal.  It is a Tanuki!!! A dog/raccoon combination found in East Asia. I had never seen one of these animals before, but I have also never lived in or visited East Asia before either. I was excited to discover what my mystery animal was and I hope you can imagine the thrill when I saw it on the hill and online.

2014...Just the Beginning

So since moving to South Korea we have had a few adventures and interesting experiences, but have really been enjoying our time. I was recently asked by my sister what the meaning of our blog title was.  It is simply our "Korean" names, if we could even call them that.
So in Korea, and some Asian cultures, it is common for people to have difficulty pronouncing the L sound. It often comes out as an r sound, so Paul has become Paur here. It's just the way things are. As for my name, some consonant combinations do not exist or are very difficult to pronounce, which is why I have become Kendera.  It is easier to add a vowel sound into my name then it is to pronounce the dr vowel combination.
These names are who we are in Korea so we thought we would share that little story with you.

So 2014 came in with a bang... or more like a blow for us.  All of the people we live with here went out and had a good time.  We were still jetlagged and overcoming colds so we decided to have a quiet night in watching Netflix, sipping tea, and drinking cough syrup. Paul managed to stay awake until midnight and woke me up a few minutes before so we could ring in the new year. Around 12:01 we headed to bed since we had a busy day ahead of us.

On January 1st we headed to Haeundae Beach, an hour away from Sasang (our area) by subway. We were fortunate enough on our first day here to get our "Cash Bee" cards with the help from a Korean friend so we can ride the metro and city buses when we need to. At Haeundae we played "Spot the Foreigner" as we looked for a friend Paul had went to high school with. Once we found each other without the use of any technology we wandered around. We saw the market, a few restaurants and the beach.
This was the day we also realized we had no idea how to adjust the settings on the new camera so the pictures have a weird effect to them.

Haeundae Beach, January 1, 2014

After walking the beach we decided to follow a path and go for a little hike. In case you didn't know, Busan is built in a mountain range, so anywhere you walk will usually involve steep hills and a lot of stairs.
So we hiked and climbed stairs and enjoyed the views along the way.
Eventually we arrived at a lighthouse and decided to climb another set of stairs up to a temple area.

The views were beautiful and the architecture was amazing, but we were not expecting to climb that many hills. So we decided to head back down to the metro station and head over to Namcheon, the neighbuorhood where Paul's friend currently lives.

Namcheon is a nice area of the city with a lot of American style restaurants.  This area has a lot of Hagwons and there are a lot of foreigners, as we are called, in this area.  There is also a beautiful beach called Gwangalli beach. We toured around for a bit, had a bite to eat, and then headed back home. 
Below are some pictures form our adventure, and since I have written too much and a picture's worth a thousand words, I'll let you enjoy the view!

On our Haeundae hike.

Gwangalli Beach at dusk

The Gwangalli bridge during the day and evening

Leftover  New Years decorations on the beach

PUT AN EGG ON IT

Hello Everyone!

Paul here.  I am approaching the end of my first week of full time teaching.  I have finished my preparations for today so I thought to write a small post.  

Korea has been...a place...completely different from anything I have experienced previously.  I thought I would be able to compare most of it to when I was in Japan or China; but I can't.  It is a completely different culture with different norms, people, weather, air quality etc.  I haven't fallen in love with Korea as of yet.  I still seem to be more overwhelmed by everything.  I wouldn't say I am experiencing culture shock... more culture surprise!

The last few weeks have been routine, or at least what I would define as what routine would look like in Korea.  We have been exploring our new surroundings, going out for dinner and buying groceries.  Of course the images of these routine events that you may be conjuring in your head are not close to reality.  I live in a quiet neighborhood on top of a small hill (or mountain depending on who you talk to).  There are no neon lights, no loud cars or people.  It is like a quaint village that is close to a subway station that can take us into the heart of a major city in Korea.  

Grocery shopping is overwhelming, produce is very expensive...in fact I feel like anything sort of healthy is very expensive.  This has been a shock as I was told everything was so much cheaper here.  If you go shopping on a major grocery shopping day expect solicitors employed by the grocery store (or maybe a specific product) to try to coax you into buying something.  To me it seems like people were yelling at me to buy something that was completely foreign to me.  The rare occasions of clarity in a grocery store are major celebrations.  I remember buying shampoo, of all things.  The aisle with shampoo had many different types and brands but they were intermingled with conditioner (or rinse, as it is referred to in Korea).  We only needed shampoo and the brands that wrote shampoo on the bottle were very expensive.  I began looking for patterns in Korean calligraphy and slowly two characters began to appear on some of the mystery bottles of either conditioner and/or shampoo.  Suddenly it clicked and we were able to buy a middle of the road shampoo that was written completely in Korean.  It was a big deal to finally feel confident in buying something that was completely in Korean.  

This has backfired too.  When we were grocery shopping I thought I was buying sausage, but instead I bought a sausage looking coil filled with a substance that looked like clear jelly and/or putty.  I cooked it many different ways but I couldn't handle the taste.  We ended up throwing it out.

Going out for dinner has been great.  We have eaten at a ton of restaurants that would never pass a safely inspection in Canada, with gas lines running through the restaurant, open flames mixed with open liquor and tipsy people cooking raw meat.  But it works and it is magical.  I am very happy that most places have a picture of the food you can order and we have gone with very knowledgeable people.  Going out for dinner is definitely far tastier, easier and more fun than cooking at the dorms.

Korean food is sort of funny.  At least I think it is.  I seem to recount the second episode of Portlandia where the two characters are making everything trendier by putting birds on various objects while yelling "PUT A BIRD ON IT” Cooking Korean food is somewhat similar just with eggs.  What to make food Korean? “PUT AN EGG ON IT!” Soup needs an Asian flair? “PUT AN EGG ON IT!” Your beef feeling a little lonely? “PUT AN EGG ON IT!”

Talking about Portlandia, remember CACOW.  That is the text message app in Korea that EVERYONE uses… I often hear my students saying CACOW, I am amused.

Okay this blog is becoming quite long now.  I was hoping to also talk about the hospital visit I had, almost spilling my pee on an old lady, being very sick over the past few days with a sinus infection and a power inverter with no ground making our lab top computers completely useless.

Never mind I was able to squeeze it in.

An Intro To Our Blog

Hello All,
Welcome to our blog. We recently embarked on an amazing adventure and have decided to keep a blog about it to keep family and friends around the world informed.

We took a big step in our lives and moved from Regina, Saskatchewan, the giant rectangle in the middle of Canada, to Busan, South Korea. We have moved from a flat, landlocked prairie province with a population of just over a million people for the entire province, to the second largest city in South Korea located in a group of mountains on the southeastern coast of South Korea.
We have moved from the breadbasket of the world to Asia, where rice is a staple.

We have had a bit of time to adjust and adapt to our new surroundings and look forward to sharing some of our stories and experiences with you.

Enjoy!
Paul and Kendra

Looking out at the mermaid statue near Haeundae Beach