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It's Cherry Blossom season!

Friday 8th April, 2011

I'm feeling quite lonely without my sidekick Jenny and the weather hasn't been too charming unfortunately. So I'm feeling abit down about everything and I'm missing home too. And my dogs... and creme eggs. Hmmmm.

I woke up this morning and the streets were wet. It had been raining for the past two days and all night and it seemed cold outside. I told Daniel I really wanted to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival but only if it cleared up. The Cherry Blossom Festival is a week long celebration in the city of Jinhae (???) The town is best known as home to the world?s largest number of flowering cherry trees, or beotkkot namu (?? ??). For only a few short weeks each spring, an estimated 340,000 trees burst into a virtual sea of pale-pink blossoms. This was something I was NOT going to miss!

I love Cherry Blossom trees so much, that Daniel and I bought my mum one for her birthday a few years ago. It now lives in my front yard at home and she flourishes every spring.

While Daniel headed downstairs for breakfast, I decided to eat alittle later. I've been trying to get rid of this annoying cold I've had for a few days now, so I decided to have abit of a lay down. I dooded off, eventually waking up at 9.11am. I got up, checked my emails and then headed downstairs for a quick snack.

I came back up to my room and looked outside. It was still very much overcast, but I could see that the sun was trying to poke it's sunshine out between the clouds. I waited for around an hour to make my decision. The streets were drying up and I could feel the air was getting warm. I was going to the Festival! I quickly got ready, packed my camera and a water bottle and asked the reception girl if she could write Jinhae, Cherry Blossom Festival in Korean for me. With the note in my hand I flagged down the first cab and away he took me...

I was keen to just lay back and enjoy the 15 minute ride to Jinhae, but turns out, my cabby driver was eager to test his English speaking skills on me. Arghhh, just my luck. Turns out he, Yun Lim, studied English for 6 years all up, went to University, worked for the Coca-Cola company here in Korea and now he drives cabs for a living. Once he found out I was from Sydney, Australia, he wanted to know everything! From the Opera House to the beaches, he was not going to let me have a quiet ride. He kept complimenting me and saying how nice the girls and guys were at the beaches, you know with the 'beautiful' bodies, curving his hands as he said this. I just kept saying 'yeh, yeh' and thinking- get me out of this cab NOW....

We finally reached my destination and he pointed in which direction to walk in. We pulled over at a huge round about and there were four entry points, so I'm not too sure which way he meant for me to go in. Hahaha. Anyway. Atleast he was nice and got me here safely. With that, I said thanks and started making my way to the market stalls.
Entrance to the market stalls

Entrance to the market stalls

the big round a bout

It was still early, I arrived just after 11.30am and there were only a few people around. The first thing I noticed were the horse drawn carriages!!! My god I was happy. These were the first ever horses I'd seen in South Korea. I absolutely love horses, so this was a nice way to fill in the void of missing home. They were so cute and neighed as they stood in line to take people around. The markets here are huge and go on forever. If you like markets, you should definately come to Jinhae for the Cherry Blossom Festival. You will find every single stall imagineable. Clothes, food- sweets and fresh seafood, toys, furniture, pottery, jewellery, just to name afew. I found some interesting things- dried squid which Koreans snack on and the big pig cooking on the rotisserie. It smelt soooooo good.

horse and carriage

pig on a stick

fresh seafood

fresh seaweed

nursery

seeds and dried fruits

Food stall

wood works

I can't explain this...

As I was walking through the markets I noticed a stall that was selling South American items, such as musical instruments and art work. I walked over to have a closer look and got talking to the seller. I introduced myself and told him I was Chilean and it was nice to see something I was familiar with. Turns out he was Peruvian, living in Seoul and him and his friends put this stall up. He is a musician and would be playing a set in a few minutes. I hang around to listen to a couple of songs and watched a crowd gather to watch him. He played beautifully and made me think about Chile and home. Yup, I was really feeling home sick!
me and my Peruvian amigo!

me and my Peruvian amigo!

Balloons!!

After I left him, I continued to walk through the stalls until I reached the start of the steps, which take you up to the Janhaetap Observatory Tower. I decided to go up and see the view of the city from above. Ohhhh what a climb. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate going up stairs? After several stops (mainly to take photos, or to admire the view, that's the excise I'm using) and 365 steps later, I made it to the top, which was really just the base of the Observatory. I took about 20 minutes to get my breath back and have a good drink of water. It was beautiful. The entire observatory tower was surrounded by forest and cherry blossom trees. They also had animal sculptures just outside the entrance to the tower. I sat on a bench to just take it all in, but I was interrupted by a little girl, getting all excited and pointing into the forest. I got my camera ready, preparing myself to capture a bird, but as I zoomed in I couldn't believe it! I was looking at a little Korean Squirrel!!!! Ever since I was made aware that Korea had squirrels, I was dying to see one and here, today, my prays had been answered. I just couldn't believe it. I clicked away and just stared at this little guy. He looked more bad-ass then his American counterparts. He was a darker brown colour and had spiky little fur on his head, almost like a mohawk. He was just the cutest thing ever! I can truly say my stay in Korea is now complete. Just as he magically appeared, my little furry friend, made a quick getaway, climbing and jumping the trees like a little acrobat. He totally made my day.
View from down the bottom of the Observatory Tower

View from down the bottom of the Observatory Tower

The tower seems so far away...

That's right, 365 steps!!

Cherry Blossoms at the tower

Animal sculptures

My little squirrel- Looks like a punk with his mohawk!

As I stared at the Observatory Tower, I was really hoping there was an elevator to reach the top. As I walked inside, with my fingers crossed, voila!!! I saw an elevator. I happily pressed the up button and waited. It didn't take long to reach the 8th floor. You could go higher, but you would have to use the steps. I stepped outside onto the balcony and my gosh, what a view. You could see the entire city of Jinhae and beyond I reckon! The day really cleared up and there was only a slight breeze, which made it very comfortable to be so far up. I was able to take some amazing photos of the view. Walking up the stairs was definately worth it. To go back down, you could either take the sky carriage or walk back down the same way. I decided to walk. I was on a roll and going down is always easier then going up!
The Observatory Tower

The Observatory Tower

View of Jinhae City

Second view of Jinhae City

Third view of Jinhae City

Once I was back down, it was around 1pm and lunch time was long over due! I didn't know what to have! there was way to much food to choose from. I settled on a corn stick. I love having these back home, but they seem to taste different here in Korea. It was kind of rubbery and didn't have much taste to it! I was a bit disappointed, but finished it anyway. As I got up ready to leave, I saw that the police officers were gathering together to have a meeting. I assumed they were getting ready to patrol the streets and keep the crowds in check. A mini concert had started in the middle of the round about and had already attracted a decent size audience. Who knows what they were singing, but it sounded good! By this stage I was just walking around and taking photos until I spotted the coconut stand! Back in Cambodia, all I wanted to do, was drink from a coconut, but I missed out and here I was in Korea and I could complete my dream!!! I was so on to it. I went over and for W3,000 I got my sweet coconut juice, complete with a straw. After my coconut, I deserved some ice cream and so I got a strawberry cone from the Cream Fairy stall. The icecream was super soft and fluffy- yum, yum, yum! So far I was having a great day. I was seeing some great and wonderful things. It's amazing how much fun you can have on your own.
my rubbering corn stick

my rubbering corn stick

me and my coconut juice!

I bought cookies form here 3 packets for W5,000

The market stalls under the Cherry Blossoms

The Police having their meeting

I was getting ready to go home, so I started heading to the Jinhae Train Station. I figured there would be cabs waiting on hand. Before the crossing, there was another South American band playing some native music. It was beautiful. They had flutes, whistles, drums and rain sticks and wearing their native costumes. I had a moment of 'where am I??' I was confident I was in South Korea, but at the Cherry Blossom Festival I had seen more South American food and acts than what I expected to!! Totally unexpected, but so good. Although I was missing home, to be able to talk to people from my country and speak in Spanish was as good as being home with my family. I watched them play and afterwards I went over congratulated them on a great set. They were so lovely and I learnt that they were from Ecuador and had been living in South Korea for the past two years. They travelled around the country doing festivals and show casing their talents. I soon said my goodbyes to them. I had an absolutely wonderful day in Jinhae. I totally recommend visiting Jinhae for the Cherry Blossom Festival. (Spring- April 1 to April 10,
annually)
Los Ecuatrianos

Los Ecuatrianos

Cherry Blossoms!

When I got back to the hotel, I had a package waiting for me from my mum. My day just got better and better. Love you mum! x
more Cherry Blossoms

more Cherry Blossoms

and more...

Hello from Jinhae x

my surprise package from mum! x

It's Cherry Blossom season! remains copyright of the author Two Otters, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Busan e-FM Week 8: Korean Food and Pizza

About 'Open Mike in Busan'

Introduction

There’s no avoiding it – I’m finally going to talk about some of my food experiences in Korea. So today’s topic is Korean food... and pizza.

Pizza

While I’ve been here I might have eaten Korean food, but I’ve also been on a quest to find good pizza – and it’s difficult. Basically pizza is meant to be like the three colours of the Italian flag – white cheese, red sauce, and green herbs. Most of the pizzas I seem to get are just the white cheese with toppings – the sauce is this millimetre thick layer of watery liquid, if it exists at all, and forget about the herbs.

My wife explained to me that this is how Koreans like it, but it’s a shame for me. It’s like garlic bread from shops – it’s not really real garlic bread, but the Korean version of it – which is always sweet and surgery. I think for some foreigners like me pizza is quite important – it’s our equivalent of kimchi. Well, my equivalent anyway.

Kimchi

I’m going to be honest about this, even if they take my visa away. I don’t really like kimchi. I’ll tell you what it is. When I was really young, we had school dinners. Times were pretty hard – the UK had just had an IMF bailout and people were only working three days a week. So they fed us a lot of cabbage, which I guess was cheap. I got really sick of it, and the smell. Now I know that kimchi made with cabbage is only one type, but every time I see it, it reminds me of those awful lunches at school.

In fact I find Korean food smells radically different to what I’m used to in England. Sometimes I just hide in my room. The first time my wife bought kimchi back in England from a Korean store... well, I opened the fridge the next day and it just hit me – I was so shocked. I couldn’t believe anything could smell that strongly. That was my first introduction to Korean food. But I learned that, compared to food in England, people in Korea like strong smells and flavours.

Versus bland English food

English food is traditionally blander, but food in England has become quite multicultural, especially in the last thirty years. We have a lot of Italian influences in our diet such as pizza, pasta and risotto, Chinese food is very common, and the city where I grew up is famous for its curries because of the large South Asian population. Not all of it is bland, but often it’s about appreciating more subtle flavours.

I’ve found that when a lot of Koreans try that sort of food, they say it has no taste at all. I think that’s why almost every pizza restaurant I’ve ever been to in Korea feels the need to have Tobasco Sauce on their tables. I love ham and pineapple pizza, but when my brother-in-law tried it he said it had no taste. There are some Korean noodles in a packet, and they are just about the hottest things I can eat, but my brother-in-law says they aren’t hot or spicy at all.

Versus Mike

I eat some Korean food. I think that for me it’s an acquired taste, and I’m still acquiring it. But in one way Korean food is always going to be difficult for me, because I have a medical condition – Meniere’s Disease – which means I have to eat a low-sodium diet. In other words, I can’t really eat too many salty foods.

I just read in the 조선일보 [Chosun Ilbo] the other day that according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Koreans consume three times more salt in their diets than is recommended. Of course, you have to have some salt in your diet, but if I were eating that much, the chances are I’d be really unwell a lot of the time. So the reality is, I’ll never really have a typical Korean diet, if that means eating a lot of salt.

So what I eat here is a fusion of Western, Korean, Chinese and other food. When we go out I’ll usually eat at one of those large foreign restaurant chains, American fast-food places, Korean 식당 [small diners/restaurants] like Gimbab Nara, Chinese and Japanese restaurants, that sort of thing - but not so much those big Korean family restaurants, which serve more traditional food, because I still find those difficult.

Eating culture

The eating culture here is quite different from England. I was quite surprised at first by the shared dishes in the middle of the table, because it didn’t seem that hygienic. As a foreigner, I’m more used to just having my food on one plate in front of me. And I find there’s a lot of etiquette involved with food too. For example, once I made a terrible cultural mistake with chicken.

You see, English people really value chicken breasts – the darker meat on the legs and elsewhere is less valued. So when I was eating chicken with friends a few months after I came here, I kept picking out the legs thinking I was leaving the best meat for everyone else. Then, afterwards, I found out that it’s the other way round with Koreans. So there I was, taking all the best meat, which must have seemed very rude. It’s a shame I didn’t become a vegetarian before coming here, which I was thinking of, but it just seems impossible in Korea.

Fish heads and live food

I’m not really a big fan of eating meat these days, and like a lot of English people I don’t really like food that looks obviously dead either, and really not things that are so fresh they are still moving on the table. Actually, even if there are just fish-heads staring at me on the table, or a food smell I find unpleasant, I find it difficult to eat my own food, which is a problem here.

I find dead fish staring at me all the time – in the sink, in pans, in the freezer. Once I even found them in some nuts I was eating in the dark. I was pretty horrified that I’d been eating them. I thought now that we’ve got lots of pet fish it might be different, but when I asked my wife about the little dead fish on the dinner table and their similarity to the the contents of our aqariums she was horrified - “But this is food and those are pets!” she said. I’m kind of surprised at the ethical side of eating food here.

You see, a lot of people – like my wife and mother-in-law – are Buddhists. I suppose I was strong, but I always believed that meant not harming living things. But, for example, when my brother-in-law caught a big fish and brought it home, my mother-in-law was going to cook it alive, and I can’t understand that. As it happens, she eventually decided not to because she was going to a big temple the next day, so she just let it died in the bowl instead. I suppose that’s better, but it’s not what I expected of Buddhists when I came here. I see these fish and crabs packed into these little bowls or tanks on the street, and that makes me sad, although at least I’ve seen the crabs defend themselves.

The food fights back

I haven’t been the victim of an aggressive crab attack. But my mother-in-law had bought crabs so fresh that they were still moving in the sink as she was pulling them apart. Then she shouted for me in a panic – one of the crabs bit her finger and wouldn’t let go. I’m afraid I looked at her as if to say “Well, what do you expect me to do about it?”; I have no experience with crabs. She managed to get it off and the cut wasn’t too bad, but yes, I learned in Korea you have to be careful, because sometimes the food fights back...

Links
Busan e-FM
Inside Out Busan

Air date: 2010-12-15 @ ~19:30

—

Busanmike.blogspot.com

Twitter: @BusanMike
YouTube: /BusanMikeVideo
Flickr: /busanmike

Rant and Rave 5: How many fingers…?

It’s funny how something I see every day here in Korea stirs memories of primary school in England. During that time, my days sitting at the back of the classroom were numbered as it became harder and harder for me to read what the teacher was writing on the board. My difficulties were not really noticed until my first visit to an optometrist. It was there I was diagnosed with mild astigmatism and recommended that I needed aid in the vision department. To me, having my eyesight corrected was nothing short of a miraculous opening up of the world. Suddenly, I could fully enjoy growing up in the heyday of Thundercats, Grotbags, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and other such delights that I considered to be the finer things in life. So, to sport my affections, I chose a pair of tortoise-shell blue frames for my first glasses.

On the sides of these frames were small pictures of the TMHT Raphael (named by a giant talking rat after the famous renaissance painter). However, it was not until I got to school that I realized that whilst many of my fellow pupils shared my love for the four green heroes they did not have the same taste in fashion accessories as I did. Mocking ensued and it was not long before I attempted to scratch off the green turtle with the red bandana. But to no avail. Recklessly uncaring, I played sports with those glasses on, I fought with them on, and they were dropped, thrown, dumped and stepped on during my younger days. Finally it was not my destructive attempts that won me a new pair of sight enhancers but rather they no longer fitted properly. So, they were replaced with a huge pair of eighties’ gigs.

Then the troubles began. As a ten-year-old of above average-height, the glasses I had to wear were big enough for a giant. Now at middle school, with kids coming into puberty and bigger guys and bullies I was introduced to a whole host of new words; Biggles, four-eyes, geek as well as other equally unimaginative sobriquets. Not surprisingly, this made me angry and more fighting followed.

By the time of grammar school (13-16) I had a reputation for not taking insults lightly but, more importantly, I was more comfortable with myself and I also wore a less confrontational pair of optical aids.

Roll on five years and I start wearing contact lenses and rarely use glasses. Another set of years roll by and I’m here in Korea getting laser eye surgery. Today, I’m looking at this computer screen with better than 20/20 vision.

What does this have to do with Koreans and Korea? Here, every day, I get flashbacks of my early days at school. This sorry condition is brought about by constantly seeing people wear those 80s style glasses as part of their image. Indeed, so desperate are they that many wear just the frames without lenses. They are choosing absurdity purely to be part of the scene. As a kid I don’t believe I ever had a real choice but I quickly discovered the meaning of absurdity and also the troubles that come with it.

auto accidents involving pedestrians? Punish the pedestrians

My wife and I are a mixed-race couple and once,when we were dating, we were walking at the end of the day and she said, “Too many stares.” I let go of her hand and gave her some room. Then I realized, she had said, “Stairs.”

In our part of Seoul, there were crosswalks but there were also underpasses and pedestrian bridges. Quite often, at the sidewalks, the crossing period was much less than the respective green light for automobiles.

I am reminded of all that in hearing a suburb of Buffalo will supply flags for pedestrians to wave while crossing the streets.

Starting around June 14, the village will place buckets containing small colored flags at three Main Street crosswalks that pedestrians will be encouraged to wave to alert approaching vehicles they want to cross.

…

Statistics do not indicate a problem with vehicle crashes involving pedestrians in East Aurora, but officials don’t want to wait until there is.

“It’ll be great to be out in front on this with crosswalk safety, and it’ll hopefully spread to other communities,” Village Trustee Libby Weberg said. “We’ll see how things go and how effective it seems to be.”

…

But just as East Aurora is prepares for a trial run of the flags, Hudson Falls is leaning toward phasing them out. Police Chief Randy Diamond said the program has not helped reduce car-pedestrian accidents…

I love that the city officials don’t see a problem with current accidents stats but also want to see if the flags will be effective. I wonder how they’ll do that.

hat-tip to Tom Vanderbilt.

—

Scenes from a movie on Geoje Island

As Steve and I recalled our trip to Geoje Island, we compared it to scenes from a movie. We made the comparison to movie scenes because it was a really fun day, effortless, carefree, and seemed almost too perfect to be real.
Scene 1: Steve and I wait outside Dunkin Donuts in Gimhae for Sally (our co-worker) and her boyfriend (Sunshine) to pick us up. We have only had about three quick lunchtime conversations with Sally and are now planning to spend the entire day with her and her boyfriend. They pull up to the meeting place and enthusiastically wave at us and smile. We get in the car and begin our 1 hour and 30 minute journey to Geoje Island. On the way we chat non-stop and eat birthday cake (from Sunshine's birthday the night before) with chopsticks by passing the container around the car. We arrive at Geoje Island, via a newly built underwater tunnel which you can read about here.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/12/14/2010121400955.html

Scene 2: We stop for lunch at a chicken restaurant and eat a delicious marinated chicken stir fry and fried rice (cooked at our table) with Sally, Sunshine, Hero, and Song (Sunshine's friend). They all speak flawless English and we eat and laugh and enjoy some delicious food.

Scene 3: We head to Pebble Beach. Sally says, "let's play a game and throw pebbles into the sea and see who can throw theirs the farthest". We all do this and smile and laugh, as if we are young kids again. We take many photos and we all look genuinely happy in these photos.
Photos with real smiles.

Scene 3: We take a very scenic drive up winding hills and pass beautiful flowers of yellow and pink. Some cherry blossoms are in bloom and to our left is the ocean and mountains in the distance. We arrive at Windy Hill. We begin our walk to the top of the hill where the windmill sits. Along the way, Korean grandmothers are selling snails and other delights. Sally stops to try a snail and then buys a bag for us to eat. We walk to the top. It is extremely windy on Windy Hill (hence the name). We all laugh and smile as we snap many photos and put our arms out to the side as if we were flying like the seagulls. We joke that Steve is "seagull man". I smile so much that my face begins to hurt. I feel really really happy to be having this experience and I think the other three do as well. We sit beneath the windmill and eat our bag of snails. Sally shows us how to jab the toothpick into the shell and twirl their long bodies around the toothpick and pull them out. They are salty and chewy and taste like the sea. We eat them as we look out over the beautiful sea. It is amazing. "We can see the sea". Steve and I eat our first sea snails, beneath a windmill on Windy Hill, overlooking the sea.

Scene 4: We stop off at one more vista point and climb rocks that look like stairs and shelves. We take in the view and the salt air and take many more photos. We drive to Busan to have dinner and drinks. We eat Korean BBQ and go to a bar called Thursday Morning. We can see 'diamond bridge' and the ocean during dinner and drinks. We talk and laugh as though we have been lifelong friends. Sunshine drives us back to Gimhae and Sally finds us a cab and insists on talking to the driver about giving us a good price. It was a wonderful day. It is one of my happiest and best memories of Korea. I think that we have found really good friends in Sally and Sunshine and it was so nice to hang out with another couple. I hope that we can have many more days like this one.

—

teaching english in korea.
blogging here: www.teachingintherok.blogspot.com

Chinese root of the day: 用 (용)

용 (yong) (用) means "to use" and is a very common root in Korean. However grasping the small differences in meaning between the different words that use 용 can be quite tricky. Here's a small list with some explanations. The Korean words given in parenthesis after the definition are words that share the same chinese root as the defined word.

이용
이롭게 씀
to profit from, to employ well, to take advantage of

사용
물건을 씀
사람 따위를 부림.
to use things. to employ people

이용 and 사용 are probably the two more common words on this list especially in their verbal "-하다" form (사용하다, 이용하다). They're usually both translated as to use, although it seems that 이용하다 conveys an idea of profit which is not implied by 사용하다.

고용
품삯을 주고 사람을 부림
to employ and give wages to someone

공용
공적으로 씀
to use in common. for public use. (공공: public)

과용
지나치게 씀
to use excessively (과다: excess)

관용
관습적으로 쓰는 것
something used customarily. (관습: custom)

군용
군사 목적에 쓰이는 것
something used with a military objective (군사: military)

무용
to be useless

대용
대신으로 씀
to use instead of something (대신: instead)

시용
시험적으로 써 봄
to use as a trial (시험: trial, test)

실용
실제로 씀
to use practically (실제: practice)

외용
먹거나 주사하지 않고 몸의 겉에 씀
to use on the surface on the body instead of ingesting or injecting.
= to use externally (medical)

유용
쓸모가 있음
to be useful (쓸모: usefulness)

—

www.daily-korean-stuff.com

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Busan e-FM Week 7: Pets and Pet Rescues

Introduction

For this week on Busan e-FM, I thought I’d talk about how I ended up becoming a serial pet owner in Korea, even though I never intended to. So this is all about pets – and pet rescues.

Snakes...

My brother-in-law owned a snake – I’m not going to end up finishing this story as a snake-owner by the way – so he went away for a job, and that left my mother-in-law feeding it... with hamsters. But while cleaning the room she’d unplugged the snake’s tank, and the cold made it very sick, so it stopped eating – leaving the last two hamsters running around over it. I gathered this was bad, because it’s an ancient Korean belief that snakes sort of protect the places they live in.

But, in the end my brother-in-law said we should give it away to a specialist who could nurse it back to health. So I carried it... on the subway... in a bucket covered by newspapers, but it was still visible in people actually looked. It wasn’t exactly a small snake either – it was a bull python.

I imagine the other passengers were a little surprised. You know, I feel I play the role of the strange foreigner here, but sometimes I get to be even stranger than that. I’m honestly not sure if people just look at me and think “Well, he’s a foreigner.” Does that make it OK? Or is it worse? I don’t know.

...and Hamsters

So once the snake was gone, I was left with its food – the hamsters. And it turned into a major operation – buying separate cages because they fought each other, two lots of bedding and everything they needed. We tried our best but one died six months later, and the other died while we were back in England. But by this time we had another pet – a dog – and that was also unintended, because it was sort of a rescue situation.

The dog rescue

Some friends of ours got a puppy. It was separated from its mother after 15 days. My family always had a pet dog when I was growing up, and I though that was really terrible – the recommendation in England is around 10 weeks as a minimum. Maybe it’s different in Korea though. Anyway, he was five months old when we saw him, and it was clear he had serious behavioural problems. Our friends were busy with their jobs, and it was their first dog so they didn’t really know how to cope with him, and he wasn’t house-trained.

I wondered if that was more common in Korea than England; there isn’t such a long history of having pet dogs here, so people don’t know what to do. Our friends wanted to give their dog away, but we weren’t really interested because we were planning to go back to England – although we had wondered about getting a dog for my mother-in-law to keep her company. But, after we saw our friends’ dog, we had to take him with us immediately.

This came as a surprise to my mother-in-law

I don’t know what we would have done if my mother-in-law hadn’t liked him, but she did. So then we had a dog. He was a real nightmare at first – he bit me a couple of times, and once bit my mother-in-law quite badly – she had to go to hospital. Fortunately she still wanted him, so when we left Korea she was happy to keep him, despite his problems.

He’d improved when we got back, but his temperament isn’t perfect and I think we have to accept that it never will be. Personally, I don’t think you can separate puppies from their mothers at 15 days and not not expect long-lasting trauma from that, but maybe that was always going to be the way he is.

Another dog rescue

Then there was a second dog rescue. One day I was sat at my desk, and cars kept sounding their horns outside. This went on for several minutes. So I looked out, and even though I was 15 floors up, I could see there was what looked like a cat walking around the six-lane highway below us. Cars were weaving around it, doing sudden stops – it was chaos. I watched for about a minute, and nobody seemed to be doing anything, so I rushed down, and when I got down to the road I saw it was actually a dog. But how do you rescue a dog from the middle of a busy highway, you know – in Busan – where the way people drive is always very... exciting.

Apparently the way to do it is that you risk your life, run out into the middle of the road, and try to grab the dog in as friendly way as possible while cars speed by you on the road.

This didn’t work. He growled at me, and after being bitten by the first dog we’d rescued, I was a bit more cautious than I used to be. I gave up, and finished up following him down the road for about half a mile looking for a better opportunity. I wondered if people were thinking ‘that crazy foreigner has lost his dog’, and someone even asked “is he yours?” So I felt like the police were going to tell me off if they turned up. But by this time my mother-in-law had arrived, so I told her to phone the police – I figured that the dog was a danger to traffic, so they should get involved.

119 is the Korean emergency number

But the police weren’t called. This highlights one of those language problems I have. I kept saying to he ‘경찰. 전화.’ [Police. Phone]. Finally I thought she’d understood – but then she said “일 – 일 – 구. 일 – 일 – 구.” [1-1-9. 1-1-9.] I just looked at her so then she made the numbers with her fingers. Then I had to tell her “한국말 못합니다.” [“I can’t speak Korean”]. I can’t phone the police... obviously. Then she understood – but she still didn’t call them. It was incredibly frustrating.

Fortunately we did manage to rescue the dog in the end. He came off the road and we cornered him in an alleyway, made friends, and took him to a local vet where the owner found him. So the the story had a happy ending, and we didn’t have to take in another dog.

And after the snake, hamsters and dogs...

And then there were the fish. That’s another aspect of Korean culture. We’d bought insurance and the agent – who is a friend of my mother-in-law – gave her some fish with the words “I hope you can bring me some more clients”.

I find there’s often this blurred line between friendship and business here. So she had to take the fish, although she liked the idea of having them. But because of another language misunderstanding, she gave them to me because she thought I wanted them – which I didn’t. The fish bred quickly before we learned how to separate them, so now I have three fish tanks, and my mother-in-law has a fourth. It’s incredibly time-consuming looking after them.

So I really don’t want to gain any more pets in future. Of course, next time I see a dog running around on the highway outside, I’ll be out there again trying to rescue it – and if we don’t find the owner, what can I do? Perhaps it’s my fate in Korea to accumulate pets.

Links
Busan e-FM
Inside Out Busan

Air date: 2010-12-08 @ ~19:30

2011 Dadaepo Marathon, 5k, 10k, half marathon

http://busan.cityawesome.com

Visit the BusanAwesome Facebook page (and like it please!)

Summer beach season is quickly approaching. That means it’s time to get off your lazy butt and get in shape. There’s no better way to do this than by training for the Dadaepo marathon. That’s kind of a misnomer. All races in Korea seem to be called marathons. There’s not actually a full marathon happening, but there is a 5k, a 10k, and a half marathon.

I’m not sure when the deadline for registration is, but they’re usually about a month before the race. To be safe, probably get signed up before April 22nd.

The registration page is all in Korean, but don’t worry, Kylene MacKillop, the fearless leader of the “Waeguks Got Runs” Busan running group, has provided detailed instructions to help you register. Join this facebook group to keep updated on all sorts of upcoming races and running events in and around Busan.

It looks long and complicated, but it really isn’t. Just very detailed. You can do it!

http://www.kookjemarathon.com/

1. use internet explorer
2. Roll over the 2nd tab across the top and click on the 4th sub-tab that pops up
3. click the i agree box
4. directly below are 2 options left is korean right is foreigner
5. Write your name as you want it to appear on your bib (but it’s much simpler if you write it in whatever form your bank account is registered in .. make sure they match eng-eng or kor-kor)
6. Alien #
7. Male (left) Female (right) and press the next button
8. on the next page you should see a space for your postal code and a grey box to the right. click on it. You have to enter the name of your ‘dong’ in korean. For example, mine is Danggam 4 Dong and I would enter 당감4동
When you click the button to the right, it will give you a list of all the apartment complexes in your dong and you have to find yours. once you do, highlight it and press the button directly below it. then they will give you a line where you enter the more specific information like building and apartment numbers. If i lived in building 123 and apartment 456, I would write 123 동 456호. press the button directly below and it will automatically enter all the info into the main page.
9. Land line and cell phone (enter your cell twice if you don’t have a land line)
10. pick your course in order of half, 10k, and 5k
11. pick the size of your shirt from 85 to 110
12. Next it will show your name how you wrote it on the first page. This name MUST match your bank account so if your name is in korean on your bankbook, write it the same way here.
13. Last is email and press submit
14. It will show you a review page and press complete.
15. You have 2-3 days to transfer your money so just do it quickly and send it to any of these accounts:
부산은행 (Busan Bank) 125-01-001623-6
농협 (Nonghyup) 942-01-205403
국민은행 (Kookmin) 131-01-0008-276

So now that the hard stuff has been done for you, you just need to sign up and get running!

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