Volleyball Wednesdays!

Volleyball season has begun! So, every Wednesday at 2:30pm, all of the teachers at my school leave and drive to a neighboring school to play volleyball with their teachers! It's an elementary school tradition here in Korea! How awesome is that?! I get out of work 2 hours early and get to play with my co-workers! The best part is we always go out to dinner after at a nice restaurant and one of the older teachers always offers to pay!

This was last weeks game! Notice my Vice Principal in the middle of the court, with his leg up?! That's because in Korean volleyball, you can kick the ball!

I think it's also worth noting that there are always 9 people on each team, set up like a bingo board, and you never rotate! You stay in your position the entire game! I'm not sure what my position is called, but I'm always on the right side, in the center. The ball rarely comes to me, but I still have fun!

Back it up!

When Koreans park their cars in parking lots, they ALWAYS back them in! They're pro's at driving backwards and fitting into tiny spaces!

Day at the Derby!

Today, Aaron and I set out on a horse racing adventure! There's a horse racing track that opened in Busan in 2005, and is only a short bus ride away... so we spent the day at the races!

As a side note: Horse racing in South Korea traces back to May 1889, when a foreign language institue run by the government included a donkey race in its athletic rally... however, this type of racing was sponsored for entertainment purposes only. It wasn't until the 1920's that the betting system made it's debut!

We caught the # 7 mini-bus, where for $0.60 cents, we were driven 12 miles to the race track! Can't beat those mini-bus prices!

When we arrived near the arena, we caught the free shuttle, which took us right to the front gate! Our tickets to enter the arena were only 800 won, which is about $0.72 cents! How awesome is that?!

There's a whole area around the horse track, with entrainment for the kids... ie: machine horse rides, bike and roller blade rentals, and my favorite, sledding!

Unfortunately, I was too tall for the sledding! Being a grown up is never fun when this happens!

Aaron and I walked down to the part of the arena where they walk the horses before the race and caught an up-close and personal glimpse of the jockeys, who were, no joke, probably 4 1/2 feet tall! I'd never seen men that small in my life!

Here's one, warming up his horse.

We grabbed some chicken and found a seat outside to watch the first race! Unfortunately, neither of us were dressed warm enough for the weather! The wind was whirling and it got really cold, so we went in search for a place to sit inside!

We ended up here, at the Foreigners Lounge, which was plush with big round tables, rolling leather chairs, 3 huge TV's to watch the action, and 2 Korean hostesses who could answer all the questions we had! Talk about catering to the foreigners! We felt like a king and queen!

We were feeling pretty lucky, so we decided to do a little betting! Here's my betting card! I lost 3 times and won once! Don't worry... I'm not a big gambler! I only ended up losing about $4.00 Not too shabby for a whole day of entertainment!

This was the race where I won! YAY # 4!

I won a whole 400 won, which is about $0.30 cents! hahaha!

Thank you Red Ruby!

This is Ha Yu Nah! Her parents were sitting at the table behind us, and she came right over to play with us! She definitely wasn't shy! We ended up basically playing with her the whole time we were there! Aaron made paper airplanes with her, and I spun her around in the chair and taught her how to take pictures!

At one point, her parents went outside to bet and we noticed they had left her with us! Guess we look like pretty great babysitters! Me and Ha Yu Han

Aaron won 1 race too... a whole 600 won (about $0.53 cents)! He would have won twice, but it was my turn to hand in the betting card and the betting windows closed with one person in front of me... so his bet didn't get in on time! Sorry Aaron!

People in Busan are crazy when it comes to horse race betting! It's a whole family ordeal! They set out picnic mats and lay out all their horse racing sheets and study the stats for hours, trying to make the best gambling decision! Aaron and I just looked up at the screen and picked the horses that looked the calmest! Next time we'll probably read the stats!

After 6 races and 4 hours, we decided to head back to Busan... We caught a free shuttle bus that took us all the way back! Aaron's new phone has live TV (for free!), so we watched some Korean music videos and enjoyed the ride back home! What an awesome Sunday!

Dinner and a view!

Last night, Aaron and I went to dinner with 2 of his 3 co-teachers; Mrs Jong and Julia! We ate at a duck restaurant in Gwangalli, which is one of Mrs. Jong's favorite restaurants! When she heard that duck was Aaron's favorite Korean food, she knew she wanted to take him there! I was invited to come along for the ride, which was really thoughtful of them! I'm always a big fan of having dinner with Koreans, and Aaron too! :)

I attempted to create a panoramic shot of our table... but unfortunately I couldn't link all the pictures together, so you'll have to use your imagination!

Talk about a million choices of food to eat! I counted! There were 32 side dishes, 1 dish of duck, rice, a bean soup, a noodle soup, and kimchi chighe soup! Can you see why I'd rather go out to eat than try to cook Korean food at home! It would take me weeks to put all of this together!

After dinner, Mrs. Jong drove us up a nearby mountain! I have no idea what the name of it is, but I'll tell you one thing... It was the best viewpoint I've seen in Busan!

Aaron with his co-teachers! They absolutely love him! They said "he is a really excellent teacher" and that "he is famous at Yeongdo school!" I would expect nothing less!

A little snapshot of Aaron and I to prove I was there too!

Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival

It's April, and like clockwork, the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom here in Korea! Aaron and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and spend the day in Jinhe (1 hour by bus) for the huge world famous Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival!

I'll give you a short history lesson before I get into the details of our day... Cherry Blossom trees are native to Japan, but were brought over to Korea, and planted in Jinhae, when it was developed as a naval base of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Japanese occupation in the early 20th century. The area is said to have over 300,000 cherry blossom trees now! Thank you Japan! :)

When we first arrived, we didn't know what to expect, or where to go! So, we followed the crowds over to this huge grassy area (and by grassy, what I mean is dead grass. The stuff just doesn't grow in this country!) where a Taekwondo performance was taking place! The kids were adorable and so proud of their Taekwondo moves! Heck, if I could kick that high, I'd probably be pretty proud of myself too!

We were both starving, so we decided to go on the lookout for some yummy festival food! We started here, where the streets were lined with games, food, and handmade arts and crafts under mini white cirque du soleil style tents! Here's the infamous ballon game, which was popular with the kiddos...

and here's the "Gigantic Gun Game" for those festival goers who'd rather win a bottle of whisky than a big stuffed dog! Apparently, Koreans like stuffed dogs better, because no one wanted to play!

This table was filled with gorgeous handmade Russian matryoshka dolls! Shelly Sazdanoff, I thought of you!

Aaron is the worst person to hang out with when you're trying to eat healthy because he buys things like these... delicious pancake-like dough, with cinnamon and sugar inside, and then asks me if I want one! Which, of course, I do!

I snapped this picture of this couple sporting their couple sweatshirts for the festival! This was 1 of 5 matching couples that I spotted throughout the day.

Mmmm, pig on a spit! Aaron and I ate this in Indonesia, where it's called Babi Guling... but we were surprised to see it in Korea! It seemed to be a popular festival dish, because this was 1 of 3 that we saw.

Next on the agenda was to ride the monorail up the mountain to get a view of the cherry blossoms!

When we arrived at the base of the mountain and saw the EXTREMELY long line, we decided we'd put our legs to the test and climb the stairs instead!

The climb was gorgeous! Cherry blossom trees draped across the staircase the entire way up!

We climbed 365 stairs to the top! And yes, I did it in boots with heels!

We found this man, at the top of the hill, performing with his marionette for a crowd of cheerful koreans! I'm typically freaked out when it comes to puppets and marionettes, but this guy was awesome and very entertaining!

They had a stage with traditional Korean musicians and dancers throughout the day!

They had horse drawn carriages, driven by Korean cowboys! And for some reason they had speakers blasting fake horse whining noises!

Cherry Blossoms, in Korean, are called Poht goht. Here's a close up of a bloom!

Aaron and I at the bridge...

This is Tobi! She's 6 months old, and is sporting a cherry blossom in her hair. We took a couple pictures of her and her "mom and dad" that we e-mailed to them, since they didn't have a camera.

I'll leave you with the most beautiful picture of the whole day! Magical, huh?!