He gave me flowers!

It's not what you think...

They're not from Aaron... 

Although I would never put it past him to give me a bouquet this big or beautiful!

 I was down in the teachers room today, which is also our Vice Principal's office.  Today is his last day here, and someone had brought him this gorgeous bouquet of flowers!  I stopped to gawk at them and told him how beautiful I thought they were.  The first thing he said was, "Do you want them for your classroom?!"  I told him I wouldn't dare take his gift... but he insisted!  So, now I have a gorgous bouquet of purple and yellow daisies, red roses, and purple orchids to enjoy on my desk!  Am I not the luckiest girl, ever?!

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Ummm, that's not a deer!

Stamp Happy!

Instead of signing their names, Koreans stamp important documents with their own personal name chops (dojong)!  

I love this about Korea, and have actually had 2 made for myself! The pink one was made by a machine, and the black one was actually tediously hand carved by a 70 something year old Korean man in Gukje market!

Nowadays the practice of stamping is being replaced by actual signatures... but when I go to the bank, I always have my stamp kit in hand!

  Traditionally, the name stamps used the Chinese characters (Hanja) of the person's name, but Korean characters (Hangul) have become more common now. 

This is the stamp that was made by a machine.  It says "Jill Anderson" (Or, actually, phonetically, it actually says: Jeel Un duh sun - close enough!)

... and this is the hand carved one!  It just says "Anderson" (En Dul Son)  haha

You can actually order your own personal Korean name stamp, on-line, from this online Gift Shop, or you can tell me you want one, and I'll have one made here for 1/5 of the price!  They're awesome, and now that I found the right kind of stamp pad for it, for the equivalent of 50 cents, I'm gonna start stamping everything!  :)

Saturday at Beomeosa Temple!

I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Beomeosa Buddhist Temple today!   It's one of the most famous temples in Busan, and I had yet to see it for some reason!  So, I jumped on the subway and rode 28 stops to Beomeosa!  When I got off the train, I looked at the map and realized I had a trek in front of me!  (3 kilometers to be exact - up hill!)  eeeehhh!  I started to walk up the hill and realized that this was going to be a long and hot climb!  (It was about 85 degrees and VERY humid!)  I stopped to snap this picture...

... and as I was taking it, a korean woman stopped her car next to me and asked, "Where are you from?"  I thought it was really funny that she stopped in the middle of the road to ask me where I was from!  After talking for about 45 seconds or so, her teenage daughter asked, "Can we give you a ride to the temple?" in the most perfect English I'd heard a Korean teenager ever speak!  Turns out, they lived in Malaysia for 2 years, and she became fluent during that time!  They totally made my day, and my legs were very thankful for their generosity! :)

There's a gorgeous river that runs down the mountainside, alongside the temple!  There were lots of families playing in the river and picnicing along it's shore!

I finally made it to Beomeosa after a year and a half of living in Busan!  

I loved these!  They are roof and wall tiles that patrons are allowed to purchase and write their own personal messages on.  They are on display for now, but will soon be used in the construction of future temples throughout the complex!

I just can't get enough of the temple drinking fountains!  They're all so creative in their own ways!

One of the small prayer rooms...

I have NO IDEA what this says... but I loved it!  I love carvings and writings on trees... There's something so country about!  

A lonely lantern hung in the trees near a prayer room...

Can you believe I live in a place where I can take a subway to a place this beautiful, old, and with this much history?!   If you can... Congratulations, because I still can't believe it!

He's supposed to be protecting the temple... but I'm pretty sure, by the look on his face, that I terrified him with my tiger impersonation!  I can be pretty realistic sometimes!  I've had a lot of practice, after teaching animals to elementary kids for almost 2 years!

I spent a couple hours, walking through the temple complex!  It was such a nice way to spend my Saturday afternoon!
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RESCUE 911

My apartment sits on the corner of one of the most dangerous neighborhood intersections in Busan, as far as car accidents go!  Since living here, I have seen 7 car accidents in this intersection... and those happened to have been on the days when I was actually at home.  Who knows how many more have occurred while I've been at work or away somewhere else!  Today's was one of the worst though!  I was cooking a couple minutes ago and heard a huge CRASH sound outside!  I ran to my window and saw that a woman drove right into this building, across from my apartment!  

What's worse is she was holding her infant son in her lap as she was driving...  eeeehhh!  I don't know why Koreans do this!  It's sooo dangerous!  It looked as if he hit his head on the steering wheel...  Poor little guy.

As bad as it may sound... living here is fairly exciting because of this dangerous intersection!  It's like watching RESCUE 911 out my own window!  I just hope no one ever gets hurt!