Konglish Jokes

I made up some Konglish jokes. They will only be funny if you understand and can read a bit of Korean, and also if your standard for humor is extremely low. I have been testing these on my classmates for the past week and they all want me to shut up. :)

1. What country do all the dogs come from?
개나다

2. What did the annoyed mother tell her annoying baby?
아이고!

3. What is a shepherd's favorite number?
십

4. Looking at a map of Asia, if China is a dragon, what is 한국?
꼬리야

5. What do people get at the post office every day?
매일

6. How does a cow apologize?
소 소리

7. What does oil do to bugs when you fry them in it?
기름

8. What hairstyle do you get if you want to look like the US President?
오파마

9. Where do you go if you want to put a new building in the middle of Busan?
부동산

10. What do you call a movie about rice cakes?
떡큐멘타리

Extra credit! A Japanese joke: What did the one cat say to the other after it took its food?
내 거!

The Best 밀면 in Busan: 할매가야밀면

A large bowl of 밀면 from 할매가야밀명 in Busan. Just five bucks!

Amy knows where all the best food in her part of town is; I trust her completely with recs for noms when I'm in Busan. There's a popular restaurant located down a side alley in Nampo-dong, one of the busy shopping areas, that specializes in 밀면 (milmyeon). Milmyeon is a kind of cold noodle soup; the noodles are made from flour and potato starch, and they are served in a tangy chilled broth -- it literally has ice in it -- along with chili sauce, vegetables, a boiled egg, and some pork. This version of traditional Korean 냉면 (naengmyeon) originates from Busan.

I very clearly remember the first time I ever had 냉면 -- two years ago at a run-of-the-mill restaurant in Goesan. I was rather unpleasantly surprised by the fact that there was ice in my bowl. But I soon grew to really love naengmyeon, especially in the hot summer months. Milmyeon is just as good. As Amy would put it, "It's SOOOOO GOOOODDDD!!!!!!!" And my friends can attest to how much I liked it: despite having eaten a large lunch, I still downed my bowl -- the one you see in the photo above -- in five minutes flat. I mean, I finished before my two friends, who were sharing the same bowl, had even gotten halfway through theirs.

The restaurant, called 할매가야밀면 (Halmae Gaya Milmyeon, or Grandma's Gaya Milmyeon), also serves enormous 왕만두 (wangmandu, or King Dumplings), which I love. Another perk is that instead of water, patrons get complimentary warm soup, in order to balance the overwhelming chill from your noodles. The service was quick and the place was very busy, so you know it's got to be good. I'm going to share a Fulbright Infusion restaurant review with you in a bit, so you know where to eat lunch or dinner the next time you're in Busan on a hot summer day!

Memorial Day Weekend (and a Birthday!)

Left to right: me, Sophia, Hana, and Amy at Dadaepo (다대포) Beach in Busan.

I had a lovely three-day weekend thanks to Korean Memorial Day (현충일, 6/6). Many Koreans celebrate the day off by going camping or to the Beach. Unsurprisingly, the Haeundae Sand Festival was also held this weekend. My friends and I avoided the huge crowds at the festival, however, and went to a quieter beach in southern Busan called Dadaepo (다대포). Actually, we didn't even spend that much time on the beach. A good chunk of our weekend was spent in restaurants and cafes, eating. 해물파전 (savory seafood pancake), 수제비 (wheat flake soup), 밀면 (cold flour noodle soup), Baskin Robbins ice cream, pastries from a local bakery, and more... To work all of that food off, we took jumping pictures on the sand.

Me at my least chivalrous. (taken by Sophia)

Not only was it nice to see friends this weekend (especially since I doubt I'll have time to even leave my city for the foreseeable near future), it was great to welcome Hana back to Korea! Hana and I met at church in college, and it was a surprise to me when I found out we would both be going to Korea on Fulbright grants. Fast forward two years later, and here we are catching up, stuffing our faces with food, and singing our lungs out to the soundtrack of Frozen like friends naturally do.

Hana and me, and the most delicious pajeon and sujebi I've had in recent memory.

Things I missed this weekend: the Haeundae Sand Festival, the Korea Queer Cultural Festival, and Swarthmore's 150th anniversary celebration! Yes, my alma mater turned 150 years this year, and there was an enormous reunion party. I stayed away from Facebook all weekend so as to prevent feelings of jealous and... FOMO? (I've never used that acronym before, not sure if I did it right.) But I'm okay; I'm having a great time on the other side of the planet, anyway. Happy Birthday, Swat!

Haedong Yonggungsa, the Temple by the Sea

View of the temple grounds and the shoreline from the top of the hill.

Most Buddhist temples in Korea are nestled away high up in the mountains, but Haedong Yonggungsa (1), standing sturdily on a rocky shoreline on the northeast side of Busan, is down by the sea. It was first built in the 14th century, destroyed during the Japanese invasion, and reconstructed eighty to forty years ago.

My parents at me in front of Haedong Yonggungsa

So what's the story behind it? My knowledge of Buddhist mythology is paltry, but I learned that the Goddess of Mercy lives by a southern sea and, in some iterations, rides on the back of a dragon (용/yong), perhaps the famous Dragon King of Korean folklore. This dragon king may or may not have appeared to a faithful monk in a dream during a time of severe drought, telling him that if he built a temple in a certain location and prayed, he would send rain.

Goddess of Mercy statue at Yonggungsa

So, I guess that's what happened! The temple continues to a be a popular tourist attraction. It gets thousands of visitors a day, all crowding along the bridge to toss coins into wishing fountains, lounging on the rocks to listen to the waves crash, exploring the small grotto, or just walking around the rather small temple grounds. There are nice beaches and hiking trails nearby, currently bursting with azalea flowers and royal cherry blossoms, because April's beauty just knows no bounds. When I came with my parents, we spent a good hour just walking around the temple, taking photos and taking in the scenery. There isn't much to do in the area besides visit the temple and a fishing science museum next door. As Buddha's Birthday (2) approaches, however, things will only get much busier around there!

I'm very curious to know what "fish liberation" is.

- - -
(1) 해동용국사 = 海東龍宮寺 = East Sea Dragon King Palace Temple
(2) 석가탄신일 celebrates the traditional birthday of Buddha, and beginning a month earlier, colorful lanterns are hung all around the nation's temples. In this way, it's a bit like Christmas.

Directions to Haedong Yonggungsa: from around Haeundae (Haeundae subway station/Haeundae bus stop are good), take bus #181 and get off at Yonggungsa/National Marine Science Research Center (용궁사국립수산과학원) -- 19 stops, 30 minutes, and 1,200KRW. From the bus stop, go back behind the restaurant and follow the arrow on the giant rock sign: take the upward-sloping path for about ten minutes, past the parking lots and into the temple grounds. Or just follow the crowds of people. Or follow the lamps if you're visiting around Buddha's birthday in the spring.

View Larger Map

These buddhi caught my eye, as I am about to begin my graduate studies this fall... 복전함 = fortune telling?

Jagalchi Fish Market

Augh, this crab has acne!

The freshest fish you can find in Korea, as I've heard, are sold daily at the Jagalchi Fish Market in Busan. I went there with my parents on Sunday afternoon because I assumed that they, being Asian, would enjoy the sights and sounds of an authentic market. I mean, every Taiwanese person I know raves about Taipei's famous night markets, right?

Jagalchi Fish Market's indoor vendors, who cheerfully prepare any fish you choose right out of its tank.

Well, it was drizzling and the fish were so fresh they were still alive and flipping their fins in buckets too small for the dozens of them. All in all, it was very wet and none too exciting, so we slipped inside to a part of the market where fresh fish become fresh lunch. It was kind of crazy: vendors are lined up all along the length of a huge wet, noisy room as fish go nuts in their tanks. If you want Korean-style sashimi, they'll just grab a fish out of a tank, slice it up, and hand it to you on a plate as you sit crammed back-to-back with other patrons on bright yellow MacGuyvered benches. Not your normal dining experience.

Since I didn't really know the names of any of the various marine creatures I saw, I pointed to some clam/scallop things (조개), a large black fish, and some weird-looking crabs. I didn't want anything raw, and the fishmonger assured me that the clams would be buttered and grilled, the fish grilled with salt, and the crabs steamed.

Our fishmonger fed scraps of leftovers back to the fish themselves. Fish cannibalism...

Everything was absolutely delicious. I normally am not a huge fan of Korean seafood dishes, but I had no complaints here. They even gave us free bowls of 미역국 (perhaps because we were amusing foreigners, or perhaps in apology for taking a long time) -- appropriate since seawood soup is traditionally eaten on one's birthday, and my dad's birthday was just last week!

맛있다! The grilled clam/scallops were amazing.

After our large and extremely satisfying meal, we were slapped with an exorbitantly high bill. I hadn't bothered to ask about any prices, but maybe it was five bucks per clam or something. Feeling bad about this, I bought my parents dessert (honeycomb ice cream!) and took care of all of their transportation for the rest of the day.

- - -
Directions to Jagalchi Fish Market: take the subway line 1 (orange) and leave from exit 10. Take the first right, pass the parking structure, and you will come upon streets with awnings where the market begins. You will smell it before you see it, I promise.

View Larger Map

- - -

I'm going to post really haphazardly over the next few days because there are a lot of things in the backlog: my weekend in Busan, the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival (which I visited twice), Fulbright Spring Conference, and linguistics research on Jeju Island, not to mention the recaps of my backpacking trip in Southeast Asia which I haven't finished yet...

Parents in Pusan!

Or, in Korean, 우리 부모님들께서 부산에 오셨다! In either language you get some neat alliteration; my first-year students will appreciate that since I've been teaching them poetry.

Anyway, my parents came to visit Korea! They're in Busan for the weekend. We visited Haeundae, Haedong Yongkung Temple, Centum City, Jagalchi Fish Market, and Busan Tower. Later today we'll go to Changwon, where my Korean homestay parents will meet my actual parents. It will be joyous and very awkward!

Here are some photos from my phone: my parents and Gwangan Bridge at night (Busan's 야경 is beautiful), a selfie at the temple by the sea (this photo has 135 likes on FB and counting... 헐), and my dad flipping through the physical photo album I got him for his sixtieth birthday. (Happy birthday, Dad! )

개학 - School's beginning!

Winter break is finally over. It's been a long two months, and I'm restless to get back to teaching! I wouldn't say I'm ready for 개학 (gaehak, the start of classes), though, since I've left a lot of my curriculum planning undone. Yeah, I really tried to make the most of my vacation this year, and that meant that I traveled and hung out with friends a ton but left all my work for the last minute. But as a last hurrah before I buckle down and hit the road running tomorrow morning, let us recap!

December 2013: I stayed at school during the week of Christmas, even though I'm contractually allowed to take off earlier, because I wanted to watch my students perform at their school festival. I baked a ton and then went to Seoul to visit friends, which always means eating a ton of food. Year-end festivities were put on hold so that I could finish my grad school apps.

January 2014: I reconnected with my homestay family, began a linguistics research project that took me to Jeju Island, then passed through Busan on my way to Japan for a five-day trip around Kyushu with my friend Erik! I took the hydrofoil ferry from Busan to Fukuoka, visited the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, saw a volcano, dipped in a natural hot spring, and ate a lot of amazing food. After ten days at home, I was off again to backpack through Thailand and Laos for two weeks.

February 2014: After visiting the protest sites in Bangkok and riding elephants in Chiang Mai, I crossed the northern border of Thailand into Laos and cruised down the Mekong while enjoying the amazing views of a virtually untouched landscape. I spent one night in a rural Lao village, then traipsed around Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng, exploring waterfalls and caves. In two weeks, I made a dozen new friends and decided that backpacking is the best way to travel when you're young. Lastly, I came back full circle to Bangkok via Vientiane and flew back to Korea, just in time for my school's second graduation ceremony. One week of writing for Changwonderful, biking with Changwon Bike Party, and blogging as much as I could passed by too quickly, and then I found myself on a plane bound for Pyongyang. North Korea was weird and unforgettable, and you'll hear all about it soon.

I've been back in South Korea for a little over a week. I got a new haircut, went to a pizza party with friends in Seoul, baked banana bread and Nutella muffins, tried out a ton of cafes and restaurants in Changwon, visited Tongyeong on a whim, volunteered with North Korean defectors, and went to my first ever K-pop concert: K.Will in Busan!

Okay, it's too late. I can't write anymore. Here are photos of my winter break!

Graduation day; new haircut; Tongyeong mural village; Cafe Olympic in Nagasaki; brunch in Changwon; hanging out in Seoul; hanging out in Bangkok; Changwon Bike Party; hanging out in Pyongyang; elephant ride in Chiang Mai; canoe ride in Laos; K.Will concert; chilling in Vang Vieng; chilling in Luang Prabang; and 친구들~

Some of the things I've made and/or eaten: Nutella banana walnut muffins, honey toast at Ogada, Japanese hambagu steak in Changwon, homemade pancakes, citron tea at Cafe Hau, orange French toast at Flying Pan Blue, Sulbing, more Sulbing, raw horsemeat (basashi) in Nagasaki, and peanut butter jalapeno burger at Sharky's in Busan!

Happy March! I saw cherry blossoms in bloom today in Tongyeong. Spring is coming! And goodnight.

The Ferry to Fukuoka (and Back)

This is going to be a long, boring post about taking a high-speed ferry, the Kobee Beetle, across the East Sea/Sea of Japan from Busan to Fukuoka (and back). The rides themselves weren't very interesting, but I think sharing my experience would be helpful for anyone who wants to take the trip in the future. In the words of a friend, "I mean, Japan's right there. It'd be a shame not to visit while we're in Korea."

My ferry was to depart from Busan on Thursday morning. I had booked my ticket weeks in advance with help from my co-teacher through a travel agency called Joy Road (조이로드). They emailed me my confirmation number and detailed instructions (in Korean) on what to do when I got to the ferry terminal.

View of Busan from my window seat on the ferry; you can see the shopping centers of Nampodong and Busan Tower.

Busan --> Fukuoka
Take the subway line 1 (orange) to Jungang Station (중앙역), get out at exit 10, and walk across the street and through the large gate to the Busan Port International Passenger Terminal (부산국제여겍터미널). Go up to the second floor to the counter for Kobee/Miraejet (they appear to be the same company; both run the same high-speed ferries, as opposed to the slower "cruises"). Check-in ends about forty-five minutse prior to departure. For both trips, you must pay a "terminal tax" (which is BS, but there's no way around it) as well as a "fuel surcharge" for your ticket. The latter of these is actually part of your ticket price, only it changes periodically depending on the price of oil, so it's not calculated until you arrive. For me, the additional fees were about 23,000KRW.

After going through super-fast security and being stamped out of Korea, I boarded the boat! To my surprise, the interior was set up like an airplane cabin, with neat rows of seats and narrow aisles. The TV was showing Running Man before and after the safety instructional videos. There was supposed to be wifi, but it didn't work for me. It wasn't a boat you could walk around in, so I stayed in my seat and looked outside. The view of the coastline of Busan was nice, and then the view of the open water was a thrill, but due to high winds, the waters were rough; several times the boat ran straight into a wave and all I could see outside my window was the white spray of water. I didn't become completely seasick, but I found it more comfortable to close my eyes and drift off. The trip took 3 hours.

Upon arrival in Japan, immigration was an awkward affair. I hadn't put down the telephone number of my friend (an American who lives in Japan) with whom I'd be traveling, so the immigration officer tried to ask me what the number was, or why I didn't have it, or something. He didn't speak more than a few words of English, and I couldn't get anything across to him. The officer next to us was speaking fluently in Korean to another passenger, so I wondered if I should try Korean. But eventually the officer gave up and let me through. Customs was also awkward; the officer searched my bag very thoroughly while asking me extremely rehearsed questions (in English) about my travel plans and past experiences and if I was bringing any illegal drugs into the country.

And then I was in Japan! Hakata Port International Terminal. (The ancient city of Hakata (博多) was merged with Fukuoka (福岡) hundreds of years ago, but it is now the name of the ward where Fukuoka's port and train station are located.) You have to take a bus to get to the actual city: routes 11, 19, or 50 to Hakata train station. Fortunately, my friend had prepared very detailed instructions on how to take the buses (enter from the middle and grab a ticket; you can get change for a 1,000 yen note on any bus, pay the fare with exact change only, depending on the number on your ticket (from the port to Hakata Station is 220 yen)) and where to go from there.

The Kobee Beetle, high-speed ferry

Fukuoka --> Busan
After a wonderful weekend traveling around northern Kyushu, I found myself back in Fukuoka on Monday afternoon for the ferry ride back to Korea. From the new and beautiful Hakata train station, bus stop E, I took bus 88 to the Hakata Port International Terminal (博多港国際ターミナル), last stop on the line. (There was tons of traffic due to a large Seijin-shiki taking place nearby.)

The Kobee/Miraejet counter is on the first floor. The fuel surcharge was 2,000 yen and the terminal tax was 500 yen, the latter payable via a small vending machine by the entrance (because Japan). I had to use my Korean with the clerk, and I really wonder if my American accent was stronger than her Japanese one.

A few funny comparisons between the Busan terminal and the Fukuoka one: at the latter, there was no security prior to boarding. I just showed my boarding pass and terminal ticket and then went to town at the duty-free shop before getting on the boat. At Busan, the security had been quick, but it was at least there. Also, photographs of the boat and pier were not allowed, but at Fukuoka, I snapped a shot of the Beetle. And upon entering Korea again, customs was almost a joke. I breezed through the line (there were 10 lines for Koreans and 1 for non-Koreans) and then walked through a security scanner with all layers of clothes on. It even beeped, but I was let through, and no one checked my bags. I think due to the heavy traffic of returning Korean vacationers, customs and immigration didn't give a hoot about who or what was coming through.

Oh, and thanks to great weather, the trip back to Korea was very comfortable. I took a three hour nap.

So that's that! If you're interested to know more about the ferries between Japan and Korea, leave a comment. Or just go with Google; there's a ton of good information out there.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Busan Fireworks Festival. Note the smartphone screens...

Highlights (and a lowlight) from an all-around great weekend:

• Thanksgiving Dinner with Fulbright and the US Embassy was quite nice. I ate lots of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallow, and pumpkin pie, and I caught up with friends and colleagues. I also performed a short demonstration of taekgyeon (right in front of the American ambassador!) and only endangered the life of an audience member one time. I'll post a video of my performance soon.
• Celebrated a friend's birthday with cake and beer while a legit thunderstorm raged outside.
• Caught up with a Swattie friend and talked extensively about books for our students. I love books, and last Friday I submitted an order for a few dozen more for my school's English library. Also, I baked snickerdoodles and the aforementioned friend got to try one for the very first time.
• Walking around Seoul with my 장봉 felt only slightly incongruous. A lady mistook my stick for a handgrip and used it to steady herself as she took a seat on the subway.
• Transportation fail: having left my wallet in a hostel, I had to borrow cash from a friend to take a taxi across the city, and I accidentally took a yellow cab, whose rates are twice as expensive as the normal taxis. I gave the driver all the money I had, apologizing profusely. Miraculously, I was only one dollar short of the fare.
• Transportation win: I never book bus tickets in advance (I don't even know if it's possible), so sometimes earlier buses sell out. I arrived at the terminal at 5:30 and the next available ticket was for 8:15. I bought it but then went straight to the gate to see if I could snag an empty seat on an earlier bus. Just before the 6:00 bus left, I asked if there were any seats still available, and voila, I got right on.
• I obtained the position of photography editor for Fulbright's literary magazine, Infusion! Our staff had its first meeting today at a cozy cafe in Hongdae. I'm very excited to work on the magazine this year.

Picture is unrelated: I took that at the Busan Fireworks Festival, which was a few weekends ago. I absolutely loved it. Despite the frighteningly large crowds, the beautiful, mesmerizing show really made my whole weekend.

"Haeundae Sand Festival Hooray"

At the 해운대모래축제, in front of a big sculpture featuring PSY! The word I'm blocking is "만세", which means "Hooray".

After a last-minute change of plans, I took a day trip to Busan today for the Haeundae Sand Festival (해운대 모래축제). I woke up at 7am and met up with friends from Changwon, and then we drove straight to Haeundae Beach, one of the most popular and well-known beaches in Korea. By some standards, it's not the best beach (and this is partly because it is one of the most popular -- and consequently the most crowded and most polluted during peak season), but it's still a great spot to spend a nice, summery day.

My friends and I wandered up and down the beach, admiring the large sand sculptures that were the main attraction of the festival. This year's theme is movies, so we saw Marilyn Monroe, E.T., Superman, Iron Man, and a host of other superheroes, and the iconic scene from Titanic. The sculptures were great, but I admit feeling a bit let down because I had imagined them to be flat-out amazing. I mean, just Google "sand sculpture", and then Google "Haeundae Sand Festival", and you'll see what I mean. Nonetheless, I enjoyed strolling along the beach and admiring the sights, and I was also glad that we were there early in the morning so that we could take photos in relative peace. Later on in the afternoon, the beach became insanely crowded.

One of my favorite sculptures was this one, based on Le Petit Prince.

We then settled down to play in the sand and water until noon. I got to work building a castle with a moat, trying only to use my feet since I don't like getting my hands dirty. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy building sandcastles. It's funny; I'm not really into creating a beautiful structure or even finishing the project. It's not about the end result. What I enjoy about sandcastles is the mindlessness of the endeavor, it seems. I dig and dig, and every so often a large wave rushes in and sweeps away half of my work. Well, no matter. Just keep digging. It's simple, meditative, and admittedly fruitless, but as long as I don't physically tire myself out, I could continue for hours. The castle was a purposeless project: water kept demolishing the walls, and eventually my friend's five-year-old came and rampaged all over the tower itself. But I quite enjoyed it all the same.

I will only mention in passing how this may or may not be a metaphor for life.

Andrew, Ben, and Ashley made a giant sea turtle with a volcano on its back as part of the amateur sand sculpture competition.

When Fulbrighters began to arrive on the scene starting at noon, we walked around the beach and enjoyed the sculptures, made one of our own, and watched beautiful people walking by. I also got some blueberry 빙수 at a cafe and watched bits of an airshow by the Black Eagles. Mostly, though, we just chilled under a beach umbrella. There were attempts to sunbathe, but Korea is generally conservative when it comes to beach attire, so I would have felt awkward about taking off my shirt. The beach became extremely crowded in the afternoon, yet ninety percent of the beachgoers were completely covered up, even if they were sleeping in the sun or dunking themselves completely underwater.

The thing about Korea and its no-shoulders, no-midriffs rule is that it's unspoken, enforced passively or subconsciously. An 아줌마 might give you a death glare or even some comments about your exposed shoulders, but nothing's really stopping you, unless you have an aversion to sticking out like a sore thumb. It's partly about modesty and partly about avoiding a tan at any cost, since fairer skin is generally considered more beautiful here. That doesn't mean there weren't some Korean women in bikinis or some Korean men so dark they looked Cambodian -- this is Busan, after all -- but for the most part, any person you saw less than fully clothed was a foreigner. And there were plenty roaming around the festival today, including my friends and me!

Fulbrighters at the beach! (Side note: I'm getting pretty good at this dSLR selfie (or 셀카/selca, as they say in Konglish) thing.

After lazing on the beach for a good few hours, it began to get colder and windier, so we headed inland to get dinner at a barbecue place. (I forget the name, but it was a forgettable restaurant, so no matter.) For dessert, we joined a very long line for 2,000₩ 32cm ice cream cones! That's $1.75 for an ice cream cone over one foot tall. They were great, although they began to melt very quickly, so we had to eat them quickly, so we all got brain freeze because it was cold and we were eating ice cream quickly. Ha! Good job, guys.

After dessert, I took a bus back to Changwon (the bus actually departs from the neighborhood, so I don't have to cross town to get to the main bus terminal first) -- for future reference, the ticket is 5,900₩ -- and arrived home at around 10pm. All in all, a great day. It really ushered in summer!

Anna, Ben, Katelyn, and Lizzie with giant ice cream cones!

Some vocabulary:

모래 (moleh) means "sand".

모래상을 쌓는게 명상적인 활동일 수 있어요. Building a sand castle can be a meditative activity.

바닷가 (padatga) means "beach" or "coast".

오늘 바닷가는 매우 복잡했어요. Today, the beach was very busy and crowded.

일광욕을 하다 (ilgwang-yogeul hada) means "to sunbathe".

제가 반나체에 대해서 많이 자의식이 강하지 않고 일광욕을 하면 좋겠어요. It would be great if I could sunbathe without being self-conscious about being half-naked.

Stray Observations from My First Korean Baseball Game

NC Dinos Stadium in Masan.

I went to my first baseball game in Korea yesterday: the NC Dinos (of Changwon) versus the Lotte Giants (of Busan). I went with teachers from my school in an organized outing that replaced our weekly soccer game. Here are some things I learned or noticed about Korean baseball:

1. The nine major league baseball teams in Korea are all owned and sponsored by big companies like Lotte, LG, Samsung, and Hanhwa. The Dinos are sponsored by NC, a video game company. So, my city's team is not the Changwon Dinos, but the NC Dinos. I find that odd but not surprising.

Everyone who sat in the section directly behind these girls (and the dino mascots!)... probably didn't see much of the game.

2. Korean baseball fans are very much into their sport, and their cheering is as important as the game itself. Often, the cheerleaders (yes, there are cheerleaders, both to dance and actually to lead cheers) get the crowd so pumped up that they ignore what's actually happening on the field.

All of the songs and cheers for the NC Dinos batters. The song for #09 김종호 was set to The Pussycat Dolls' "Don't Cha".

3. Lotte Giants fans are particularly known for their devotion to their team and the unique style of their cheers and songs. It was difficult to counter that with the cheers for the NC Dinos, since nobody was really familiar with them yet. NC Dinos are playing in the major league for the first time this year. In fact, the game I attended was their second game in the big leagues, period. (Yesterday they played their first game of three against the Giants and lost.) So, the fans were given free posters (that could be fashioned into bullhorns) and fliers that taught everyone the cheers and songs made up for the batters and the team, and the cheerleaders spent every spare minute teaching the crowd the chants and slogans and proper hand motions. It was all highly amusing.

Two of my fellow teachers with chicken and beer. No popcorn, cotton candy, garlic fries, or cracker jack here.

4. Lots of Koreans go to baseball games for the fried chicken and beer. My fellow teachers and I arrived at the game an hour before it started simply so that we could picnic on tons of junk food. I filled myself up with fried chicken, sausages, sushi, dried squid, and Pringles. It was pricey, but it was delicious. All of this instead of exercising with the other teachers? Sure, why not?

#39, Charlie Shirek. I did a double-take when I first saw him, before I knew that Korean baseball teams could have foreigners.

5. There are a handful of Americans on many Korean major league baseball teams. NC Dinos actually has three Americans, and their starting pitcher is one of them. His name is Charlie (찰리), and he is from North Dakota. I cheered for him as loud as I could, and got all of my fellow teachers to say, "Come on, Char-lay!" Hehe.

안타! 안타! 안타!

6. Some baseball-related vocabulary:
야구 (yagu): baseball. 야 actually means "field", not base.
쌔리다 (ssaelida): to hit (a ball). This is Gyeongsang dialect; in standard Korean it is 때리다.
외야, 내야 (weiya, naeya): outfield, infield.
안타치다 (antachida): to make a base hit. Fans chant "안타! 안타! 안타!" when they're at bat.
삼진 (samjin): strikeout. Also chanted over and over again, at a team's pitcher.
죽인다 (jukinda): Awesome! Literally, this means something along the lines of "It killed me!", but in slang, it has a positive connotation. I think this was part of a celebratory cheer for a run scored.

Lastly, this article from Changwonderful does a great job selling the NC Dinos and explaining the ins and outs of Korean baseball.

You know, I got more into the game than I expected to. The ninth inning was especially intense: 2-2, bottom of the inning and the Dinos are at bat with one out and a runner on third. The batter hits a pop fly into left field, it gets caught, no big deal if the runner on third makes it home... and he does! And the crowd goes nuts! And then... and then the umpire calls it out! What the heck? I didn't even see the ball get thrown back to home plate, but the call is clear. And wow... crushing disappointment. I felt it right alongside everyone else in the stadium. I left the game shortly thereafter, but I heard on the radio and from my fellow teachers later that the Dinos went on to lose their momentum and were defeated 3-2 in the tenth inning.

Haha, so I really enjoyed the game, even though I thought I was going more out of curiosity and a sense of duty and 정-building with my school. I've been to just a handful of baseball games in the US, and I don't think that Korean games are really much different! They might even be more fun, what with the crazy cheers and all. I just might go to another game this season and support my new team... NC Dinos!

P.S. I'll be out of town this weekend. Fulbright has a weekend conference on the Korean island of Jeju (제주도)! It's been favorably compared to Hawaii. Although the forecast calls for rain on Saturday, I'm going to make the most of it and am looking forward to a great time. Cheers!

A Swattie Reunion in Busan

The Swatties strike again! I had the pleasure of meeting up with Kevin ('11) and Natalia ('12) this weekend in Busan. Kevin is teaching English at a rural elementary school on a TALK (Teach And Learn in Korea) scholarship, and Natalia is studying Mandarin Chinese in Beijing. Because Natalia has a week-long break following the end of her first semester, she flew over the East China Sea to Korea to visit some of the dozens of Swatties who are here. (To fly from Beijing to Busan takes about two hours.)

Galmaegisal (skirtmeat) barbecue at Seolae.

On the first evening, we met up at Gwangan (neighborhood of the famous Gwangalli Bridge) and got dinner at a great barbecue chain restaurant called 서래 (Seolae). The place was busy and the space inside was pretty cramped for our group of five, but we got some delicious barbecue. The specialty of this restaurant chain is 갈매기살 (galmaegisal), which is called "skirtmeat" in English. This is the meat around the diaphragm and liver, and it's the kind often used in fajitas. Our meat that night had been marinated in something special that made it very tender and very spicy. 억수로 맛있다! Seoul Food has a more comprehensive review here. The price came out to about 10,000₩ (<$10) per person, including drinks (소주 and 맥주, which gave me some embarrassing Asian glow). Great restaurant, right by the beach!

That was our next destination, chilling on Gwangalli Beach just to see the lights on the bridge and cool off after a spicy meal. It was nice to catch up with Natalia and Kevin, chatting about Swat news, of course, among other things.

Swatties at Gwangalli Beach! Me, Natalia, and Kevin. (taken by Jamie)

Natalia and Monica at noraebang.

Later, when Kevin and some others in our group left, Monica, a Fulbrighter in Busan, joined us and we went to a 노래방 (noraebang) for everyone's favorite: karaoke! This 노래방 was right on the beach; I forget its name, but it was just 15,000₩ for an hour, no drink purchase necessary. In fact, we got some free apple juice just for the heck of it. (서비스, or service, is a Konglish word that means "complimentary stuff".) I totally sang Starships. And Mrs. Robinson (Swatsick...). And Beyonce. And I even tried a G-Dragon song and butchered it. It was a blast!

It was around midnight when we finished, and I had already missed the last regular bus back to Busan by several hours. Fortunately, Natalia's couchsurfing host was incredibly gracious and said that I could crash the night at her place, as well, on a spare air mattress she had. I was extremely thankful for this. We talked all night about Korea, weddings, and Glee. I slept well, and we left at noon the next morning.

People have been talking up couchsurfing like nothing else recently (especially my globe-trotting friend Miyuki, and my first experience with it was so generous that I've decided to sign up for it and see where else I can travel. I would gladly host anyone coming through Changwon if only I lived in my own apartment, but unfortunately, that's not really the case right now.

Street food: 호떡 (hotteok), which is so incredibly nommable. Deep-friend pancakes filled with melted cinnamon sugar, pine nuts, and peanuts. This particular vendor had a long line of people waiting, which doesn't mean slow service but instead top-notch quality.

Sunday was a laid-back, drizzly day. Natalia and I took the subway to Seomyeon, the downtown area. At the subway station, we had a "stupid foreigners" moment and I accidentally made Natalia buy a multiple-trip card instead of a one-trip ticket. To our surprise and amazement, we were very quickly and efficiently helped out by some of the workers at the information office, who 1) gave Natalia a refund on the card that she shouldn't have bought and 2) walked us through how to use the correct ticketing machines (which we had not noticed before going to the wrong machines). Three cheers for patient, polite, and helpful Korean public service workers!

Woojung's Bibimbap in Seomyeon.

At Seomyeon, we met up with Kevin again and had lunch at Woojung's Bibimbap, and then chilled the afternoon away at an adorable cafe called Tokyoloose. Perks of the bibimbap restaurant included the cheapest 돌솥 비빔밥 (dolsot bibimbap, or stone bowl mixed rice) that I've had in Korea, at 4,000₩, as well as good service, its plain interior and staff of irritable ajummas notwithstanding.

Tokyoloose, on the other hand, is the very paragon of Korea-cute. Stuffed animals, lacy place mats, decor that looked like we landed in France in the '40s... As Kevin described it, "Like Japan's interpretation of an antique French country house." Really, all you need are some photos in order to understand what I mean. Oh, and the drinks and desserts were just great, with almost everything on the menu in the 4-6,000₩ range.

Cafe Tokyoloose, located on the second floor of a building somewhat far from the main bustling streets of Seomyeon.

The surprisingly large and spacious interior, well-lit and overwhelmingly cute. Light jazz playing on the radio.

Natalia and Kevin at Tokyoloose. Note the lacy place mats, the antique clock, large windows, and the enormous stuffed giraffe.

So there was a "Dress Shop" inside the cafe with clothes that you could try on... but they weren't for sale... And  there was a mirror, so I guess the whole point was just to try on cute clothes and silly hats while you waited for your green tea latte?

Oh, yes, and there was also food. A lemon tart presented to us with instructions on how to properly eat it (squeeze the lemon slice over it first, and then alternate small bites of pie and ice cream).

Banana chocolate roll, with truffles and almonds!

I'm planning to write reviews of both of these places on Fulbright Infusion's city guide soon, as they were both fantastic and deserve a bit more attention. As you can probably tell from all the photos I took at Tokyoloose, I really loved it and would definitely go back again. Besides the cafe itself, though, it was a wonderful afternoon spent with friends. As I've said before and will say again, I really enjoy getting together with Swatties in a place that is not Swarthmore. The farther away from Swarthmore, actually, the more fun it seems to be.

Busan International Film Festival

I went to the Busan International Film Festival today! I consider myself lucky to live so close to Busan. When the traffic is good and I know what I'm doing, it takes me just an hour and a half to get to wherever I want to be in the city, and today I wanted to be where all the action was: the Busan Cinema Center.

The Busan Cinema Center at night; this is the enormous outdoor theater where some movies are screened. Tonight, the Busan World Philharmonic Orchestra gave a concert, and I heard snippets of their performance (which included Carmina Burana).

This morning, I woke up at 6am, sped through my morning routine, and left the house by 6:20. Right about when my bus was departing Changwon for Busan, I got a text from Ashley telling me that she and the other Fulbright friends whom I had planned to meet were already in line! Of the over three hundred films being shown over the course of the festival, most had tickets available online. But huge crowds still formed lines early every morning to buy tickets at physical box offices. The sales were supposed to begin at 8:30am, but I was surprised that my friends had arrived two hours early.

Luckily, they were able to buy tickets for me for two movies: Hello Goodbye, an Indonesian film, and Touch of the Light, a Taiwanese (!) film by Chang Rong-ji. I wasn't aware at the time what kinds of movies they were or what countries they were from, but I'm glad that I got to support one Taiwanese director!

The first film was... kind of a dud, I'm sorry to say. It was about an Indonesian embassy worker who works in Busan and is bored to tears of her life; she meets a fellow Indonesian, a sailor who had a heart attack and is now begrudgingly hospitalized. They fall in love. Slowly. It was a slow movie. There were a lot of close-ups of faces and time-lapse shots of Busan. There was a lot of silence. Apart from a few emotionally stirring scenes, I was really bored. I even dozed off in the middle.

Ashley, Susie and I actually left before the movie was over, for two reasons: 1) we had to run to a different theater to catch our next movie in time, and 2) the movie was wrapping up so awfully that we didn't care to finish anyway.

Good thing, too! Our second movie, Touch of the Light (逆光飛翔), was absolutely phenomenal. The story revolved around a blind piano prodigy, Huang Yu-Siang, who enrolls in a music college in Taipei and meets a girl who wants to be a dancer but is stuck in a low-income job. They inspire each other to go after their dreams, hooray! Perhaps the plot sounds a bit cliché. I won't say it wasn't, but that does not mean it was not a fantastic film.

The directing was beautiful, the cinematography bright and clean (which was expected, given the title), and the acting, as far as I could tell, quite good. (The entire movie was in Mandarin, which was nice to hear, and furthermore, it was a welcome surprise when I realized that everyone was speaking with the Taiwanese accent.) The movie had plenty of cheesy moments, perhaps too many for my taste -- including heartbreak in the rain, a hippy-dippy dance teacher, and an exhilarating yet truly schmaltzy climactic recap montage -- but overall, it was genuine, heartfelt, and peppered with moments of palpable warmth and dashes of quick-witted comedy. (Yu-Siang's roommate, on break dancing: "It's like... have you seen Street Fighter? Oh, no, of course you haven't...")

I especially enjoyed the way music was incorporated into the film. Musical performances weren't as shoe-horned into the plot as you might expect in a film about a pianist. Sometimes, the music was there just because the moment felt right, but when it became central to a scene, it was done tastefully and so naturally that you wouldn't even realize that it was there, heightening your emotions without your realizing it. (And hm... plenty of classical music in this film's OST, right on the heels of my bemoaning its absence in my life...)

But do you know what the coolest part was by far? It was after the movie had finished and the credits were done rolling. The lights in the (enormous) theater came up... but then a piano appeared on the stage, too. And then Huang Yu-Siang himself came on stage. As soon as the hundreds of people in the audience realized what was happening, everyone burst into applause took out their cell phones and cameras. Haha. He was here at the showing to give a live piano performance! Oh, yes, and it was at this point that I realized that this movie was based on very real events in this very real man's very real life.

Huang Yu-Siang, a blind Taiwanese pianist, performs a medley of classical music, some K-pop hits, and other stuff I didn't recognize. It was amazing, though!

And after even that surprise, the actresses who played the dancer and Yu-Siang's mother joined him onstage, along with an interpreter, and they introduced themselves and took questions from the audience! It was very exciting that we got to witness this, especially since all of us were so impressed by the film. I was dying to think of a question that I could ask in Mandarin that wouldn't sound completely stupid, but I couldn't come up with anything. All of the audience members asked questions in Korean, which I barely understood, and then their answers came back in Mandarin, which I somewhat understood.

Huang Yu-Siang is in the center, smiling because he is awesome. Right of him is Sandrine Pinna, who is obviously not full-blooded Taiwanese, but as I have just found out, is half French! But her Mandarin is flawless.

Susie on the lookout for celebrities!

Gosh! When we got our 6,000₩ tickets, we were only expecting a movie. And it was a great movie, well worth the price. But then we got an amazing piano performance! And then we got a Q&A with the actors! It was the most wonderful surprise. Ashley, Susie, and I were all just a bit starstruck.

When we met up with the (twenty or so) other Fulbrighters for a late (and delicious) lunch at the Shinsegae Department Store's food court, we all talked about our movies, and boy, was everyone else jealous when we told them about our surprise bonuses.

Speaking of surprises... later that evening, I ran into a fellow Swattie! Again! Seriously, Swatties are everywhere around the world, and they're kind of like magnets.

Raehoon and I first met in tap class last semester. I had no idea that we would be in the same country now, though! He's back home in Korea because he's about to take a two-year leave of absence from school to perform his mandatory military service. He happened to be spending part of his last week before beginning army training by watching tons of movies at BIFF, and while I was wandering around the Busan Cinema Complex with Cecile, he recognized me and also surprised the heck out of me. It was great catching up!

So this brings my total number of Swatties I've met in Korea to eight. And it's going to be nine tomorrow, because Erik is visiting from Japan! Hooray!

Raehoon and me at BIFF. Swatties, unite! (taken by Cecile, who was really amused at this coincidence)

The film festival is set to continue for another week or so. I really enjoyed my first taste of it; you know, I kind of thought going to a film festival would just feel like watching a bunch of movies in a row, like a marathon. But the whole atmosphere here is quite different. It really feels like a festival, a celebration! It's classier and more glamorous, and I've never experienced anything like this before. So maybe I'll come back. I'd really like to continue supporting Taiwanese cinema at BIFF. These are the seven Taiwanese films being showcased; I especially am interested in GF*BF and Go Grandriders. (Ahhh! The article I just linked to says that Monday night is "Taiwan Night" at BIFF! I'm so there!)

And lastly, a photo of Cecile hiding among aluminum trees outside of a department store in Busan.