A Korean Sojourn: February 2009

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Departure Delays

Well, it looks as though our plane got delayed...hahaha! By one month that is. We expect to leave Korea on April 1st...and no it's not an April Fool's Day Joke promise! Basically what happened is our job promised us one thing when we resigned the contract to only stay 11 months. When it was mentioned again last week they "Didn't remember"/"Didn't understand"/"Didn't know the word 'severence'". It was a big annoying and stressful fight but now it is resolved. I'm not mad about having to stay another month I'm mad that it had to be handled in this way. The director was not very receiving when I told him that his employees should not be treated this way. Well, neither here nor there we're where we are and that will soon be back in the US of A! We can't wait to see everybody and recount some of our tales with you:)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Winding Down

Fire and moon

At the wall

Dooogy sitter :)

Last weekend we spent Saturday inside doing nothing but eating and sleeping. All of our friends did the same too, must have been something in the air. Sunday we took a ride out to Sancheong to go climbing at an outdoor wall. It was a little chilly but still beautiful. We brought Samjin and he had fun barking at some 10 year olds that were there. One girl was actually not afraid of him and decided that she would be Samjin's doggy sitter for the day. She walked him all around, made him run after her and made her friends play with him too, it was great.

Monday was the first full moon of the lunar new year. In celebration of this there are lots of small bonfires out in the country and down by the river they built a big house and then burn it down. I'm not quite sure the significance but it was fun to watch, we didn't get out of work until after the burned the house but we went down and saw the smoldering remains. They also take cans and but some sticks from the fire in and swing them around this is supposed to ward off disease for the year. It's actually a bit scary because the cans don't seem too safe and some people were not aware of who was around them.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Tokyo Con't.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Tokyo and Back to Work (kind of)

We are back to work (kind of) after a joyous week off in which we went to Tokyo, Japan.

We left Jinju the night before our flight and stayed in Busan so we could grab a taxi to the airport across the river without any panic. Our flight was at 10 so we got there at 8.

Gimhae (Busan Airport) was very quiet. It was the most relaxing airport experience. There were no lines and plenty of time, so we got comfortable in the chairs at Gate 18 and completed a crossword puzzle amid the long windows and morning shadows.

We boarded and took off from Busan on time and into the clear blue skies. The port city looked incredible down below, and once over the ocean, the horizon was an indiscernible blue. The flight was only 2 hours; a shortness we are unaccustomed to.

We arrived at Narita airport around Noon and hopped on the JR Line to central Tokyo. This was about an hour train ride. The commoner train is quite luxurious. All the subways in Tokyo were this way. Plush velour cushioned benches with contoured seats to cradle your behind as you whisk about. (I found later that at rush hour it's still a miserable place to be).

Looking out the windows at Japan for the first time made my blood tingle and gave me that mischievous grin. Soon enough, we dozed off on those pleasure seats and thankfully woke up in time to catch our transfer at Aota. Then we went underground.

When we emerged at our final destination we came up in Asakusa (pronounced Asaksa).

Immediately we took note of other people's observations. Yes! The city is incredibly clean! Largely, in part to the law banning smoking on the sidewalks, and also to the cultural aspect that it is rude to walk and eat on the sidewalks.

After all, we wanted Asakusa-bashi, so we headed back underground and finally got into our hostel. The staff was great, but surprised me with their pay in cash policy. So I forked over all the Won I had exchanged for the trip. This was the first indication that mucho dinero would be spent over here.

We headed out and got some dinner. This was new. It was like a quickie joint where you order your meal from pictures and pay with a vending machine outside then sit down and get served

inside. After that we headed to the Ueno neighborhood and were dazzled by all the shopping opportunities. We caught some live music at this American themed diner type eatery. The band was awesome. There we also met some friendlies. One was this thug rapper who came off stage. He looked all tough and mean, but was incredibly friendly and told us he'd been to NY twice and gave us his CD. This was our first experience with the genuine politeness and cordialness of the Japanese people.

. . . . .More to come on this trip. I must get ready for work!