Of Busan and Snow
Had this finished a few weeks ago... just forgot to add pictures and post it. hehee.
So, this weekend Jaelee, Brandon and I trucked on up to Busan to see the big city. Busan is the 2nd largest Korean city, about 3.5 million people. We hopped on a bus, and made it to Busan in about 3 hours. As soon as we "landed" we phoned up my little brother, Henry, who lives in town. He was studying for the final final of his University career,but was more than happy to meet up with us. We were accosted by a drunk old man who was none to happy to have wei-guks (foreigners) in Korea. Possibly a sign that APEC had been in Busan the week before, and 2 or 3 suicides occurred in protest of their policies.
We wound up going to the UN Memorial cemetery in Busan, which commemorates UN soldiers who died in the Korean War. It was pretty bizarre, as one of the Canadian sections was all Princess Patricia's Light Infantry, which use to be a Calgary Regiment before it was moved up to Edmonton in the 90's.
The cemetery was really well maintained and the public washroom there looked like it should be in a 4-star hotel. It was a nice little history lesson, a reminder of what people will do in the name of freedom.
After, we went shopping for a bit, and then out for some micro-brewed beer... hmmmm good beer!!! After we went to meet Henry's parents.
It was really nice to meet them, and they were really generous with us. They treated us to a JimJilBang (kinda a spa where you can sleep.) 
The JimJilBang was packed, and there wasn't a whole lot of room for us to sleep, so the manager, happy to have a few wei-guks in his establishment, let us sleep in a DVD room which didn't have a working projector. It was great. We enjoyed the Saunas, hot tubs, and the "Drum Kit" massage chair. I love JimJilBangs.
The next morning, we went back to Henry's house.
Jae and I got our NFL fix, as we were able to watch the end of last week's Seattle Seahawks vs the NewYork Giants game. After, we had a cool lunch in a little semi-outdoor restaurant, and a tour of Henry's hometown, Changwon which is about 30 minutes away from Busan. ![]()
It's a cool little city, with a Daewoo factory. It also has the longest straight road in Korea, a stretch that is 13km long, and can act as an emergency runway in a crisis (war) situation.
Afterwards, we came home via Masan. When we hit Suncheon country, we also hit the snow storm that Eunji and Michelle had told me hit Kwangju and Seoul. It was cool... the first snowfall. It was sorta snowing here in Yeosu, but no where near that of elsewhere. Busan and Yeosu both are different weather than other parts of Korea. Yeosu's weather is different than that of Suncheon, which is 20 minutes away.
One of my co-teachers, Sunny, felt strange using the excuse that the snow caused her to be late, when there was barely any snow here in Yeosu. She commutes from Suncheon every day, and the roads were an icy nightmare this morning in Suncheon.
Hope all is well by everyone...
So, this weekend Jaelee, Brandon and I trucked on up to Busan to see the big city. Busan is the 2nd largest Korean city, about 3.5 million people. We hopped on a bus, and made it to Busan in about 3 hours. As soon as we "landed" we phoned up my little brother, Henry, who lives in town. He was studying for the final final of his University career,but was more than happy to meet up with us. We were accosted by a drunk old man who was none to happy to have wei-guks (foreigners) in Korea. Possibly a sign that APEC had been in Busan the week before, and 2 or 3 suicides occurred in protest of their policies.
We wound up going to the UN Memorial cemetery in Busan, which commemorates UN soldiers who died in the Korean War. It was pretty bizarre, as one of the Canadian sections was all Princess Patricia's Light Infantry, which use to be a Calgary Regiment before it was moved up to Edmonton in the 90's.
The cemetery was really well maintained and the public washroom there looked like it should be in a 4-star hotel. It was a nice little history lesson, a reminder of what people will do in the name of freedom. After, we went shopping for a bit, and then out for some micro-brewed beer... hmmmm good beer!!! After we went to meet Henry's parents.
It was really nice to meet them, and they were really generous with us. They treated us to a JimJilBang (kinda a spa where you can sleep.) 
The JimJilBang was packed, and there wasn't a whole lot of room for us to sleep, so the manager, happy to have a few wei-guks in his establishment, let us sleep in a DVD room which didn't have a working projector. It was great. We enjoyed the Saunas, hot tubs, and the "Drum Kit" massage chair. I love JimJilBangs. The next morning, we went back to Henry's house.
Jae and I got our NFL fix, as we were able to watch the end of last week's Seattle Seahawks vs the NewYork Giants game. After, we had a cool lunch in a little semi-outdoor restaurant, and a tour of Henry's hometown, Changwon which is about 30 minutes away from Busan. 
It's a cool little city, with a Daewoo factory. It also has the longest straight road in Korea, a stretch that is 13km long, and can act as an emergency runway in a crisis (war) situation.Afterwards, we came home via Masan. When we hit Suncheon country, we also hit the snow storm that Eunji and Michelle had told me hit Kwangju and Seoul. It was cool... the first snowfall. It was sorta snowing here in Yeosu, but no where near that of elsewhere. Busan and Yeosu both are different weather than other parts of Korea. Yeosu's weather is different than that of Suncheon, which is 20 minutes away.
One of my co-teachers, Sunny, felt strange using the excuse that the snow caused her to be late, when there was barely any snow here in Yeosu. She commutes from Suncheon every day, and the roads were an icy nightmare this morning in Suncheon. Hope all is well by everyone...
posted by Marc at
10:28 AM
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