2/27/08 part II

Today was quite the adventure.  It started with a trip to the school to meet the principle and vice principle.  They seem very nice, and what few teaching staff that have been willing/able to talk to us have been quite welcoming.

Britani and I had our first taste of not-so-great Korean food in the cafeteria today.  I think the best part was the “Fish-Potato Stew”, in which fish bones were highly visible hanging off of the hunks of fish floating around.  When somebody ate a piece of fish and got the bones too, they’d simply hock it up onto their tray like it was nothing…

The pictures aren’t very cool, so I won’t post one – but it’s worth noting that the mountains surrounding the school had snow on them today.  Mr. Choi has lived in Pusan for 20 years and has only seen snow on them once before.

After we finished at the school, Mr. Choi took us to Tongdosa, which is evidently a very sacred place for Buddhists to visit as they have some very old temples that are considered to be some of the very first temples built when Buddhism started…. I think.  (Really, don’t quote me on that – the pictures are cool though…)

My absolute favorite part, though, was meeting one of the monks.  This monk, for some reason, took quite a liking to me...  He walked up and grabbed my hand; he started talking to me, but I of course had no idea of what he was saying.  I tried to repeat what he said with a tone that would imply a question, and he just looked at me and said, “Ahhhh….”, as if I had said something profound.  By this time he was really squeezing my hand (the way you squeeze someone’s hand that you are close to and really like but haven’t seen for a while) and Mr. Choi stepped out of the car and hollered over to us.  The monk literally dragged me over to the car with him and started talking to Mr. Choi.  I learned afterward that he was asking if he could get me a cup of tea.  And when Mr. Choi told him No, that we were going to Pusan National University, he asked if he could come with us.  I was cool with that, because I was sitting in the front seat, and he’d have to ride in back with Britani and Kelly… But Mr. Choi politely declined again.  Turns out, this monk was DRUNK.  A drunk old monk wanted to buy me a drink and chill with us for the afternoon.  I personally think it could have been really cool, but Mr. Choi seemed disgusted by the whole situation and insisted that we not post any pictures on the internet.  So, I won’t… but know that they exist, and if you really want to see them, we’ll see how we can work it out :p

I don’t know if it’s all of Korea, or just Pusan, but they are adding many things to the city to make it more attractive and pretty.  Pictures are posted under "Pusan Beautification" if you're interested.

So then we drove to PNU.  We didn’t really do anything there except park the car. Pusan is a pretty cool city, and I’m looking forward to going back to check out the hundreds of shops they have (both street vendors and actual buildings) and trying this carnival-type food people sell on the street.

Tomorrow I’m getting up around 5:45, as we have to be at the bus stop by 6:40 to catch a bus back into Pusan.  Mr. Choi, Brittani, and I will be going to Japan and staying the night to get the visa situation finalized.  We’ll be traveling by speed boat there and back, and Mr. Choi says I’ll be able to use US Dollars in Japan!  I’ll finally be able to use my own money!  (Which, by the way, Mr. Choi gave me about $200 in Korean Won today so I’d be able to function on my own finally).  Kelly won’t be going with us, as she’s leaving on Friday to go to North Korea.  I’m looking forward to her report when she comes back on Sunday… with everything you hear about North Korea on the news these days, it will be interesting to see what it’s really like and how Americans are treated…