Today we ventured over to Gamcheon Culture Village: a quirky art-filled suburb in Busan that has emerged from the poverty of the war to become one of Busan's most unique areas.
Before we made our way to Gamcheon, I read a Busan Haps article where I learned that back in the 1940's only about 20 houses were on this hill side. But that number grew substantially at the beginning of the Korean War, in 1950.
According to the article, as war refugees fled their homes for a relatively safe place in Busan: the only area of the peninsula that remained free from fighting. Within the first year of war, Busan's population grew from 880,000 to 1.4 MILLION. Half a million people homeless, needing a place to live, and fast. Over 4,000 people moved from the crowded port of Jagalchi Fish Market to Gamcheon.
They makeshifted homes only using scrap iron, wood and rocks.
The Lego-like homes that we saw were all thanks to a man named Chol-je-Cho.
This guy founded a religion called Taegukdo. This religion believes that the Taeguk, or the yin yang on their flag, represents the meanings of life and the universe.
Also, the Korean Flag has a cool meaning.
Korean Flag also known as Taegeukgihas three parts.
The white background symbolizes "cleanliness of the people". The Taegeuk , the ying yang, represents the origin of all things in the universe, holding the two principles of yin and yang in perfect balance—the former being the negative aspect rendered in blue, and the latter as the positive aspect rendered in red. Together, they represent a continuous movement within infinity, the two merging as one.
Taegukdo was practiced after oppression and the overthrow from the Japanese occupation. Cho and his followers persuaded almost 90% of the refugees living in Gamcheon with nice gifts of rice and candy.
With Cho's help, the residents in Gamcheon used their earnings to rebuild their village. In 1955 the area became known as the Taeguk Village and Cho moved the religion's headquarters there. We actually saw a pretty large (relative to the small homes in the village) religious compound located in the middle of the village.
The best part of the village is wondering through these small paths. You never know where it will head or what you might see next.
We noticed every house had its own big blue water tank on their roof.
Now a days the current 10,000 residents are used to the heavy flow of tourist, photographers, and filmmakers. It was so enjoyable to adventure through these small brightly colored houses.
Well it's that time of year again. SUMMER VACATION! Last year for summer vacation we went to Jeju Island and had a fabulous time. This year we decided to make another trip to Seoul since we loved it so much the last time we were there. After I started planning our third trip up there, I quickly realized this will probably be our last time up there (for now) since we have no more vacations during our contract (besides our vacation to the Philippines next month). So here is the breakdown of our trip.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
After we finished working in the morning, we caught a bus to Seoul. The bus ride took about five hours (less than the travel time from Lewiston to Seattle) with a bathroom break after two hours.We arrived in Seoul around 6 and made our way through the crowded subways and underground shopping to our hostel. After we settled into our cozy, but cool room, and migrated the busy streets to find our way to a comedy show at a foreigner pub. A friend of ours, Wassim, is an up-and-coming standup comedian. This was the second time we saw him perform, and we were exploding with laughter!
After the show, a few friends and Bobby and I made our way to a small store that sells a wide-array of imported craft beers. Bobby was in heaven and could have spent hundreds of dollars there (I did let him treat himself to a few select ones he hadn't tried yet). Bobby spotted an excellent cider that was on sale. So he grabbed some for us to try and OMG it was the best cider I've ever had. It is a dry cider, but it is creamy on the palate. It has a crisp and fresh aroma of apples with a uniquely refreshing tartness. It is almost like champagne, but better! Needless to say, we bought a few to bring home (Busan) with us! (I think we are starting to sound like alcoholics, I swear we don't normally drink everyday, only on special occasions, which are most of the times I write blog posts). ^_^
We ended our night atop our hostel with good friends and homebrew we brought from Busan. We chatted and laughed the night away until sunrise.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
We started our Sunday morning by treating ourselves to some beef at a local western grocery store/cafe. Beef is pretty expensive here, and being the penny crunching travelers we are, we tend to only buy chicken. But when you are on vacation, you're allowed to splurge a little. I got a roast beef sandwich on homemade bread and I also found a Fresh Ginger Ginger Aleby Bruce Cost - a super gingery, lightly sweet carbonated beverage that excites my taste buds.
After lunch, we made our way to Namsan Tower AKA Seoul Tower AKA N Seoul Tower to meet one of our Korean conversation partners from LCSC, Jayeon (Elieen), who lives in Seoul. Normally you can see beautiful 360 views of Seoul from this tower, but it was a foggy day, so we didn't venture up to the top. But the surrounding areas were covered with lush green trees, well kept green grass, beautiful stone paths and the loud sound of cicadas buzzing through the trees.
Apparently a lot of couples go to Namsan Tower (which is on Namsan Mountain, the highest point in Seoul). The gates around the tower are covered with pad locks with couples names and short love notes on them. The idea is for two 'lovebirds' to write on the padlock and then link them to the fence and throw out the keys to ensure their vows are not broken. We heard about this tradition for couples on Valentine's Day last year but at the Namsan Tower you can show your love for your significant other anytime of the year. I hope this next year during Valentine's Day Bobby and I can be apart of this tradition!
The pink lock below says, " Baby, I love you. Promise we are forever. I love you"
As part of the "love theme" they have angled benches that force couples to sit closer to each other.
Next, we needed a little boost of caffeine. We found this awesome coffee shop that roasts its own coffee.
The name of the shop translated into English is:
"A Sommelier's Coffee Shop".
After we were refreshed with caffeine, we headed to a famous makgeolli restaurant that we read about on CNN.com, called [ :h]. At this restaurant you can drink fresh makgeolli from every region in Korea.
To start things off, we got a makgeolli sampler of the top 5 makgeolli's in Korea.
Below you can see the descriptions of each one.
1: Lotus Root makgeolli from 충 청 도 (Chungcheong)
2: Buckwheat makgeolli from 강 원 도 (Gangwon)
3: 개 도 Island makgeolli from 개 도
4: Champagne Style makgeolli from 복 산 (Busan!)
5: Five Grain makgeolli from 충 청 도
Our favorite was #2. It was crisp and well balanced. We ordered a bottle!
Not only was the makgeolli amazing, but the food was the best Korean food we had ever had. We ordered traditional rainy day food: Kimchi Pajeon that had chunks of squid, green onion, kimchi. It was think and fluffy, but crunchy on the outside-just the way I like it. We also ordered a warm kimchi and tofu dish. The kimchi came in a mix with bolgugi (meat) and spices. It was sweet, spicy and salty. The perfect combo.
Monday, July 30, 2013
On Monday we make our way to the Korean Traditional Village. We were kind of confused by it, since it seemed like just a lot of modern clothing stores and shops. The highlight was this man. For 1,000 won (less than a dollar) he draws a portrait of you in less then a minute. We lucked out, because there were no lines on this day. I guess normally there are lines that go around the corner full of people eager to get their own pictures.
Here are the portraits:
He also owns a small coffee shop that roasts their own coffee with cute hand drawn characters on each coffee bag.
Before we left Itaewon for the day, we did a quick price comparison on masks there and masks at the Traditional Village. Turns out, Itaewon was a lot cheaper and since there was no one else in the store we were able to haggle the price down. So, check out our new masks!
Meanings of the masks:
(We can't find the meaning of the two masks on top. They are from a different village than the two on the bottom. When I do find their stories, I will update this post. But for now, here are the stories of the bottom masks.)
3: In the twelfth century, the gods ordered craftsman Heo to create twelve masks, and he was to avoid contact with others until he was finished. Just as he was finishing the final mask, a girl peeked into his workshop, and he fell down dead. His final mask–Imae–was left incomplete, missing a lower jaw.
4: Bune, sometimes spelled "Punae," is a flirty young woman. With her tiny, fixed mouth, smiling eyes, and apple-cheeks, Bune represents beauty and good humor. Her character is a bit shady and unrefined, however. At times, she tempts the monks and other men into sin. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Next stop: Dinner! Tyler and Natalie recommended going to a Traditional Korean Temple Restaurant called Sanchon. We weren't sure how to get there, and our Korean isn't very good, so we called the restaurant and gave the phone to our cab driver. After winding through small crowded streets, the cab drive stopped and said "yogi" (here). We looked at each other confused. As we got out of the taxi this man was standing there waiting for us and showed us to Sanchon. How nice. huh?!
As soon as we got there, they gave us slippers and put our shoes into a locker. A monk escorted us to a small sink, pointed and said "washe". We washed our hands and went to our table located right next to a dance floor. During our meal, we enjoyed three courses of vegetables that are only found in mountains here in Korea. Some were new foods we had never tried. Some were foods we are familiar with, but with a vegetarian kick. For example, they served three kinds of fritters of fried seasonal vegetable. We were curious eaters. Trying small bites from each bowl and letting it disperse in our mouths before we decided if we liked it or not. We found somethings to be very flavorful and full of spices, but there were other things that had bitter, dirty notes. Each course brought a new kind of nectarous teas. After doing a little more research on these tasty drinks I found a great link about traditional Korean teas. The teas we had were: The first being a plum tea that our server told us was a fermented mixture of plums and pine needless-aged for many years. Plum tea helps prevent food poisoning and used to help upset stomachs.
The second was a cold pine tea for good health. Finally, the tea served with our desert, Omijacha, or five-taste tea. This tea has five tastes:sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and hot. It's great at relieving thirst and fatigue. Korean's believe "it is an essential dietary supplement during the summer."
While enjoying our main course we got to watch a few traditional Korean dances. Unfortunately, my camera died while I was taking pictures of the food so I couldn't record the dancing. If you have never seen a traditional Korean dance then I recommend you watch this video. It is from the same restaurant (Sanchon), although they are performing different dances than the ones we saw. To see one of the five dances we saw, look on my Facebook page here and you will see a short video I was able to capture on my phone.
Tuesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday we slept in, enjoyed the cool AC in our room, ate some Vietnamese food, packed our bags and headed for the bus.
As we traveled back home through the beautiful green country side of Korea, I tried to soak it all in, remembering this might be the last trip across Korea, for now. I hope we can come back in a few years to explore the beautiful country side yet again!
On our last day of summer vacation we got together with Tyler to try to make our own makgeolli. Tyler had watched some of his co-workers make it once, but Bobby and I had never tried to make it. We did a little research that morning, but we weren't exactly sure how to make makegeolli. We decided to just jump right in and try. Here is how we did it:
4:00 pm: Started cooking 10 kgs. of white sticky rice in our two small rice cookers. We read online that you are suppose to only cook the rice 80% of the way. But we failed and cooked it all the way.. and added way too much water. The rice turned out to be one sticky mess.
5:00 pm: Once all the rice was ready we put it into every small container I could find in our apartment in an effort to cool it.
9:00 pm: We cut up four apples and 5 or 6 knobs of ginger and added it to our fermenter. Then, we added the rice gunk and water into the apple/ginger mix and pitched our yeast.
We waited three days, mixing it everyday with our hands.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Finally, it was time to bottle! Bobby and I stood together in our small shower stall while he picked up the jug and I held some mesh bags. We filled the bags with the rice, apple, and ginger mixture. When the bags got full we squeezed as much liquid as we could from it, threw the bags in the sink and then started over again. By the time we dumped all the liquid out, our hands were sticky and we had rice in between our toes from some spills we had-it was fun!
We used 10 lbs of rice, but after the makgeolli was finished fermenting we were left with only one large ziplock of rice.
Here's the final product.
Monday, August 5th , 2013
Today we brought some of our Ginger Apple Makgeolli to work for the Korean's to try. They were shocked that we could make makgeolli at home and were very impressed by the taste. They kept yelling "masheesayo!"-delicious!
We are extremely proud of this first batch of makgeolli. Yes we made a few mistakes, but it seemed to work out well for us in the end.
We are currently brewing beer, hard cider, and kombucha, all of which are very good. However, I think this makgeolli might be better than everything else!
It's always fun to try out new recipes, especially when they turn out so well!
So how about you try something new in the near future, who knows, it might be the best thing you have ever had!
A year before we even got the ESL job in Korea, we knew we were going to go teach here. We would have done anything to get a job in Korea and actually landed a job before we even graduated college. Our friends, Tyler (whom Bobby has known since they were kids), and his beautiful wife, Natalie, knew they were coming here that far in advance as well. We were lucky enough to get placed in the same city and only a 10 minute cab ride away from each other. We really enjoyed sharing this experience with them. They were a piece of home for us here in Korea. We loved getting together with them to try new foods, meet new people or go and see the city togeher.
Unfortunately, their time here is coming to an end. We are sad to see them go, but they are off to bigger, better and colder things in ALASKA! They are moving to a tiny village that only has a total of 200 families. There, they plan to teach, fish and hunt. I think it will be more of a culture shock than this huge city of 3.6 million. Neither of them have ever lived in a small town, so I think this will be a great experience for them. Please jump over to Natalie's Blog Here and read more about their adventure and the town they are moving to.
On one of their last weekends here, we decided to meet at Gwangli Beach for one last beach session together before they moved. We enjoyed some of Bobby's home brewed Kombucha and beer. As we sat and sipped our refreshing drinks, we remised about this past year. All of the new people we have met, the places we have gone, and how we have all grown individually and together as couples. All of us have found things that we are passionate about and we are all seeking to become better in these trades. Natalie wants to be become a writer, but more specifically, a professional blogger. She enjoys being creative and writing about her experiences from around the world. Tyler has found a passion for filming and writing short movies. He plans to create a few short films while in Alaska and then continue his passion in California. Bobby, as we know, has become very passionate about fermenting beverages and has plans on trying to ferment different foods. And as for me, I am passionate about my life. I have always wanted to fall in love with an adventures, caring man and travel the world. I am passionate about learning and planning our adventures.
Once home from the beach, we all went for a walk to Seomyeon and ended up at the Makogli restaurant Ty and Natalie showed us a few weeks ago. Isn't this a great photo of them?
Wait.. what is that in-between them? Oh that is just a penis. Don't worry, you find wood statues of them at many Korean restaurants. Why? I have no idea. ^ ^
Since Tyler and Natalie frequent this place so much some of the workers were sad to hear they were leaving in a few short weeks and decided to pose for a photo with them.
And we posed for one too!
Natalie packed up and left ROK on July 31st and Tyler will be following on August 12th.
We are extremely sad to see them go, but so excited for them.
This will be such an amazing and eye opening experience.
So, until next time Nat-ler. We love you both. See you in the beautiful PNW next summer!
Bobby loves beer. Since coming to Korea he has become quite passionate about it. Not only drinking and tasting the infinite possibility of flavors from well crafted beers, but also a love for brewing his own beer. It is no shock to me that Bobby would like and be good at making his own beers. He has always been great at cooking and making me delicious drinks (with and without alcohol).
When we first thought about brewing our own beer we were certain it was unfeasible in our small apartment in a country where there aren't neighborhood homebrew supply stores-we would have to wait almost a year until we were back in the States. But then we found a home brew forum for Busan. Then we found people who home brew here. Then Bobby started being an assistant brewer. Then Bobby got the wild hair and wanted to figure out a way to do his own home brew.
There were a few things I was concerned with before we got started. First of all, during the brewing process the beer needs to be kept at a certain temperature. If I remember correctly, last summer our apartment felt like a sauna and we were constantly sweating. Additionally, I didn't want to invest too much money in a system that we would only get to use a few times.
Thanks to some of the extremely nice people we have met through the local home brew community, we were set up with all basics to get started. Although bordering on experimentally minimal, we gathered all ingredients and equipment for virtually no cost! Yes, it may be somewhat "ghetto" to put our hops in laundry bags or ferment in a Kimchi fermentor, but it worked out so well.
Our first batch of beer in our apartment went smoothly. We were worried about the warm temperatures, but it has been fine...so far.
Last weekend About a month ago, a friend came over to help Bobby bottle his first batch of beer.. and yes, we reused water bottles we had. We didn't have the proper hose with a lever on it to control the beer to come out from the fermentor to the bottles.. so Bobby took a shot of tequila to sanitize his mouth and siphoned it himself.
We were "suppose" to wait a few weeks before we opened a bottle to try out. During these few weeks the beer conditions and creates the carbonation. But we noticed the carbonation started really fast... and we (mostly Bobby) were really impatient. We tried our first beer less than 24 hours later and our thoughts were...
I think you can get the answer from his face... that is some tasty beer!
Even though the ingredients were really simple, it was fantastic. No bugs, no weird tastes. Its hard to beat fresh home brew, especially in the beer wasteland we currently live in.
It was a successful first batch.
The next day, Bobby had another wild hair and decided to brew a second batch. This time a far more inspired and complex Wheat Ginger Beer (I love ginger!) As I sit here typing, beer #2 is sitting right in front of our blasted AC to get it as cool as possible and once Bobby is home tonight we will add the yeast.
Bobby even has even started some hard apple cider (my new favorite). This will have to sit for months and months before it will be ready to drink(unless we are impatient again).
Bobby had also found a kombucha starter here in Korea.. and we have made two batches already. YUMM.
Sounds like we will be drinking good for the next few months!
I am so proud of Bobby for following his passion and is making things happen!
Now that we have been in Korea for over a year, we like to think we now know what to expect this year, weather wise. All year (besides summer) it BARELY rains here, but as soon as June comes around we have weeks and week straight of rain, thunderstorms, and extremely humid weather.
Yes we are from the Pacific Northwest.. and yes that area get lots of rain... but not rain like monsoon rain. This rain is so heavy you can't even see in front of you while you are walking. Last weekend Three or four weeks ago (jeez it took me along time to post this.. sorry!) when we were trying to find our way to a new restaurant it was one of THOSE kinds of rains. I swear it was raining harder each step.. and again unlike the northwest, when it rains here it is extremely humid. It took us a few weeks to realize that when we looked outside and it was raining we definitely didn't need to wear pants or a long sleeve shirt because it was too damn hot for that.
Everyone in Korea knows that when it is rainy it is the perfect time to eat pajeon and makoglie. Last weekend Three weeks ago, it was pouring rain so we decided to get together with Tyler and Natalie (our friends from Seattle who are teaching in the same city as us) to check out a new makoglie restaurant that is hidden in some small backstreets in Seomyeon. This is the type of restaurant that only Koreans know about. You won't see too many foreigners here.. and actually we got lots of looks from other Koreas when we were walking here since they never see "white peeps" in that area.
The milk looking liquid in that bowl is makoglie. It's actually really easy to make at home, so maybe we can make you some on a rainy day when we are back in the States! The red circle is a kimchi pajeon, which is a sort of savory pancake. I love the kimchi one rather than the pajeon with only green onion. The last picture is traditional bimpbimbop.
So far the rain hasn't been too bad. We had a few weeks were it rained ALL WEEK, but there were some sunny hours during the weekends where we were able to run to the beach to catch some rays. Last year, our school closed a few times due to typhoons, so we will see what is in store for us this year. Despite the harsh weather, we do live in a city with 3.6 MILLION people in it, there's bound to be something to do when its raining.
Wow, it has been almost a month since our last blog post. Sorry! We have been really busy, but not with post worthy things. We have had tons of work at school: overtime, report cards for all the kinder and afternoon kids, speaking tests, speaking contests and working during the weekend. Bobby has been hustling his foot in the door with brewing and has done his FIRST HOMEBREW on his own, in our apartment (more on that here). Overall, we have just been busy doing our normal everyday things (teaching/eating/sleeping).
This week is special. Bobby and I have spent one year living and teaching in Korea! This has been the most eye opening, influential, inspiring, challenging, forgein, enjoyable, and life changing adventure of our lives. Unlike most teachers here in Korea, we signed a 19 month contract. No one we have ever talked to here has heard of anything besides 12 months. Lucky for us, we are very happy with our circumstances! While most teachers are packing up there things and ready to move on to new experiences, we are happy to be here for another 8 months. We get to enjoy another beautiful summer and fall here (and then suck it up through another cold winter) before we will have to think about packing up our things and moving on to OUR next adventure.
There are so many things we still want to experience before we leave: a makgeolli making class, learning to make a few of our favorite Korean dishes, exploring more of the country side and other cities, hiking, visiting more temples, eating at new restaurants, and spending more time with all the people we have met and become so close with over here (all while Bobby continues his mad scientist brewing).
I remember the day we arrived in Korea. We missed our flight from Seoul to Busan so we had to stay in a love motel that was near the Seoul Airport. The hotel gave us a small bag with soap, two shower caps, ten condoms, and one toothbrush (you do the math). The next morning we took the first flight out of Seoul to Busan and met two of our co-teachers at the airport. We all crammed into a cab (our luggage taking up most of the room) and rushed to our school to meet the rest of our staff. Then they told us we are going to lunch. I remember staring out that window the way a child stares out the window the first time they go to a city. I was soaking in all the new buildings, the signs I couldn't read, and watching the well-dressed Korean men and women going about their lives. The taxi weaved through small streets overran by people. Everywhere I looked there were tall buildings and bright lights. I had no idea where I was or how far away I was from our school/apartment. Our co-teachers (Kate and Brian, both Korean) took us to a Korean BBQ restaurant for our first meal in Korea. They brought out tons of small plates with little side dishes in them like cucumber, soy bean threads, tofu, and kimchi. I remember Kate made a comment about how badly she wished they could order beer, but she didn't want us to get in trouble at work. The food was wonderful compared to the airplane and convenience store food we had been consuming for days. It was also nice to get to know Kate and Brain.
It took us about 4 or 5 months to find that place again. It turns out it is only a five minute walk from our apartment in Seomyeon, the downtown area of Busan that is a five minute walk from our apartment. We had actually walked past this restaurant many times until one day I realized it was the same one Kate and Brain took us too! We ended up going back a few times and even brought Woody and Kyoko there when they visited (more on that here)
We figured we HAD TO go back to this place on our 1 year mark in Korea. We invited a few of our Korean/American co-teachers/friends to come with us. We tried a new style of marinated beef (which was much more expensive, 26,000 won VS 8,000 won PER PERSON) and had a few bottles of soju
(a traditional drink to have while eating BBQ). Like always, it was delicious!
We are so happy to be living abroad. It has always be our dream to travel and see the world. It is such an amazing opportunity to not only travel to other countries, but also to have the experience to live and work in one. It has shown me things that would not be possible if I were just visiting. This has been a year of my life I wouldn't trade for anything.
