Beomeosa

The first place we visited after arriving in Busan was Beomeosa, a peaceful temple in the mountains of Busan.  My former co-teacher, Yeong Oak, picked us up from the airport and brought us to the temple, which was having some sort of festival on the weekend.  In Korea, it seems like there is never a time when a festival isn't going on!

Beomeosa is the temple where John and I did an overnight temple stay program several years ago when we lived in Busan.  Yeong Oak is a devout Buddhist and told us that the reason there are so many different temple buildings at the complex is that if you wish to pray for a specific thing, you can go to a certain temple building devoted to that.

At the festival, the mayor of the city and his wife dressed up in traditional Korean dress like the old royalty used to wear.  There was a procession and some beautiful performances of dancing and Korean traditional music.  Around the temple grounds we could also participate in print-making art and traditional Korean games (throwing arrows into a pot, and playing something that resembled "hacky sack").

This festival did not attract many "waygookin" aka foreigners, so there were quite a few avid Korean photographers taking our picture.  While I was taking pictures of the beautiful lanterns, a group of photographers with big cameras and tripods were snapping away.  I'll probably end up in a Korean magazine at some point!

Korea Revisited

This week we just got back from an awesome holiday in South Korea.  Originally we planned to split our time fairly equally between Busan and Seoul, but we were just having too much fun in Busan that we stayed there pretty much the entire week.  We eventually made it to Seoul for one day, and then had a stopover in Shanghai on our last day.  The last time I was in Korea was March 2010, when I finished my contract teaching English at a Korean public school in Busan.  It was a bit strange coming back to Busan as a visitor, and it made me miss the city a lot.  I had lots of great memories living there, and I guess Busan (and Korea!) will always hold a special place in my heart.

There were so many cool things that we did on this trip, that I'll have to update the blog in installments.  One thing is for sure though, Korea is definitely a fun place!!!

Saigon Yuppie Evening

This week we pretended to be "yuppies" for an evening, just for fun.  We visited a new location of one of my favourite cafes downtown, L'Usine.  This place has great sandwiches and desserts, and the decor is modern and artsy, while the store inside sells expensive, hipster-type stuff.  We joked that if were indeed yuppies, our house would look like this cafe...

The yuppie evening didn't stop there.  We went to the opera house again to listen to some chamber music.  It was a fun night on the town!

Baking time!

Today we went on a field trip to a bakery on the other end of town.  The students got to learn about healthy eating and ingredients that go into making bread.  Then, every student got to roll out some dough and make a bun.  After the buns went in the "magic oven" they came out and we got to sample them with butter and honey.  It was fun, and we were given chocolate chip cookies to bring back to school for snack.

Tomorrow is the last day of school before the fall break.  Korea here we come!!!

Canadian Thanksgiving in Vietnam!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

At school we made a turkey craft and watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie.  In the evening we had some friends over for Thanksgiving dinner.  We have a dining table that opens up to seat more people, and in total all 9 of us were able to sit comfortably.  Thanksgiving included:  popcorn chicken, mozarella sticks, hummus, fruit, Korean mandu, Pizza Hut pizza (2 for 1 deal!), and turkey/cranberry sandwiches delivered to us from a restaurant.  We also found Stove Top stuffing and made some of that!  It's so cheap in Canada, but in Vietnam it costs almost $5 per box.  Dessert was ice cream, sorbet, cookies, and chocolate.  It was all delicious!

It was a lot of fun and I am definitely thankful to have met such great friends in Vietnam.  Of course, I'm also thankful for my friends and family back home... happy Thanksgiving!  :)

John & Andy

Will & Greg, the evening's entertainment

Aerial view from the 2nd floor

Alex's special Thanksgiving speech... haha

Pizza time!

Turkey/cranberry sandwich... yum!

It was a dark and stormy night...

On Saturday night, tropical storm Gaemi hit the coast of Vietnam near Hue, which is quite a distance away.  I knew the storm was coming, but didn't know how much rain we would get.  The downpour started just before 7:00pm and was immediate.  John was out at the corner store buying some snacks when the rain began.  He said within 4 minutes the street was flooded.  Minutes later, he said that part of the road was flooded almost up to his knee.  Crazy Vietnam weather!

Before the storm began, we had ordered kebabs for delivery from a new restaurant in the neighbourhood.  Good for us because we got the food delivered without having to go anywhere and get wet, but bad for the delivery lady.  She somehow managed to look pretty dry, and all our kebabs stayed dry because she transported them in plastic bins!  We ate the kebabs (less than $1 each and delicious!) while watching Survivor on TV.

Survivor + kebabs + tropical storm = good night!

Bathtub fail

Apparently water has been leaking from the bathtub down through to the ceiling of the apartment below us.  The landlord sent workers to fix the problem and they resealed it.  The next day, they decided that they needed to try something else, and this is the current state of the situation:

The Bathtub Fail

It's been like this all week, and the bathtub is currently sitting on the balcony.  The worker has been trying to dry the cement with something that looks like a hair dryer.  Oh well... at least it's not the only washroom in the apartment!