Sunday, March 4, 2012

Lots and lots of stuff!

I have several updates, some of which are awesome, and some are quite unfortunate.  I'll start with the bad ones so I can end on a high note :)

I woke up last Saturday packed and ready to go to Ilbon (Japan).  For whatever reason I woke up half asleep and went right for the bottle of water sitting next to my laptop, and managed to dump about half of the bottle out onto my college graduation present :(  It was toast.  Like, water logged.  I'm not sure what the warranty details are with Dell, but I am looking into that soon, and maybe I'll catch a break.  (Also, I hope I can retrieve the files from it somehow so that I can finish the Thailand videos!  I've been an awesome procrastinator for those..)

Next part of my day consisted of running a couple errands and relaxing before my solo journey to Japan.  I needed to be in Busan around 6:30 to buy a ferry ticket, was to board between 7 and 7:30, however departure was not until 10:30.  I figured that it takes about 15 minutes to get on a bus and to the train station, then maybe 15-20 minutes waiting for a train, then an hour to Busan, then not too far on the subway to the harbor.  I decided to leave my apartment at 4, thinking that was plenty of time, especially since it departed so late (even if I was a little late, no biggie).  Well by the time I arrived in Busan it was 6:15, so I was a little off, but I thought I was fine still.  I took the subway, and just completely misjudged how long it would take, plus a small maintenance delay when I was one stop away from the Harbor.  I didn't get there until 7:35!  An hour and 20 minutes on the subway! 

So I made it to where I had arrived the last time I was there from Jeju Island, and it was closed.  I found out from a security guard that there was another building/ticket office which was about a 5 minute walk away.  I wasn't in a hurry because I thought, well they said to be there at 6:30, but they don't leave until 10:30.. so an hour late, 2 hours late, what's the difference? I walk into this ticket office at 7:50, and this is what I see:



There were maybe 5 different companies' ticket windows all closed, but the one I was planning on taking still had a light on in it, and had just closed at 7:30.  I poked my head in and pleaded: 1 ticket, Ilbon, Juseo?? Juuuseoooo! (please)  This got me absolutely nowhere, except outside.  So I thought about my options, and decided to go to a PC bang to look at flight prices.  Nothing was available in my budget, since I was already stretching it quite thin for this particular trip.  I thought about finding a hostel in Busan, staying the night and going to Japan the next day.. but they don't run on Sundays.  I thought if I wait until Monday, take the over night ferry, I won't get there until Tuesday morning..  I called my co-teacher Mr. Park to ask him what he thought was the smartest option, but he did not answer.  Had he, I would have known that I could have gotten a ferry early on Monday, and I probably would have done that.  Instead, I decided to cancel the whole trip, and buy a guitar :)



When I decided to do that I emailed the 4 hostels that I had made reservations with and canceled them all.  Emailed my folks and told them what was happening, and let them know that the money they contributed to this trip (late b-day gift, thanks again! :) was now going to a guitar.  I then tried to decide what to do with myself.. I have extra money, and I'm in Busan at 9 pm on a Saturday night.. so I called a couple friends and decided to go back to Ulsan for a free concert of a local band called "Jazz Band" that was starting around 10-11.  I got on the subway, then decided that if I was going to make it in time for any of their set, I should take a cab.. I mean why not, I have all this extra money anyways.  I get in the cab, and I didn't realize until about 10-15 minutes later that the driver was going the exact opposite direction of where I was trying to go.  Here we go again. 

I think I had a pretty good attitude about life up until this point.  I was like laptop?  Eh, material stuff.. Trip?  Okay, guitar instead.  Now: I'm wasting time, money, and as a result, a fun concert.  I was upset partially because I was going to Hyundai Beach, and that is the most famous spot in Busan.  I could not believe it, but it took me 5 minutes with a tourist map and my cell phone map to finally explain where I wanted to go.  Worst taxi driver in the city.  Then when he took me to Hyundai beach, he took me a 5 minute walk, and a subway stop away from the train station.  I was at a loss for words.  I felt like the first break I got was at 10:35, when I walked in the train station and got a cheap ticket to Ulsan that was leaving at 10:50.  I stood outside for a few moments since it was a nice night, and kind of crowded in the terminal.  All of the sudden I hear "Is that Ryan??!" I looked up and saw my good friends Howard and Alex!  They were on the same train as me, listened to me vent about my day, and then had a late dinner and hung out!  It was the perfect ending to a pretty disappointing day.

I think I might go to Japan for the national holiday of Buddha's birthday in May.  The thing that is too bad in retrospect, is even if I would have gone Monday evening, I would have had more time in Japan than I will in May.  Oh well, I gained a guitar, and had a bit of an adventure.

Another cool thing about the guitar is I may have just found a little band to join, so now I have my own electric, and acoustic electric guitars.  I was just invited to join my friend Tom's band, we just haven't gotten together for a practice yet.  I have however been jamming with my buddy Justin lately.  He came over to my place last week and I visited his yesterday.  He has taught me so much about writing music and understanding it, so I really thank him for that.


Here is Justin and a Korean guy we met after our jam session yesterday.

Another nice thing about staying in Ulsan was that I was still given Monday through Thursday off, so I had a very relaxing week hanging out playing my new guitar.  I also went to a famous temple with my co-teacher which is about 40 minutes SW of Ulsan, pretty close to Busan actually.  It is considered to be one of the 3 best temples in South Korea, and it was really cool!  We went last Wednesday, and unfortunately it was raining a little bit, but it was still nice.  We spent some time in a museum there and learned about different things including Korean art, language, the differences between Eastern Asia Buddhism and Indian Buddhism.  Actually I thought that was quite interesting.. I guess in Eastern Asia (Korea, China and Japan) the focus of Buddhism is on the individual, where you don't need to go to a temple to pray, meditate, and it teaches that everyone has Buddha in their hearts.  Indian Buddhism is more about the collective group or community, and studying, praying or meditating as a group in front of a statue of Buddha.  This is the understanding that I have of it anyways. 

One of the reasons this temple is considered one of the best in Korea is because what they have there, or maybe I should say what they don't have.  Almost every Buddhist temple has a HUGE statue of Buddha, I'm pretty sure I have posted some pictures of them at other temples.  This temple does not have a large Buddha..

When Buddha died, he was cremated, and according to my co-teacher they have some of the remains of the real Buddha entombed at this temple!  I sort of felt skeptical when he told me, because I think it would be a bigger deal if this was the final resting place of BUDDHA, but I guess there are about 20 temples around Asia that have some of the remains.  I think it is pretty cool that I was in his presence! 

We had lunch there at the temple, and then explored 2 of the smaller temples that were nearby, which were quite interesting.  One of them was famous for this mysterious frog that lives in a hole in a rock.  There are legends about it's origins, and it is said that the frog is magical.  Buddhism also has some very interesting things about animals talking or turning into humans, so I like to learn about it, however I am not converting Buddhist lol.


Me at the temple.


There are guys like this at every temple, protecting Buddha and the temple.  (Most aren't play guitar though!)


The bell shaped monument behind me is where some of Buddha's remains are claimed to be.


This nearby temple is famous for making hot pepper paste.


Here is Mr. Park right near that temple.


This painting was on the side of the temple with the frog legend.  It is believed that this monk made the hole with his finger, and created the frog to live in there.  Supposedly this happened a long time ago, but there is still a frog that lives in there, which adds to the mystery.

Afterwards he invited me back to his parents house for dinner.  I got to play with his two sons who call me uncle Ryan, and they are just awesome.  I played soccer with the older one (who is 5 years old by western standards, I think 6 by Korean standards) for quite a while.  The food was delicious, and then I took a bus back home. 

So all in all my last week or two have been quite exciting, with some gutters and some strikes.  I am still enjoying myself very much, and am looking forward to teach regular hours tomorrow to start off the new school year.  I will have 3 after school classes per week this time around, so that will be new, and hopefully a good experience.  I will also try to get my breakdancing class together again.  If so there will be plenty of coverage on this blog.. I think that has been my favorite thing to report about so far!  Soon I am going to do some posts about the cultural differences and my progress with the language here, Ahnyun-geseyo!

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