Best Ramen ever!

We found a ramen shop where you can get a meal and sides for about $5. The sides are pretty good if you like fried tofu, cucumber salad w/ pineapple dressing, and dried squid. Fresh ramen is a huge difference from the instant kind I was used to eating. The creamy beef broth was amazing. I won't ever look at ramen the same again!

Jumping in Haeundae

 Here's a nice candid beach shot.

After the sixth try, our jumping photo was a success!

Steady Hands in the Sand

One of the main attractions in Busan is their beaches. Many Koreans recommended visiting Haeundae Beach, which is supposed to be one of the famous beaches in Korea. Since its Memorial Weekend in Korea, I figured this would be a good time to visit this beach. I was pleasantly surprised since there happened to be a Sand Sculpture Festival going on here. All of the sculptures were awesome and incredibly detailed. I wanted to take pictures of all of them, but there is only so much that I can do with a cell phone camera. Still took some decent pictures regardless. I'll never look at a sand castle the same way again!

As you can see, these sculptures are have a great amount detail.

I think this is the Sword in the Stone, but I'm not completely sure.

One of my friend's pictures showing someone working on this sculpture earlier in the day.

A tale with a familiar theme for this sculpture.

 Who could forget the signature grin of this cat?

 I'm late, I'm late

 Off with his head!

 Follow the yellow brick road....

He came with them to fulfill his wish of courage. 

Ocean View

Some pictures of the view of my friend's apartment in Busan. The school he teaches at is only a five minute walk.

This wonderful view is from the 17th floor. He's far from downtown, but I guess close access to the beach makes up for it.

While this area is still part of Busan, the place we were staying at is on an island. It took us about 45 minutes to get here from the train station, but it was worth the trip.

Tainted canned bamboo?!

A few days ago, my aunt sent me this informative, but disturbing message to me about canned bamboo made in China. Her message basically said to avoid this product at all costs because they come from old bamboo chopsticks. I asked a few Koreans if they were aware of this practice. They told me that they knew about this several years ago!  All of them also said that its the main reason they avoid eating bamboo at cheap restaurants. Even worse, some informed me that there are several reports every year of Koreans being hospitalized from continuously eating canned bamboo from China. I think I had better follow their advice and not eat any bamboo unless I know it's fresh! This reminds me of all of those food industry documentaries all over again!

 Don't these chopsticks look familiar?

After cutting, some unknown ingredients are added

 Flour being added

Is this soy sauce? I have no clue!

 Receiving the boiling treatment

 Placed in a jar for storage

 Storage in a fridge

 This is the result 24 hours later

 Ready for take out

 Yikes! This almost looks like the real thing!

Don't forget to...

Just a few samples of what I have my students do in class. The topic was about forgetting things. I would put up a picture on the screen and ask, "What would _____ _____ forget?". Each team had two minutes to think of an expression for each picture. After that I had them speak out their expressions. The students got pretty competitive once I mentioned the team with the most points would receive a prize. Great interactive activity to use for sure.

Sunday Martial Arts Stroll...

As some of you may know, Taekwondo is the official martial art of Korea. Our middle school has a team, and the students on the team are very dedicated. Since I used to practice taekwondo, I definitely appreciate watching them compete. I see the whole team train whenever I go over to use their exercise room. The team gets quite intense, as they practice about 2 hours a day.  In preparation for the junior national tournament, the training was about 3 hours on some days. I attended the quarterfinals yesterday and it was fun to watch. Even at the middle school level, the students are very skilled. On several occasions, I saw students pull off jump turning side kicks to their opponents heads with no hesitation. For the ones unfortunate to get hit by this, they go rolling about 5 or 6 feet. Some of them will just get back up as if nothing happened - talk about tough competitors! Two of our students advanced to the semi-finals. As much as I'd like to go, the semis start on Friday morning, so my attendance is unlikely. The top three in each weight class will receive a medal and a plaque for their respective school. Last year our school brought home a gold medal in the middleweight division. Best of luck to my students and hopefully they will bring home a medal or two!

Feel My Power!

We're having fun with a little bit of trick photography.

Enjoying the Moment...

Herb Hillz Ecological Park

This is how the park name is actually spelled. The aroma of most of the park was pleasant. You can smell many different kinds of herbs, some of which are commonly used for medicinal purposes in most of Asia. Besides the great landscape, the zip line obstacle courses is one of, if not the main, attraction here. I'm about 60 feet in the air and wearing steel cables that prevent me from plunging to the ground. I took the intermediate course and it was fairly challenging. I plan on coming back for the advanced course next time.

An upside down tree guy greeting us at the entrance!

 Overhead view of part of the eco park. One of the zip lines can be seen in the background.

 Two of several herb sculptures set in the park. The monkey one is a bit bizarre....

There's the name of the park in the background! I told you I wasn't hallucinating!

  The equipment for the zip line obstacle course.

Great performance by these ladies. They combined techno with string & keyboard instruments and opera vocals.

 Group photo before our departure from Herb Hillz