Birthday. Thanksgiving. It's already December?!

A couple weeks ago was my birthday, so I want to catalog some of the things I did.

First, the weekend before on Friday the 13th, I went to an Uzbekistan restaurant and ate lamb an

d drank some Russian beer. Then my fellow teachers and I went to a "funky" singing room where we could wear blue

and red disco wigs. I dunno why I don't have pictures of that.

The next day a few of us went to my first concert experience in

Korea. It was in a 2nd floor bar venue called--get this--FREEBIRD! Hahaha. The place was really cool, and it ended up being all you could drink bottles of Cass 2X for 10 bucks. A great deal. The first band was a really good Korean indie group. Next was some American garage rock that wasn't that great. Final was a bunch of older white guys doing a medley of covers, from Beatles to Dave Matthews to Guns n Roses. Not bad, but not great. Anyway, I at least had a really fun night!

The day of my birthday, Wednesday Nov 18th, one of my classes had a cake with lit candles waiting for me, and they sang me happy birthday. It was really sweet. Obviously, they're my favorite class =) Some of the other teachers gave me gifts, like a beanie, wine, and an English/Korean Poe book, among others.

Then, Saturday the 21st, my friend Victor hosted a party at his apartment. I helped acquire the mood lighting: black lights, red and blue rope lights, plus some Christmas tinsel. He got the drinks: soju, beer, vodka 'n whiskey.

Guests were merry, and we taught Koreans how to play ring of fire and of course, beer pong! It was an energetic soiree, as evidenced by the building security guy coming by twice to say keep it down.

Another thing I did was attend a college concert of graduating music majors. I went with my new friend and fellow teacher, Joan. She is about to finish her masters at Kyeong Hee University, so she showed me around the really pretty campus. Then we saw there would be a concert the day we were there, so we checked it out. It was really awesome.

Music ranged from jazz numbers and piano ballads to straight-up hair-metal hard rock (a little surprising). Here's a clip of some jazz for ya.

My favorite song is called "Space Hippies". It was kinda like Idioteque, and I even got a video of the whole song, so you can check it out yourself. I predict it will be the next big hit of 2010.

For Thanksgiving I hosted a potluck and made some killer mashed potatoes. No turkey, but hens were a good substitute. It was nice to celebrate with a group of all new friends. I was missing family and friends back home though. A lot.

I can't believe I've been here nearly six months already! Time flies.

So the phoenix comes and kills the dragon and the Power Care Bear Rangers win!

The first theme of this blog post is animals! Ironically, there are no real live animals involved... Well there's one--Guess what kind of exotic animal I happened to capture on film in South Korea and win a prize. The second theme is fireworks.
The title of this post kind of gives away the ending, but how the hell do we get there? A phoenix killing a dragon? More importantly, I know you're thinking... Power Care Bear Rangers? I thought they were just a legend! Nope. They just live in Korea.

Let's begin. I was walking around my city (Ansan) one day trying to find the library and wandered into a big park, entitled Lake Park. Lake Park is filled with really cool things like: a lake, giant flower gardens, hearts made of flowers, a skate park(!), and a form of zoo I've never seen before.



Aforementioned heart made of flowers.
*side note: aforementioned is a ridiculous yet useful word that I'll never use again.

Most interesting is a big field in the park with all kinds of animals in it. But, they're just statues. Still, the statues are life-sized and pretty cool looking, so I was impressed.

Lions,

tigers,

and panda bears. OH MY!

Aww but they're such a cute panda bear family...

Taller than the trees. That's why giraffes didn't survive in Korea.

The polar bears just don't seem to fit in do they?

Later I met one of my friends at her college, Kookmin University.

These dragons greet you at the entrance, but these are good dragons--protectors. Not like the evil dragon we will encounter later.

We wandered into the Art building and they had a neat sculpture exhibit.

This is clearly of Dr. Seuss influence.











Her brain has evolved.








My friend, with some little girl statues that soon came to life and started killing everyone.







They made me one of them, so I survived.

A giant head obviously needs a giant hand to scratch it.

Next up, my first Korean theme park experience--EVERLAND! Everland wants to be like Magic Kingdom, but not quite as cool since it's lacking Disney characters. There was just one really cool roller coaster--it was new but made of wood, claiming it had the steepest drop of any wooden coaster in the world. I believe it. I rode it twice. I'd talk more about the park, but the rest of it was mostly balls and I don't want to bore you. It was still fun.

Right to left: Allyson (from Ohio State! Gator Bait!); Lee; and yours truly

From right to left: Pear; Apple; Pumpkin
aka Tweedle-dee; Tweedle-dum; Tweedle-deedum

We went in October, so there was a Halloween theme. There were performances and a parade with the Halloween spirit as well.

Tim and Nina

For those of you playing along at home, here it is. The real, live animal. A camel! Who could've guessed that?

Sir Leon the Mark

Two losers...Nhan and He-ran

Ok, other than the rollercoaster, the most exciting part of Everland was the final light and firework show. It was crazy. It had a live performance with the five Power Care Bear Rangers that really looked like friendly bears dressed in power ranger fiber-optic-light-up suits: white, red, green, blue, and pink rangers. They were fighting some Demon Lord. There was smoke and lasers and pyrotechnik explosions and fire and it was awesome.



Here's the White Ranger, the leader of course.
Wish I had pictures of all of them, but just imagine this guy in the different colors and you'll have the right idea.














The enemy: Aku from Samurai Jack

Aku called out his evil fire-breathing Dragon zord to kill off the Power Care Bear Rangers. Click to enlarge and see the dragon better. Keep in mind this is HUGE, because I'm over a football field away from it.

But, the White Ranger called in his psychedelic, color-changing Phoenix zord to vanquish the Dragon.

Color-

Changing

(btw Those red, green, orange, blue, and yellow beams are multicolored flamethrowers. I could feel the heat from where I was standing. Awesome)

Cue 15-minute nonstop, shell-shocking fireworks for the finale.

Next up, more fireworks. My pal and coworker, Victor and I traveled to Busan for the Busan Fireworks Festival--my second trip to SK's second largest city.

We met some chicas.

And some crazy people.

And somehow saw the only firework show that could top what we saw at Everland. They had fireworks shaped like hearts! They had flying bird things that were shedding rainbow sparkler fountains. And an entire bridge was choreographed into the show.

Nothing left to say

See you next time. (씨 유 넼스트 타임)

Sun & Fun Haeundae

Finally, the latest update of Conquering Korea. This time I missed the beach so much, I went on vacation for a weekend to feel some sand between my toes.

Haeundae Beach (해운대) is the most famous beach in South Korea. It's part of Korea's second biggest city, Busan--located on the southeastern coast, Busan is kind of like the Miami of Korea.

I visited this past weekend and had a BLAST! The motto is "Sun & Fun: Haeundae," and I had a lot of both. I took a 6-hour bus ride from Ansan to Haeundae and met an e-pal there who volunteered to show me around. (free tour guides rock!)

Her name is Jiyoung.

CUTE tour guides rock even more! =)

She is a Busan native, so she knew her way around everywhere and had some great recommendations for sight-seeing and restaurants.



Speaking of restaurants, first stop was a.. Mexican place?
Si! Taco Senora. A tiny shack that Jiyoung told me was famous among foreigners. I saw plenty of buff American dudes there that were probably in the army.






Tacos, burritos, fajitas, quesadillas... everything you'd expect. Even Corona. I was hungry after my long journey, so of course got the burrito.






Elmo says, "Muy delicioso!!!"









I think this says it all.








Next stop: The BEACH!

I see the ocean for the first time in Korea.





E X C I T E D !


(I had also just bought that hat before going to the beach. ~10 bucks for my new favorite hat!)





My feet touch the South Sea for the first time.










Giant hotels line the beach. My motel, the Inka Motel, is about a 10-minute walk, but it's much cheaper. $35 bucks a night instead of $200-300.







There are jet skis and boats,
and plenty of foreigners about,





And tons of sexy people.







After walking the entirety of Haeundae beach, about a mile long, Jiyoung and I checked out some souvenir shops.

Then, we kept walking for about 5 minutes and made it to what is technically an island--an extremely small one. It had some wooden steps and elevated walkways with beautiful views of the coast.







Really beautiful.









Shake it!








Shake it like a polaroid picture!

















This is a nice view from the island.

See that big bridge in the distance?




We got closer to the bridge that night.

It's called Gwangan Bridge.

I'm actually on a boardwalk with Gwanganri Beach right behind me, but you can't tell with the lighting.





It looks really cool all lit up.







Even cooler when it changes colors!








Here's a professional picture so you can actually see how pretty it is.







There's also some lit up buildings right next to the bridge.








Complete with color-changing ability!







We met up with Jiyoung's friend, Jiwan and went to a pretty nice, typical western bar. It was called Thursday Party. It had some great cocktails and flavored draft beer (lime, hazelnut, choco... sounded kinda weird). I tried lime beer; it was okay but too sour. Jack and coke was better.


When we left the bar, there was an outdoor play going on pretty much right where I was standing earlier. These actors were dressed up in really cool costumes.






They had microphones and speakers so we could hear them, but it's not like I could understand it. Still, crazy costumes and exaggerated acting was entertaining.





Next the three of us went to Norae-bang (singing room/karaoke), but my camera was dead by then. Sorry. Then more drinking happened and I met some friends of Jiwan and it turned into a very late Saturday night.
Now Sunday!

Jiyoung and I hopped a subway to Beomeosa Temple, the most famous Buddhist temple in Busan. All the buildings have been reconstructed over the years, so not original. But it was definitely the coolest temple I've seen here so far. Probably the coolest Buddhist temple I've ever seen actually. It was like a large estate and had a ton of buildings that I couldn't really capture on my camera.









Entrance Gate.








With just a couple frogs to guard it??
Weak.







Damn, nevermind. That mofo's scary.








Fire? or Dragon?! My favorite part were these four giant statues. Okay Okay, so I only got pics of two of them. I'm mad at myself now.

New FB profile pic. Obv.


One of many prayer buildings housing wonderful statues, artwork, and devoted Buddhists bowing vigorously.







Wonderful example of said statues and artwork.









After some sushi, we went to see the Taejongdae cliffs.








They're part of a great coastal park--Taejongdae Park. It offers gorgeous views of the harbor, ship traffic, and sunset (or sunrise on the other side of the island).





I heard the Taejongdae cliffs are also known as the Suicide Cliffs.








Here's some random thing.









And a big lighthouse!



















How should I end this one?...


How else? With the STARCRAFT CHANNEL on the 50-inch flatscreen TV in my hotel room!

Is it sadder that people watch other people playing Starcraft on television? OR that it was actually better than the Mark Wahlberg movie that was on, Shooter?

(Verdict: The saddest thing is that you can tell that's a Protoss Nexus without even enlarging the pic. Ha Ha! Ok I am just as nerdy...)