It just keeps getting better!

What a jam-packed, fun-filled week it has been!  No complaints whatsoever.  Good times with new friends and tasty food in Hwamyeong all week followed by a Friday adventure to Gwangali Beach and Kyungsung University (an area of Busan full of Expats).  I've seen live music, have tried new foods (who knew I liked grilled radish so much?), and went glow bowling with house music.

On Monday I found my namesake makeup line at a store full of interesting cosmetics (some local, many international).  I haven't tried "Kate" makeup, but once my stock of Canadian makeup depletes I'll definitely consider it! 

After a walk around the area (Hwamyeong-Dong - "Dong" means neighbourhood), we stopped into a spot for some soup!  Most places will serve you several complimentary side dishes of pickled radish, kimchi, garlic, and other bits and bobs to either grill up, toss into your soup, or just eat on their own. The dish above is a Bulgogi soup which I believe is called Ddukbaegi Bulgogi (or Ddukbul for short?).

Tuesday night we found Mandu for KRW 1,500 (about $1.75 Canadian).  It's so delicious and is full of beef and kimchi.  If you're looking for a cheap, filling lunch then look no further than Mandu!

The craft beer game in Hwamyeong is strong (well - for Korea!) and we're lucky enough to have Monster Craft Brewing.  This cute little spot has the best chicken I have tasted in Korea with some fabulous spicy garlic sauces.  I didn't manage to save the picture I took, but you can see the massive pile of saucy fries we got as well as the beers we tasted.  Mine was an IPA, and my friend's was a very hoppy Amber.  Beer is super cheap in Korea (KRW 3,000-5,000) but these ones were KRW 7,000 because they were from a microbrewery.  Worth it!  I think we're going there for Japanese curry tonight.  I'm pretty excited!

For lunch I've managed to find a super cheap and cheerful spot called Hansot!  It's a lunch box place that serves inexpensive meals with rice, meat, and often kimchi or mixed greens.  Meat and vegetables are extremely expensive at grocery stores (they're cheaper if you buy them on the street but they're still pretty pricy by North American standards).  It's actually cheaper for me to buy my meals at Hansot than it is to cook for myself at home.  I'm able to read the Korean phonetically (the language itself - Hangul - makes a lot of sense but I'm having trouble associating the sounds with the meanings still) so sometimes they'll understand my order and sometimes I'll just have to point.  There are so many items on the menu ranging from KRW 2,000 to around KRW 10,000 so I have lots of options when I'm really hungry as well as "at the end of the month" ;)

Friday night we were going to spend a quiet night in Hwamyeong, but after a nap and some tunes we headed out to Gwangali Beach and KSU!  The lights on the bridge look magnificent.  It was raining and I didn't bring my proper camera with me, so apologies for the low-quality images.  We had some local "American" pub fare at Sharky's Gwangali and then cabbed it over to KSU where we had no wifi and meandered the side-streets until we found Ol'55.  The drinks were cheap, plentiful, and served by a cute Oklahoma boy.  We met some other Canadian, American, and British teachers and ran into some expats we had met Thursday night at Trivia.  The owner of another local bar was there and she had some great stories to tell us while the band jammed in the background.  There was free popcorn, and it was quite possibly the best I've ever tasted.

 

After Ol'55 we headed out to Blue Monkey - a club we had frequented on the expat pub crawl last weekend.  I swore I would never go back, but it was completely empty so the 6 of us had the entire dancefloor to ourselves!  Ps. That's what bottle service looks like at Blue Monkey - an unexpected delivery of vodka and juices.

The next day I woke up early and watched a couple old episodes of 30 Rock while enjoying the sunshine flooding my apartment.  I had plans to meet a gal pal around 10:30 AM who was getting her hair done at a Busan salon.  I thought we were heading out on the subway a ways away (most of the exciting spots are about an hour away on the subway) so I was so surprised when the salon was just upstairs from our Hwamyeong meeting spot!  The prices were really, really reasonable, and since they had a ton of chairs open I thought I'd get some highlights put in.

Ultimately the deal was, in fact, too good to be true and it was only after they sat me down that they told me it would cost about KRW 389,000 (yep - $400) because I have long hair.  I didn't end up going through with the dye, but I'd go back for a haircut for sure!  It's a beautiful salon and if you take a clear photo of what you want then they'll do a super job.  My friend got her hair dyed in an ombre style and it turned out beautifully (and SO shiny!).  It changes her whole look and I would be really happy if my hair turned out half as well.  Hers was only KRW 88,000 and considering tipping isn't customary here it's a pretty rad deal.

From the salon I headed to the park near our apartment complex.  My friend's boyfriend and one of his friends were playing basketball and teaching some of the local boys some shooting techniques.  The sun was shining and it was quite warm out so it was a lovely afternoon spent in the sun.  We realised that none of us had eaten by that point, so off to the Korean BBQ place we went!

Earlier in the week someone had made a crack about bowling not being cool when I had suggested we go, so I was pretty stoked when my 3 late lunch companions suggested going to Hwamyung Rock Bowling.

This glow bowling spot was unlike anything I've ever experience.  Sure, we have "The Ballroom" in Toronto, but the number of LED lights and the raucous house music being played was amazing.  We played two games switching up the teams halfway through.  Turns out I'm not too bad at 10-pin bowling!

All in all a great week!  Saturday was the best day I've had in a LONG time (and resulted in a very early bedtime!).  Today I'm heading to Nampo with the gals during the day and for Japanese curry tonight at Monster Craft, so another blog post is most certainly on the way soon.

What else should I try in Korea?  Any discoveries from your travels (or from Google)?  Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Busan Begins

What a wonderful weekend it's been!  After a nice, quiet Friday night I woke up early Saturday morning and hopped the bus to West Busan to start my move into my new apartment.  Two suitcases and a duffel bag later I landed in Hwamyeong-dong, dropped my luggage, and headed over to Lotte Mart to grab some essentials (Cereal, Milk, Fruits, Veggies, and Beer, of course!).  Having met a new Canadian friend last week we already had plans to head to the Soccer Game so we (A - the girl who lived in my apartment before me) packed up and met the group at the subway.  We ended up being a group of about 10 people by the time the match began, and an eclectic group of hilarious personalities meant that there were many, many laughs throughout the game.

Tickets were only KRW 10,000 (about $11.35 Canadian) and we were allowed to bring food and drinks into the stadium.  I saw people with full large-sized pizzas walking into the game, which made me want pizza in a bad, bad way.  The next game is March 21st (and I have 3 free tickets from some fortune cookies they were handing out - huzzah!) so perhaps that will be on the prep agenda.

 

 

The speakers in this former World Cup facility were incredibly loud.  There was lots of fanfare (and fireworks!) to start the game against Daejon.

The Half-Time show was...interesting.  There were some dancers with pompoms in quite a state of undress, followed by some AWESOME kids doing a Taekwondo demonstration to music that sounded like a combination of Queen, David Bowie, and Michael Jackson.  It was epic.

 

Busan scored late in the game and the crowd went wild.  To be fair, every time Busan got close to scoring a goal the crowd reacted (everyone would jump up and scream and the band - yes there was a band - would play excitedly).  Overall?  Great experience with great people.  I can most definitely picture going to many more games especially as the weather heats up.

By the time the game ended we were hungry and excited to go snack on some local fare.  We decided to go to Seomyeon for Jjimdak (thanks, Alice!) to introduce us newcomers to just one of the many "downtown" areas of Busan.

The food was tasty (and spicy!) and I was surprised a few times by the bones throughout.  The noodles in the dish weren't really necessary with the rice, and since there were potatoes in the stew it was a pretty carb-heavy meal.  3 of those bowls shared among 10 people was way too much food, but we still managed to head over for my first taste of Bingsu (or Bing-soo)!

We went to Mango Monster so, of course, we had to try the Mango flavour.  We also decided to get a Cappuccino because 1 order was just not enough for 6 girls on a mission!

I didn't really understand why some places advertise Bingsu as "snow".  It's either shaved ice or shaved frozen milk, but realistically it tastes like flavoured snow.  I think I tried to market something similar when I was about 5 but it just became grape juice-infused Canadian winter snow.  Not quite the same.

After dessert we went into a few makeup shops as one of the girls in our group loves nail polish - I feel we should probably focus on that next time we shop together because the girl knows how to use bold colours that pop perfectly together.  

The desire to meet new people in my new city was strong, so when we found out that there was a pub crawl in the Kyungsung University district we hmm-ed and hawed and decided that despite the long cab ride home (long as in KRW 30,000 which is less than a ride home to downtown from Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto so...) we would go.  I actually met a girl from UBC Music (she's a pianist so I'm hoping that we can pick up some sheet music and rock - er...Opera out together!) as well as some other EPIK (a public school English Program) expats that live up around Hwamyeong.  Hwamyeong is not the most convenient spot in Busan, but my apartment in large and clean and the area has everything I could need so I'm pretty happy!

The first bar we went to was called Eva's Ticket.  I was really happy to have a fellow Canadian with us who has been in Busan for a few months now and could show us around.  The pub crawl was organized by a guy from Ottawa who seems to organize a lot of events for expats (not just parties - trips to local festivals, etc. as well).  Canadian and American jerseys and flags were tacked to the ceiling.  These were the first of many to come over the 5 bars to which we traveled.

We got our passes stamped and since we were a little fashionably Kate to the party we decided to mosey on to the next bar where an expat Rugby team had already started drinking pretty heavily.  This is where we actually got to sit down and have some decent conversations.  Ultimately we didn't  stay super long because there were another 3 bars to hit up on our journey.

The next bar ("Drunken Master") was playing Jackie Chan movies, had darts DIRECTLY in the middle of the establishment, and was incredibly slammed.  They had some drinking games that we didn't actually stick around for, and they handed out some sweet chili nachos for which I would most definitely go back!  The staff were busy, but still managed to provide great quality guest service in a mess of drunken expats.  It was best to observe seeing as we had a bit of a trek back to Hwammy and still 2 bars to go.

Blue Monkey was where things got a even more interesting.  We were pacing our drinks seeing as we had had a pretty long day thus far (and because we no longer have the excuse of being barely 19), but I don't think that the rest of the group got the memo.  There were stripper poles EVERYWHERE and people (fully clothed, of course) were having a very, very good time whirling themselves around the poles and nearly flinging themselves onto the dancefloor.  It was great entertainment, and I was really glad we snagged a table so we could rest our feet and watch the show(s).

Last, but not least, was Eva's (just Eva's this time!) which was the last stop.  We handed in our passport stamp cards and waited for a draw.  I managed to win some beers next time we're in the KSU area and at Eva's (woohoo!) and found out that a girl in our pub crawl trip from Hwamyeong is actually a sister (Kappa Alpha Theta from a chapter in California).  Greek life works in mysterious ways, doesn't it?

All in all this was a wicked night and I'm so glad to have met these amazing people.  A couple of them are leaving soon, but others are just starting their Korea adventure and I can't wait to learn more about them while discovering this country that is so rich in history and culture.