the great city of busan

I spent the past weekend with my friends Will, Tim, and Kim down in Busan. It's Korea's second biggest city with about four million people. Everyone speaks in the Gyeongsando accent so it was kind of difficult to understand things. Generally, people down there are kinder and warmer than the people here in Daejeon.

On the shores of Haeundae, we met an old man who insisted he was Son O-gong (손오공, そんごくin Japanese) and if anyone knows who that is, he the monkey-king hero from Chinese mythology. If you ever watched Dragonball, you'll get an idea of who this is because the main character is based on the hero. He did though, take this picture of us.

We also visited what I thought was one of the most beautiful temples because it was right next to the ocean.

My friend Tim wanted to see if he could get his hands on oatmeal and so we went grocery shopping. It was there that we met a Canadian-Middle Eastern English teacher. He had a lot of hair sticking out of his ears and it really distracted Kim and I. We couldn't stop laughing. Tim and Will on the other hand got into an interesting conversation that ended with him advising us to go wine tasting in the wine section. He insisted that the Chilean wine was the "sexiest" and if we told the sample lady to fill up a glass, she would. We went, tasted, and left to find oatmeal. I didn't find it too sexy. By chance, we bumped into the English teacher again and he dragged us all to go and try some more. When the sample lady saw him coming, she rolled her eyes, sighed, and knew what he wanted. We knew he had frequented the wine section. She then poured full cups for us. Quite hilarious.

The last day, Tim, Will, and I went to "the best sauna in the world." Unfortunately, Kim had to go back to Jeju Island that morning. In Tim's own words, it was the most naked bodies he had ever seen since Schindler's List. We got to enjoy the Jasmine Tea baths, cherry baths, outdoor baths and salt baths. We were a little disappointed though because the Strawberry Milk bath that were supposed to be there weren't there. Nonetheless, a very relaxing time.