Jinha Beach: lovely. Jinha village: almost desolate.

It's truly a pity that the village of Jinha isn't as developed as, say, Ilsan-dong. And, for that matter, public transportation is seriously lacking there, whereas I can hop on the 133 from Guyeong-ri and it will take me directly to Ilsan, or the 127 from my high school when I finish early. Ilsan Beach isn't quite what you're used to back home but at least they're making an effort and trying to revamp itself as a beach destination where you can sit back, relax, and have a cup of coffee with friends, go to a noraebang, or shop to your heart's content (not my forte, that last one -- nor the coffee, but I digress). On the other hand, Jinha is a sprawling stretch of a beach, was quite empty in June as opposed to Ilsan Beach which was already getting packed, or gosh forbid, Haeundae Beach in Busan which, it goes without saying, was already a ridiculous sea of parasols (!!), and has a nice little islet to discover. All right!

The lovely and yummy restaurant next to the Jinha beach where I had jjajangmyun and mandu with Zach and... I forget the other guy's name...

Joe, Zach and myself swam our way to the island in question and ended up spending quite a bit of time meeting with nature's little creatures, some of which I hope I will never meet again in this lifetime (eurgh!). But all in all, a fun time was had by all and I was properly happy at my decision to make the trip out there.

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The Banger Sisters

I have no idea how we acquired this nickname or even who thought it up, but one day Dana and Andrea went to Seoul for the weekend and the next thing I knew I was apparently part of the Banger Sisters... whatever it is we... er, do...

Anyway, here is a video showing you our Friday night out in Seongnamdong at The Royal Anchor, a foreigner bar. We were surprised to get there and find it nearly empty, but quickly made the most of it, as we are wont to do in any given situation.

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View of the shopping streets of Seongnamdong at night (photo source)

I am months behind on this and upcoming videos, that I will of course begin sharing without further ado.

Back in early May, I believe, the mayor of Ulsan threw a music and dance party in Seongnamdong, the older part of Downtown Ulsan, after which several restaurants and bars opened their doors with discounts for those of us with coupons. Here's a little video recap of what went down!

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This is going to be an "inside" vlog post, and I believe no one else but those who were there will find it in any way funny, but I'm going to post it anyway. Last weekend, the Ulsan Hash House Harriers met up for its bimonthly Sunday hike. It was gross. It was hot. We whined a bit. It was tough. But we made it. And then relaxed at the Seaside Restaurant in Bangeojin with some good food (though it was in no way enough... rawr!) And then the joke crackin' began. I had to take a video.

Unfortunately I totally missed the gravy / bechamel sauce tirade, but that was priceless.

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This summer, if I'm not at home in Guyeong-ri relaxing after a gruelling day of work, I can usually be found at Ilsan Beach kicking back with some friends or, more rarely, on my own. But tonight I'm going to show you what being with Patrick, Andrea and Dana is like... I love it!

Before this particular video, we'd gone bar-hopping with some friends in Bangeojin just, you know, to pass the time since I had a hike the next day and was going to spend the night at Dana's anyway and did not feel tired in the slightest. I ended up knocking back three shots of whisky, which explains why Andrea and I later ran in the water and frolicked like little kiddies while Paddy and Dana watched on like indulgent parents (they are, after all, the eldest in our group). But this, this is what followed, after we joined them again.

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One of the myriad things you hear about but never truly believe until you actually experience it for yourself is... your washing machine, ladies and gentlemen, is a beast. As I indicate in the video, I am not touching the normal button ever again. Wool it is for me! I did one normal cycle back in March and it nearly destroyed my clothes o__O

Anyway, so for those newbies, here are some translations that might prove very useful :) Obviously, every machine is different so some of these might be on yours, others might not. This is just a general guide. Print it out or jot it down for future reference. I've got mine scotch taped to my machine, although I don't really need it anymore. Ah well, times of need. May prove useful one of these days!

(source)

Hope these are helpful for you, too, as they were for me when I first got here. Cheers!

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Summer camp. Some teachers love it. Others hate it. I was in the former camp. But it left me pooped in the end.

Summer or winter camp. As a guest English teacher in Korea, you have to do either. Myself, I was signed up by the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education to do the first, and may have to do the second (although I think there is a stipulation in our contracts that advises we should only be doing one... will have to check).

What to expect... Well, I've been talking with some of my friends (all of whom had to do summer camp) since the beginning of camp and we all pretty much agree: it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable than regular classes. Now, see, most of us generally only teach in English Centres, that is, after-school programs. The students come into our centres at 3pm through to 5pm, and the second wave from 5pm to 7pm. Often they move on to hagwons, or private academies, after us, which may very well last until well past 9pm.

In short, these elementary school students have insanely long days (and I feel terrible saying this, but I'm glad I was not brought up on the same schooling system).

So, summer camp has been a breeze especially because they're not exhausted from their long days. We taught from 9am to 5pm, again in two waves, and it was so much more enjoyable than regular classes because the kids were fresh, attentive, behaved (more on that below), and much more motivated.

Ah, yes, behaviour. Most of us regularly teach without a co-teacher, a bane in our lives really because while it's an excellent way to teach them authentic spoken English without them relying on a co-teacher's constant translations, which could potentially impede on their learning process (and trust me I learned English this way myself so yes, it does work), again, they usually come into our centres after long days and all they want to do is play games. But now that we taught at regular school hours and had a co-teacher in class with us to keep them in line... life was beautiful. Some of the boys I had trouble with during the regular semester were behaving like little angels, and if there was a bit of chaos it wasn't the type that had me yelling like a lady dragon to keep everyone's attention.

So, what to expect? It really depends on each summer camp. Some will be themed (I wish mine had been), some will have you assigned with topics to cover, and some will just be the same old, same old. But, as always, the very venerable website waygook.org will be able to provide plenty of help and inspiration for your classes :)

This was a lesson I stole from Waygook...

And some videos:

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They are among the largest animals on the planet. They are the largest animals of the watery realms. The blue is the largest. They were made famous by Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick. And so on.

When I first got here, there were two things drilled into my brain:

1. Ulsan is the home of the Hyundai. The Hyundai empire was built on an insanely wild dream after the Korean War. A one-won bill was famously involved.
2. Ulsan had a long, long history of whaling before Hyundai came along. We are made to remember this every time we take the bus, as the shelters have a blue strip in the middle of the glass panes with little whales lined up one after the other.

So yes. People don't really need to remember that Ulsan is the home of the Hyundai because they are ubiquitous here. Everywhere you look is Hyundai this, Hyundai that: Hyundai Department Store, Hyundai Apartments, Hyundai Insurance, Hyundai... Hyundai... Hyund... well, you know.

So, like I was saying, people don't really need reminding that Ulsan is the home of the Hyundai. But seeing as whaling is a dying industry (you can still eat whale meat in some places so I'm guessing it's not illegal, but there is probably a moratorium on whale hunting and the meat is possibly pretty expensive as a result... I don't know, as I haven't eaten any... yet) and that Koreans love to throw parties to show who's cool, well, there you have it: a whale festival. Woohoo! Bring on the beer.

I woke up around 7am to be there at 9, which was when the dragon boat races were supposed to start. Unfortunately when I got there the races had been slightly delayed so I ended up nearly falling asleep a couple of times before the real deal finally began. A few friends of mine were in the races so it was nice seeing them get their sportin' on.

Afterwards we walked over to a huge food tent for a spot of lunch, and then we ended up walking around. Picture time!

Thought this American was pretty awesome. This is a defunct Montreal baseball team (Expos), man. Vintage, baby :)

See? Told you Ulsan was mad for whales. This thing is there permanently.

And again...

And again... with Pinocchio this time. I think there's a Pinocchio play or something in town soon.

Hugs and kisses with Pororo, Korean kids' favourite little penguin.

This article by UlsanOnline perhaps best describes the day's activities.

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In order to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival in Jinhae, we travelled from Ulsan to Changwon by bus, stayed the night in a love motel, and then took the intercity bus from Changwon to Jinhae on Sunday morning.

To call it a cherry blossom festival would be wrong, actually. It was not about the flowers. It was a festival, period. There were various artisan booths, a street market or two, food, etc. Nothing was really cherry blossom-themed, which disappointed me a bit. Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed the experience. It wasn't Ulsan, it wasn't the same-old, and it was interesting.

On the bus ride to Changwon.

Changwon seems more foreigner-friendly than Ulsan, which is surprising really since, you know, Ulsan is Hyundai Central, with all the foreign employees, and the English teachers like myself, and Changwon isn't much of a bleep on the map of South Korea. Yet there you go: it was cleaner, cared more about its appearance, and was more cosmopolitan. Which is not to say that Ulsan isn't cosmopolitan. It is. But all of those things together made for a very nice experience on the whole. I have good memories of Changwon. Except the dance restriction at Cocoon bar. "You drink 30 minutes, you dance 30 minutes." Except it ended up being 40 minutes of forced drinking and 20 minutes of dancing. Alone. We were pretty much the only ones dancing. But we didn't care! Yay! Finally we can dance!

Waiting inside Cocoon bar to be allowed to dance. Yes, that's right, there's a restriction on when you can dance. Wait WHAT?!

We are never going back to Cocoon, that's for damn sure.

I don't remember this Korean BBQ place's name, but they are thieves and we are never going back.

The photos really make it seem like Changwon was a terrible place, right? Noooo... no no no, it was very nice. We even found a sex shop which was more like a small walk-in closet than a shop. But then again, I wasn't surprised: Korea is super conservative regarding sex so... yep, better hide your toys! ;)

Like I mentioned earlier, we slept in a love motel. What's a love motel, you ask? Well, again with the sexual conservatism. Except this is weird, because these love motels are literally everywhere and everyone knows what they're for, yet no one will admit to having sex. Or accept homophobia. Or accept sex before marriage. Or... you get my drift.

So, ahem. Love motels are basically super swanky (usually) motels used for sexcapades. Teenagers will use them to do the deed away from their parents' judging clutches. Star-crossed lovers will use them to do the deed away from their families' judging eyes. Casual sex partners will use them for their activities to hide away from society's judging stare. And so on. Married couples may even use them just for the heck of it.

Or to save some bucks. Love motels are cheaper than hotels, so that is why we stayed in one. No funny business! ;)

We have arrived in Jinhae. I have found BIGBANG.

Jinhae the next day. Jinhae was supposed to be about cherry blossoms, but it was not. Instead, we found a gigantic fair. I felt cheated, but quickly recovered. Because, after all, I am a BIGBANG fan. I am an iVIP!

Got separated from my group. "Oooh look at the pretty!"

Climbing up the mountain.

View from up above.

Concert by a popular singer who now reps for the army.

Historical re-enactment. Unfortunately it was boring and we had to catch a bus home besides.

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The first trip of possibly many. While Ulsan is a relatively big city, it isn't very cosmopolitan. Sure, there are lots of foreigners here due to Ulsan being the seat of the Hyundai monster (everything here, by the way, is Hyundai this and Hyundai that, pretty much) and also because of the English teachers that are recruted by both EPIK (English Program in Korea) and the UMOE (Ulsan Ministry of Education), but Ulsan isn't very... how shall I say... well I just say that I don't judge Ulsan by its cover. It isn't that it's ugly -- in fact I live in a newly developed neighbourhood so I'm fairly lucky on that front -- but it's like the Koreans here don't care about their shop fronts or the streets themselves. The sidewalks are dangerous for both high heels and flat shoes. Trash lies pretty much everywhere (more on that later). Shop fronts are dirty -- you may walk into what looks like a dodgy place to find that, inside, it's actually quite lovely.

But I digress. A couple weeks ago a bunch of friends and I headed south to Busan to discover Haeundae Beach and the Yonggun-sa Temple next to the sea. As the video shows, it was very windy that day, and despite the fact that we walked barefoot on the beach, the water wasn't super cold, but not very warm either. We might end up in Busan more often this summer, although quite frankly we've got a very nice beach and friends living in Ilsan, so... more trips to Ilsan Beach than Haeundae this summer. It's also less popular than Haeundae so I expect less people. Woohoo.

Haeundae Beach!

Modern art at the "entrance" of the beach

"Hiking" near the beach. That statue is of a mermaid. No idea what she's doing there.

Mini Buddha village at the Yonggun-sa Temple.

Lucky pigs at the Yonggun-sa Temple.

Buddha!

I was born in 1987, the year of the Rabbit. This is my dude. Does not look like a rabbit.

Trash problem: I've actually linked it to the trash bag regulation in Korea. It goes like this: every dong (neighbourhood) in Korea has its own special coloured bag that you as a resident are obligated to use to put your trash. You can put your other coloured bags inside, as long as the one colour to rule them all (my dong's is purple) is outside. It kind of defeats the purpose of "ooh we don't want you to use other trash bags they're bad for the environment you're killing the Earth etc". The trashmen will literally not pick up trash bags of any other colour. That said, some still do it, and as a result stray animals (there are a lot of those) and rodents end up littering that trash all over the streets. Also defeats the purpose of trying to cut back on pollution -- that, plus putting several bags inside the regulatory one also defeats the purpose of cutting back on plastic bags. Back home we use rigid trash cans with a flip top and put our trash bags inside regardless of the colour: no littering, no unnecessary pollution. But ah well. Korea will be Korea.

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Here is a very broad look in video format of my time here in Korea, so far. And, in fact, the video chronicling only began... two weeks ago. I know, I know, how very sad considering my camera is entirely capable of doing the job. Blame laziness, I guess.

Here are some more visuals of Ilsan and St. Patrick's Day:

Ilsan Beach.

Fusion sushi at a restaurant in downtown Samsandong. Philadelphia and salmon. Delicious.

St. Patrick's at expat pub The Royal Anchor in Shinae (old downtown).

Just to show you how packed it was in there. Super warm.

Had my nails painted green for the big day.

The artist!

Wales won some rugby game. Celebrating!

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