A Day Away from Buddhism and a Night Full of It (5/27)

A   W A L K   I N   T H E   P A R K

I N   M Y  last post, I mentioned Yurae, my host brother for the evening homestay after our mountain hike and temple visit. As you can imagine, I was quite tired after such a physically and spiritually involving day, so the evening of our homestay was far less eventful than the morning. Although I would later learn that most people went out and did things like climbing the tallest tower in the city center of Busan or visiting a bathhouse, even, my host brother and I went straight back to his family's apartment and crashed immediately.

The view from Yurae's window in the morning-- we were quite a ways up, with a good many neighbors!

Teaching English in Haeundae, Busan (5/23)

R O A D T R I P ! !

On the road to Haeundae!

TODAY WAS our first trip to teach English at a Korean elementary school-- Gwangnam Elementary in Haeundae, Busan.

Haeundae is a very nice area of Busan, known for its wonderful sandy beach, its colossal bridge, its (superinsaneworldfamous) shopping, and its open-air street markets. And by very nice, I mean extremely clean, wealthy, and prosperous. It is Haeundae that lays claim to the largest shopping mall in the world-- all 15 floors of Shinsegae in Centum City, including an indoor driving range, ice rink, and movie theater. Although I can't attest to the intensity of Shinsegae itself, the community around it was evidence enough for me to agree with Haeundae's hypercapitalistic excellence.

Our trip from the temple to Haeundae was very nostalgic and calming. We'd traveled by road some before today, but not as far, nor during the day. The experience was not unlike a roadtrip in the states: We hopped on the interstate, zipped past an array of other vehicles before an ever-changing backdrop--some rice paddies here, some residential areas there, some factories, high-rises, and other monstrosities breaking the horizon every now an then, increasing in frequency and density as we neared our destination-- and before we knew it, we were in the middle of the city, climbing out of the van that had carried us and into our first immersion learning experience.

The gorgeous school grounds in the middle of the city