Australia Part II

Between visiting a friend I haven't seen in 5 years, being in a new and glorious country (and continent), and not being in Korea, there is a lot I want to write about. Too much, actually. So instead I'll stick to lots of pictures and a run-down of the awesome second week.

We got back to Melbourne Friday night fairly tired after a long drive and detours due to the recent floods, plus Friday evening city traffic. So we picked up some burritos (mine tofu asada with shredded beet, among many other things) and microbrews and called it a night.

Saturday morning we rode bikes to an awesome Environmental and Sustainability Education center called CERES to check out their Farmer's Market. Local produce, artisan wares, fresh bread, community pea patches, health products, nurseries, a bike shop, and a retail garden spot are just parts of what the center does. Here the market checkout is under grape vines.Signs told where the produce came from, how far it was, and if that crop had been affected by the recent storms and floods. We got lots of fruits and veggies, including the biggest bunch of silver beet (American: swiss chard) I've ever bought. Like a small child could hide behind it.

It was a lovely weekend of rest, laundry, bike rides, vintage port, meals with friends, and playing with Scott's nephews.

On Monday we did a day trip just outside Melbourne to the Healesville Sanctuary where we saw a birds of prey show, emus, wallabies, many other birds, and this guy, sleeping because it was daytime. Can you name this nocturnal marsupial?
That right! It's a Tasmanian Devil! And a koala, dutifully eating eucalyptus for the tourists.
On our way back, we went wine tasting in the Yarra Valley Wine region and found a delicious Pinot Noir to take home.
On Tuesday...Road trip Number 2! This time, instead of the coast, we headed inland north and west to Hall's Gap in the Grampian National Park.
This is the cabin where we stayed, a vacation home of one of Scott's friends. It sat by itself in a huge field, the only house off this dirt road.

Scott looks unsure about his gin and tonic, but really, it was delicious. We also were very committed to finishing our epoisse and silver beet. The sky was big, and there were so many cockatoos and lorikeets, the sound was exuberantly cacophonous all day and night.

The next day we were ready for a big hike. We had spent all this time the night before pouring over the perfect trail to do in our one day, and when we got to the trail head bright and early, we found this sign:

It was quite disappointing, but luckily we also saw kangaroos, including my first joey up close, and even nursing from the pouch! So it was a decent consolation.

We also found a couple other trails that were open, and still did a decent hike on the outer east side of the park.

Oh, didn't I mention my Outback hat? On our drive in, Scott and I stopped for a lunch picnic and realized we had forgotten our sun hats. We were in a small town, and decided to pick up some ridiculous but very functional hats.
After the hike we drove into the park farther, and an emu ran in front of the car! Then we saw some Aboriginal rock art that is like 20,000 years old!
The next day we had to leave the lovely cabin, and tried to get an early start on the road, but... the car battery was dead. Lights left on. Remember that whole "only house on the dirt road" thing? Yeah, we had to hike out to the main road and flag down a car for a jump start, but it was a nice walk and we were back on the road after not too long.
We drove to Bendigo, which is Scott's hometown, enjoying a vibrant blue sky and big clouds all along the way.
In Bendigo I loved seeing Scott's mom's awesome garden and beautifully restored, over 100-year-old house. We walked around the city and drank our flat whites (what they call lattes) before doing the last leg of the road trip.
We did some beer tasting at Scott's favorite brewery, which was delicious. On the beer menu/explanations, they really revered PNW breweries and even used Cascade hops in one of their beers!
We got back to Melbourne in time for a sushi dinner, then rode bikes in the warm but torrential summer rain to get gelato. I wish I could say more, but for now just a quick picture tour, and back to Korea. It was a wonderful, wonderful trip and I really hope to go back some day.

Australia

G'day mate! I wanted to write sooner, but it turns out there is a lot less time to blog when you are traveling instead of working in an office. I've been in Australia for about a week and a half, and to sum it up simply: it's been amazing.

First of all, I had a bit of reverse culture shock from not being in Korea. I could understand what people were saying (most of the time anyway, haha) and it felt like I was eavesdropping on everyone since they were speaking ENGLISH. I mean, the guy next to me at baggage claim was talking to Sarah on the phone and making dinner plans for 6:30, mundane information that I marveled at since I could actually understand it. Also, I feel strange wearing shoes in houses and not using two hands to give things to people. I want to use Korean words and eat kimchi. It is so strange to be in a country that is NOT Korea after a year, I can't help but comment on it constantly. When talking to my friend Scott, I started just abbreviating "In Korea..." to "I.K." to preface my sentences. The good thing about it is that I think I will have a much shorter adjustment period when I get back to the US and not bore my friends with my running commentary.

The second most striking thing about being here is that it is summer, wild glorious abundant warm summer. It's been an explosion of sunny bike rides, fresh fruit, basil pesto, garden tomatoes, wide-open roses, blooming agapanthus. But that said, while it definitely feels like summer, the weather has been CRAZY. You probably heard about the massive flooding in Queensland (up north) a few weeks ago. It wasn't anywhere near Melbourne, and I figured it would be long passed by the time I got here. But then a cyclone hit the day after I arrived! So there has been a lot of rain, some cloudy days, some cool nights, but overall it's been warm and lovely weather, if varied.

I arrived on Thursday morning to be collected by Scott at the airport, a dear friend who I haven't seen in nearly 5 years. He's Australian and I've wanted to visit him for a long time, but the timing never worked out until now. We got to his car in the airport parking lot, and I stood waiting for him to unlock the door. "Are you going to drive?" he asked. "No way, not right now anyway!" I responded indignantly. "Well, you're standing at the driver side door," he informed me. I walked around the car sheepishly, reminding myself that even though it wasn't Korea, it was still a new country to me.

I had told Scott that after living in Korea for 11 months, I really missed cheese and other Western food, so we started 'Project Eat Foods I've Been Missing' immediately. We stopped for breakfast at a cute European-feeling cafe with one wall open to the sidewalk and I had poached eggs with prosciutto and pecorino on organic sourdough bread. I almost died with happiness. Then we jumped on bikes and headed into central Melbourne via nice residential streets and bike paths and parks.

We stopped at a French bakery for a baguette, and Victoria Market for cheese and some produce before winding our way through downtown and to the Royal Botanic Gardens. By then the morning mist had changed to a brilliant afternoon sun, and we picnicked in the shade on fruit salad, bread, chevre, a gloriously aged and insanely stinky epoisses (soft cows milk cheese), quince paste, and French country cider. We rode toward home slowly, stopping to watch crew practice in the river, an impromptu salsa lesson on the sidewalk, and the sun glittering on the buildings. It was Chinese New Year and we heard a parade and drums in Chinatown. Back at his house we had a dinner of roast chicken, quinoa salad (also seriously missed) with veggies and feta, and more cheese before I had to collapse into bed in a jet-lagged/dairy stupor.

The next morning we left on a road trip up to Sydney. It's almost 9oo kilometers, so was an all-day drive. The weather was absolutely wacko as it would intermittently dump torrents of rain then clear up. Even from the car on the freeway, we saw a lot of birds and had fun identifying them between Scott's great IDing skills and a bird field guide. I also DROVE ON THE LEFT for my first time! I thought the freeway would be a good place to start, since you just drive in a straight line and don't have to turn or interact with other cars. It is hard to completely adjust to doing everything on the opposite side- road, steering wheel, gear-shift, blinkers- but also a fun challenge.

We got to Scott's friend Jill's house in Sydney well after dark, but it was still hot and swelteringly humid after the on-and-off rain all day. She was incredibly hospitable and sat us down to a cold gin and tonic (with extra lime for me, also much-missed in Korea) and homemade miso-walnut yakisoba with seaweed.

The purpose of going to Sydney this particular weekend was for Scott to participate in a Bike Polo tournament. It's a fairly new sport as these things go, and is exactly what it sounds like- teams of 3 ride bikes on a hard court surface and use mallets to hit a ball into their respective goals at opposite sides of the court. I had never seen a game, or heard of it before Scott mentioned it, though apparently it was started in SEATTLE!
Besides watching Bike Polo in the neighborhood park, I also took the bus downtown to see the Opera House, Harbor Bridge, Botanical Gardens, and Contemporary Art Museum. It was all enjoyable, but nearing on miserably, horribly, hot. It was 42 degrees Celsius that day, which is about 107 Fahrenheit. It's hard to think straight, much less MOVE, on days like that. Scott and I returned to Jill's at the end of the day limp, sweaty, brain-dead, yet content remnants of our former selves. She again cared for us with cold showers, icy drinks, and a couscous cranberry salad with fresh herbs and smoked trout.
The next day was Coogee Beach, a beautiful beach for right in the middle of city. We got a good dip in before the lifeguards issued a high wind warning over the loud speakers. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, a vicious wind swept in pelting sand on the beach-goers, and nearly blowing our fish and chips off the table. The day cooled off so much that by the time we watched the Polo Finals, we were wrapped in sarongs and blankets against the chill and drizzle.
On Monday we said goodbye to dear Jill, and headed off on the return road trip. Our plan was to take a different route back to Melbourne, this time taking 5 days to return along the coast. There are numerous beaches, cute towns, national parks, camping areas, etc. along that whole stretch. The first day we made it Wollongong, then stopped to do some hiking before finding our camping spot in Budderoo National Park for the night.

Over the next few days, we drove at a leisurely pace, stopping often and sharing the driving time, so I slowly got more comfortable on the left side of the road. There were a few spatters of rain, but for the most part it was warm and beautiful every day.

We also had GREAT music to listen to. In January, I requested friends to send mixed CD's for our road trip, and I received music via mail to Korea, Australia, and internet. So a BIG shout-out and thank-you to Tegan, Jon & Angela, Leandra, Cherie, Rebecca, Katie & Alan, Ally, and Alice for being so thoughtful, sharing great tunes, and helping provide a soundtrack to the gorgeous scenery.

We saw kookaburras sitting in old gum trees,
beaches with caves,
went square-dancing in a small town after seeing a random flier, and were the youngest people there by 30 years or more, and despite being outsiders were warmly received and Scott even won candy in an elimination dance competition,
walked along beaches,
tromped through sulfuric, beautiful, muddy estuaries,
toured a cave with stunning stalagmites and stalactites,
drove through dairy country which was velvety green from the recent rains, and bought local, artisan(yes, more) cheese,
spotted lots of birds like these rainbow lorikeets, plus cockatoos, galahs, eagles, wattle birds, and many more,
saw my first kangaroos up close,
went swimming at surprisingly tropical-looking beaches like at Jervis Bay National Park,
took a dip in an ocean swimming pool,
and hiked to waterfalls.
On our last night before returning to Melbourne, we stayed with some of Scott's family friends in Orbost. We had picked up local seafood in a coastal town called Eden, and kept it on ice in the Esky (Australian word for 'cooler'). That night we had cheese, crackers, garden cherry tomatoes, raw oysters, and white wine before a dinner of whole grilled Trevally (fish) cooked on the barbie, with potato wedges, salad, and champagne... such a lovely evening with good company. Overall, it was definitely a gorgeous, relaxing road trip that I feel so lucky to have been able to take. There's so much more to say about Australia and this trip, but for now I'm off, and will write more soon!

New Country for the New Year

This Wednesday, in the USA, is Groundhog Day. But in much of Asia, it's the beginning of the lunar New Year holiday. In Korea, New Year's Day is on Thursday, and it's called Seollal or 설날, and it's one of their biggest traditional holidays. Like Korean Thanksgiving, it's a 3-day event so that people have one day to travel to their hometown, one day to celebrate, and one day to get home. People spend time with their family, eat particular traditional foods such as tteokguk, a soup with sliced rice cake which is eaten for good luck. Some people wear the traditional hanbok outfit and play games like yutnori and jegi chagi. It would be interesting to experience Seollal while I'm here, but I have different plans.

I haven't taken my winter vacation yet, so tomorrow I am leaving for Australia! I can't quite describe how excited I am to go to the southern hemisphere where it is SUMMER. I will stay with my dear friend Scott who I haven't seen in years, and we already have the 2 weeks fairly mapped out. I fly into Melbourne where he lives, and then we will take a roadtrip to Sydney. Recently in the Lonely Planet online newsletter, they named this Southeastern part of Australia as one of the world's Ultimate Driving Holidays.

Okay, gotta get packing!

Like the Taste of Api

The last 3 weeks have been a bit crazy for me. I taught the Drama class at Winter Camp as well as a conversational English class for adults in the afternoon. The days were busy, but on Friday it all finished! The students performed their modern version of The Wizard of Oz, including music and dance to songs like "Eye of the Tiger", "Lean on Me", and "It's Gonna be a Bright Sunshiny Day."

The students did a great job and we had a goodbye festival for them as well as the adult students. Then after work, I caught a bus to Jeonju, a neighboring city where my friend lives who recently had a baby. She is from Colombia, and 2 other friends from Ecuador and Bolivia also were there for a visit. So it was a convergence of South American women married to Korean men. And it made me wonder exactly how many native Spanish-speakers there are living long-term in Korea. I have no idea, but it can't be that many.

We arrived in the evening, and soon after I noticed a distinctive purple liquid in a pot on the stove. "Is that api?!" I asked. Api is a Bolivian drink made from blue corn, cinnamon, pineapple juice, and oranges, usually served hot with empanadas, pastries, etc. The Bolivian who had brought it was shocked that I knew this regional drink. The thick, warming fruity taste brought back a flood of memories- of sitting at a street stall in Potosi one night, having an evening snack with a Japanese man who spoke almost no English or Spanish; of the camaraderie of the senoras in the cold high-altitude night air; of eating snacks in the market of Capacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca amidst the smell of fish and bread. That one bright purple cup reminded me of whole other world beyond Korea, one where I could communicate with people and where I was deeply fascinated by the culture.

I have been in Korea for over 10 months, and have had a wonderful time. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. But I am starting to sense a certain monotony, a certain apathy on my part, a sense that I am forgetting some part of myself. I think one year is just the right amount of time to be here. It will soon be Winter Vacation, and I will take a much-needed break from Korea before coming back for a few weeks to finish my contract.

Oh yeah, back to my happy South American vortex. In the morning, my friend made a sort of Colombian breakfast soup called chagua. It's onion broth with milk and cilantro with poached eggs and crackers (or stale bread). She also made traditional Colombian arepas which are corn patties (corn masa brought from her country) filled with various fillings, in this case cheese, and grilled on a griddle. To drink we had our choice between cafe con leche (coffee with milk) or panela, a drink with Colombian brown sugar. It was all really delicious.

Back home I'm considered a decent baker, on par with any of my friends. But here, I am considered phenomenal. It's only because hardly any foreigners have ovens, and Koreans don't have a tradition of baked goods. I was lucky enough to get a convection oven on loan from my school, but that's rare. I like to bake, but don't want to eat it all, so I end up giving a lot away. I bring it to my coworkers, friends, and the other day I really didn't want a whole carrot cake sitting at my house, so I brought it to the movies where I was meeting friends. They were a little surprised but definitely not complaining. I finally tried Molly Wizenberg's carrot cake recipe which was awesome. So while the South American friends cooked up their traditional food, I showed them how to make an apple tart. We made the pastry dough the night before, and in the morning rolled it out and assembled it. A great skills trade for every one!

Take A Rest

Do we even say "take a rest" in English? I have been around non-native English speakers for long enough that sometimes I don't know what is correct in general American usage anymore. I call cell phones "hand phones" and scarves "mufflers" and cheating "cunning". Sometimes I leave out articles like "the" and "a" which I know is a horrible habit.

I'm not sure anymore, but I think I should say "rest up" or "get some rest" or "take a break" instead of "take a rest", which Koreans always say. Anyway, I did just that this past weekend (however you say it). The last few weekends have been pretty busy with the holidays and going out of town, and I really needed a mellow weekend in Gunsan. Plus, I came down with a killer cold last week... no way to bring in the New Year or the beginning of an energy-intensive Winter Camp. I dragged through the week until Saturday when I woke up at my usual time before 8. Then I went back to sleep until NOON- which I don't think I've done since I was 17. It was disorienting but I felt SO much better. Sometimes extra sleep is all you need.

Saturday night I went out for shabu-shabu, which is a Japanese-style hot pot dinner where a pot of beef broth simmers at your table and you can add thin slices of meat and greens and mushrooms to cook as you go. There are also side dishes of kimchi and salad, and after the veggies you can cook homemade pasta noodles. The final course is juk which is a savory rice porridge. Cooked rice is added to the super-flavorful broth and stirred with an egg and finely chopped green onion to make a really delicious ending to the meal. Overall you eat mostly broth and cooked vegetables, and it was the perfect end-of-cold food.

After that I went to a live music bar (new in Gunsan! So exciting!) to see a band from nearby Jeonju. It was 3 girls and a guy who looked about college-age and all played multiple instruments. The lead singer, though initially unassuming with her baggy sweatshirt and short bowl-cut, had an incredible stage presence. They were the first Korean band I have seen who didn't just play rock covers. They had a unique sound and wrote their own music. They sounded like if Mary Lou Lord got another vocalist, an electronic bongo, moved to the Caribbean, and spoke Korean.

On Sunday I really wanted to go for a bike ride, although it was freezing and there was still snow on the ground. I rode across town on icy sidewalks without one incident. I did a fair amount of sliding and falling in the last 2 weeks, so I think now I'm becoming a competent snow-rider. The roads are totally clear of snow, but more has been forecast for the coming week. And temperatures down to -10C... which is 14F... much colder than I'm used to. But I'm having fun doing drama with the Winter Camp students, trying to get outside when I can, and rest when I need to.

Starting the Year in Busan

Busan is the 2nd largest city in Korea after Seoul, located in the southeast corner of the country. I've been wanting to visit there for a long time, but was waiting for a 3-day weekend since it's over 4 hours away by bus. My school was nice enough to give us the Friday of New Year's weekend off, so I caught a bus with Aaron Friday morning.
There was still at least 6 inches of snow on the ground in Gunsan, but as the hours went by, there was less and less snow to the south and east. We didn't have to go very far for me to feel like I escaped the bleak, icy roads of Gunsan. The weather is Busan is known for being nicer than most other parts of the country, not as humid in the summer, and warmer in the fall and spring. We checked into our hotel after navigating the (yeah! new to me!) subway system. Our first stop was the Fish Market, the largest in Korea. It was late afternoon and chilly, but beautiful clear skies and as good a day as any for people to buy and sell all sorts of seafood.

It was New Years Eve, so we got ready to go out for the night. I wanted to do something fun, but not too crazy, as I long ago decided that tired and hungover is no way to start a new year. A friend had recommended an Indian restaurant, and I was excited just to eat some much-missed ethnic food. The food was good, the wine was delicious and affordable (rare in Korea), and the decor was lush, over-the-top, and romantic.
Then to Gwangan Beach for a chilly stroll and view of the city and bridge lights. Fireworks were for sale and families were lighting them off along the shore. Then to a bar chocked full of more foreigners than I've seen in one place in a long time. We listened to good music, did the countdown, sang Auld Lang Syne, people-watched, and turned in not-too-late.
I feel like in every other post I mention how much I miss Western breakfasts, so of course I had to seize the opportunity for one in Busan. At an Irish pub/cafe the next day we had eggs, baked beans, fried tomato, toast, hash browns, bacon, sausage, and coffee. It was noon and there were definitely people who had not been to sleep yet. The guy at the table behind me had a bleached mohawk and was drinking a beer and said a prayer over his food. Later as I was about to leave, the server brought around jello shots for every one. It seemed like a novel idea, but after some deliberation I decided to pass, and my shot was gladly accepted by the table next to us.
With full bellies we walked along Haeundae Beach, possibly the most well-known beach in Busan. Apparently it is completely packed with bodies in the summer time, and I'm glad I could go when I had a little more breathing room. But for a cold winter day, there were still quite a few people out walking around.

We came across this sand sculpture, and I didn't even realize until later that 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. After the beach, we headed to northern Busan to a jimjilbang. Jimjilbang is a Korean spa, and this one was called Hurshimchung which is known for being the biggest one in Korea, and ostensibly all of Asia. From the women's locker room, you go up into the tub area, which is a beautiful and grand upstairs room with domed glass ceilings and many pools and shower areas. There are hot tubs of different temperatures, with oriental herbs, with foots soaks, with falling water, dark caves, outdoor tubs, cold tubs, saunas, swimming, you name it. It was packed on the first day of the year, full of families with kids running around, starting 2011 with health and cleanliness. Of course, I couldn't take pictures, but here is a picture from Google Images of the inside.
After the tubs, you can get a tropical-looking flowered shirt-short set to go downstairs to the co-ed area where there are several saunas, a resting room, an oxygen room, massage areas, and a snack bar. It would have been more relaxing if it weren't packed to the brim with people, but it was still an awesome experience. In the evening, we went to a German-style brewery, the first brewery I've been to in Korea. The beer was better than your average national brew, but nothing to write home about. It tasted like sour lemon-hops water, and if there are any brew masters out there reading this, I'm sure you could find a job in Korea real fast. I appreciate that they are trying though, and maybe in years to come they will get the methods and recipes dialed in.

On Sunday morning we went to Beomeosa Temple, which was lauded in my guidebook as being Busan's "most impressive sight". I like temples and it was beautiful, but after 10 months of being in South Korea and seeing many temples that all look the same, it was nothing new. Still it was a gorgeous morning and great to be out of Gunsan.

We stopped for lunch after the temple, a typical and casual Korean meal of chamchi kimbap (seaweed roll filled with rice, tuna, pickled radish, and other veggies), kimchi fried rice, kimchi stew, and side dishes such as (you guessed it!) kimchi, marinated bean sprouts, kimcheed radish, and fish cakes. Before getting on the bus home we wandered through a market in Nopo-dong, where I got some dried persimmons. Here they dry them whole, so they end up resembling an apricot, and they are delicious. Overall I really like Busan as a city and am so glad I could ring in the new year here.