20,000 Leagues Under The...Aquarium

Sorry it has been awhile since our last update, but...we have been busy with our FRIENDS (yeah that's right...FRIENDS). I know it may be a strange concept for you people, but we are capable of making friends. Anyway on to the blog!

We had the great pleasure of taking part in a shark diving experience at the Busan Aquarium this past weekend. Well, Shawn had a good time, Steph only had a good time in between moments of sheer terror. Steph was surprised and horrified to find out that there would be underwater animals in the aquarium that we would be diving with, I mean who knew? (P.S. Steph hates underwater animals, especially turtles).

The dive was on a rainy Saturday in the afternoon. We arrived at the aquarium ready for our orientation. This was the first time for both of us to go scuba diving, so it took a little longer for us to be oriented. First, we had to fill out all the forms saying we wouldn't sue the aquarium if we lost a limb or died. After they get your signature they show a video to scare the pants off of you about what could happen while you are scuba diving (good plan huh?). Well we made it through the videos and were off to training and our first dive.

Turns out scuba diving is a little work. First you have to shimmy your way into a skin tight wet suit, then they put weights and an oxygen tank on your back to further inhibit your movement. The result is barely being able to walk and you are on a wet slippery floor (again, good idea huh?). Once in the water things start to get a little better though (thank god for buoyancy). Breathing underwater is a little tricky though. The regulator (which is the piece that gives you oxygen that you hold in your mouth...yeah just listen to that scuba jargon) is actually really heavy. Plus if it is your first time, you are terrified of drowning and have your mouth clamped on it as it is your life support. The result from this was very sore jaws following our dive. Also the water is REALLY cold, so that isn't great either. But all in all the experience was worth it. Getting to see those animals that close up was a really cool experience. Plus, what better way to do it then in a safe controlled environment? Enjoy the selected pictures below from our experience!

Before the Dive

The Deadliest Creature of Them All

SHARK!

The group...underwater

Peace Out!

ROAD TRIP!

Over Memorial Day (for Korea) we had a three day weekend, in which we went for a road trip with some friends! If any of you have spoken with us about how crazy driving here is in Korea, rest assured that neither of us drove on this road trip!

We started our adventure on a Friday morning. Leaving town proved to be more difficult than we had planned (it took us almost an hour!), which should have been a warning to us about the rest of the trip. Navigating in Korea is an interesting experience. There are very few road signs until you get on to the interstate system. The problem often is just that, getting on the interstate. We drove around our little country area trying desperately to find an on ramp, which we later found are pretty sparse. Once we found our way onto the interstate we had to pass through a toll booth to get our toll ticket. This should have been easy, I mean the hard part was finding the on ramp, but we made a minor mistake. We entered the toll through the "Hi-Pass" only lane, and the sirens began to sound. We were going to stop and admit fault for choosing the wrong lane, but there were too many cars behind us to stop in the middle of the interstate. So even though some Korean road worker was running behind our car while the sirens were still blowing, we just kept going. Don't worry though, we explained our situation when we got off the toll road and payed the appropriate fee, so we really didn't cheat the Korean toll system.

Our first stop on the trip was Namhae Island, the home of the "most beautiful" bridge in Korea. This bridge (there is a picture below) is supposed to be the "Golden Gate Bridge" of South Korea. Well, we will let you be the judge of that one...but we should mention that everything in Korea is famous when explained by a Korean person.

After seeing this amazing bridge we did a lot of scenic road tours to see the beauty of the island. While cruising around we stumbled upon the "Garlic Land of Treasures", an odd museum dedicated to garlic. This area is "famous" for garlic and apparently really proud of it. The museum was something to see, but still pretty strange. The building itself was shaped like a garlic bulb! Well, now we know more about garlic anyway.

That night all of the hotels were booked up at Yulpo beach (our stop for the night), so our friend suggested we stay at the Jimjilbang. A Jimjilbang is a popular spot in Korea and can best be described as a bath house where you can also spend the night. Of course when you spend the night you sleep on the floor in extremely hot stuffy rooms. But it only costs about $7.00 a night, so it's a cheap fix to a lodging situation. The bath house portion of the Jimjilbang is just that...a public bath. Yes, for only $7.00 you get to sleep on the floor in a hot room, and bathe NAKED with a bunch of other people! It is a pretty cool experience though all in all. There are all different kinds of baths at the Jimjilbang. They have a bath of all different temperatures and steam rooms, and even some mud baths at this particular one. At first Shawn was terrified of the idea of being naked with all of those men, taking a bath and a shower...but after he tried it, it really wasn't so bad.

The next day it was a sleepy start and on to the Green Tea Plantation (you can imagine we didn't sleep too well on the floor). The Boseong Green Tea Plantation is definitely something cool to see. There is row after row of green tea bushes and the smell is amazing. To top it all off there is all the green tea products you could want to buy there. Seriously, if you can think of it these people make it green tea flavored. Everything from our favorite of green tea ice cream to green tea noodles and rice. It is crazy, but delicious.

After the Green Tea Plantation we were off to the Celadon Museum. This is a museum that is built on the site of the famous Goryeo Dynasty's Kilns. This dynasty was famous for the Celadon Pottery that was produced during their reign. The kilns were huge, the art work was amazing, what else can we say?

After the Museum it was on to Mokpo, a coastal city on the southwest side of Korea. Here we enjoyed a little pizza and R&R for the night. The next day we took a stroll along the water front and hit up a museum dedicated to the maritime history of Korea. It was an interesting follow up to our other stops as most of the artifact were found from the Goryeo period of Korea (kinda their "Golden Age" I guess). After the museum it was on to a long trek back to the other side of the country to return the rental car and prepare for Monday....BOO! Enjoy the pics below!

The "Silver Bullet" (AKA our ride!)

The "Golden Gate" bridge of South Korea

Dinner with new friends we found on the road!

The green tea fields of Boseong

A sculpture of a celadon potter from the celadon museum

Muhak-san

This past weekend we took a hike up Muhak mountain. After 1 1/2 hours of pretty much straight incline, we got to the top. It was totally worth the hard work because the view was absolutely amazing. We thought we'd share some of the pictures with you.

Crazy Cow (Part 2)

Well apparently the panic over "crazy cow" disease is not yet over, in fact, we believe it is only just beginning. To those of you who have not read our previous blog, "crazy cow" is what many Korean people call Mad Cow disease (we figure it is lost in translation).

Just the other night we went to Changwon (the biggest city in our province) for dinner with a friend. There was a huge gathering of people out on the the side of one of the major streets. It was clearly a protest of some kind, as they all were holding candles and signs. We didn't know what it was about, so of course being curious people, decided to check it out. Our friend that was out to dinner with us is actually Korean so started interpreting some of the signs people were holding and part of the speech a man was giving. The signs were all in protest of American beef being allowed back into South Korea, but the man had a litte stronger view on the situation. The man was not only mad that American beef was being let back into South Korea, but also felt that it is all the new president's fault and that he should be kicked out of office (a little extreme right?). As if all of this was not enough, later in the night there was even a performance by some musicians who had written a song about the evils of American beef. These people are serious. Well, you can imagine some of the looks that we got walking through that crowd. Two white people at a rally against American beef. Some of those people looked as though we were bringing the pestilence to them ourselves. Below is a picture from the protest.