A Weekend to remember . . . . .

Day 2

We got back to the hostel pretty late that night and I went to bed even later because I had to walk a few blocks to find a phone and then call my parents in PEI. I needed to talk to them after my day. And when I got back – it was just one of those nights when you lie in bed wanting to sleep SOOO badly but no sleep would come. I laid awake until about 6:00am and then woke up shortly after 8:00! We wanted to go to church in the morning though, so tired as we were, we set off from the hostel, with directions in hand – into the stifling heat. On the way we met a nice juicer man who motioned for us to take his picture and then shortly after realized – once again, we were lost! In the Subway some Korean men had pushed pamphlets into our hand about a church – and we just kind of took them to get them to stop talking to us and went on our way. Eventually – we found the church that was in those pamplets. We didn’t think it was the one we were looking for but figured even if they didn’t have an English service they might be able to direct us to one. As son as we entered the lobby a lovely pregnant woman said ‘follow me’ – took us across the way to an elevator in an adjoining building and we ended up in the basement which was the church we apparently had been looking for! It ended up being a real blessing for me. Though the singing was horrible and on a very different tempo than I’m used to they sang two songs we used to sing at OCAI (my camp in Ontario) growing up. It took me back to those summer nights of being up on the hill, away from all the lights I was used to in Toronto to a clearing with the fire blazing, friends and love surrounding me and the night sky – rich with stars up above. It reminded me of my first tastes of God’s love and majesty.

Following church we attempted to get to an island that you could reach by a bridge and to the southernmost point. Foolishly we missed our subway stop. Ayeee! But – it was okay. We saw that we could potentially walk from where we were and even get to pass a famed fish market. A lady on the street saw our confused faces gazing at maps and directed us to the fish market. It was great. My goodness the amount of seafood Koreans eat! There were things I’d never seen before and certainly things I never would have thought of eating. Sights to see though, and smells, and the bustle. I loved it. I even got to make friends with a squid. I saw this beautiful building that I needed to get a good picture of for a friend and only later did I discover that it was actually the famed fish market. We had only been in the stalls surrounding it. It was a shame to miss it – but who knows, maybe we’ll have a chance some other time.

And so, we crossed the bridge, made it to the island and decided to try walking to our destination rather than taking a bus – at first it seemed alright – Leona got a great picture of some men spray painting a boat, and we found a nice anchor –but then things started to get less and less ‘right’ . . . so we walked, and we walked, in the heat, further and further away from the bustle of the city until we arrived to a spot that was nearly deserted and a huge cement wall blocking the ocean from our view. We were most certainly in no man’s land and it seemed to stretch on endlessly. Finding a map we realized that we must be on the opposite side of the island that we wanted to be on to walk along the coast – Urghh! so again, we walked, and we walked, and walked, the sun blaring down on us, the sweat dripping from our bodies, weariness and the need for water seeping into us.

Eventually we found some side streets – what’s that? A person?? Praise God – cars?? The sound of cars!!!??? And a shop!! A shop!!! WATER!!! . . . no, no – not the ocean. We were able to buy water and try to explain to a Korean man what we wanted. I think he understood but he did not at all know how to explain to us what we needed to do to get to our destination. So we left, and walked, and walked and found a bus stop! With some English! Wooohooo!!! After about 4 passed us by one with the title Taegondae was there. And we were off . . . I don’t know how we thought we could have walked it – it was a good half hour on the bus. But we arrived, hot, sweaty, tired, and hungry to find it looked like we needed to pay to get to the seaside and walk up another hill. I rejected my listlessness and discomfort – decided to see this as a part of the adventure and we found some food and more water before doing anything else. In the café the woman was trying to explain something to us about her place and beautiful and driving. She went outside while we ate and when we finished then said something about driving again (through hand motions) and directed us to a van full of Korean young people and who we think was her boyfriend. (We think they were waiting there for us the whole time we were eating our meal!) We hopped in the front seat and were taken up the mountainside and back down again past a beach and onto a ferry dock. It was beautiful! So beautiful. We didn’t go on the ferry but walked towards the beach. Such a local area. We didn’t see any foreigners until we’d been there about 4 hours. We climbed the rocks on the other side of the beach – sat and listened to the water, scaled heights with questionable ropes and just . . .aww, enjoyed the beauty. Such beauty. I prayed and thought and sung to my God. It was wonderful. The breeze, the seclusion, the sublimity of the rocks – the wonder of creation. I contemplated life, being in Korea, and who and where I am. And I loved watching all the local people, sitting and fishing, talking, laughing, scouring the rocks for muscles. It’s so amazing to just sit and watch people, see them living their lives, going through their motions – especially when they’re not aware of my gaze and I have the privilege to just see them as they are. After leaving the beach we followed a trail up the mountain we’d seen earlier. Meeting an English speaking Korean man on our journey we talked to him about his family in New Zealand and why he came back to Korea. He told us about a small island we could see in the distance and how years ago a person had committed suicide there. But instead of seeing it as a sad or horrible place they renamed the island so it meant ‘life’ and people would go there and remember that life was beautiful and wonderful and should be lived.

I felt like I was living at that moment. Soaking in the sights around me, the first Korea sunset I had been able to see . . . and when we got to the top what should we find but an exercise park! That’s right, on the top of the mountain I was working my abs and using the biggest and heaviest hula hoop I’d ever seen in my life. Rather than head back to the beach we continued on a trail to find the school a sign had said this trail led to. After about 2 km up then down the mountain we found no school – but were back into the city. So we hopped on a bus (hmmm, I just realized I went from writing in the present tense to the past – must have switched when I closed Word and then came back to it – this is taking a number of sessions to write! Ah well, I’ll continue with past now that I’m here). and managed to get back to the mainland. We never did make it to our destination – but I think what we experienced was probably just as good if not better – getting lost, meeting strangers – and finding a wonderful spot, free of the tourists. In fact, minus the visit to Haeundae – most of the things we ended up doing in Busan were fairly foreigner free – probably because I was so poor and so we did things that didn’t cost money.

It was still fairly early so we decided to look for a tower we’d seen from afar earlier, found it – after walking up MASSIVE amounts of stairs, taking a picture with a fake Buddha, discovering yet another exercise park and a menacing but incredible looking dragon! haha. When we got back to our part of the city and were looking for a place to have dinner Leona spotted an African Restaurant. Being from South Africa she wanted to take a look. So we headed up in the elevator, the doors opened and a man rushed in, blocked our way and closed the doors before we had a chance to get out. We went back to the main floor and (perhaps being gentlemanly?) he wouldn’t get out of the elevator until we got out first . . . it was very curious – we didn’t see the restaurant but we did have another one of those “Wha??” Korean moments.

Walking along the bright and active downtown streets I began to feel rejuvenation entering my body. We found a Sam-gib-sal restaurant – cooked it ourselves! (It was the first time I’d had it with no Koreans present) and enjoyed a wonderful and relaxing meal.