Amy's Daejeon Days: January 2014

With winter right around the corner, I decided to take a trip down south to Busan while the nice weather lasted. I met up with my friend Krista and we went off to be good little tourists and explore the city.

In front of Busan station

We first went to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (Korean Dragon Palace Temple). It is the southern-most temple located on the Korean shore line. It was first built in 1376 by the Buddhist monk Naong, the consultant of King Gongmin. It was destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasion and was then rebuilt in the early 1930s. According to the story, Korea went through a draught in the 1370s. Naong had a sea god appear to him in a dream and tell him that they built a temple, rain would come to the land and the draught would end. He decided to build a temple, where Haedong Yonggungsa Temple now is, because he saw that there was a mountain at the front and a sea at the back which meant that if they said their prayers in the morning then they would get answered in the evening. Many people visit this place because they believe that your wishes will be answered if you pray there.

It was a bit of a hike to get to the temple. We picked a good day to go, as the weather was perfect.

Scary looking buddhas. This marks the entrance to a corridor of vendors selling anything from buddhist phone charms to silkworm larvae.

Silkworm larvae...yeah we decided not to try these. The handsome young man in the picture is Flat Stanley. My friend's nephew had a school project where you take Flat Stanley around the world and take pictures of the adventures he has. He agreed with us in not taking part in the adventure of eating these "lovely smelling" silkworms.

The 12 zodiac generals that represent the Chinese calendar.

A nine-tiered pagoda.

...and next to the nine-tiered pagoda there was a tire monument for travel safety. I honestly don't know how most Koreans got their driver's license as they are crazy drivers. Maybe that's why I felt so at home here in Korea...I almost felt like I was living in Ecuador again where red lights mean speed up before the other lane starts going. However, here in Korea you're not safe even on the sidewalk, as that is what delivery motorcyclists use as well as the occasional car for extra parking spots (post on traffic coming soon).

The golden dragon gate welcoming you to the temple.

The people you see in the picture are rubbing the stomach of a pregnant Buddha statue. It's been tarnished black because if you're pregnant and want to have a boy, you rub it's stomach and nose.

A cool looking statue.

Stone lanterns lead the way along the 108 stairs that represent the 108 agonies and earthly desires of Buddhism.

The view at the bottom of the stairs.

Oooh...pretty.

A pretty red bridge leading to the Fishing museum.

The temple

You make a wish and throw a coin. If your coin lands in one of the two bowls, your wish will come true...or so they say.

The people on the bridge are throwing coins at the wishing bowls.

Dragons everywhere. It is said that the monk Jungam (who rebuilt the temple in the 1930s) had a vision of the goddess Buddha appearing on the back of dragon and gave the temple it's current name. It was formerly known as Bomun temple.

Painting of a blue dragon on one of the walls of the shrine hall. Another interesting historical fact is that during the Joseon period, the king was symbolized as the dragon.

Traditional Korean architecture is quite unique and has very colorful and intricate artwork.

Krista being a bad influence on Flat Stanley.

Great view!

People kept on smiling when they saw Flat Stanley and kept on offering to take pictures for us. Flat Stanley was quite the people charmer.

Bodhisattva of Compassion. A lot of tourists come here, but there are also a lot of Buddhists that come and pray to this statue and the other Buddhas. We live in a lost world, and it was a very sobering moment in our otherwise bright day.

That's the happiest Buddha I've ever seen.

After walking around and sitting a while enjoying the ocean view, we headed down the mountain to Nampo-dong. Nampo-dong is one of the top places to visit in Busan by both tourists and locals. This shopping district offers luxury brands as well as discount products. I was able to get a nice pair of boots for $20. Very nice! The Pusan International Film Festival is also held here every year. The main reason why we came here though was for the street food.

The main street was decorated with many Christmas trees and lights. Unfortunately we were there during the daytime, so we missed out on seeing it all lit up.

This is what we came for! Hotteok is a deep fried Korean pancake with brown sugar filling, but the hotteok in Busan is not just any regular hotteok. Busan is known for their special mixture of brown sugar with nuts and sunflower (or pumpkin) seeds. We waited in line for 20 minutes at this one stall in order to get our $1 hotteok. We'd gotten some delicious dumplings at another stall, so eating that helped pass our time while waiting for our hotteok.

The Korean pancakes are in such high demand that they needed staff to direct traffic and keep order in the line...especially when there's multiple food stalls back-to-back with over 30 people in each line. I've never seen street food stall require traffic control before! The staff kids were quite happy to take a picture with Flat Stanley.

Yummy hotteok! Usually the brown sugar is put inside the pancake batter before being fried, but here they fried the batter first then sliced it open and added the brown sugar and nuts. So good! We had a hard time waiting for it to cool off...I'm pretty sure I singed my tongue on the first few bites.

At the end of my trip I ran into a friend from high school in Ecuador. It was quite the pleasant surprise! You never know who you'll see when you're an international kid.

Christmas is a national holiday in Korea, however it's celebrated very differently than in the west. Most people do not decorate their homes. Many stores and coffee shops do put up some lights and decorations, but it's more of a winter wonderland theme. There isn't really any Christmas spirit here. No peppermint mochas or Christmas cookies. No Christmas music playing in stores or colorful lights strung up. Christmas is not a family event here, rather it's a date night for all the couples, and for New Year's a lot of people spend time with their family. It feels like Christmas and New Year's are the reverse of what happens in the west. Christmas eve and Christmas day are like Korea's version of prom night. Young people are scrambling to find a date for those two days. Most places are open on Christmas in order to accommodate all the couples that are out and about, whereas on New Year's day most places are closed. If you don't have a date for Christmas, then you tell people you're spending the day with Kevin ('Home Alone' marathon on TV Christmas day).

Lotte Department Store

"Snow" falling on a Christmas tree in a coffee shop.

My apartment owners set up a Christmas tree in the stairway, so it was nice seeing it every day when I came home.

It snowed Christmas week. It was very pretty.

Coffee shops don't serve the seasonal flavors that I loved when in the states. My mom was kind enough to send me some pumpkin spice coffee mix that I could enjoy when it was cold outside.

Goodies from home. Yay for Christmas packages!

My friend Krista came for a visit a couple of weeks before Christmas, so we decided to celebrate an early Christmas together. We started the day off with The Hobbit!!! It was such a good movie. What's nice is that the theaters here show the movies in English with Korean subtitles, so it's almost like being back in the states. What I do like better about these theaters is that when you buy your tickets, you pick your seats. It's nice going into a theater and not having to worry about finding a seat, sitting separately or having to sit in the front row. It's interesting here seeing what movies are popular. When we watched Iron Man, the theater was packed. We watched The Hobbit two days after it came out, and the theater was half empty. Sacrilege!

For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant, called Takorea Mexican Grill in Daeheung-dong. It's located in a big shopping district in Daejeon. The food was so good!!! The owners are from Mexico, so it was authentic Mexican food, and not Korean-Mexican fusion food. The owners make all of their food from scratch (including their tortillas and sauces), as you can't find any of these foods in the Korean stores.

Enchiladas with salsa verde (green sauce)

Chicken chimichanga

The owners had made some flan and gave some to us for free! They actually don't have any dessert on the menu, but they sometimes make it for special events and for people they know (they know me!). Takorea hosts a weekly get together (Wednesday at 7pm) of people in Daejeon who speak Spanish or are learning Spanish. I've gone a few times and it's been really nice being able spend time with people who speak Spanish and appreciate good Mexican food.

Yummy flan!

After dinner, Krista and I went to see The Nutcracker Suite at the Daejeon Culture & Arts Center.

Excited and finally feeling like it's Christmastime.

It was a fabulous ballet performance, and we had amazing seats. Krista and I had silly grins on our faces the whole time.

I made Christmas cards for my kids at school...70+. Next time I'm picking an easier design that takes less time...and no glitter. I'm still finding glitter all over the place.