17 th April 2011 Yeosu South Korea

Hello again.  In just over  three weeks  we will be home.
We are well and continue to enjoy the honour of being here.  The last two weeks have been on excursions with students. One was to a local market and is now on "You Tube." Search "West market in Korea" and you should find it or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AE5etGRHHE.  The other trip was to see the wildflowers and a green tea plantation near here.
Korean Joke
Again a true story.
In Korea there are three kinds of cream-filled chocolate biscuits.  The best are called "Choco Pies."
All Korean men spend two years in military training.  This of course is not easy.  Every Sunday there are Church services.
There are three kinds of Church services : Catholic, Protestant and Buddhist.  Soldiers may choose to go to any and choose on Saturday, the day before.  At each service they hand out cream-filled chocolate biscuits at the end of the service.  There is no particular biscuit for any denomination so it will vary from week to week. 
When the soldiers hear that, for example, the Buddhists are having "Choco Pies" after the service, they all become Buddhists.  If next week they hear the Catholics are, by chance, having "Choco Pies", they all become Catholic.  The common joke is that if there is ever a "Choco Pie" church everybody would go there all the time.  NO, do not imagine this as a suggestion for a name change for Bridgey ........ but???
Korean Culture
Education is  enormously important in Korea.  School is from 9.00am to 3.00pm.  However after- school Academies are a part of all students' lives.  Even kindergarten students go to Academies. What do they learn?  They learn the school work of grade 2 and 3.
The role of the Academy is to teach the work they will learn in school the following year.  Why? So that the student can be the best and enter a prestigious university.  Once in he university they generally slacken off and coast along.
One of the Pastors here has two daughters.  One is in high School (15 years old) - she gets home from the Academy at 10pm. The second daughter is younger and in Middle School - about Grade 9.  She gets home at midnight.  Academies are NOT cheap.

SPRING

Japan is of course famous for its cherry blossoms.  Well, it must be very special to top Korea!

There are kilometers of roads lined with these beautiful scenes, but only for about 7 days.

The hillsides are also covered by a purple flower,
jinderlay or Azalea.
Thousands of people flock to the hills to see them.. You can perhaps see the stream of people up the middle.

Forsythia or Kanarie (in Korean) is  everywhere.

 The green tea plantation is also a sight to behold.


Actually we hear that Australia
is also blooming.










Goodbye.  We think of many of you often.
Peace and Grace
R & A
What? No food photos?

7th. April Yeosu South Korea

Hello.  More of the daily lives of us.
Teaching seems to be much the same.  You may have read our news email and the things that inspire and encourage us.  This blog is just our "off" time.

Korean Joke.
The North Koreans were going to again invade South Korea so they sent some spies to check what was happening.
The spies slunk into the country and started to get a feel for the state of the South Korean nation.  They read in the local Korean Times that there were " 10 million Nuclear Families" around the country.  When they told this to the officials in North Korea they were too frightened to invade the South.

Korean History.
At the end of WW II (1949) Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world.  After the Korean War (1953) it was, if possible, even worse. But they have responded by initiative, creativity and hard work.
South Korea's per capita GNI (Gross National Income) in 1953 was $US67, 1963 - $US100, 1973 - $US450,  1983 - $US2,000, 1993 - $US10,000, 2011 - $22,000 and that makes it one of the wealthy nations of the world.  Impressive!!!

US
We had a trip to Busan. about 3 hours by bus and costing $19AUD bus fare.

We visited several museums and went to the 41st Busan

International Kite Festival.

As you can see it was spectacular.

This String of kites contained over 40 kites.

,

There were so many kites and people.


The kite in the shape of a squid was enormous.  There were 4 men holding it while it was flying.

Food always plays an important part in our weekends.

This is the normal street food.

It is cheap, hot and tasty.
We had dinner for the total of $10 - 5 people.

We had a picture of this type of food last time so I guess you realise we eat it!

We decided to visit the UN Korean war cemetery.  Over 3 hundred Australians died and some 30+ are buried here.  It was a sobering and at the same time an uplifting experience.

What a disaster war is!

The world famous Fish market in Busan, with delicacies which are beyond our knowledge!

These little beauties are called "Mongei" - English name Sea Squirts.  Interesting.
Robin has eaten and enjoyed a wide range of "different" foods here  and Mongei are the only ones he would not bother to eat again.








It gets a bit crowded sometimes.


Yesterday we had an interesting bus experience.  We had been on a 21 bus at night and realised that it turned around at a beautiful harbour.  Yesterday we took another 21, but half way through the 40 min trip the driver must have thought we were lost so insisted we get off at a small village, so that we could catch a bus to return to the town.  Robin tried his ultra-basic Korean to explain we wanted to stay ON the bus, but to no avail.  We have yet to see the harbour - maybe next week!!

R & A
CULTURAL TIP.
Do you recall there was a photo of pigs' heads in our last blog.
When you are in Korea and want to buy a pig's head, if it has a smile(?) on its face it will cost you more....... Why? Apparently this means the pig died happy.