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.