I woke up to the sound of rain so I was a little unsure about how the day would go at the Whale Festival which is all outside by the river, but then I remembered I would get to wear my new pants I got at the International Market and I instantly got excited again. We went to our fav (and only) breakfast spot Paris Baguette and started our day at 11.
After our late breakfast DongHee drove us all to the Whale Festival in two trips. The festival was very large so it took awhile for the two groups to find each other, but we eventually did. The naval architecture and ocean engineering school at University of Ulsan made a racing team to compete in the Dragon Boat races at the Whale Festival. They didn't train though so it was all just for fun. It was really cool to watch! The range of teams was pretty funny, some teams only had a couple people and some appeared to have an army of olympic trained rowers.
The NAOE dragon boat! (4th place out of 4 teams)
When we weren't watching the race we walked through all the tents at the festival and tried all the food they were selling. The foods and snacks ranged from chocolate to raw shrimp. We got to try a Korean style pancake which was delicious! The dough was made of just flour they said and it had a ton of chives in it. Sounds weird, but it worked. Beau got potato chips on a stick which was also very good. They even had face painting, or hand painting in my case. We were getting some pretty funny looks throughout the day because Mackenzie and I were wearing matching "grandma pants" and Jake was wearing these funny multicolored fisherman pants.
Our grandma pants Face painting fun
Penguin hand painting
Chive pancake?
The Ulsan Naval Architecture team also thought our outfits were funny and laughed while we were getting introduced. It was funny because we thought by wearing these outfits we would blend in more, but they made us stick out even more, if thats possible! After the races we hung out with the team under their tent because it started pouring rain; we were bummed we didn't get to look around more, but we got to meet some of our roommates friends which was fun. One boy told Mackenzie and I we looked like movie stars so that was exciting! Apparently we looked like Jennifer Anniston and Mila Kunis... Another girl said she loved Beau after just looking at him so we were obviously a hit.
After the long day of rain and cold all we wanted was a warm dinner so we went to a little mom-and-pop restaurant right next to University of Ulsan and got pork soup with rice, which is the traditional dish of Busan. It was pretty much chicken noodle soup in Korean form so it hit the spot! After the long weekend we finished off the day by relaxing in the dorm watching videos and attempting to do laundry.
That's it for the day, but before I go I wanted to share with you a couple things I've noticed/ experienced in the past week.
1. Giggling is okay in most places in Korea including work, restaurants, and in the streets, but it is not welcome in public transportation at night in trains and buses. How I learned you ask? After our day in Busan, Mackenzie and I were looking through some pictures we took and laughing (I'm not sure how loud, sometimes I don't realize how loud my laugh is) and the woman in front of us turned around, gave us a look, shook her finger, and probably said something like, Be quiet you giggling Americans!
2. Instead of graffiti like we have in the states graffiti here is made up of pink rainbows butterflies, and cute little characters that remind me of the pillsbury dough boy.
Rainbow/ Butterfly Graffiti
3. Everyone squats!
4. Murse (man purse) life is real.
Even dinosaurs are happy!
5. You never know what kind of bathroom you are walking into. Will the seat be heated? Will there be no toilet paper option? Will you have to go into a hole in the ground? For this reason I suggest you always carry toilet paper/ napkins around with you at all times, especially in bathrooms near the beach.
6. We have seen many dogs as pets around and they seem to be as loved as much as they are back home, but don't joke about eating dog because they will actually ask if you want to eat some. Our response: Um no thanks.
Well that's it for now!
-Sam
No comments:
Post a Comment