Busan weekend get away

Where to begin? Chronologically would be the popular vote I'm sure but who among you is keeping tabs?


Train rides and lots of 'em. The writing bug has been confined to my journal for the most part this past month and it's so disjointedly distracted these days with the humidity and oodles of opportunities around every corner.

I missed the most highly anticipated holiday celebration of the year in order to go and beach it, however I did find myself at Beomesa (one of the founding Buddhist temples in Korea) on Buddha's big day and witnessed many a lantern. Amber and I had planned to get away the moment we could and we did (as soon as our shifts ended at SLP we were on the midnight train to Busan for our three day weekend get away).

Busan was played up and it had been three months since I'd last seen the shore that my expectations were soaring. I've found that there's a general lackluster about things as of late, maybe it's the so-called three month curse (the majority of foreigners claim to hit a wall and fall down a bit at the end of their first quarter abroad). The beach was basically a park with sand, including pigeons and school uniform clad teens. Having committed to getting at least a drop of sunshine on my skin, I donned my bikini and caught many a stare. Curves don't happen in this country, and I certainly put them in check as I tip toed along the icy surf.

Amber and I did find ajima visors to bolster off the heat, which I think was the beach day highlight! Summation of Busan's main beach: for the birds (the pigeons).

There are no seagulls, not one! Returning on a whim at dusk we found that that was the real time to attend Haeundae Beach, the lights twinkle in the absence of stars and it almost can appear Mediterranean.


Best find was the awesome drum circle with Korean traditional drumming that nearly had Amber and I (chingus extraordinaire) demonstrating what hips are supposed to do with the crazy rhythms. Intoxicating truly, it brought on the elements, rain and thunder came shortly thereafter.

The other great find in Busan was appropriately not beach related but up in the mountains in the depths of stillness. Beomesa temple was such a treat, its gates were the opening to the heavens as legend says and we found ourselves leaving the city and the world behind. The green and the mists, it felt like fresh morning all day. I even stopped into a prayer room and was given instruction by a very kind old woman who placed prayer beads in my hands and showed me how to bow after lighting incense.

To get away from the masses was after all just what we had envisioned and so it was. Just have moments to giggle with no timetable or agenda was what the doctor ordered in any case. In fact, it was such a necessary prescription that like antibiotics we couldn't taper off a day early. Monday was a holiday and we had planned to return to Seoul after our Friday/Saturday jaunt but to no avail, all the trains were full. Hmmmm 7 hour bus ride in the humidity and expected holiday traffic or 5am Express train with first come, first serve seating the following day? We opted for the latter and I had one of the most delicious moments I've encountered in a very long time. With only a few hours from teaching the little ones, I still had the world to myself. It was my unprecedented introduction to The Land of the Morning Calm that is Korea.

I adore trains and I love seeing things from a different perspective, one of them being the rarity of true morning.
I often forget about the dawn, the aurora and its still, sweet gentle kiss that warms like a bird's heart beat. We often watch the details fade away into silhouettes, losing their distinction moment to moment as the sun sighs against the horizon amidst crimson and plum dusk. Morning, however, serenely heralds the day, the darkness fading away into cool descriptions like sugar wafers dissolving into sweet on your tongue. A witness to death and dusk, the magic of birth evading us, life and its simple and humble gifts go unnoticed and therefore imbalanced. I could see myself seeing the dawn far before my twilight years shake me up at ungodly hours and being ever so inspired by its yawns. My heart hummed with the train as it stumbled along without complaint and the day took its shape.