Example of a haiku, as given by Jeff Teacher

I sit in my class

Outside it will soon be fall

I won't miss the heat

Chuseok is all around us

The kids are busy writing their lists for the Chuseok Bunny, and getting ready to go from house to house collecting teeth to stick under the pillow, while the parents stay home assembling the Chuseok pole in preparation for the Airing of Grievances.

In truth, I still don't know exactly what Chuseok entails. It is, essentially, the Korean Thanksgiving, and a time when most Koreans will return to the home of their parents or grandparents, pay homage to their ancestors, and eat a lot- including Songpyeon, a traditional Korean rice cake. Beyond that, though, it's all a big mystery.

It's just a couple of weeks away now, and the biggest indicator of an impending holiday is found, of course, in the supermarkets. There are a great number of gift baskets for sale, each one offering a selection from a given grocery aisle: fruit, cosmetics, spam.

Soon we'll start doing Chuseok activities with the students, and I'm curious to discover the local equivalent of Santa napkin rings or Turkey placemats. Gift baskets aside, what I've seen of pre-Chuseok Korea makes it seem a lot more low-key than Christmas or even Thanksgiving, but it may also simply be less commercial, though no less intense. I am given to understand that virtually everyone goes home for the week, and there are very few exceptions.

As for me, I'll be in Beijing. Assa!

Hills and Apartments

Every so often, I'll set out from the Jeffpad and meander through the streets of my neighbourhood. It's at these times that I am most aware of the fact that I am in a very different place.

Busan's main streets are very large, wide thoroughfares. It's rare that one can cross the street directly; most often pedestrians either take bridges over the road or tunnels underneath it. It's not uncommon to have two levels of road on the main strip, with a raised highway running more or less on top of a street. Usually I'll walk along one of these for a little bit, but I prefer to move off the main drags and meander through the side streets, which are fascinating. They're small, narrow, and curvy, frequently without sidewalks, and are almost invariably sloping up or down.

I'm reminded a little bit of the Flintstones travel parts, wherein the scenery loops as they drive along, because there seems to be a specific number of types of business establishments in the residential areas of Busan. These are as follows:

-the corner store: purveyors of Fanta, snack food, and the like, these can be quite tiny (the size of a walk-in closet) to relatively spacious (the size of a large bachelor apartment)

-the optician: apparently, there is a very high demand for glasses and glasses-related paraphernalia in Busan

-the bakery: these often have French names and serve Eurasian fused baked goods. Fresh bread (but not, sadly, baguettes) vie for space with red bean donuts, cakes, and buns.

-the pizza place: In addition to the not infrequent Dominos and Pizza Huts, most neighbourhoods have a local pizzeria or three as well. These are generally given names similar to ones which might be found in North America: Pizza Time, Mr. Pizza, and Royal Pizza are all within a short walk of my apartment

-the Korean restaurant: barbecue-, soup-, or bibimbap-oriented, Busan has many, many, many eateries. As I may have mentioned in previous posts, the cost of food in restaurants is quite cheap (a solid meal can be had for $3), while the supermarkets are relatively expensive.

On a given street, then, the order is often something like this:

variety store, barbecue restaurant, optician, barber, variety store, bibimbap restaurant, pizza place, bakery, barbecue restaurant, optician.

All of this, of course, is set against a backdrop of apartment buildings, which are themselves framed by the green mountains of Busan. It sounds scenic, and it in its own peculiar way I suppose it is... the city has a sort of old- modern feeling to it. Think of The Fifth Element. It looks like the City of the Future, but twenty or thirty years later. I'll need to put up some photos to do this description justice. For now you'll have to trust me.