Nakdong River Migratory Bird Refuge

On Sunday Holly and I went to Busan with our friends Ben and Jade to visit the Nakdong River bird sanctuary. It was quite spectacular, as the sun was setting and it was very quiet and peaceful this particular Sunday evening. We saw many ducks, swans, egrets, a spoonbill, herons, and some sweet gulls and magpies to round it off. As you can see there is a tonn of development around the place (I have never seen this many cranes, as in construction equipment, in my life!).

In the midst of this busy and crammed port city, this park was a quiet refuge. Although 'quiet' in Korea means no traffic noise, but still many people! The nice thing about Korea is that so many people of all ages use the public facilities. Unlike home, where most parks are used for drug dealing and other bad stuff!

Jagalchi Fish Market

Holly and I went for a strole through the fish market in Busan. Here are some photos. The aerial shot is a view of the market from a nearby tower.

Halloween at School

Halloween was so much fun because the children were so excited for the foreign festivities of Halloween. As you can see the kids wore all kinds of cute costumes. But, Halloween is not very popular here, exemplefied by the small selection of costumes at the department stores! There were many children dressed in the exact same outfits, which they didn't seem to even notice!

Holly dressed as 'Sailor Moon' (a cartoon character) and I was a rockstar. The kids had their own interpretation though... Holly was a student and I was a grandfather! Ben was meant to be Spider Man, but it didn't quite have the full effect without the mask. You can see in the pictures a little pumpkin-man grabbing at Ben's mask. This little guy is a rough and tough little 4 year old named Lucas who was really looking forward to being Spider Man, prior to Halloween. So when he showed up dressed as a pumpkin, with a less-than-enthused look on his face, we felt sorry for him. The pumpkin outfit was a favorite among the girls, which added insult to injury for this very masculine little boy. But, once he got ahold of Ben's mask, his self worth was boosted and he ran around the rest of the day fighting crime like only Spider Man can.

Halloween: The Haunted House

The haunted house was ultra-scary for the children. If the pitch black room with witch noises, jack o lanters, and bowls full of creepy things (for them to put their hands into) was not enough. The teachers jumping out and scaring the kids at our bosses insistance made it an over the top scary event. Probably the craziest thing was the bowl of live, squirming, eels the kids had to put their hand into and touch. It was too much even for us teachers. The Koreans have a different sense of humour to say the least... they loved the bowl of eels (see the picture of Ben and Holly with the bowl) and thought the haunted house, complete with bawling children, was the funniest thing they had ever seen.