Eating chopped-still-moving-octopus and letting fish eat the dead skin off your feet- first day in South Korea!

Another choppy entry to sum up all sorts of things.

Hi Mami, hi papi. Estoy bien. Ya llegue. Les llamo pronto!

I just got in to Busan in South Korea yesterday morning. I took a ferry from Osaka (in Japan). It departed Tuesday at 3pm and arrived yesterday at 10 am. I was joking with my mom telling her that it's like going on the Titanic movie because I got the cheapest accomodation- a bunk bed room with no windows. Top rooms run about $1700 dollars! I was like, will they let me walk on the top deck? Will I meet a Korean Leonardo DiCaprio? Yes and no. The ferry ride was so much nicer than I thought! It was a ferry cruise ship and it had a lobby with a convenience store and a restaraunt and they even offered entertainment in the evening. The entertainment was so cheesy that it was funny and really, you either clapped along with a guy playing I will survive by Gloria Gaynor on the saxophone (which was really good) or you sat in your room. Like I've said before, I try to get my money's, ok, David Bonderman's money's worth.

The language- I realized how much I started to understand short Japanese phrases when I heard Korean. I photocopied a phrase page from a Lonely Planet guide to Korea in Japan which has been very useful. Good phrases to know- hello, excuse me, thank you and I'm sorry (I still kept saying them in Japanse at the subway stations). I shared a room with two Korean women on the ferry and they were real helpful with teaching me how to pronounce words. I found Japanese to be much easier to pronounce because it was like pronouncing Spanish words. Korean is a little bit trickier, but definitely knowing Spanish still helps.

My first day in Korea----wow!!!!! Oh my gosh it was so, so fun! I really, really lucked out this time. I had just checked into the hostel and was sitting on a couch looking through all sorts of brochures and within half an hour a guy from London and a woman from Seoul (the capital in Korea, in the northern part) also arrived. The woman was talking in Korean on the phone and then turned to the guy and me and said-I am meeting my friend to see a temple right now, do you want to join me? Sure! What a better way to sight see than with a local person -and in a car! First we had a huge meal at a traditional style restaurant and we got so stuffed. Oh my gosh I ate so much. Korean food is so delicious- so spicy! And so much meat! I tried everything-including jellyfish that I mistook for noodles and was surprised (and a little freaked out after they told me what it was) by the texture. That was a rough swallow....then we went to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple which is located on a beach, it was an incredible sight to see this temple along the water like that. Then we had coffee at a little place along the beach- that was real fancy. Then we went to a fish market and had octopus- ok, but still moving octopus! The vendors scooped out the poor (but tasty) little octopus from a bucket of water, chopped it up on a wooden block and put it in a to-go box with some sesame seed sauce on the side. At first I thought, oh hell no I'm not eating something that's still moving, but after watching the woman and her friend eat and enjoy it, pues, why not? Oh, it was so weird feeling the tentactles and still feeling the small pieces move! I chewed it real fast.

Then----we drove up to a hill to see a spectacular (have I been reading tourist brochures or what?) night view of the city. About half an hour after we got back to the hostel, the woman invited us to go out again to meet up with another friend for dinner. Sure! Honestly though, I still wasn't hungry after the big lunch we had, but when I saw that big plate of noodles and chicken in spicy pepper sauce, I felt guilty at how my mouth watered. I was all of a sudden hungry again!

Then----Dr. Fish Spa!! Pretend like you're getting a pedicure but instead of soaking your feet in bubbling warm water you put your feet in this tub of water with dozens of fish that eat the dead skin off your feet! I'm serious! It was pretty cheap- 20 min. for about $2. It took me about half of the time though to actually put my feet in the water. It just seemed wrong that these fish would want to do that! It felt so, so weird and I couldn't stop laughing at how funny it felt. I still don't think I can describe that sensation. I have to admit though, my feet were pretty smooth afterwards.

I think that pretty much sums up my first day; I'll post pictures up soon!