Weekend in Busan...Haeundae Beach and the Biggest Mall in the World!

Last weekend, our boss Chris treated us and the other teachers to a night in a luxury hotel in Busan as a reward for having 75 students enrolled at our new school. Since we were all meeting in Busan, which is about an hour away, we decided to take a bus. We weren't sure where to get on the bus, so we asked a couple of police officers if they could point us in the right direction...well surprisingly, they told us to get in their police car and they drove us to the bus stop! It was only about a minute away, but it was really fun and the first time either of us had ever been in a police car!!! You've gotta love the Korean hospitality...

Paradise Hotel

We stayed at the Paradise Hotel, which is a hotel located on Haeundae Beach in Busan. It was a really nice hotel and since there was a holiday in Japan that weekend, the room Chris booked us was $500 a night because of all the Japanese tourists...normally it's not that expensive.

Our room was traditional Korean-style, which meant we slept on cushions on the floor.

Chris and Jessie stayed in the room next to ours.

This is the view from our hotel room of Haeundae Beach.

Another view of Haeundae Beach from our room.

Frank enjoying the balcony.

We spent the day at the hotel pool and hot springs. Next to Melissa is Helen (Omni's receptionist) and Jessie (Chris's wife who is also a teacher at Omni). The pool backed right up to the beach.

We had to wear swim caps...it's an Asian thing.

Chris

Chris, Frank, Helen, Jessie

Frank the midget!!! haha

There were 5 natural hot spring tubs ranging from 104F to 111F (40 to 44C) next to the pool.

Do we look like we're boiling? We felt like it!

Hot Springs

Chris and Frank in the hottest tub...111F!

After a fun day in the sun, we went for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. We love the pho beef and noodle soup! The picture above is of Chris, Frank and Rabey (a teacher who teaches a couple classes at Omni).

Girls side of the table...Melissa, Jessie, and Helen

Shinsegae Mall: The BIGGEST Mall in the World!

Down the street from the beach is a new mall that is considered the biggest mall in the world: 509,810 sq. meters (5,487,594.84 sq. ft.) It has 14 floors, a 3 story spa, a driving range, an ice-skating rink, an art gallery, and a ton of other stuff.

This picture's from the internet of Shinsegae Mall.

Guinness World Records certificate

Frank, Jessie, and Chris strolling past Fendi.

We couldn't resist eating sushi on the conveyor belt in the food court!

The mall had some of our favorite stores, including Banana Republic, Gap, Apple, and of course all the designer stores that we can't afford like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani, etc.

The ice-skating rink was in the middle of the food court. We thought it was funny how everyone wore helmets and gloves.

We ended up having a very fun and relaxing weekend in Busan...too bad we can't be spoiled every weekend! ^_^

English Speech Contest

One of our third grade students, Esther, competed in an English speech contest yesterday in Busan. She has been training at our English school everyday for a few hours for the last 3 weeks or so! The speech competition is called "I Love Milk" and is for elementary students. The children had to first submit a written speech to a committee who narrowed down which children could perform their speech. Esther's was chosen out of a couple thousand applicants. Then yesterday, she performed her memorized 4 minute speech in front of a board of judges and an audience. We are so excited that she was one of three children (out of 20) chosen to go to Seoul next week to perform in the next level of the competition. The winner receives $2,000!

The contest was held at BEXCO, a huge convention center.

The banner outside BEXCO.

Esther waiting anxiously for the contest to begin.

Video: Below is a video of Esther's speech about how milk has effected her life.

Esther performing her speech.

Next to the stage were two huge screens with each contestant's speech written in English and Korean. This way, the judges could follow to see if the child made a mistake and the audience could follow along, too.

Part of Esther's speech on the screen.

Us with Esther after her speech.

Melissa, Esther's mother, Jessie, Esther

Our boss Chris with Esther...he is the one that trained her everyday for her speech.

Thank you gift! Today, Esther's mom ordered Pizza Hut for the teachers at Omni as a thank you for Esther's successful speech. Normally food is much cheaper in Korea, but Pizza Hut is definitely the exception. Each pizza cost 40,000 Won ($35USD)! So the bill for 1 large chicken pizza, 1 large cheese pizza, 2 Pepsi's, and a couple small salads was 89,000 Won ($72)!!!! I think we'll stick to going to Pizza Bingo where a large combination is only 6,000 Won ($5).

Makin' Salsa

Our friend 'Boston' Dan came over to our apartment today to teach us how to make his infamous homemade salsa before he moves back to the states this weekend. He's been perfecting his salsa since he was 14 years old, and he pretty much has it down to an art.

We made a HUGE batch since Dan wanted to take some into work for the other teachers...it consisted of 28 tomatoes, 7 onions, 6 garlic cloves, 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, cilantro, 8 hot peppers, some blended mushrooms and salt. The key is to have a 4:1 ratio of tomatoes and onions. It turned out to be so delicious!

Archery World Championship in Ulsan

Today we spent our Sunday afternoon at the Archery World Championship that was held at the Munsu Stadium Complex just down the street from our apartment. The tournament has been going on for the past week, so we went with our friends Dan and Tim to check it out!

We began by taking a 3 minute shuttle bus to the Archery center. Yes, we could have walked, but it was hard to turn down the free air-conditioned bus during the summer heat.

We were impressed with the bow and arrow flower sculpture!

Dan was so excited to see the archery!

People from all over the world were here for this tournament and it was fun seeing the different foreigners walking around. We stayed for about an hour, which was when the events ended. The final winners were Ukraine: Gold, Taiwan: Silver, and South Korea: Bronze.

They gave away huge paper visors...new fashion trend!

A very large TV screen was set up at the end of the field that displayed the winner's board.

Flags from all the countries surrounded the field.

The mountains were so beautiful!

After the event was over, we walked through the park where we run everyday which is next to the archery center. We came across a group of 5 unicyclists!!!

Our apartment is in the background just on the other side of this lake.

During the summer, there's a fountain during the day and people rent swan paddle boats.

Tim and Dan in the park.

Tim (from England), Frank, and Dan (from Boston)

Just as we were leaving, a family asked to take a picture with us...how fun it is to be "special!"