The Week Mom and Dad Came

A good thing has come to an end.  My parents' visit to Pohang ended this afternoon. They took a bus to Seoul where they'll be staying until Thursday.  But it was a good thing.  It was wonderful to have them here.  It has made me feel more settled - a little more like I belong here - and that feels good.  And I think they enjoyed being here as well.
It turns out that mom and dad are more adventurous than I thought.  While I was at work during the week, they courageously braved the Pohang Public Transit System and explored the area quite extensively.  After being here for only 8 days, they've now been to a number of places that I've never been to myself.
They went downtown, to Jukto market a couple of times, which they enjoyed..

On Wednesday, they went to GyeongJu where Amber, a wonderful friend (and university professor with lots of extra time), gave them a tour...

 

And they went to Homigot, one of the most easterly points in Korea where people go to see the sunrise on New Years.  They said they enjoyed the eventful bus trip there and back more than the actual place, but at least they had a good time.  The eventful bus trip included waiting in a bus shack, on heated seats, with lots of chatty ajumas for 3/4 of an hour; a beautiful bus trip along the coast with a typical Pohang bus driver with bad driving habits; and a ride home in a taxi which they shared with a korean couple ...

And this was all done without me!  While I went off to work in the mornings, I was slightly jealous of their free time, but also glad that they were able to explore on their own.
Then on Friday, when I was finally free of work, I got to show them Tilt, the local foreigner bar.  I was able to introduce them to some of my friends and despite being a little embarrassed by Andy, the owner, who was a little drunk, we had a good time.  One of my friends, Chloe, even brought a birthday cake since it was the day before my birthday.

Then on Saturday, my birthday, we headed off to Busan.  Busan is the second largest city in Korea, it's quite a bit bigger than Toronto, and I had never been before, so I was excited for the adventure.
We first visited Beomeosa, an old and quite important Buddhist temple that is still in use. 

There we received a very happy call from Peter and Celina, my brother and sister-in-law.

From there we took the subway to Busan's busy coast, the 5th largest port in the world, where we walked around the Jagalchi fish market.  I've never seen so much fish in my life.  They had 2 large buildings with floors full of all kinds of fresh fish, dried fish, and sliced fish.  I've never been one for seafood, but this was pretty cool.

Then we subwayed over to Haeundae Beach, the most well known of Busan's beaches.  If we had come in the summer, the place would have been packed - many of my students' families spend their weekends on Haeundae Beach during the summer.  Afterwards, we took went back to the bus station and headed home, tired and content.

Yesterday it rained in the morning, the only bad weather of the week which we were thankful for.  But the rain let up in the afternoon, which was good because after church, Mr. Lee, a Korean friend who I'd met at church, was going to take us to Bogyeongsa, the nearest temple to Pohang (where I had earlier saved a woman from drowning [lest we had forgotten]).  Except, before taking us to Bogyeongsa, Mr. Lee first wanted to show us around his part of town.  He took us to a pretty nice park that I was happy to find out about, and then he invited us over to his apartment for coffee.  And, though I couldn't help but feel a little like he was 'using' us to help his family practice their English, it was nice to see the inside of his apartment and meet his wife and son.  We then finally did make it to Bogyeongsa and I was glad to be able to show it to mom and dad.  It's a beautiful temple and it's become one of my favourite places in the area. 

By then it was too late to make it to the waterfalls.  So Mr. Lee took us home and we had supper at the small soup restaurant right beside my apartment.

Today, after lunch, we said goodbye and they were off this afternoon.

For me, the highlights of my parent's visit were:
1. Eating meals with them.  Mom made a couple of super suppers, which I had been missing.  And they joined me for most of my lunch breaks so that I could show them my 2 lunchtime joints.
The buffet lady:

And 'Yabez', the small toast/gimbap place nearby:

We also went out for dinner a couple of times.  Mom really likes the open style, do-it-yourself restaurants here; dad isn't so sure he does.

2. Fixing my clogged toilet: It turned out that it wasn't ready for 2 extra people living in my apartment so it became 'jammed up' early on in the week.  I didn't have a plunger so dad and I had to temporarily steal/borrow the one from the Family Mart bathroom.  Happily, my toilets back to working order and Teagan bought me a plunger should the problem arise again.

3. Sounding out GyeongJu: dad never quite got it, along with a number of other Korean words, and I couldn't help but giggle every time.

4.  An impromptu conversation between dad and a very cute and brave Korean girl on the Busan subway:  Dad sat down beside her and, building up her courage, she boldly started a conversation with him by asked him where he was from.  I just thought it was cool that such a young girl would feel confident enough to ask a stange man of another culture a question.

5. Showing them my school and introducing them to some of my students.

6. Watching CBC news at night in my apartment.

7. Being able to hug and say goodnight to them.

It was a blessing to have them.
Thanks for reading.
Michael