Chillin' in Cheongju with Alex

A week of food adventures, hanging with Marie, ping pong playing and screen golfing...

The day after my sister, Alex landed in Korea we went to Seoul - danced in the streets and did Taekwando. 2 days later we flew down to Jeju Island and stay for 4 nights - riding bikes on islands and eating seafood and pork. The day after we got back from Jeju we bused 3.5 hours down to Busan to swim with sharks.

That folks, is one full week of awesome.

So the next week of her visit we took it a little easier. Well at least Alex did. I still had to work. But in the evenings we managed to do a few things around my city.

We did a lot of eating. We ate pizza (so much for my gluten free diet), chocolate (8 giant bars in 2 weeks), ice cream (a ton of it, seriously... so much Baskin Robbins), grilled meat, Indian curry with Naan bread (again, gluten - oops) and so on and so on.


Tuesday was a big day. ALEX GOT BEAT IN PING PONG!!

Video Evidence!

Ok, so here's the back story. I met a guy from China at the church I go to over here and found out he loved ping pong and was rather good at it (although he won't admit it). I told him that my sister was really good. He wanted to know how good and I said well she is American good, not Chinese good. I think he understood.

One day, I talked him in to bringing another Chinese friend with him so I could watch them go at it! I watched in amazement and immediately thought wow I bet he could beat Alex. Now for those of you who don't know. Alex is ridiculously good at ping pong. I'm not kidding. She's been able to beat my dad since she was 12. And every person who walks in our door - old, young, men, women, kids - she beats them. She's competitive as heck and just plain, well... good at it.

I suck at it. So I'm no competition. She can beat me using her left hand, standing on one leg with an eye closed. But no one we have ever met has been able to take her down.

So, I told my family about this new friend I had made and how I was pretty certain he could beat her. I said that she should come here and play him, kind of kidding, right? I mean why would Alex ever want to come to Korea.

But then, she came. So I contacted him and he agreed to the match.

They played. And she lost. I think she might have won 2 games to 11 out of maybe 7. I told him not to take it easy on her, and to try his hardest. He did, I'm pretty sure. He just kept saying, wow she is really good. She should get a coach and practice hard, she could be really good!


Indian food.
In celebration of her getting beat!

That night we hit up my favorite Indian food for some curry and naan bread (flat bread that kind of looks like a tortilla). It was fabulous, as always and Alex loved it. I mean what's not to love about chicken in some creamy sauce that you dip bread into!? Normally curry has more spice, but since Alex is kind of a wimp (like the rest of us Krehbiels, she got the least spicy choice on the menu!)











Wednesday.

It was a national holiday so our cousin Marie came up from Daegu to visit. She moved to Korea in August to teach English with the EPIK program (the sister program to TaLK - my program). She wants to be just like me! :)

She got in to Cheongju Tuesday night (just in time to see Alex lose a few times). Then on Wednesday we made it to the mural art district near Uam Mountain in Cheongju. I had never been (sad, I know, I've lived here for over a year and still have a lot of my own city to explore).

We wondered around, took pictures, Alex played on the iPad mostly and attempted to keep up with us two crazy artsy, photography girls. Afterwards I rewarded her with ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Basically any time she didn't complain too much, or was rather nice, I would let her get ice cream. She seemed to figure this out rather quickly, so we got a ton of ice cream! (but that's ok, I wasn't complaining!)

More incorrect English. (OPNE) -- I think they were going for open. But I mean who knows.. maybe OPNE is actually a word!

Thursday.

We went to downtown Cheongju to look at all the crazy shirts with weird-o English on them. Alex took a ton of pictures and we had some good laughs. Some of them are actually really funny and some are funny because they are so far out there and mean nothing. She bought a white sweatshirt that said Superman on it. She was happy.


Look mom no hands!!

Oh and we went to good ole HomePlus - the big Walmart like store here. And because it's Korea and they have limited space, the store is 3 stories. So how do you get your cart on the different floors, you ask? Elevators? No, that would be ridiculous, one at a time... you would need 12 elevators. Oh wait, how about a moving walk way set at an incline that holds the cart in place with magnets? BRILLIANT, Korea... just simply genius! 

Friday.

She came to school and helped me teach. Well basically she was the lesson. I made the students ask her questions and made her do some reviewing with the kids. They liked her. They would walk into the office, after class and just stand and stare and say 'al-leck-su'. And she would say, 'what?' Then silence.


Screen Golf.

That evening was screen golf with my juggling, married friends. Screen golfing is basically just that. A room, with a huge screen and a computer and golf. But these are pretty high tech and fancy. First of all there are leather couches (awesome) and they bring you water and little snacks to eat while you play. You get golf gloves and shoes and there's a set of clubs for women and one for men. You push a button and the ball gets placed up on the tee. It's great for the lazy person in me.

Then you just swing normally and whack the ball. It took me a couple of holes to get used to swinging a club full force indoors!

The ground that we stood on to swing would shift. If we were on a slope it would tilt so we stood like we were on a slope. I didn't realize it did that for the longest time, but when I did I was mesmerized!

Oh and guess who beat Alex? Yeah, that's right - I DID! She's number 4 at +10 and I'm number 3 at +7. So, yeah.. the girl going to play golf in college got BEAT. By ME. Who hasn't played golf in months. I was rather proud. Alex's excuse was that 1. It wasn't 'real' golf and 2. She didn't have her clubs. Anyway, I won - she lost. That's all that really matters. So, it was totally worth the price (15,000 for each of us for 9 holes).













Saturday.

We got up early, I took her to the bus station and put her on the bus to the airport. Maybe I'm a bad sister.. oh well. She did just fine though and made it home safe and sound.

And that was that.. the end of 2 weeks of awesomeness that we will both never forget! I'm so glad she was able to come and see me. I was wonderful having a visitor. It was the first visitor I've had while living or traveling abroad. I realized though, that having a visitor is quite exhausting, especially since I was still working and it wasn't during my vacation! But I pulled through and I hope she had just as much fun as I did, if not more!

Love this crazy girl. :)

Scuba Diving with Sharks in Busan

Saturday night in Busan.

We met up with my friends and went to a dog cafe. Yes, they have those. Sounds strange but for some foreigners who haven't seen a real dog in ages, it's rather great. They only have small tiny dogs in korea with dyed ears and bows in their fur. But this cafe had big dogs!! You pay to get in and you order any drink and you just play with dogs. They come sit on your lap while you eat and try to steal your food. It's fun really! .. I guess except for those with dog allergies.

After, we got some fried chicken for dinner. Then got a crepe from a small little shop with Koreans dressed up all European like. It was rather cute and the crepes were delicious. Then we got a cheese kimchijeon - (kimchi pancake). It is now high on my list of all time favorite korean dishes. It was THAT good! Seriously. Crave that thing all. the. time.

















Busan Aquarium.
Where WE were the exhibit.

So maybe you know this term -- YOLO (you only live once)? I think that would have to apply to this situation. Or as my friend Julie put it - YODO (you only die once). However you look at it - this was one of those. One of those crazy experiences that you just can't really recount all that well, one of those you had to be there moments... one of those, did I really do that?

Good thing there's videos, because looking back I almost  don't believe I did it. It was for sure the craziest/coolest/scariest things I've done in Korea. I think this tops me jumping off a mountain, and that was pretty crazy. But this was crazier because 1. I am kind of afraid of drowning and 2. THERE WAS NOTHING BETWEEN ME AND AN 8 FOOT SHARK. nothing!

We get to the aquarium, head inside with the instructor and go through some secret black doors and end up in some back rooms of the aquarium. I felt so important. We first did some class work: signed some papers, learned about what we would see in the tank (you know just some black tip and white tip reef sharks, grey nurse sharks, groupers, sting rays, etc.) and learned a bit about how to scuba dive. Then we were off to change into our full one piece, super sexy wetsuits.

And then it was time, to practice breathing underwater. Because that is normal. This was Alex and I's first time scuba diving. I have been snorkeling once, but never fully under the water with a huge tank on my back.

There was a huge sea turtle swimming in the practice pool. He gave me some 'fin, noggin' dudddeeeeee'. They are quite huge and I pretty dangerous for divers, so they aren't allowed to be in the pools when we are. They still can't quite tell the difference between the divers who feed them and us, even though they are how old?! You think they would figure it out!

Ok, now time to face my fear, I was honestly more scared about scuba diving. I'm a certified lifeguard, but afraid of drowning. (Weird? Well if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a bit weird. Phew we got that out of the way!) And then... being 15 feet under water, with a bunch of weights around my waist to keep me at the bottom... is a bit scary. Oh and yeah, there were going to be meat eating, scary looking, 8 foot creatures swimming all around me. So, yeah breathing and staying calm through out this whole thing was going to be my biggest problem!

In the practice tank, he first showed us how to do the exercises and then we did them back to him. I passed first time. Yippee. I did ok with most of them mentally, except the one where I had to pull the regulator (or mouthpiece) out of my mouth and then be able to put it back in without swallowing a ton of water, or you know drowning. I passed it first time, I don't even really know how.

Then he said, ok - let's go. I asked him if I could practice more. I was like buddy, I had a whole 2 minutes of breathing under water with this thing in my mouth and now you're just going to throw me in to a shark tank!!! He seemed confident I would survive, so I tried to stay calm and got in the water. Breathe in slowly and deeply, and back out. I just kept telling myself to breathe, breathe, breathe. It was weird hearing myself breathe and seeing all the bubbles come out. It was rather loud. I sounded like Darth Vader, well and sort of looked like him too I guess.

We climbed in using a rope down the side of the tunnel, where all the aquarium visitors were walking under. That's not nerve raking at all and of course I almost fall, but I luckily caught myself. Hopefully that doesn't end up on youtube.

We made it to the bottom, ears all popped and ready to meet Mr. Bruce face to face..... No, just kidding. Nothing in life will ever make you ready for that!

We had to kind of moon walk around the bottom, hopping around over rocks and such. We got to look for shark teeth. That was right up my alley. I'm a 4-leaf clover finder. I have found over 100 probably and even found a few 5-leaf clovers. I also love and am not too bad at mushroom hunting. Something about finding the needle in the haystack really satisfies me. So I did a lot of looking down. Also not such a bad thing, so I didn't notice the terrifying animals as much either.















Soon after we were in the tank a couple of groupers swam near me and kind of started fighting. Now these things, Michael warned us are more dangerous than the sharks. And they are bigger too. I was not so comfortable with the tussle happening near my head.

We hopped along, found some nice shark teeth, saw a sting ray, lots of little fish, some sharks were lerking but nothing too scary. I was freezing cold, so I was shaking, it might have been nervousness, fear as well. But I was remaining fairly calm.


Actually the hardest and weirdest thing for me was that there was no talking. I think that should be the next invention - a regulator that allows you to talk under water - or maybe they have that! So it was kind of a personal experience, yes there were people around but you couldn't talk about it, only point and signal that you were ok. And at one point, I realized if you have anxiety or can freak out easily, this is not the activity for you. You have to be in your head and know how to stay calm and just breathe. Just keep breathing... what do we do we breathe, breathe breathe, breathe.

All was well, no close encounters. I was feeling pretty good about the whole experience. But just then I look up and there he was... staring me right in the eyes. Bruce. 8 feet long, hundreds of sharp teeth exposed, beady little eyes. Michael warned us not to play chicken with the shark. So I froze. I have never been so still in my entire life. EVER. He looked at me for what seemed like 10 minutes and I looked right back at him, into those little eyes of his. All his teeth were exposed, he was terrifying looking but yet seemed so tranquil. I kept saying breathe, breathe.. but every time I would breathe it was so loud. Dang it Darth Vador, quiet, do you not see there is an 8 foot killing machine staring at you. But not breathing was not an option as I'm sure the whole 'breathe deep and slowly and continuously' was well out of my mind at this point, well except the continuos part, I'm sure I was breathing more than continuos if that is possible. I have really never been this calm but scared, thrilled but terrified in my life - thinking holy cow this is the coolest but scariest but weirdest thing I've EVER DONE!

Then he bit off my arm.

Ok, just kidding, he didn't. He slowly, I mean very, very slowly swam right past me, between the instructor and I... As if he was saying, yeah you best stay out my way lady, next time won't end so well. Maybe he wasn't as close as I think. But I think when it's a shark, anything closer than 50 feet is wayyyyy too close, right?!

After about 45 minutes of diving, we climbed back out and that was that. It was so surreal. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I knew I was a bit nervous the whole time but we found out just how nervous, when we compared the amount of air we had left in our tanks. I had about 100 PSI left... Alex had about 80 and the experienced divers were at 150 something. We started with the same (about 200). Yeah, we were sucking down that air, basically eating it! But can you blame us? There were sharks EVERYWHERE!! And it was cold. And it was our first time.

So, why are we all so scared of sharks? I just don't really get it! I don't think anyone really loves them and is not a bit scared they will eat them. But here's the truth....

Sharks kill only 12 people a year. That's it. I'm not trying to down play the loss of lives, but you have a greater chance of dying while golfing then you do from a shark attack. But still we are so scared of them! It doesn't really make sense. 

And in that fear of them, we forget that we need to protect them. Humans kill around 100 MILLION sharks a YEAR! 100 million!!! That's 11,000 an hour and 264,000 a day. Let that sink in. They kill one human a month, we kill 792,000 of them.

A good percentage of that is shark finning. They catch the shark, cut off the top fin and throw them back to die. The fins are used to make a 100 dollar bowl of soup in China and a couple other places.

Most of you reading this are probably not the fisherman, you are probably not the ones killing the sharks, but you may not have been aware this is happening. And that's what I wish to do right now. Is to make you aware. 

Sharks are the ruler of the ocean. The oceans need them and we need them alive in the ocean to keep the balance.

You can bet I was afraid when that shark was starring me in the eyes as he slowly swam by. I kept thinking, well this might be it. But during the longest and stillest minute of my life... I realized how slow moving and peaceful they really are. They are not so terrifying and are quite amazing, really. It's like they are dressed up in their halloween costume all the time. And underneath the mask is a cute, fun, playful, wonderful creature.

Think of that next time you see a shark. -- He's just all dressed up for Halloween!


To watch the youtube video I put together of the experience -- click here! Enjoy :)


Note: Photos from underwater are not mine. They are screenshots from a couple different videos and photographs from a guy who was with us!