Korea

-Big Brother Peter described Pusan as the "biggest city he had never heard of."

In the fall of '97 I accepted the first of two year long contracts to teach in Korea, a country I knew very little about. I was going to live in the city of Pusan, population about 5 million. It is a very active port city with a bit of cosmopolitan-flair-meets-traditional.

Just minutes after being picked up at the airport by the school's director, I was chauffered to the famous Chilgalchi fish market in the heart of downtown. We strolled by hundreds of buckets filled with the strangest display of live seafood I have ever seen...some looked like male parts, some like brain. Then to toast my arrival, we sat down between fish stalls andI was presented a wide sampling of freshly killed sealife followed by many shots of Soju and a big smile.

Teaching in Korea isn't for everyone. I had researched well before I made my decision but I still learned the work ethic and hierarchy is very different from the states. I was the only foreign teacher in my school and had to quickly learn to read and write Hangul (the Korean alphabet) in order to order meals or ride buses.

The ladies that work in the Chigalchi fish market speak a very unique dialect which actually sounds like they are yelling and arguing with each other but is really just harmless.

One of the more shocking site was these women who were skinning eels.. they still squirmed around even after they lost their hides. They are cooked on a grill and can make quite a stink.

Okay, this was actually more disturbing than the eels.