Deokcheon Area and Gupo Traditional Market!!!

I’ve had this post in my drafts since last March lol…

Oh, my goodness. I meant to write about my neighborhood a lot sooner. So, I live near Deokcheon station in Busan and it’s just about filled with anything you might need: a young life area with restaurants, clothing stores, and more, an underground shopping mall, and a traditional market.

I don’t really know what to call the young life area. I go there most of the time since the street has a plethora of restaurants, cafes, and dessert stores. It also has a food mart and clothing stores I like. There’s also an Artbox (my fav!!) which is a stationary store, and Daiso, which is like a dollar store. There’s even a cat cafe! But the highlight for me was the Sim Sim Doorim Cafe. It’s a comic book cafe!

You go in and pay for how many hours you want to stay- about 2000 won for the first hour. You take off your slippers and you can browse all sorts of comic books (all in Korean, of course). They even have Japanese manga, but in Korean. The store also has these little secluded reading areas that I adore. You can just go in and lie down and do whatever, so I usually came here to use the wifi in the quiet, secluded setting before I got internet in my apartment. You can also buy coffee, snacks, ice cream, or ramen!

Moving on, this young life area also has a mall: Newcore Mall. It’s not too small and has a good selection of clothes, though pricey in my opinion. It’s worth checking it out when they have sales. Next to the mall, however, is a used bookstore! MY FAVORITE. It’s called Aladdin Used Books. It’s rather easy to find except for the fact that the signs for the store are entirely in Korean. Here’s what it looks like from the outside:

They have a wide selection of books in Korean, English, and even Japanese! I was surprised at how many English books there were, to be honest. I’d been to bigger bookstores in department stores and was disappointed when I found that they didn’t sell books in English. Aladdin Used Books is therefore a great, and even better, alternative. The books are relatively cheap and are in good condition. The inside is pretty quiet and has areas for people to sit down and read. You can sign up for a membership without using your ARC so it’s pretty handy!

Deokcheon also has an underground shopping area. It’s pretty large! One reason why I like it better than Seomyeon’s is because it’s linear. Seomyeon is very broad and has stores literally placed every which way, which makes it easy to get lost because it’s very confusing. Deokcheon is just a long, straight line with stores on either side- and that simplicity makes me like it more. It’s nowhere near as big as Seomyeon but it still has a wide collection of clothing items.

Last is the Gupo Traditional Market. I rely on this area for the majority of my groceries.  I go there multiple times a week but I still get lost whenever I go…because I suck at finding my way around lol. Anyways, as soon as you enter the area there are some ajummas selling seafood in the middle of the street. If you go past them and down the stairs, you reach the seafood/fresh market area. They sell almost everything here. Fish, octopus, vegetables, rice, traditional crackers, meat- just name anything Korean and you’ll find it here. I have to make sure I go there on a full stomach because otherwise I’m just tempted to buy everything! The people here are generally friendly and often give me extra when I buy from them. I honestly prefer buying from the traditional market so I can help support local farmers and businesses. Plus, the ingredients feel more…fresh?

Overall, my area has anything I’d need within arm’s reach. Although my apartment is small, I’m thankful that everything else is so close. The location is also good because I’m near lines 2 and 3 and can get to most areas of Busan fairly easily. It’s been a wonderful experience wandering around and I will admittedly miss it when I leave.

Official Start of Orientation

So, Day 1 of orientation will be hectic…well let me rephrase: every day of orientation will be hectic. You’re surrounded by people nearly 24-7 and for introverts like me, I need some me time in order to recharge my social skills, so be prepared to keep your “ON” switch powered for a while.

What I describe about the rest of orientation is just what I experience. I was in class 1 so my schedule can be different from what you may experience. Anyways, I was pleasantly surprised to wake up and find that breakfast was a western meal. There were eggs, potatoes, and even pancakes! After breakfast was class time, where I met the rest of the people in my group. We had introductions, a brief overview of the program, a very short Korean quiz to determine our placement in our Survival Korean class, and then a campus tour.

After that was lunch and then the welcoming ceremony at Mano Hall. We got to see some of our coordinators (well, I did) speak and see the officials of EPIK. After that was a Tae Kwon Do demonstration, which was absolutely stellar. It consisted of mostly a group of men breaking boards and some fruit with their kicks but it almost seemed like they could pull off the impossible. It even felt extra immersive at times because splinters of the board and fruit would fly about and even reach the audience!

After that was a lecture on Korean history. Well, Korea has a history of well over 5000 years so the lecturer had to squeeze what he could into less than 2 hours. It was interesting to hear and I learned a few things that even I wasn’t aware of, such as the fact that the first Korean to win an Olympic medal won it during the Japanese occupation. You’ll hear more about this from the lecturer 😉

 

After that was the welcoming dinner. Word of forewarning: don’t take too much food from the start of the line. There are so many delicious dishes and you’ll want to try a bit of everything, so make sure not to take too much like I did! I still ate everything but I was stuffed! Some interesting dishes they had included raw beef/yukhoe/육회, but they also had dishes I was familiar with, such as fried shrimp/새우튀김, sushi, and more.  After that I went out for some bingsoo, which is Korean shaved ice and is the yummiest dessert in existence. I shared the strawberry one and we devoured it all in like 5 minutes haha. I know I said I ate a lot of dinner, but I have a separate stomach for dessert 😛

Day 2 consisted of the health exam. Since I was in class 1, we went first so I was glad I didn’t really have to wait. You just get your height, weight, vision, blood pressure, hearing, blood, urine, and chest x-ray tested. You’re not allowed to eat/drink the night before the exam so be prepared to be hungry. You do get a snack and water once it’s over, but a lot of people, including me, were completely famished. Also, don’t forget to take the 50000 won to the exam or you’ll have to wait in line all over again!

We had nothing else planned for the morning so I slept until lunchtime. It was nice <3. After that were a few more lectures, one being about rules/regulations and the other about TEFL in Korea. The rules/regulations lecture was more a briefing about the logistical aspect of EPIK, like what your pension pay is, information about the residency form, and more. I found it extremely helpful and had almost all of the questions I had answered. The TEFL in Korea lecture was a brief overview about what it’s like to teach TEFL in Korea. It concluded with the lecturer giving a lesson entirely in Korean to give us a feel of what it’s like to be a Korean student learning a language they cannot completely comprehend. I, however, understood it all and ended up feeling a little bored.

After that was dinner and then Survival Korean class. I was placed in the advanced room in which we’re not allowed to use English. We spent the time introducing ourselves by drawing our hobbies, age, where we’re from, etc on a sheet of paper and presenting it to the class…all in Korean, of course :D. I had a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to my next class.

I went out again that night for some more bingsoo. I had coffee bingsoo (pics above!) this time and I think I liked it better than the strawberry one!

Information of the next few days of orientation will be up soon!