The Summer Activities

Now that I have a moment to write, I'll catch you up on the summer activities which kept me busy.

Haeundae Beach - Peak season, from the sanity of an A/C coffee shop!

In June, I was teaching my school's summer camp and spending most afternoons at the beaches in my area. 20 minutes south from my house by bus is Haeundae Beach, the most well-known and most visited beach in the country. I only went a couple times - it gets a bit overwhelming. The peak vacation period is July & Aug, so during June it was still bearable.

Im-rang Beach in the country north of Busan

There's also Song-jeong Beach only 15 bus minutes, Il-gwang is close enough for a bike ride, and then Im-rang just a 10 minute bus north of me. These are all much quieter, family oriented lovely little beaches. Trade the Starbucks for a ma & pop kimbap shop and bring your own mat to lay on!


Then July brought another summer camp for the county area I live in. This one brings in teachers from the Toronto area to lead the classrooms in Western-style ESL learning, as opposed to their usual EFL learning in their native country. Over 3 weeks of 3.5-hour morning classes, the students formed a close bond with us and we saw great improvement in their English usage skills. Throughout the course, they learned about Canadian culture and history, read, wrote, played new games, and even learned songs which were performed at the closing. On the last day all our kids threw a party for my co-teacher Jason and I, complete with cake, silly string, shrimp crackers, and a bunch of lovely gifts & notes.

August brought a lot of music, the Busan Rock Festival, Smashing Pumpkins, one of my fav Busan bands Poko Lambro, and salsa dancing on the beach. The Rock Fest was held at Dadaepo Beach and was my first visit to that southern area of Busan. I got to enjoy some great lesser-known Korean rock bands in an exciting, high energy atmosphere, with one of my best friends in Korea. Then my buddies from Daegu and I headed to Seoul to see the Smashing Pumpkins, who I've been listening to for over a decade. The band's members have changed over the years (with only Billy Corgan remaining out of the original members), but they still rocked the house down.