Here we find ourselves admiring the dazzling interior of the Haeundae Sfunz Cinema. I have been unable to work out what Sfunz means, or how to pronounce it. It's pretty though.
Last weekend we went out on a rather chilly day to visit Mount Keumjang, a popular destination for weekend walkers. At the base of the mountain in those huts there, they had some people dressed up in traditional Korean hanbok, playing drums and singing in a very distinct style. In older Korean music, there are some songs that are so difficult to sing that only a handful of people know how to perform them correctly. Such people are entitled 'intangible cultural assets'. I saw a documentary of them on tv.
The trees around Busan are changing colours and are very nice to look at, forming a patchwork quilt when observed from high above.
And here's me standing against a winter backdrop. That ninja guy in the black is Jef, busily documenting a photo library of the leaves. We were actually a lot colder than we appear.
We were soon faced with a dilemma. We could either hike for approximately 2 hours to reach the summit, or take a 5 minute cable car for approximately $3. 
We found ourselves at the summit approximately $3 later. The ride up was nice, a little bumpy and a little crowded but we got some good views of the mountain.
The trees change to different colours during the winter but are a little more appreciable in real life. Maybe my camera was on the wrong setting again. Some of the yellow coloured trees are called 'Bank Trees'.
The view at the top was quite nice and not too hindered by the trees. You could see most of Busan, weaving in and out of the mountains. Far off in the distance is the Gwangali Bridge, which is hard to spot in this photo unless you know what to look for. It's a blip in the ocean left of the third green mound from the right.
There were plenty of different vantage points to look out from at the summit. We were able to see from the mountain ranges that we were on, to the ocean on the other side. I have no idea who that phoney tourist guy is. 
Nearby was the Yaksu temple, built into the mountains. It had the typical serenity of a temple complex, except that a speaker was built into the mountain and was reciting buddhist verses in a deep voice. I am perplexed at how they carried all the building materials down the steep mountain path.
There were some nice ponds around the place with goldfish in them. I call this shot "Leaf on Water". The inspiration for the title hit me when I realised that there is a leaf and it happens to be on water.
This intricately carved totem was about 3 metres tall and had Korean and Chinese inscriptions carved into it. 'Totem' is probably not the correct terminology, but I like to use that word. As my old man always used to say, "You can never have too many totems". Actually I made that up. But anyway, there was some very skilled craftsmanship that went into the written inscriptions. It had all been done by hand and the spacing of the characters was perfect.
This bell didn't have a padlock on it, but I observed restraint and left it alone. It's more difficult than it seems.
Some more winter colours. This reminds me of the grapevine we used to have in our backyard.
As dusk approached, we found ourselves running a little behind time and scrambled back to the cable car area. The temple was only 200 metres away from it but the slope was very sleep and it took us about 15 minutes.
We ate dinner in an area that we hadn't seen much of before. The Busan University area was very busy for a Sunday night with lots of shops and restaurants open. We found our way to a Turkish restaurant that turned out to be superb. Food like falafel and shaslicks are a rarity in Korea, and thus are savoured and sought after with greater tenacity. By us, at least.
Some more winter colours. This reminds me of the grapevine we used to have in our backyard. As dusk approached, we found ourselves running a little behind time and scrambled back to the cable car area. The temple was only 200 metres away from it but the slope was very sleep and it took us about 15 minutes. We ate dinner in an area that we hadn't seen much of before. The Busan University area was very busy for a Sunday night with lots of shops and restaurants open. We found our way to a Turkish restaurant that turned out to be superb. Food like falafel and shaslicks are a rarity in Korea, and thus are savoured and sought after with greater tenacity. By us, at least.
This is 'English Club', a social group set up by some university students for the purpose of practicing their English. They get together once a week and do various language exercises before heading out for dinner. We were introduced through some friends and have found their gatherings to be a good social occasion. Last weekend we played the popular Korean drinking game 'sam-yuk-ku'. It's worth practicing.
Also, our school branch has been going really well. Everyone gets along like friends and recently we won a 'best branch in Busan' award. So we got to eat lunch at The Outback Steakhouse, which is a franchise here specialising in 'Australian food'. I was mystified as to what Australian food may entail, so I analysed the menu eagerly. It turns out that Australians like to eat such delicacies as Queensland Burgers and Toowoomba Steaks.
The restaurant is pretty popular here in Korea and my chicken-shrimp pasta wasn't too bad a meal. This is one of our admin staff, Ji-Hae, smiling nicely for the camera. And for those who may be pondering, she is not my girlfriend.
We've started a new term this week, which means I have been teaching for 13 weeks. Overall it's been a fairly smooth ride, the younger students have a lot of energy though. During the 5 minute break they manage to visit the toilet, eat bags of chips, chat to each other in Korean and leave this graffiti on my board. Impressive.
And here is a model sentence written by one of the students in Jef's class. Jef wrote it on the board in the teacher's room because it never fails to amuse us. The topic was 'Telescopes and space'.
That's all for me this time! It's getting really cold here now... like fridge temperature, but life is going well. Next week I'm starting a second job, which is teaching English to some hospitality workers. Should be fun. Cya round.
The weekends are usually spent noisily and we end up getting home early in the morning. It takes a couple of days for my body clock to adjust back to normal sleeping hours, so quite often on a Monday night I'll walk around my neighbourhood which is always very peaceful. This is what many of the streets look like at that time.
Last weekend we went to Beomeosa temple, one of the largest and well-known temples in Busan. It was fairly easy to get to from the subway, but still situated deep in the forest.
A lot of other people were there that day. Koreans like to buy all sorts of specialised hiking gear for their regular walks in the mountains. That guy you can see in the front is carrying a collapsible titanium walking stick. 
The temple is built around a running stream that you can drink from at the top. This sort of scenery reminds me of the Morialta Falls back in good ol' Adelaide. We used to go walking there a lot, back in the day.
A short walk later and you arrive at the temple complex, surrounded by forest covered hills. The architecture in temples around Korea has many similarities, but each complex has a slightly different feel to it.
There were four of these intricately painted statues guarding the main entrance. They were about 3 metres high and are supposed to keep bad spirits away. I didn't chance upon any bad spirits, so they obviously do a good job.
There's usually a main temple that is a little bigger and more decorated than the others. Those stone steps lead to the main one in the Beomeosa complex. Smaller temples surround it and each has its own theme, such as fertility (which is the only example I can remember). Lots of young couples come to places like these when they are about to get married.
Fresh stream water runs into this carved rock that you can drink out of. The water is very cool and refreshing. The blue cups you can see are communal cups that you find at every such place. Everyone uses them without qualms about germs, something you wouldn't find in many western countries. I use them too, and I try to not think about how easily a single person with Herpes Simplex might infect dozens of people.
Korean Buddhism is a little more shamanistic than the philosophical kind I tend to hold in higher regard. The atmosphere in these places is very tranquil, and even though there are sounds from outside it tends to somehow dampen when you are inside. There are usually candles lit and incense burning.
During the big APEC summit a while ago, temples started offering 'temple-stay' programs where members of the general public can pay a small fee and live like a monk for a weekend or longer. You wake up when the monks wake up, help clean the temple and eat temple food. They also teach you how to meditate and live like they do. The program was so popular that it's still going now. It sounds like a really good idea so I might try it sometime.
This is a pine tree that looked nice so I took a photo of it.
Winter is coming and it's getting cold these days. Back in Australia, it never really dropped below 14 centigrade or so during the daytime. This year they're expecting snow down here. The trees have nice colours on them too, from deep reds to bright yellows. 
On Sunday we decided to watch a movie at the Lotte department store. Unfortuneately it seemed that the whole of Korea had the same idea. It was really crowded but not so hard to get a ticket. We watched Guardian, with Kevin Costner in it. It was okay. I'm glad they don't dub the movies here, all the English ones are subtitled in Korean.
And here's what our legs look like when we go to the cinema. Those lights are a little more impressive in real life, just try to imagine them changing colour.
In convenience stores around Korea they always provide you with an instant noodle dining area. There's always a small benchtop, hot water service and a bin with a strainer in it so that you can just buy the noodles and eat them in the shop. I've done it once or twice and it's pretty cool. Here are some kids from the hood showing the blog viewers how it's done.
I thought it timely to show you a picture of what's in my fridge. In the bottom left there is some Homeplus kimchi. In the door there is some Australian Beqa cheese that you can buy pretty easily here and also a carton of thickened cream. Cream in Korea is hard to find, because they're not too big on dairy products. I bought it because I wanted to make spaghetti carbonara for my friend, which turned out well. On the left of the fridge is my bag of short grain rice and on top of the fridge is my new rice cooker called Liam. I named him that because the brand is Li-hom, which kinda sounds the same.
I've started cooking at home more because the eateries nearby get a little tired sometimes. Usually I cook Italian food, because it's refreshingly different from Korean cuisine. Korean food is good, but it doesn't vary a great deal. As someone else so eloquently put it: "Variety is the red pepper paste of life." You'll understand it after you live here a while.
Here's a shot out of the window of the local PC bang. Electrical poles in Korea are often an interesting concoction of wires and dangly bits. I've seen setups more intricate than this one.
There were movies showing at various locations around the city, with people passing through the various displays and buying tickets. Many of the movies sold out on the first day the tickets were available, so it was difficult for us to get our hands on some. Next year I'll book in early through the internet, which seems to be the best way.
Jef and I went early one morning to try and get tickets for a movie, but they sold out before we got there. So we bought the last two tickets to another movie that we didn't have a clue about. It was a Singaporean animation called "Zodiac - The Race Begins". What did we think of the it? Well it was a kind of fusion of some really bad Disney and Bollywood, but sterilised beyond recognition. I don't think it will be getting a public release, so you have all been spared.
We ended up back in the Jagalchi fish markets another day. I've stared at the live seafood shops for hours. It's not just the seafood itself that's interesting, it's the way the shop ladies hand it out to customers. There's a lot of skill involved in getting a large writhing octopus into a shopping bag.
These dried tentacles are from giant squid and were over a metre long. The suckers on the ends are lined with little spikey teeth. The lady behind the stand was a bit disappointed that we didn't purchase any and displayed her dissatisfaction by baring her gold teeth at us. I'm not really sure how you're supposed to eat them.
In this photo you can see flounder, salmon and some stripey fish that I don't know the name of. This is at the front of a restaurant and if you stand still for more than 15 seconds, one of the ajummas will come out and start pulling your arm. A couple of lines of English will get them to stop, after which they'll usually give you a startled look and then have a fit of hysteric laughter. Well, that's if you look Korean.
Here's Amanda and Meaghan inspecting some king crabs. I've eaten these back in Australia and they're not bad. I think the blue swimmer crabs are a bit tastier though. These aquariums don't have lids on them because the crabs are too heavy to lift themselves out. Sometimes you'll see legs half dangling out and from a long way away it looks like an alien hand.
This is one of our favourite local bbq places. Around 50% of restaurants in the area are like this, but we like the lady at this one because she cuts up our meat for us and teaches us Korean.
One of our newer discoveries have been micro-breweries. There are a couple of them around Seomyeon and they usually have a couple of their own light ales available. The atmosphere at these places is a little more relaxed and the food is a little better than at the average watering hole.
Plastic surgery is pretty big in Korea and there are some humourous advertisements in the subway. Here's Meaghan posing next to one.
Here are my students talking with Ji-Hae during break. Elementary school students can be a little noisy sometimes, but in general they study a lot harder than I ever did at that age. Last weekend I gave an English presentation to their parents about the lessons we teach. That was interesting.
A while back, we went for a walk in the mountains near us. From our area it's only a ten minute walk and there are some picnic areas and nice views along the way. This is an exercise circuit set up for the general public about halfway up one of the trails. You can often see old ladies doing exercises to varying degrees of intensity. A lot of them like to walk and clap their hands at the same time.
You can see these little grassy mounds in all sorts of nooks and crannies around the mountains. They're burial mounds, marking the graves of the deceased. You'd think it would get a little creepy, but actually they're quite pleasant to look at.
This is a flower I took a photo of. I'm not much of a botanist but I appreciate plants. And I like salad.
And this is my macro shot of a praying mantis. I nearly stepped on it when we were coming back down. In Australia, they're usually green.
Dong-eui University is also close to us and built into the mountains. The whole campus is on a steep slope and it's challenging to walk from one end to the other. I heard it was built like that because slopey space is cheaper. This is a water garden they have in the middle.
There were large carp swimming in the water too. It had a really peaceful atmosphere to it. The guy whose head you can see on the bottom was filming a video.
This is the view of Busan from halfway up the Dong-eui University campus. There's more Busan on the other side of those mountains.
I think our school branch is going pretty well. On Thursday Donna, the boss in the white shirt, took all the staff out for a pork party. The only thing I like more than a pork party is free alcohol to go with it.
A lot of small eateries in Busan are attached to the house of the owners. Often you'll see them lying down inside and watching tv or something. Sometimes they're fast asleep, but jump to their feet when you make some noise. This is a place just around the corner from the school that's really small and feels cosy like a dining room. You can get noodles for $2. 
And here are my kalguksu noodles, cheap, fast and delicious. I eat a lot of dishes like this for lunch. A humble meal for a humble man.