Some pics from my walk...the closest mountain is exactly one block from my house:
I can't wait for those trees to have leaves...should be even more beautiful in the sunrise!
Then I walk by a GIGANTIC canal, which I'm told is there to handle monsoon waters. Judging by the size of this thing (wider than any highway I've ever seen), there'll be a LOT of water coming our way in the monsoon season. I'm not sure what that is up top...looks like a highway, but I've never seen any cars on it...
I also walk by some big apartments where most of my students apparently live (sorry for the bad panorama, was in a hurry). These apartments don't look like much, but they're really nice once you're up close (they're all in little communities of 5-10 buildings and have playgrounds, shops, etc...)
I had 3 classes and they went as expected...spend my time introducing myself and fielding questions about my age and marital status while trying to get the other 34 students to be quiet haha. They're definitely a lively bunch, but I think we'll make it work :)
After school (for once I was on my own at 4:30) I decided to go for a bit of a walk and started randomly wandering around...and I enjoyed every second of it! For the first 10-15 minutes I was walking with a bunch of students, then we parted ways...I headed for the apartments (this is Hogye-ri) and it was pretty nice...very clean and friendly...also, it was warm and sunny, which never hurts!
They have public art everywhere! I liked this Rubik's cube...seeing that he's Hungarian and all :D
They also have mini parks in between the gigantic buildings...
Then I kept heading north and in no time was out of the highrises and in the middle of a new development...Christianity is booming from what I see/hear...and they have some pretty funky/modern churches:
And then...farmland! This is all within an hour's walk of my school, maybe half an hour if you're not taking your time like I did!
I absolutely loved this area...so quiet and picturesque and peaceful!
And yet it's steps away from big city life...(not the same field as above...the two pics above were a bit farther from city life, but still within easy walking distance).
More of the canal (no idea how far it extends)...and a new bridge they're building over it:
And a random shot of what I think is Hogye for the heck of it:
After that, I went to the grocery store and grabbed a few things, headed home and watched some Futurama :D I was dead tired thanks to working all day and walking almost an hour before and 3 hrs after school. All in all, an excellent day of exploring.
It is now noon on Friday...I walked to school (another great walk) and taught one class (the other didn't show...apparently the teacher wants more time with them...good enough for me). The kids were lively, but probably the best of the bunch so far. Their English is very basic (they'll say things like "I like playing piano" but if you ask them how long they have been playing for, you get blank stares). Oh well, at least I am now starting to know what I"m dealing with.
I sent out an email to all the other English teachers asking them to give me a rough idea of where they are and what they want me to teach...that should happen at Monday's department meeting. Today my co-teacher (we don't always teach together, but he's the designated guy who is supposed to take care of me) and I are heading into Masan to get the results of my medical and apply for my Alien Registration Card. Then, I might actually have a bit of a social life! A really nice guy from a Korean English teachers' message board invited me out for dinner, so hopefully I can bus into Masan and hang out with him :)
That's all for now, probably no blog post 'till Monday when I have internet again :)
T.
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