Still, so far half a dozen students and teachers have come up to me saying the students like me better than the last teacher (despite not being a pushover), so I think things are going well.
After school, people were running around like crazy trying to clean this place up for parent-teacher interviews today...I asked if I could help, they said no...I was pretty happy about that haha.
After school, I decided to walk into Hapsungdong, the lively area of Masan where I met Ryan and Scott last week. It was a nearly two hour walk on the side of a small(er) highway, but there is a sidewalk, so it's not too bad. I ended up getting lost, which kind of sucked, but eventually found the place and, again, it's awesome...full of life, tons of people, street vendors, bright lights, etc :) I think if I didn't get lost I could have been there in about 1.5 hrs...or about 20-25 minutes by bike...so either way it's not bad and a good bit of exercise. Saw a few fun things on the way that I think you guys might get a kick out of.
Walking into Masan at sunset:
They have solar-powered police lights along most bigger highways...they charge during the day and flash at night, making you think there's a cop up ahead:
Also, cars/trucks/buses park wherever they want to...and the sidewalk is usually a convenient spot to ditch your ride...not long after this I saw a massive tour bus parked the same way haha
I also saw some cherry blossoms, the first of many, many thousands to come...Changwon will have a big 10-day Cherry Blossom Festival starting on April 1, so I definitely want to make it there at least once or twice for that...it's apparently one of the biggest events of the year.
What a little side street looks like at night in Hapsungdong:
In Hapsungdong I met another couple of awesome Yankees, Leticia and Brittoni...super nice girls. I just overheard them talking in English and chatted them up.
Finally, I took a bus home (I actually got off at the right stop this time!) and met up with Mark and Zoe and headed to the restaurant...at (not so long) last had my first Korean cider (it comes in a green glass bottle and it's kind of the "accepted" non-alcoholic drink to down while your friends drink beer and soju...it's kind of like 7 Up or Sprite). There were probably 20-30 English teachers there, and every single one of them is very friendly and awesome...definitely a good group. I found out that both Mark and Zoe live literally steps from me, so I'm pretty stoked about that.
Finally, here are some pics from my second Buddhist temple (the one up a mountain I found on Sunday)...for some reason I forgot to upload these pics before:
Next to the long driveway leading up:
Statues near the entrance:
Beside the trail leading up...it was all very tranquil!
I have more pics, but this site is not letting me add more pics, so I'll add the rest later :)
T
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