Yesterday I had 6 classes and was pretty tired by the end of it, but still I decided to get on a bus and see if I could find the Masan reservoir (huge thanks to Mark for telling me where it is!). I was so exhausted (between teaching and wondering around, most days I'm out for about 15-16 hrs, then go home, make dinner and pass out) that I kept falling asleep on the bus. I figured that I'll find the trail that leads to the reservoir, make a mental note of it and hop on the first bus back home. Well, after a false start or two (for beautifully-developed park, they sure like to keep it a secret!), I found the place and, of course, as soon as I'm in exploration mode all tiredness disappeared and I started wandering around. It was a gorgeous place with nice trails and a little creek coming from the dam. Also, there were TONS of dry creek-beds coming off of every hillside which, I think, will make for awesome waterfall pictures during monsoon season.
Anyhoo, I have a little disclaimer...my photos from yesterday are really, really, really bad. I just had the little G9 with me and it was pretty much pitch-dark by the time I got there, and I had to crank the ISO way up to 1600 (it's a stretch for the little guy) and/or shoot 15-second exposures without a tripod...so, I apologize, this isn't my finest work with a camera haha. I'm definitely going back there for a real day of exploration with the real camera. We have next Thursday off (Children's Day) and my friends Ross and Nicole are hosting a Cinqo de Mayo party which I really wanted to go to, so I wasn't going to go out of town anyways, so I guess this will be the perfect way to pass the morning/afternoon!
Random shot of Masan on the way up to the park:
Anyway...the creek the trail follows (taken from an awesome footbridge):
A dam built by the Japanese during their occupation of South Korea in the first half of the 20th century, with a bunch of exercise equipment in front of it:
The view from the dam. There is a trail that goes all around that lake and two others, I think it should be a great hike. By now it was almost pitch dark...this was a 15 second exposure at f2.8 (kept the ISO at 80, though to keep it clean)
Looking the other way: (ISO 1600, 1/5 sec, f2.8)
Just for kicks...the dam...ISO 1600, 15 sec, f2.8, the camera totally missed focus...it was so dark it couldn't find anything with enough contrast haha...it was all just black:
And one for the fun of it on the way down:
After that, I walked to Hapsongdeong (about 5-6km away), took a bus home, grabbed a quick bite to eat and passed out haha...an all-around awesome day again. :)
Also...two bits of news...one, the blog hit 1,000 views yesterday! (Though I still don't know who #1,000 was haha). Thanks everyone so much for reading, I'm not trying to be pretend-humble, but I honestly didn't think it would get nearly this many hits...I figured if my parents and 3 other people read it a day I'll be happy. If you guys ever have any suggestions for it, let me know, until then I'll keep posting them as often as I can :)
Finally, I found out yesterday (thanks to the awesome girls in my afterschool English club) that that the 3 weeks after this one are going to be incredibly nice for me. I'm pretty sure I'll only have to work SIX days in those three weeks haha.
As far as I know, it'll be mid-term tests for the students on Mon/Tue/Wed next week, no teaching at all. Thursday is a stat holiday (Children's Day), and on Friday I teach. The week after that, I teach Monday, Tuesday is a stat holiday (Buddha's birthday), Wed, Thurs I teach and Friday is some sort of sports day for the students, no teaching for me. The third week I teach on Mon/Tues then the students are going to some sort of three-day retreat/field trip, so no teaching for me!
Not that I'm lazy, but I'm excited about it. They won't let me not come in for the no-teaching days, which kind of sucks, but the way I look at it is I'll be paid to "deskwarm", ie: bum around on the internet and talk to you guys. Can't really complain about that. It'll also give me a chance to do my lesson plans for the second half of the semester and maybe even get started on some ideas for the summer camps I'm expected to run in July/August.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day everyone! I'm off to the first of my 5 classes today :)
T
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