First off, apparently monsoon season is here (I thought it wasn't going to rear its wet head until a few months from now, but hey...everyone I've talked to here has told me something different as to when and how long this season is, so it's not really a surprise). It has been raining on and off for a few days and when it rains it pours. Sometimes I look out of my classroom window and it's like looking into an aquarium. The canal, which was dry when I came, looks like a big river, getting wider and louder each day. I kind of like it, it's very peaceful walking beside it every morning. Yesterday, on my way home, the sidewalk had about 2" of standing water on it, by this morning it was all gone. It's also pretty warm (low to mid-20s) and humid (90+ percent), so sweaty season has officially begun as well.
It's not perfect weather (that was last week...22 degrees, sunshine, and a light breeze), but not horrible weather either, I really don't mind it.
The rain also means that Yellow Dust from China is finally somewhat under control...it used to coat cars, my camera, everything...apparently it gets airborne from China after the snow melts and the ground thaws and blows all the way down to here...it can be pretty annoying and it's apparently not the best thing for your health.
Thankfully the rain washed a lot of it off buildings, cars and plants...when the puddles dry here is what was left:
On Buddha's birthday (Tuesday), I relaxed a bit at home and made myself an awesometastic breakfast...namely: poutine without the gravy. For those of you not from Canada, poutine is fries with cheese and gravy on top. It's delicious. I decided to go with potato wedges, green onions and cheese...mmmm
The night before I made scrambled eggs with zucchini, veggie weenies, jalapenos, green onions and a gigantic tomato someone gave me...I really can't complain about the way I eat here...
Anyhoo...so on Buddha's birthday I headed into Changwon to my favourite Buddhist temple to check out what was going on. (This temple...normally it's this deserted:)
Every time I had been to that (or any other) temple, there were maybe a handful of people milling about...this time, it was a massive crowd and a constant flow of people to and from the temple. It was pretty cool. They were also serving free food (apparently it's a tradition) and had little booths set up for making lanterns and paper lotus flowers and stuff. It was pretty awesome to observe something like this in a country halfway around the world from home.
I made a quick time-lapse video of a little room on the second floor of the temple. Please excuse the lens flare off the light, unfortunately it was the only place I could set up my camera:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamasv/5709339538/in/photostream
I also made a quick video of the rest of the temple, just to show the crowds and stuff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeLF-unVlhA
After that, I went into Changwon to bum around and met up with Mark and Kez and hung out with them for a few hours before calling it a night.
This week was the first week when I really felt like I was missing stuff back home. As in missing stuff that would be going on if I was still back home. I'm not regretting at all that I came here, but it was Mother's Day, then my dad's birthday and Casey's bachelor party, all within a few days. I just kept thinking that I would be having a lot of fun with a ton of awesome people if I was still on the Island. Moments like that make me not regret coming here, but definitely look forward to returning home when the time is right :)
Ummm...other randomness...they love English crap here. Most shirts will say stuff in English on them, many of them completely idiotic. For example, one of their top clothing name brands is Polham. Polham's slogan is simply "Justifiable". So you have a ton of people walking around with shirts, hoodies, jackets, etc that say "Polham. Justifiable." There is no way they have any idea what justifiable is supposed to mean in this context, since I and the rest of the teachers here are left scratching our heads about it.
The other place they love to display idiotic English is on cars. I have seen a bunch with stupid stickers on them (my favourite so far has been a Hyundai Accent with a gigantic sticker along the side that said "Romantic Performance.") Pure awesomeness.
I have also seen a few of these, and finally managed to grab a quick pic of it...this is a huge sticker, it covers the back window of an SUV:
Simply wonderful.
Finally, for randomness...I've started really watching my food spending and have cut my food bills roughly in half. The past two weeks I've spent under $40/week on food. I put myself on a 800,000 won (or about $700) budget per month (food, utilities, bus pass, phone, etc). The rest gets sent home. Anything I don't spend out of the 800k/month gets put aside for travelling while I'm in Korea. If I can pull this off, I should be able to pay off my student loans, take the long way home when I leave Korea (through Russia and Europe), buy a half-decent car when I get home and still have enough money left over for school, all the while gaining experience and travelling around here.
Okay...that's it from me. Back to lesson planning I go!
Have a great day y'all!
T
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