Spring is Springing

Once again, I fail at updating. My apologies to everyone!!

Life has been truckin' along. I'm enjoying my life here; there is something new everyday. I discover things that I assume I should have discovered a long time ago. Also, I am soon to hit my half way mark! I've been a resident of Korea for 5 and a half months now. I cannot believe it. Since my last post, school as been going great. I have new classes, new students a decent schedule. Finally, I have higher level kids. It's great being able to joke around, have a conversation and interact more casually with these students. It amazes me everyday how smart my students are. Even those that are in the lower levels are little geniuses. Their ability to balance being a kid with the pressures of 4 or 5 academies a day is truly remarkable. On the other hand, I feel bad- I'm supplying a chunk of their homework, disabling the possible hours of freedom they may have each day. I keep rewinding my life, revisiting the days of childhood and am so, so, so grateful I was able to play outside, participate in sports and be silly without the knowledge of the word stress. Not to fret, I do love my job (despite the spurts of guilt when handing out pages of homework).

Spring has sprung. Which only means one thing in Asia- Cherry Blossoms! A couple weekends ago, my friends and I headed about 2 hours outside of Busan to Jinhae- a small town with a huge Cherry Blossom Festival.

The day couldn't have been nicer. The sun was out, it was dry and people were buzzing all o

ver the streets.

Vendors at the market came from all over Asia. We ate traditional Korean food, bought silly things at the market, took tons of pictures and raced up the 365 steps to the top of the Cherry Blossom "mountain." The view from the top provided an amazing view of the city. Most of the spots on the top of the mountain had a sign forbidding pictures to be taken. There is a military base in Jinhae, and from the top, you could clearly see it. Unfortunately, I abided and didn't take any pictures of the base. After relaxing for an hour or so in the much missed sun, all of posed for some pictures.

Near the top of the mountain, there was a HUGE heart made from flowers, and like the rest of the tourists we couldn't resist taking several pictures with it. Several more were taken with the boys... posing. They never fail to make me laugh, and they've made it much easier to adjust due to their antics.

Once we had gotten our share of rays, we headed back down to the market to enjoy some more wandering, food eating and music listening. After a couple hours, we were exhausted and all decided to navigate our way back to the bus station. After 30 minutes of wandering, we found the station, hopped on the next bus and headed back to Busan. After about 20 minutes ALL of us had passed out. We were spent from the days events. After getting back to Busan, we all went our separate ways and called it a night.

A couple weekends ago, my friend Milo came into town, so I wanted to take him to the very famous Jalgachi Fish Market in Busan.

After a walk along Haeundae Beach, we headed to the other side of town to check out the masses of seafood that hangs out on the back streets of an area called Nampo Dong. There were so many people out, walking around and checking out the fish. After walking through the market, we headed into the town center where they serve the best Ho-Dok. This is one of my favorite Korean foods. It's a rice cake p

ancake that is deep-fried and stuffed with peanuts, sunflower seeds and type of syrup. It's amazingly delicious. Nampo Dong is full of street vendors with delicious food from Ho-Dok to french fries, corn on the cob to Ddok-Bok-Gi. This is another one of my favorite dishes. Again, made from rice... it's rice cakes drenched in hot red sauce. In addition, there are small pieces of fish cakes. Surprisingly enough, I enjoy eating those as well. I never thought I would. All in all, I've had a great time here. More will come... I have a lot to catch up on, and have been keeping a journal, so nothing has been lost. Cheers from Korea ^^