A Stroll in the Park.

To celebrate the blooming of the local cherry trees and the coming of spring, I decided to finally go explore Duryu Park this Saturday, with my camera in hand of course!

 Many Koreans (both male and females) get excited about cherry blossoms and make plans to 'view' them. As a result the park was rather crowded as people walked along the tree lined streets. There were families, couples, and individuals all walking and looking at flowers. All over the place were Korean girls taking self portraits with their cellphones next to low hanging branches.

Daegu tower, located in E-World right beside Duryu Park.

Couples in Korea are pretty cute. Public displays of affection aren't very common here so they often wear the same cloths, or matching jackets to declare to the world that they are together. This concept applies all the way down to undergarments. Want a pink flowery bra? You can find matching male boxer briefs available right next to the women's underwear.Younger generations now frequently hold hands in public, but things like kissing are still less socially acceptable. Here is a cute couple putting cherry blossoms in each other's hair.

While wandering in the park my friend and I stumbled upon a Buddhist temple. Many locals stopped in front of the stairs for a moment and bowed before carrying on with their walk. It was a small but colorful temple.

View from the temple.

After exploring the temple, we ventured off the crowded main path and instead choose to take a little hike under the pine trees.

I walked around the park for about 3 hours and still didn't see everything! I look forward to going back when the trees have more leaves and will provide some nice shade. In the summer time people like to come to the park at night to enjoy fried chicken and beer on the grass. Being that I'm fairly close to this park I imagine I will be enjoying it more in the future! :)

Next weekend I'll be going to Seoul to visit +Aubrey and +Philip! I can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans we'll get ourselves into :D

Starting my New Life in Korea

I've been slowly but surely settling into life in Korea. I have a general routine I stick to. Weekdays I go to school, then come home and make dinner in my tiny kitchen. Friday night I go downtown with friends for dinner and a few drinks. Then the rest of the weekend I try to do a little exploring, a lot of relaxing, catching up with friends and family on skype, and finding people to go out and get food with :) Now if I only scheduled time to work on my blog, maybe my posts would be a little more coherent! At least I actually took some pictures for you this time!

Just some cheap snacks to go with our drinking. That pot of ramen was about $1!

Sunday's lunch: All this was for two people and came out to $5 each!

Out of all those plates, this was the only dish we actually ordered. The rest came with the meal.

A good portion of my apartment life consists of strangers ringing my bell out of the blue, speaking Korean, and then coming into my apartment. While getting ready for school one morning my doorbell rang. It was the landlord who spoke no English, but I gathered that they were installing my smoke detector by the ladder and device in hand. This weekend I was still in bed Saturday morning and my door rang. I got up in my pajamas and un-brushed hair to a lady who came in to check the gas. They stand awkwardly at my door speaking Korean until I invite them in, do their business and then go. I'm just waiting for some robbers to ring my door bell and politely tell me their going to rob me in Korean, get invited inside, take my stuff and then leave with me standing by confused. I'm only joking of course, I have a security code on the front entrance to the building so that would never happen. They would have to call my room first and get buzzed up, which is my default practice when I don't understand whats going on!

The weather has been warming up lately and the trees are revealing the first signs of spring :) Overall the parks and trees are still rather bare, but around every few corners you can find a tree or bush starting to burst with blooms!

See you later!

I survived my first week of school!

I'm kicking off my second week of teaching with a new blog post! I still haven't put my belongings back in order so the apartment tour has been postponed. My apologies for the delay. I've just been taking my time to settle in and to become accustomed to my new surroundings. I've had adventures in figuring out the hot water, figuring out the Korean washing machine, and adventures in Korean drinking etiquette.

School so far has been great. I've mostly done just a basic introduction of myself to the different grades, but the kids have been fun. My schedule has been a little confusing these first two weeks because of class elections and testing, but I relish that I'm working a consistent 8:30-4:30 job. I generally have 4 class periods before lunch and then have the afternoon to consult with my co-teachers and prepare. My co-teachers have been oh so helpful and kind to me, over all I'd say I lucked out with my placement.

Wednesday night I had dinner with the school, and got to stand up and introduce myself with all of the other new teachers. All the new teachers were handed a microphone, said a little something in Korean, bowed, and then passed the mic. When it was my turn, I simply said "Nice to meet you" in Korean and bowed. There was an audible 'wow' of awe from the room, impressed at my minuscule knowledge of the Korean language. It was funny and a little embarrassing to get such a large reaction. Another fun fact is that drinking is not only encouraged at our faculty dinner, but it is also expected. There were many toasts and shots of soju. The dinner itself was rather tasty. We had duck, and chicken, and several side dishes.

This weekend I met up with several other NETs (Native English Teachers, remember?) and we got dinner and drinks. It was good to get out of my apartment and socialize a bit. This is after all my first time living without housemates, and it's a little bit lonely when you can't even talk with your neighbors. I'm considering taking some Korean classes in the near future, but the first one I was looking at is already filled up and started last week. I've decided to start small and get some books on learning to read Hangul so I can pronounce basic phrases. Hangul is a surprisingly straight forward alphabet with symbols for each sound that come together in little blocks that represent syllables. The vowels are a little tricky because English speakers do not differentiate some sounds. Once again my co-teachers have been wonderful and are all willing to help me out with learning Korean in exchange for helping them practice their English :)

Overall I'd say it was a successful first week!

The teacher has landed!

I have finally arrived in Daegu and am in the process of unpacking my belongings and putting them away in  my new apartment! Well, at least I intend to put them away. Right it appears as if my suitcase exploded all over my floor and bed. Now that I have Internet one again I can give you some important updates:

 I've been placed at an elementary school and will be teaching grades 3-6. I have three Korean co-teachers who I will be working with. Two of them picked me up after the orientation and helped me get settled into my new apartment (I had to go out and buy bedding, toilette paper, bowls, and cutlery etc.). My apartment is larger than I was expecting, and everything is new except for the furniture. The furniture and a few kitchen items were left over from the last NET (Native English Teacher), who I suspect owned a cat judging by the claw marks and cat hair stuck to the TV. Once I get settled in a bit more I will give you all the grand tour of my place.

Yesterday was my first attempt to go downtown using the bus system. I got off way too late and ended up walking all the way home after finding downtown. Below is a rough estimate of my journey in purple:

It was rather cold out and my feet really hurt by the end of it. Once I got back to my apartment I failed to remember the correct order of button pushing to grant myself entrance into the building. I had to wait about 10 minutes until some girl came downstairs and took pity on me.

Today I'm happy to report that I successfully went downtown using public transportation, and have mastered the front door! When I got back home a man unexpectedly came by to set up my Internet. I feel so much better being able to access the Internet! I was feeling like a lonely hermit in my little apartment, but now I can arrange to meet up with my fellow NETs and catch up with friends back home.

Back to the subject of work, I'm within walking distance to my school and will time my journey tomorrow to see how long of a walk it is. My new Principal stressed the importance of being on time at the school and I do not want to be late! I officially start work on Monday and was told I will be able to observe a few classes before actively participating in teaching. I look forward to spending more time with my co-teachers. They were incredibly sweet and took me out to dinner after helping me buy the essentials for my apartment.

Next up! The apartment tour!