Busan

Last weekend I spent my three day weekend for Buddha's Birthday in Busan. It is the second largest city in Korea after Seoul and on the beach in the southern part of the country. Jennifer, Kelly, and I took the high speed train (KTX) after work on Thursday night. It only took two and a half hours. On Friday, the weather was beautiful. We took a boat ride around the beach and met up with another co-worker, Becky. Her aunt, uncle, and two cousins live in Busan. We explored a park right near the ocean. I also tried tons of seafood since Busan is well known for seafood. On Friday night we had raw fish, clams, eel, and live octopus. When the live octopus was served it was still moving, however it stopped shortly after. It was an unique fish eating experience!

On Saturday it started to rain so we relaxed and went to a fish market. At night we went to Becky's aunt and uncle house for dinner. Her aunt owns a cooking school and her uncle owns an organic farm. The food was very delicious and her family was so nice. We ended the night by doing karaoke because Koreans LOVE karaoke. Becky's aunt and uncle had their own karaoke machine in the house...it was fun and entertaining! Sunday afternoon we headed back on the train to Bundang. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

I don't have any more days off until my summer vacation in July. My parents and sister are coming to visit and I can't wait! I am excited for them to meet my kinder students. They will be able to explore Seoul for a few days while I work then we are going to Osaka and Kyoto, Japan for five days. I am excited to visit Japan. That is one of the countries I really want to see while I am in Asia.

Here are some pictures from the weekend trip to Busan. Hope all is well back in USA!

Botanical Garden

Last Friday we took the kinder kids on a field trip to the botanical gardens. It was nice weather and fun to spend the morning outdoors. The kids liked the field trip and had a good time. Here are some pictures from the day.

I have been enjoying a nice, relaxing weekend. On Friday I am off work for Buddha's Birthday. I am going to Busan, a city in the southern part of the country. It is right on the ocean. I hope it's nice weather. It will be good to have a weekend away and it will be cool to see another part of Korea. Everyone says Busan is different from Seoul.

I will post again soon with pictures from my three day weekend!

DMZ and 5K Run

It has been a busy week! I enjoyed my Wednesday off by going to a market in Seoul. When I was walking around I also found a fish market. That was cool to see because it seems like they had any kind of fish you could think of! There was also a ton of seaweed.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went with three other teachers on a tour of the DMZ (border between North and South Korea). This was really interesting. It was a fast tour, we could only be there for so long, but we got to see a lot of the famous buildings on the border. It was a clear day so we could see into North Korea and see a village. It is called a propaganda village because the North Koreans just built it for show. They bring people in everyday so tourists and people on the South Korean side think that life is okay there, however the conditions are very bad. I learned a lot and got some good pictures from the day.

This morning (Sunday) I ran a 5K race with four other teachers at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul. It was not what I expected at all. You could start the race whenever you wanted and you were given a chip to keep track of your time. The path was not clearly marked so we didn't turn at the right point to go to the finishing line. We ran to the 10K turn around point, not the 5K. It was still a good time. The weather was cool and we are planning to do it again in June. This time maybe we will know what is going on!

This Friday we have another field trip with the kinder kids. We are going to a botanical garden. Next weekend is also a big lantern festival in Seoul that I want to check out. Then the following weekend I am going to Busan because I have a three day weekend for Buddha's Birthday.

May is quite a busy month! I am enjoying my time here and seeing all the sites.
Here are pictures from the fish market in Seoul, the DMZ tour, and the 5K race!