약령시 and more photos

I have spent the last two days walking around downtown Daegu before class. My goal was to see the Yangyeongsi Market. It was the medical hub of all of Korea since 1650. I finally found it today after being lead astray by a couple faulty maps and a country whose signs have terrible English translations. Today the street and the museum were empty, but the area smelled wonderful as you can imagine. Here are a couple pictures of Korea so far.

Down by Duryo Park

Sunset from Duryo Park

Yep, I got sick as a dog the next couple days

Nice sunset on the way down to the Arboretum

I was not looking for this palace, but it was a nice accidental destination

Autumn

Downtown on a less crowded Thursday afternoon

One small shop in the Yangyeongsi area

Yangyeongsi gate

Just got back from Busan and uh "wow"

Well that was a blast. Totally an interesting night.

It started by running out of class at 4 to the subway station. Then barely making it to the train by the time it left. Took the bullet train (KTX) to Busan to check out the fireworks festival and to see some friends from training. When we got off the KTX, we went down into the subway to head to the beach. The subway was the most crowded place I have ever been in. No joke I do not know how many people were in that subway car. It was insane. Luckily I am tall enough to breath over the people. We got to the beach and there were even more people. I think they said something like 2 million people were on the beach. That was a ton. After the fireworks, which were absolutely incredible, I met up with Chris from training. I also met his new crew. They were super friendly people. He got pretty lucky to be around such easygoing and fun loving people.

We started drinking outside a foreigners bar on the beach. I talked to a person who went to Missoula and might have seen my band. I talked to a Nepalese girl about going to Nepal. I talked to a guy who worked the door at my favorite bar in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I ended up actually getting separated from Chris, whose house I was supposed to end up at. I was being taken away with a girl and her friends. Honestly I have no idea where we were headed. Then my friend Lauren from training pulled me away from the group and she let me crash on her floor. Things kinda work out I guess. Today we walked around Busan a bit and got some 'breakfast' and some awesome tea. Then I headed to the KTX to come back.

I sat next to a really cool guy on the way back to Daegu. He is in the middle of doing his mandatory Korean military service. We talked for along time and he told me some great places I need to see around Daegu. The list of things to do always grows. I'm really excited to start exploring more! And to go to Busan again!

Here is a picture of the fireworks last night that I stole from someone else's blog.

Daegu Arboretum

Today I went for a run up to the Daegu Aboretum, which when I first heard about it, I thought it was a burrito place (aBORETUm sounds like burrito). The place is really awesome and pretty close, too. It is filled with aromatic and herbal gardens. It's also filled with old ladies with the blue masks over their mouths. Sometimes I see them put the mask up over their mouth before I run or walk past, which makes me feel good. Most of the people there were actually really nice, spread out and smiling. That was a good change from the normal urban atmosphere.
Over the weekend I had some weird stomach issues going on. I could barely stand without getting cramps on Saturday. It was difficult to teach both 3 hour classes. Afterwards three of the teachers that I work with and one of their boyfriends invited me to a barbecue on my rooftop. It was a chilly night and the city lights were really pretty. We made some kind of fish and some vegetable kabobs. A break from Korean food was probably good for my body.
Yesterday (Sunday) was my day off. I met Mikey from work downtown for brunch with some of his friends. It was my first real experience of downtown Daegu. I was actually kind of impressed. I live in a really cosmopolitan and neat city. We went to a Canadian place and had mimosas. If I felt better I probably would have stayed out and walked around more, but I just came back to Wolbae (my neighborhood).
Someday soon I will post more pictures of all of this.

Were The Ninja Turtles Asian?

I haven't seen one turtle in all of Asia. Man, now I'm curious.

So I think that Wednesday is going to have my problem class. The last class I taught was from 7pm till 10pm. It was a reading class. These kids were violently apathetic. I could barely get them to open their books, let alone read. What I was told were going to be the "good" kids were writing on the walls and couldn't repeat  back anything I said to them. ANYTHING. I would talk to one guy, looking directly at him, and ask him what i just said. He would just say "wha?" and the whole class would laugh. That was a nightmare. Luckily every class is not like that. These are the older kids who are in the lower levels. It took everything I had just to get them to speak English (which they have been doing for at least 4 years each. Man, this is stress.

Meh, thats what beer is for. Hopefully next week will be better. Theres a lot of middle school testing going on, so the students might be distracted. Or they're distracted by the very attractive tall white guy thats teaching them. Yeah, thats probably it.

This weekend I'm going to try to go to the national park that's just north of  Daegu. I heard it's supposed to be amazing. Getting out of the city will be a nice change. I have been going on runs more, and its really helped with the lingering jet lag. Now I sleep like a rock. Now, I just need to work on getting up before 12.

New goal = See a turtle doing ninja kicks in Asia.

A day out

Yesterday I had my first and only day off since I started. I started the day off by running to a close mountain, then found a trail that went up (like straight up). It was great though! I'm really close to a trail, thats good news! I hiked up to a false summit, and was able to look out over my part of Daegu, and then further up the valley on the other side. So nice to get out.

I then took the subway up to the Duryu park. It is a big park north of where I live. There was a big singing festival going on, and there is a amusement park up there. I climbed to the top of a hill and watched the sunset. I'll post some of those pictures soon.

On a side note, I wanted to mention how funny Korean hikers are... they were all staring at me as I went by (which I thought was normal, at least they weren't pointing and laughing [which has happened]). I noticed that they were staring at me because I was just wearing a t-shirt and running shorts. They were ALL decked out in the highest tech mountaineering gear (polls, gore-tex hats and everything). A short little hike, and they are ready to climb everest. Love it.

Gotta go hang up my laundry.

Picture time!

My room

Laundry room

Entry way

Kitchen

From my roof

Also from the roof

The wolbae market next to my apartment

fun.

The students are crazy! Some are very energetic and some just stare. I had a class last night that just stared at me. Seriously, just stared. I finally broke them in in the third hour of the class and they became more animated. I have been doing well, but I have a lot of learning to do in order to become a better teacher. Meh, I'll get there...
Anyway, last night Buddha Alex, my big boss, took the whole school out to Korean style sushi. I sat with all Korean speakers on my right and English speakers to my left that I hadn't met yet. Buddha Alex actually sat right next to me on the right.
The food was awesome! They just bring dish after dish after dish. I was eating some FUNKY looking stuff. Like this one shellfish called "squirt fish". The fish literally squirted in my mouth when I bit down on it. Everything that we were eating came from the window fish tanks too. I watched them making it!
The last course before dessert was called... I don't know what it was called. It was fish head soup. One Korean guy that I was sitting across from was trying to explain how they make the soup. I won't go into specifics, but it was looking at me. Another thing, I had no idea that if you cheers the big man at the table, he has to refill your glass if you finish your shot. We were drinking soju. And man, do they drink soju. When anybody called for something to cheers on, people kept refilling everyone's glasses. Plus I was drinking beer with my meal, too. The Koreans can drink.
A couple guys that I had just met asked if I wanted to go out to a bar with them after that. I didn't want to be rude, and honestly I was a bit drunk, so I did. The bar was pretty quiet, but it was good to actually go out and get a beer with someone new. Once the bar closed, we came back by my apartment and we found out that we all live in the same small building. We went up to the roof and hung out for an hour or two longer.
I am really good about knowing when I have had too much, and last night I never felt really drunk. But I swear this morning I had one of the worst hangovers ever! I'm still getting over it (it's 11:00). All I have to eat is peanut butter and digestive cookies, that doesn't really help that much.
Anyway, time to get prepped for the day!

Uh huh

I just woke up in my new apartment which is great! I will post some pictures in a day or two. I'm still getting everything put away... you know, the whole moving in thing. It was pretty recently built. Its still small, but not as small as everyone else's here. Everyone is jealous of my closet.
My first day of classes yesterday was alright. Not as bad as it could have been. It will be all student management for the first couple of weeks. They are trying to see what they can get away with. I also have a million things running through my head as I'm teaching. There is ALOT to do in every class. Today is going to be the problem class apparently. wish me luck. :)

From Daegu

Right now I am sitting in a cubicle at the Chung Dahm school in Daegu. I am surrounded by whoever's this stuff is and eating these butter waffle cookies they gave me to hold me over until my head instructor gets done teaching.
Training is done. They really took us straight until the last minute on whether or not we were going to pass. It was pretty intense. My palms were totally clammy. I did good, but Ta-wei, my reading instructor had alot to say about my final presentation. I had to ask him if i passed, and he mumbled yes. Everyone else thought I did great. I actually got named, most likely to become head instructor! WOO! Shake and bake!
Then began the leaving. I left all of the people I met at training. They were so great and cool. I am totally going to miss everyone. I was picked up by a call van and taken to the CTX train station. I did not hear english for the next 3 hours. The bullet train was super cool!
When I got to Daegu, I was greeted by a man who was holding up a piece of paper with my name on it. I felt like James Bond. He grabbed my bags and motioned me along to his call van. He drove around for about an hour, then dipped into the backstreets and alleys. It was so obvious he was lost. He actually called his daughter who speaks english just for her to tell me that he was lost and sorry. Then we picked up a girl who introduced herself by saying that she doesn't speak english. She said that my apartment will not be ready for 3 days... alright...? So she had the van take me to this "nice" motel called the Zen motel. This is where I will be residing for a couple days. Zen Motel. Daegu. Korea. Hit me up if you're in town. :)