More Recent Update

Here are the 'you don't have to be part of facebook to view them' pictures of the lantern festival. It really was very pretty. I got to explore the castle in the distance in the picture with the bridge on it.

Work is a little stressful because I'm having a hard time learning the kids names, but other than that I can't complain. I'm only teaching 20 hours a week, spending a total of 23 hours a week at work. Not too shabby. I'm starting to get my feet under myself here.

Thursday I'm going back to the Penguin Bar (so called by us foreigners who don't know its proper name, just like the place that I get my yummy chomchi kimbap (like a tuna sushi roll with many mysterious-yet-tasty ingredients). I went to the Penguin Bar last thursday, too, and I got shabu shabu on friday with another large group of foreigners. Lots of neat people here. Saturday I went with yet more (and some of the same) foreigners to see a band play at O'Briens Pub in Changwon, where I drank more than I ever have in my life and didn't get sick, though I did feel a little nauseous on the taxi ride back to Busan with Sunny, Stephanie and Beth. Korean beer apparently appeals to me. Not too keen on soju, though. Sunday Hazel and I went out for Italian (Korean Style), which was tasty. Then we puttered around until Becoming Jane started at the local cinema. This saturday we're going to Gwangalli (one of the Beaches) to watch fireworks and go to a bar on the beach. I've never socialized this much in my entire life.

Hwamyeoung is an interesting little city-neighborhood. It's smaller than Albuquerque, but the downtown seems bigger because all of the restaurants and shops and stores and religious centers are crammed into high rises (6 - 12 stories) in about 9 city blocks. Most of the surrounding area is high rise apartment buildings. I live a 6 minute bus ride from Hwamyeoung, in the much smaller neighborhood of Yulli, (GeumGok) though we have a better/cheaper Market than Lotte.

For once I feel lucky to be oblivious to the obvious, because I don't feel like a zoo animal yet. Having every random kid I meet yell "Hi!" at me will probably get old soon, though.