Here's a pic of the walking / biking / excersize trail near my place. You can see in this part there's some nature type scenery. It's actually a really nice place to walk, but it makes me miss my bike a bit. Actually, from what I've seen here, you can only get mountain type bikes, and not the road kind. Anyway, I'm not sure I'd want to ride on the roads here (they're a little hectic), but having a bicycle to ride on this trail now and again would be nice...
Another shot along the same trail... Here you see some basketball courts. To the right, a river. Above is the subway line which the trail runs underneath until the subway goes underground at some point.
Speaking of which, here's my subway station. My area here is pretty residential from what I can gather, at least in the kind of microcosm I live in. Of course, it's just a short walk to the incredibly commercial type stuff. Actually, if you look in the upper right of this picture (on the opposite side of the subway) you can see the Lotte Department store towering above everything. It's kind of this nine story monument to consumerism. At first sight, I think it was the biggest store I'd ever seen, but there's one bigger in another district that I've seen since.
By now, this is kind of an uninteresting shot for me to look at, but it's also the street I live off of. On one end is the subwawy stop, and if I walk to the other end then I'm at the road my school is located on. I'm actually very close to these things so it's all very convenient.
Here's my school's building, we're the school on the third floor. The first floor is a clinic, the second a web design school. Anyway, not too much to say about that, but I will share a few pictures of some of the kids:
These guys are always asking me for arm wrestling matches. I gave the boy on the right an award for writing in his diary that it's a pity his mom only lets him play computer games for a half hour every night.
Don't let their quaint looks fool you: one of these girls is throwing a fit by the end of class every day. It's almost a given. Is second grade a really dramatic age these days? I don't really remember it...
One of my favorite younger classes, except I made the mistake of teaching them tic-tac-toe one day. Now the game is in constant demand and they don't seem to understand they can play it without me being there. Scarlet, on the end, is a little camera shy I think.
So, whenever the students have any writing to do I'm in charge of picking a best piece for each class and awarding a $5 gift certificate to the kid. As a result, I get an occasional suck-up piece like this one: the girl said if she was a millionaire she'd buy me new clothes and drew this picture.
I actually have done a little shopping since I've been here. I met my school's director and secretary in this place -- Nampo-dong. They live near there so were able to recommend me some good stores and talk down a couple prices for me. Nampo-dong is just one of many "downtown" type areas around. I've personally been to 4 or 5 so far, but there must be several more. Anyway, Nampo-dong is known for being one of the oldest of them and for its shopping. I noticed there were carts selling beer so you can drink as you go from store to store.
Hmm, just kind of a typical picture of Busan I think.
I'll go to Seoul the weekend of the third. So, expect some more pictures after that.
Anyway, I'm doing well lately. Things are seeming more routine than they used to, but at the same time a lot still seems different and exciting in a way. I guess there's a large part of the living in a different country thing that never really wears off. Even though I work, I can't quite help but to feel I'm on vacation most of the time.
I'm learning a little Korean here and there, and I'll start taking some formal lessons this coming Thursday. Actually, the teachers at my school have offered to teach me just as a favor. There are free lessons throughout the city, but they've insisted on letting them teach me. I'm starting to feel like as I learn Korean, I'll begin to forget English, though. My vocabulary here is kind of limited to what others can understand. I feel like I've forgotten some words already. Oh well.
Hope all is well, and I'll try to update this now and again.
