4th of July Weekend

Best picture I could get of the few fireworks I saw on the 4th..

Fourth of July is just not the same in Korea.

Last week went by fairly quickly.

I started the week off by meeting my friend Alice at Kyungsung University to watch Transformers 2. The theater is a good way to get away...sometimes I walk out forgetting I'm in Korea. Sometimes I think that the translation in the words isn't quite on, because I found myself laughing when no one else was.

I think I forgot to mention...after my friend Alice left school, we got a new 5-2 teacher. She just got back to Korea from New York. She was there for 5 months and worked at some of the local schools learning how to teach the "American" way. She's very nice, but no one can replace Alice! She likes to talk to me a lot because it helps her remember her English. I was warned before she came to our school that she wasn't the nicest of people. She has been very sweet to me, but she's a little rough. We'll see how it goes. I heard a rumor that she might be taking over my co-teacher's position next school year, so I might be teaching with her if I stay another year. So far, I enjoy talking to her because she knows a lot more about the American culture than the others at school.

Monday we received another new teacher! She took the place of my friend Victoria (4-1). Sad. I lost 2 friends in a matter of weeks. The new teacher is very kind and her major in school was English Education. Which means...there might be a fight for who gets to be the English teacher next year. I named this girl Ann. She is actually YOUNGER than me...and Korea is huge about that so it's kind of funny that I'm no longer the youngest. Not like it had any affect on me...they treat me better than anyone else here. Ann is really sweet and kind and I think she likes that we are similar in age. She speaks a little bit of English, so we can communicate when need be.

On Thursday the entire school went on a field trip to Haeundae and went swimming at the Grand Hotel. It was the smallest pool ever and we had 200 + students in it. Cramped my style a little bit. I was going to go in but then I found out I had to wear a swim cap...so I opted to stand on the sides and take pictures. But then....a few of the students splashed me so I figured I should just go in. So...with the help of the students I got the awful swim cap on and went in. It was fun! Still hate swim caps though.





After the field trip, some of the teachers took me to this little hole in the wall restaurant. Well, I thought it was going to be a restaurant...it was a little "Korean Ice Cream" shop. It was incredibly crowded so I was quite excited to see what all the hype was about. Hmm....you know how in America we like our beans to be savory? Well, not Koreans. They love to take all kinds of beans and soak them in sugar! Everything is made with mashed sweet red beans in it. For example...there are little food stand on the streets...and you see that they are serving little waffle looking things, oh contrare....red beans in the middle. Back to the ice cream...apparently it's a fine art. First they put a small amount of milk in the bottom of a bowl. Then they will tip the bowl with shaved ice, red bean grossness, and a spoonful of apricots or some kind of fruit. Not good, but I was a good sport and tried it. Of course I was only with 4 teachers when I tried it, so when I got back to school (we did a few more bowls for the teachers who rode on the buses), they shoved a spoon in my mouth as well....even after I pleaded.

Saturday on the 4th was a little disappointing. Some friends and I went to Songjeong Beach. It is the farthest beach in Busan on the east coast. The weather was cloudy and sprinkled. I really missed being home at the Laymon's. I left the beach pretty early and headed to Haeundae beach to meet my friend Jana. We just sat at a coffee shop and people watched all night. There were soooo many foreigners at the beach it was pretty entertaining. I did see fireworks on the 4th. Some yaucht in the ocean lit a few off! That's all I needed.

Sunday was a normal beach day, with sun, but with a twist. After dinner my friend Jana got a phone call asking if we could go up to Ulsan. She was interested in getting a free puppy and the girl called her and asked if she wanted to come that day. So we hopped on a bus...not really knowing where we were going, and went to Ulsan, about 90 minutes away by bus. We got to Ulsan and picked up the puppy and was back on the bus within 10 minutes. It was a great, spontaneous trip to pick up the cutest little puppy!

Well, I'm going to start working on a new more recent blog entry since this one is so old...sorry it's not very entertaining.