clever blog title

Beach at Busan

Cooking food outside in an ally where people are walking and shopping. Pretty gross!

Woman sleeping at the beach in Busan.

I haven't written in awhile because I was having trouble with the internet, but it seems to be fixed now. Thursday my school started intensive courses. The classes are 11:30-1 for 19 days. I have a speaking intensive course with 8 lower level students. The class is very intense, the workbook is full of activities and it takes the full 90 minutes to get through a lesson. That doesn't leave much time for games but the kids don't seem to mind too much as long as they get candy! My middle school classes are going much better than the first few weeks so I am happy about that too. I'm still enjoying teaching and I very much like MOST of the children, some are awful, but I guess you'll have that! I am working now 11 am to 10 pm with an hour break and breaks between classes, but it is tiring an it is going to be a long three weeks. Luckily next week we are only working Monday and Tuesday. There's been some talk of going white water rafting next Saturday, I hope it works out!

I received my cell phone bill this week, it was about $40. I went to the store to pay it and they charged me only $18! I'm not sure why, but I didn't complain. I went to buy a few supplies for my kids, some colored pencils and some glue and the guy told me it was 4200 won, but then he looked at me and dropped the price to 3200 won! I guess sometimes it pays to be a foreigner.

I've noticed that older people have no shame in stopping in their tracks to stare at me, it is still quite strange. The kids that stare at me usually at least say hello and ask me where I am from.

Steven, Megan and I went to the beach and did some shopping in Busan on Saturday. The beach was filled to the max with people, most of them in full clothing. We did run across some old ladies buried up to their faces in sand and then a hat on their heads! The picture is above because I cannot figure out how to put pictures in the middle of the text. The first picture shows how crowded the beach is. It's so weird to me that people come to the beach just to sit under an umbrella in full clothing all day. The other picture is the Busan market area. It's just a bunch of allyways with knock-offs and touristy items. But then down one street there are women cooking and serving food. People just pull up a stool and eat, it seems pretty unsanitary to me but lots of people were doing it!

In other news, my dad participated in two events at the Ohio Senior Olympics yesterday and came in first place in both the 100 m and 200 m dash! Congratulations to my dad!!