To Daegu!

Today was close to the tail end of my vacation and since I have been limping around on a bad knee for the past week I hadn't gone anywhere yet.  Since I've been getting around and feeling okay I decided to try the transit system and made my way to Daegu.  The transit system in South Korea is amazing!  I am truly amazed by how convenient and easy it is to get around whether it is bus, subway, etc.  I rode the bus to Seomun Market which is the oldest historical shopping district in Daegu.

  

The tall brick building across the field is my school!  It's the only building tall enough to see over the trees.  Apparently that is a jujube orchard, jujubes from this area are famous and are used in teas and liquor among other things.  I've never eaten one...

This is the construction of the new subway that is going to be 3 blocks from my apartment.  With everything torn up it's hard to believe they plan on having it done by December!

I keep wondering what these little trees are they are everywhere!  Really pretty but none of them look very big.

Some days everything feels so foreign here that when I randomly come across stores like this it makes me laugh a little.

I've seen a Dominos, PizzaHut, McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and a Baskin Robins so far in Korea.  Haven't eaten at any of them yet...

I love how close nature is.  No matter how crowded or big the city is there will still be random little parks everywhere.  There were a bunch of people outside here laying in the grass next to the river.

I had felt like Gyeongsan was rather large but the giant buildings in Daegu really do make Gyeongsan seem like a small town.  Also the traffic is insane!  I can't imagine what it would be like somewhere like Seoul!

I made it to Seomun Market!  The largest historical shopping district in Daegu and one of the oldest.  Apparently it has existed since the  Joseon  Dynasty although it used to be called Daegu-jang market and existed in another location.  It was just gigantic.  Walking around and looking at stuff was amazing.

There were fish vendors everywhere.  All kinds of seafood (some of it still alive) were at various stalls.  While I was taking this picture I was standing next to a bucket that was moving and almost dropped my camera when I realized it was full of live eels... They looked like they were trying to escape!

Huge fresh flower market! It was so beautiful.  I had wanted to walk in the store but it was INSANELY crowded and I learned very quickly that these women are serious about their flowers!  So I just took pictures from a safe distance!

This was a huge wig store!  I had never seen so many wigs all in one place...

There are supposedly over 4,000 vendors at the Seomun market.  The market is 3 floors and an underground level and literally covers like a city block.  What is disconcerting is to walk between vendors only to have a motorbike speed by.  Those guys literally go everywhere...






After I wandered around a bit looking at things I met up with Rachel a super awesome teacher living in Daegu.  She showed me how to use the subway, and my ATM!  It solved two of my major problems all in the span of like 10 minutes.  We went to dinner and visited and then she took me to a huge underground shopping center near one of the subway stops!  It was amazing and convenient as it was raining by this point.  I have 4 umbrellas in my apartment that the previous tenant left behind.  Did I bring one?  Nope...

I bought 3 CDs and a few things from Daiso and then Rachel made sure I got on the right bus to head home and I got back at about 11!  It was a long but wonderful day, probably the best I've had so far!  The one day I'm gone of course is the day that they tried to deliver a package my mom sent!  Tomorrow is Korean Independence day so Thursday I will see if the Korean teacher would be nice enough to call the number they left on my door.

Around Gyeongsan

So I was at work for about a week and a half before it was time for holiday.  Everyone in school was going on vacation this week so I have an abundance of free time.  I wish I could say that I was doing something terribly exciting but as of yet not so much although tomorrow I plan to go to Daegu.  Gyeongsan is considered a suburb of Daegu as the city and my town have pretty much merged into a very large expanse of metropolitan with just a green stretch of farmland and a small river separating us.

This is the view from my apartment.  The green fields are actually rice paddies.  The rice looks kind of like tall grass up close.

This area is surrounded by mountains and apparently two of them are very popular hiking spots.  From what I understand that is Daegu in the distance as it is over the bridge.  Once you cross the bridge apparently you are in the outer Daegu area.

The International Center at Yongnam University.  At least I think it is Yongnam University....  There are a lot of universities in Gyeongsan.  Despite being a smaller city Gyeongsan prides itself in it's education. This international center offers classes to foreigners who want to learn Korean.  I bought a beginner textbook already!

There is a huge building back there.  I was intrigued by it's interesting architecture and was told that it was a museum by another foreign teacher who has lived here for a few years.  A huge museum that is run by the University!

All of the tall buildings and people amaze me.  When you are walking through the town though it is incredibly common to see an old house, small park or trees just randomly amidst skyscrapers.  Although the city has grown so big the Koreans seem to like to leave nature alone whenever possible.

This is the road leading down to my apartment complex.  The city looks rather large for a rural area right?  You can find the most amazing stores just wandering around.








Well those are just a few of my photos hopefully tomorrow I will have cleaned my apartment enough that I won't feel insanely guilty taking and posting pictures of it.  I was given a two bedroom apartment, I expected the living quarters to be tiny but my apartment is actually a fairly decent size and so far I have loved it!  It is conveniently close to school.  Right now I don't have a very good view though because of the construction of a new subway stop.  All of the building materials they are using are literally stacked up right across the street from my apartment complex.  Oh well.  Come December apparently the new subway will be open and they should be cleaning it all up.  Then I will only have to walk 2 blocks to take the subway to Daegu!

In Korea!

I arrived in Gyeongsan, South Korea at approximately 1:30 in the morning last Wednesday and have been going ever since!  It's crazy trying to settle in.  I had to be at work at 10:30 the next morning!  My bosses have been incredibly nice though in helping me with the transition.  Tomorrow is my Monday and marks my first full week of work.  I hope to have some good pictures up for everyone soon.

Camping in Washington

Before leaving for South Korea my mom and I went camping in the San Juan Islands.  What I've always loved about Washington state is the huge variety of terrain and wildlife that you get to experience.  It was truly one of my favorite birthdays.  The week started off with a Sounders game in Seattle on Wednesday.  It's truly amazing how full the stadium was on a weekday!

GO SOUNDERS!
(It was a tie but still awesome to watch!)






The view from CenturyLink field is incredible.  You can see the space needle and the sunset is outstanding!  Definitely a great sports venue.

Look at the teeny tiny space needle...
(Why is it orange?!?)







After the game we spent the night outside of Seattle.  The ferry to the San Juan Islands only leaves from Anacortes which is about 2 hours from Seattle.  Bright and early (well for me anyway my mom gets up insanely early naturally) we drove to the ferry terminal but missed our boat and had to wait 2 hours!

Finally we're on the ferry and off to adventure!







The ferry to Friday Harbor from Anacortes takes about an hour.  In my opinion it is one of the most beautiful trips you can take!  I love standing outside staring off the observation deck.... even if I start to lose feeling in my extremities!

I realized when I came home I must have a subconscious desire to be a sailor....
(most of my photos were of boats!)

The fog on the water was incredible!
(I imagine the pirates were lurking in there....)

Nope not pirates just another ferry....
(Slightly disappointed...)

I really wanted this guys sailboat! 

Little windblown yes?  Ferries seem to move surprisingly fast...

I declare this island mine!  I told my mom that I needed my own island and that sea mines would be distributed for the safety of others.  I'm dangerous.... Like a koala....
(What those bastards are scary....)

This guy had a BBQ on the back of his boat....
(Totally approve...)

He proceeded to race us into the island...
(We let him win, I bet we coulda taken him...)






Thus ends my first installment of useless pictures I took that other people should stare at.  If I kept posting photos this post would be insanely long!  My next batch of photos will be from Friday Harbor which I always love and Orcas Island.  Mom and I kinda felt that Orcas Island was the inspiration for that horror TV show Harper's Island.  The people there were a little sketchy and frankly I kinda thought we might get murdered.  It was beautiful though...

TEFL Homework...

Really sucks.  No not really, I find the course interesting but truthfully my brain really wants to check out.  It's summer and my mind had definitely gone on vacation!  This is making the essays that I should be writing infinitely more difficult...

I will be flying out of SEATAC on July 30th.  The school wants me to be there August 1st.  From the sounds of it no earlier and no later as the previous English teacher will be living in the apartment until the 31st.  Less than one month and I will be on the other side of the world...  In a country where I still don't speak any of the language...  I really need to get on that...

I have been looking into various Masters programs and honestly the only online programs I could see myself enrolling in would probably be TESL/TEFL.  There are only two programs I've really looked into so far that seem flexible enough for me to do while working on another continent.  I am thinking of taking this year off and applying for September 2013.  That will give me a chance hopefully to get used to Korea and enjoy at least a year off.  With a Masters in TESL I could then apply to teach English at foreign universities or apply to teach international students attending American universities.

Right so next time I really will post some actual pictures.  My blog seems to be vastly lacking picture goodness.  I was looking through my camping photos and came to the realization however that I really like sailboats.  Over half my vacation photos had a boat somewhere in them...

SIFF and Studio Gibli

For all those who love Studio Gibli and live in Washington SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival) is showing Gibli films all this month and half of next month at the Uptown theater!  I got to see Ocean Waves and Spirited Away in theaters yesterday and it was incredible!  Seeing them on the big screen was definitely something else!

While there I also stopped at Uwajimaya and picked up a copy of Howl's Moving Castle to read.  Howl's Moving Castle is my favorite Gibli film so I figured I'd read the book and see if I love it as much as the movie.  So far the answer to that appears to be yes!

All of my paperwork is off to Korea so now I'm just waiting for my visa number and interview.  It's going to be an expensive next couple of months though!  I just bought a laptop and luggage.  Now I need to start looking for some "adult clothes."  I've been a college student too long I guess I don't own much that could pass as a work wardrobe.  I also figure with the magical internet though I can find stuff on the internet as I need it.

This next couple of weeks I will mostly be trying to complete my 100 hour TESL class!  On my next post I'll put some of my pictures from the San Juans up.  My last vacation in Washington was incredible!  I do love Washington.  It's forests, rivers and the Pacific are beautiful.  I can't wait to get to Korea and hike and camp on another continent!

Time for a Massive Update! Jobs, Graduating, Moving... You Know...

So time for an insanely large status update right? I was offered a job in Korea teaching in a little town called Gyeongsan outside of Daegu and they want me there by August 1st. So right now is crunch time I'm waiting on the absolute last piece of documentation to come back from Washington DC so that I can send a massive package of paperwork to the school. After that they will process my paperwork and I will have to drive to Seattle to perform an interview at the Korean consulate for a work visa. I'm getting nervous all of this is really cutting it close if the rest of this paperwork doesn't come soon I don't know what will happen... I graduated from school with my BA in Asian Studies officially! Have the paper to prove it and everything! Quit my part-time school job and got rid of 90% of my worldly possessions in preparation for my move to Korea. I also moved back to Moses Lake Washingtion to be with family before I leave. So lots going on here! Now I'm crossing my fingers that this paperwork comes tomorrow! As it's the last month before I head out I also plan on actually updating more regularly promise!