Travels to Busan and trying to crack the nut that is Korea

This weekend our travels to Busan were incredible. First I didn't realize how much I missed the water until all of us were sitting on the beach shoveling out strawberry cheesecake ice cream. (By the way dairy in this country is expensive). Once you get past the scent of fish and eerie looking street carnivals Busan is a pretty swank town. People have a different dialect and it felt a little slower paced than Seoul. We explored the Beomeosa Temple and Taejongdae Park. Traffic was not as bad as expected and the total driving time was somewhere around 5 hours (one direction). We also were able to watch a D List movie called "My Father" and Nico and I were the only ones who laughed at the English jokes on the bus.

In other news I arrived home around 9:30 Seoul time on Monday night and instantly read about the fall of Lehman Brothers and Meryl Lynch's crumbling to US Bank and felt this looming pit in my stomach. I must admit I had a hard time sleeping that night because of the dire times that I predict are about to come. At least from what I have read, the future remains pretty bleak.

As of Monday I have now been in Korea for exactly one month. I finally feel as though I have settled in, established a routine and am starting to feel at home. I have since purchased four plants and several books to make the apartment feel more like home. Surprisingly I like the accommodations of where I am staying. They are simplistic and overall sufficient to living standards. Also after a month I finally have a bank account, am a registered alien and have a cell phone.

Amongst the subjects I teach at school vocabulary is one of them. The other day I was reviewing vocabulary terms with my second graders concerning political elections/debates. Having done my homework about the Korean political system I related the conversation to the Korean style of government rather than the American. All of the books we use are US based thus many of the kids relay more information about American history than about their own 500+ old country. One of the students that is usually full of information politely informed the class that her parents got to meet President Bush while they were living in the United States. I quickly turned the subject around to Korean President Lee Myung-Bak who was elected in February 2008. All of a sudden the second graders were in uproar about how they didn't like him and there were and excess of ooooooooo's in the class. (Korean students tend to drag out the O's and A's at the end of words, similar to the Korean language). Another student expressed dislike for the President because of his agreement for the controversial US beef imports. While some second graders may listen to their parents, this incident just goes to prove that even eight year olds are constantly listening.

Photos are up from Busan.

That's all I have for now. Cheers!