Blogs from Busan, South Korea, Asia

This weekend, I went to Busan with my friends, Jessica and Mai. The first place we went was a market across the street. The market had some Russian restaurants in it (the only ones I've ever seen in Korea), in between the streets lined with fresh (and stinky) fish and vegetables being sold on nondescript crates out in the open. After we could no longer stand the smell, we headed to the subway station, which has an underground shopping area that goes on for miles. We passed by hundreds of new, sparkly shoes, dvds, clothes, perfume and accessory stores on our way to catch a subway to Beomosa temple. We got off at the nineteenth stop on the line 1 subway, and caught a bus the rest of the way. It dropped us off near the ... read more

We caught the 7:10am KTX (fast train) to Busan. Train tickets in Korea can now be reserved online at www.korail.com - a very user friendly website! We arrived in Busan just before 10am to rain. It took us while to find our ‘hostel’ as it was actually just some guys apartment that had bunk beds in it. It was in an apartment high rise in the business and bar district of Busan. The 'hostel' was cozy but not as clean as the rest of the hostels we stayed at in Korea. We spent our first day in Busan going to South Korea’s largest fish market, the Jagalchi Fish Market. We wandered the alleys checking out all of the sea creatures for sale and watching old ladies clean fish at a rate so fast it was almost ... read more

Spring has finally reached Busan, the weather has warmed up and it is making my life so much better. I've never really minded the cold but this winter has gone on way too long, it's been freezing since I first landed here 5 months ago! My motivation levels to go and do things are through the roof, so the last couple of weeks have been pretty busy. A couple of weeks ago, three of my co-workers that left the school in March invited me on a road trip. I didn't really know what they had planned, I just knew we were going exploring through Korea. I had been feeling a bit trapped in Busan and felt I hadn't seen much of Korea, so it was the perfect opportunity to go on a bit of an adventure. ... read more

Sometimes I wonder how I managed to get such a cushy job, and why I would ever consider getting a job in an office sitting staring at a computer. February was such an easy month, particularly the last week, which was the last week of the school year. For example, on the Monday I got paid to go ice skating all morning, and then to go and eat the fattest steak I could find on the menu at the steakhouse. This was the field trip for the oldest class in kindergarten, who were graduating to elementary school. They asked to go ice skating, which I was quite happy to go along with. I think they regretted the decision though, poor kids looked pretty stressed out after spending the whole morning hitting the deck every 30 seconds. ... read more

Time for an update I think. As all the weird things that happen are starting to become normal, it seems I have less things to report, but here's the top news from the last couple of weeks. School is the same old same old really. Kids are still crying and fighting all the time, but it's amazing how much they can cheer you up if you're having a bad day! The latest addition to my baby class is Jerome. He is the youngest yet, only 2! But he isn't phased by me at all, he just finds everything really funny. I asked him how he was the other day and he started hitting himself in the face while roaring with laughter. I guess that means he's OK. I left him to it anyway. It was phone ... read more