Blogs from Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, Asia

We travelled south overnight and arrived in Jinju in the early hours of the morning. We headed to Jinhangho Lake first. It was really quiet and we were the only people about. I head down to the lake and was pretty underwhelmed by it. I took a few photos of the misty lake, more to just say that I had been as it wasn't too pretty. I sat and ate some breakfast while reading my book for a bit. Then went for a bit of a wander around. There was a kid's amusement park, which seemed a bit eerie as there was no one around. I did get to see the sun rising over Jinju, which was pretty. We were by Jinhangho Lake for a couple of hours and for me, it wasn't really worthy of ... read more

The city of Jinju, an hour and a half from Busan, hosts a week long lantern festival every year along their river with a myriad of activities and events organised. We'd planned to spend the whole day in Jinju sightseeing and participating in the activities, but due to a very late night the night before it was 6pm when we finally arrived! First stop was dinner and then we walked to Namgang river for the lantern festival. The tradition of floating lanterns on Namgang River in Jinju City dates back to the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea. In October 1592, during a battle between Japanese and Korean soldiers around Jinju Fortress, Jinju people flew lanterns high up in the sky as a military signal and communication tool with soldiers outside the fortress, while floating lanterns and ... read more

This week has been eventful and interesting as I regained my strength from the stomach bug. Students had questions on questions when I got back on Monday, but seemed glad I was back. Two fairly smooth days of teaching led us to Wednesday, when me and Shin Teacher left early, around 8 o'clock and drove an hour and a half to Masan on the coast to finalize my alien registration card. It was a cool drive as it had rained all night and there was an almost eerie mist hanging in the air as we drove through the emerald green mountains and beautiful tiered rice patty's that stretched into the fog. We got back early enough for me to take a quick nap before we had to be back for afternoon classes at 2. At the ... read more