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Published: June 13th 2008
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BUSAN ARRIVAL
Purple dragon outside Busan train station. #12 THREE OTHER CITIES
START OF SUMMER
More trees and flowers are bursting out with flowers and greenery all the time here still. The variety seems endless. Summer is starting, but there are still a few mild days. New crops are being planted in the fields also. The rice is all about planted now in the flooded fields giving good reflections in the water of the mountains and clouds. Most is planted by machinery nowadays.
All is well and I now have been here 9 months, with 3 to go.
The only bad news is that my very capable Korean Co-teacher and minder has been transferred. Her replacement also seems capable and she is popular with the students too, who still seem to be well behaved (mostly), attentive and studious. It was ‘Teachers Day’ last week and some Korean teachers got ‘thank you’ letters. Foreign English teachers don’t seem to get these; maybe they are scared that their English may be marked and used to lower their grades…
Holidays and long trips time are about over now. My remaining ‘annual vacation’ days are at the end of my contract, and most or all of long
GOING UP TO FESTIVAL
Japanese and Korean people walking towards festival weekends have finished so it is mostly work from now on. The public holiday situation is very confusing here and can change from week to week, province to province, or school to school. Living ‘out in the sticks’ it takes so long for me to get anywhere interesting that I need three days to make a trip worthwhile.
Busan, and Andong were the last two trips I made on possibly the last two long weekends I will have here. They were both one after the other unfortunately and I didn’t want to waste them, but was really exhausted in the second week with a cold after sudden change in weather.
BUSAN
I and the other two foreign teachers met up with another teacher acquaintance I worked with in China. She is now teaching in Japan and came over for a quick holiday. It was interesting to hear how teaching in Japan is different to Korea.
Busan is South Korea’s second largest city and on the south coast. It is a real mixture of industrial harbours, container ports, shipping, military bases, small fishing coves, swimming beaches, ancient fortress on hill and other tourist attractions all surrounded by mountains ,
JAPANESE PERFORMERS
Japanese people walking towards festival of course.
Trying to decide where to go and what to do is not easy in a city with so much to see; with 3 other people you have never traveled with before; in a place you have never been to before. Also we all had different priorities on how much walking to do, and food preferences, and so on. In the end it all worked out.
In the West, where the individual has become more important than the group, we seem to be less willing to compromise, so coming to consensus is more complicated. However, we are more willing to go off and ‘do our own thing’ independently and meet up later.
I have noticed that in Asia, in general, it is very different. They would come to a group decision slowly, without conflict, and then go around together as a group. Maybe that’s why they like tour groups so much; they experience things together and there is no conflict because all the decisions are made for them, beforehand.
The first day was a bit chaotic, with people going off doing there own thing, but I did manage to see a seafood festival near tower on top
JAPANESE PERFORMERS
Japanese and Korean people walking towards festival of a hill, which was quite interesting.
Our main goal the next day, together was the Mountain Fortress of Geumjeong, overlooking Busan. The trek proved too strenuous for three of us, so after walking 2 kilometers up to one gate, (looking at another 8 kilometers to the next!!,) we cheated and caught the very efficient Subway to the other main gate and all met up again. So it turned out to be a good day.
Then it was time for the others to head off home. Because of the strange holiday setup, I actually had two extra days in Busan. I decided to ‘take it easy’ and take the City Bus Tour where for $10 you can get on and off the same bus all day at different places. This was a good way to see the coastline, a couple of beaches, harbours, aquarium etc. I even managed a very short cruise after a lot of searching around and false starts.
There was more to see there of course, but I don’t know if I will have the time to go back.
ANDONG
The following weekend Wil and I visited a local tourist city made famous because
JAPANESE PERFORMERS
Japanese and Korean people walking towards festival Queen Liz visited it a few years back. It was a more restful weekend than the previous one (mostly walking on flat ground) with a trip to a ‘folk village’ near river and a trip to temple for Buddha’s birthday, where another festival took place. That was interesting to see also.
Andong is only about two hours away by two buses, but on way home missed one bus because of crowded holiday and had to wait long time for both buses. It took me 5 hours to get home after sunset! There was also a cold change, so I suffered a cold and my first sick day off school since being here. Bloody buses!
At the moment I don’t feel like going on any more trips, but how will I feel in 1 or 2 months time when I don’t have anymore due?
POHANG AND EAST COAST.
It seems there was another long weekend due to us and since it was getting warm, I decided to head for the coast and check out the ‘local’ beaches, this time alone.
Pohang is a harbour which has Korea’s largest steel works. It has a pebbly beach near by in the
city and several other pebbly up the coast which I explored by bus; once again getting confused about where they were going. I was actually more successful at hitch-hiking than using the buses.
It seems there is another long weekend coming again too. Exams must be coming up soon and then the summer camps start, where I must work in the school holidays.
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Sue Storr
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Great photos John!
You've put me to shame again, John! Last few weeks have been crazy, so have made no progress with my blogs. On the road again myself. Currently in Beijing on my way to Mongolia next week. Enjoy your last months in South Korea. What happens after that?