Now, before you click off my page and stop reading my blog because you think things aren't that exciting over here, sorry for misleading you, they are! And here is what has been going on lately:
The weather has broken! It's finally warm/hot every day. The weather here, apart from being frigid in the winter, drives me crazy. Back home the weather is extremely inconsistant. Even in the winter you get freak 60s or even 70s days and come March you can breathe a sigh of relief because the bad stuff is mostly over. When March hits you will always have warm days/weeks scattered around to help you cope with those cold days that are mixed in until about mid-April. Needless to say, it makes winter seem shorter in a way because of the inconsistancy. Here in Busan, the weather is sooooo gradual. Slowly warms up, slowly cools down. It seems to warm up a degree or two every day. No nutty 80 degree days in March, no freak snowstorms in April. Just a gradual warm up that makes me want to pull my hair out because it seemed like it was NEVER going to get hot. Two weeks ago it finally started steadily staying in the 20s (high 60s-low 70s) and now it's hanging around the mid 20s every day which is very pleasant. And after the winter here and the steady incline of temperatures I can feel my mood improving daily. Though I think I'll be praying for days like these come summer, I guess it's scorching hot with no relief for months.
One of the awesome things about Busan is it's right on the beach. I'm not talking oh-it's-on-the-coast-but-no-real-beaches-nearby like where we were in Japan, but real genuine beach towns with long stretches of sand and salty air and waves and seashells. There are two main ones, Haeundae and Gwangalli. Haeundae is considered the busiest beach (or one of) in the world and here's a picture to prove it:
Ah, Haeundae. I've not seen it like this yet but I guess this is what to be expected so we better enjoy it now...WHICH WE ARE. It's so nice to be able to just hop the subway for 20 minutes, walk another 5 and plop myself on the sand for the afternoon. There are restaurants and convenience stores and coffee shops lining the road behind the beach and before the weather got hot Al and I would go down and sit on one of the terraces of Starbucks or something and have a coffee and watch the waves. Relax. Now that it's warm enough to dig out the bathing suit and tan it's where we spent our entire weekend this week. Saturday (Cinco de Mayo!) we gathered some friends and went and ate Mexican (well, the closest thing you can get to it here) at a place called Fuzzy Navel right beside Gwangalli beach. After we ate and the boys had their cervesas we laid on the beach all day. Al and his friends ended up gathering more foreigners for a 7 on 7 football game on the beach at which one point there were many, many Korean onlookers cheering and shouting. We spent the evening at a friend's house and then woke up and laid on the beach all day Sunday as well. I'd say my weekends will be mostly beach filled. (Yay! Tan!)
In Korean news, I still don't like the food. I haven't learned the language and I don't intend to. I really don't care much about travelling or seeing the country either. Basically, I just don't care about Korea. It's horrible to say, but I don't. I like living here, but I'm not interested in the country itself whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, scowl if you want, but it's true. And I don't really feel bad about it and I blame it on this not being my first time doing this so I'm all meh.
I just started my third full semester at school. They only last two months for some reason. The kids get changed around a bit and my classrooms/classtimes change. It's nice to have things changed even minimally every few months, keeps me from going stir crazy. I either love my classes or hate my classes. I have about 4 classes that make things very hard. I've told you all this before but some of those kids really just need a good punch in the face. I have one class of older middle schoolers, they're probably 12-14 years old and they are the most disrespectful, rude and some just plain out mean kids I've ever dealt with in my life. I remember being like that sometimes when I was their age but never to my teachers! On the bright side, I do have some really fun classes like this one:
They get a little out of hand because they are young but they're mostly fun.
On the travelling front we have a few things lined up. We'll be going to Seoul here in a few weeks because we get a long weekend. I'm actually looking forward to "getting out of Korea" for a few days. I plan on shopping my face off at Forever 21 and eating Taco Bell for every meal. Nice change for the weekend. After that we have vacation in July/August. I have a full week off but Al only has a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off. They told him that if he can find a replacement it's no problem if he takes off the Monday and Tuesday therefore giving us 9 days to go somewhere. If we can have all that time I'd like to go to India or Australia or someplace far. If we only have the 5 days we'll probably end up in SE Asia somewhere, maybe go back to Thailand, not sure yet. Even farther ahead in September we have another long weekend (I have 5 days, we're not sure which days Al has off yet) and I think we're heading to Beijing to see the Great Wall of China. I'm REALLY excited about that. It's really the only thing about China that holds any interest for me and it's only a 2 1/2 hour direct flight away from here so there's really no reason not to go for a few days.
I miss home like mad this time around. I think about it all the time and wish I could just hop on a plane and come visit everyone. I don't know why it's so different this round but I am rather homesick. And not always just for West Virginia to see family and friends but just America in general. I just want all things American and interstates and normal food and good drivers and the smells and all your lovely faces. Miss all of you <3 xo
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