TGIF!

I am so glad today is Friday!!! I am greatly looking forward to my first weekend here in Gangneung. This weekend will be the first week of Gangneung's cherry blossom festival. I love the cherry blossoms, this is my first time seeing them up close and personal. So pretty! I thought that they would be more pink, but many of them around where I live are white.
Yesterday I finally got to see some of the city. I do not live in the city itself, but in an area called Taek Ji. Chris teacher tells me that this is very trendy area; there are many bars, restaurants, and fancy Koreans walking around at night. At lunch yesterday he and I took a cab to the big exchange bank, this is the only bank in town where you can use foreign debt cards to withdraw money and do banking. Riding around in cabs is really cheap, usually it is under $4 to get anywhere. The ride to the bank was my first time seeing the city outside of my 3 block radius. Looking at the city in the daylight is a real treat, usually once I get off work it is almost dark. There are alot of little speciality shops all along the streets. Like there is one store that sells only jars, one that sells only eggs, one for chainsaws, one that sells bedding, one for only TVs, and one that sells only robots. Robot store is right near my school, I think us teachers are going to check it out sometime.. they look cool(but expensive) from the window. Its really different, its confusing. I feel like I'm turned around all of the time when I am walking, luckily Chris has a built in compass and always knows which way is what. I'm starting to learn. I know where Stephanie teacher lives now, all us teachers are only a few blocks from each other. Her place is not as nice as mine and it has a smelly bathroom drain but she has a big desk and a table where I only have a small desk and a Eastern style table (low to the floor table). I haven't seen Chris teacher's place yet, but I hear it is nicer than both of our places except that he has Eastern style bedding (that means he sleeps on the floor on top of mats).
Last night all 3 of us went out together for dinner. We took a cab to Gyeongpo Beach, I think some cab drivers must take foreigners the scenic way around so they can get more money. That was fine with me for this time because I also got to see the lake. The lake is big and beautiful. In the middle there is a little island with a pagoda on it.


Gangneung is very special because it has a lake and a seashore that are only a short walk from each other. The seashore and beach are so beautiful, I can't wait to see them during the day and go swimming in the summer.

On the beach it is ok to shoot fireworks. So teachers and I bought some roman candles and fired them into the night from on top of rocks. Stephanie took this awesome action shot!

When we were done shooting, we walked along the beach strip. There are many different restaurants, but they all have similar things. I love the lights at night.


All of the restaurants have tanks of fish and sea creatures in front waiting to be eaten. Check out this huge octopus!


We walked long until Chris stopped and said "Lets eat here." So we did. No English menu of course, so we mimed and pointed to pictures of things we wanted. In Korea you get SO much food for so little money. This was our first course, I didn't think to take a picture before we started eating.

Hmm lets see, there was corn pudding, cucumber apple carrot and pineapple salad with mayo dressing, something fried and delicious, potato salad (I think?), dumplings (not pictured because we ate them up), seaweed soup, and a whole fish. The whole fish is cut off in this picture for some reason, but if you click on any of the pictures you can see a big version. All that stuff comes with the meal. For our main course we had some sort of fish sushi. This was the best sushi I have ever had. I watched them pull our fish out of the tank, it was that fresh. The roe eggs were the best I've ever had. I think all this cost around $12.

After dinner we took a cab to E Mart, this is like the Walmart of Korea but it is crazy! It has 4 or more levels, they don't have escalators like we do but ramps that move up. It isn't like home, where you go into a store and there are all kinds of different people.. here there are only Koreans and we stick out like sore thumbs. I don't notice it (or care) as much as the other teachers, I guess I was too busy looking at all the amazing Korean products. Wherever Chris goes, the Korean ladies stop, turn around, and stare until he is out of viewing distance. Children are very curious about us. Stephanie showed me around and I got an iron, ironing board, a hair dryer, toilet paper, milk, cute pillow case,and detergent. The people who work at E mart are very friendly, I've found that Koreans on the job here are way more helpful than people back home, even though they don't speak much English. The ladies working at E mart all wear cute little outfits and usually there is one stationed every few aisles to help customers decide what to buy and tell them about the sales. In E mart they have a gelato stand so we got some gelato, it was really good! I had some sort of fruity one that was orange, other teachers had cherry and cookies and cream. At the gelato place they had the most amazingly cute cakes. Ryan, check them out! I thought of you when I saw them and had to take a picture. Magical :)

This morning I woke up at 4am when a bunch of singing drunken Koreans came home. My apartment building is a little high spirited sometimes, but at least I don't live above a nightclub like Stephanie- she also lives across from a place called "sexy bar" haha! I couldn't get back to sleep so I did some ironing, worked on this entry, and emailed home.

I love it here. I am so happy with my place and at my school. I don't know how I managed to get into such an awesome school; the other teachers and I are becoming fast friends and the Korean ladies at the school are very nice and seem to like me. I gave each of the Korean ladies a praline that I brought from home as a gift, one of them was so happy that I got a huge hug! The kids are bright and more advanced than I thought they would be. They are soooo funny too. The phrases they pick up and use are cute. I love being called "Jane teacher." I feel really lucky. I'm so glad I came to Korea, I'm having such a good time.