Crazy Coincidence

I used my time wisely over the weekend to rest and relax at my place. On Saturday I volunteered at the Boys Orphanage. This is my third time helping out and this time I went by myself. I met a new friend named Vivek David. He's also Sri Lankan Tamil, he's also from Toronto, Canada, he's also Catholic, and he went to Woburn C.I. That's the same school my sisters went for high school. He's 5 years older than me (so he's 30), and his siblings went to St.Thomas More (same elementary school I went to from JK-Gr.7)! He lived near the area I was growing up in when I was a little kid. It's so strange that we met up at a Boys Orphanage event in Busan, South Korea. Half way across the globe and I still meet people who are from STM or lived in Scarborough. That's crazy. I asked a fellow STM friend and she confirmed that she does know Vivek and his siblings who went to our elementary school. Although, I don't remember his siblings at St.Thomas More, my STM friends seem to be friends with Vivek's brother and sister.

After the orphanage, I met up with Jay and her friend Megan for lunch at a Thai restaurant in Nampo. Warren met up with us while we were shopping. All this time, the weather was very bad. It has been raining non-stop. We were supposed to go to the Musical Fountain show at Daedaepo but that got cancelled for the second time. Instead all of us went to go see Hunger Games at theatres. It was a good movie but it was very predictable, and I didn't even read the novel.

On Sunday, I stayed at home and caught up on Dexster. I am now at the beginning of Season 5. Hopefully I can catch up before the end of this month. As of right now I have 2 months left in Korea! I'm excited, anxious and nervous at the same time.

Warming Up

On Saturday April 14th was Victoria's house warming party. I decided to get creative with my dish and brought something other than my usual shrimp or chicken curry. My friends told me it was good but I think I could have done a better job of it if I had the proper ingredients. Regardless, all of us a great time with fun and laughter. I am considering to throw another potluck event at my place. Most likely in June because May weekends seem packed already. Victoria is a fellow Canadian but she lived in New Jersey for most of her life. She's a nice person but with a weird sense of humour. She thinks she's Korean because she lived in Korea for three years. She's like an older Filipino sister that I never wanted to have. Joking aside, she was a great host and a memorable event. The next day Jeongeun organized a picnic at Haeundae beach. Most of the people seemed busy on Sunday but few of us did show up and had a great time soaking up the sunshine. We also went to my favourite mango smoothie place, Mango Six, and had Dakjimm for dinner. Jeongeun even made kimbap for the lunch picnic and she's a wonderful chef. This weekend, I didn't do anything touristy because the last two weekends I have been doing things outside of Busan (Namhae and Jinhae). In less than a week away from payday and the 10th month anniversary of being here in Korea or basically 2 months left until I am back in Canada!

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms are everywhere in South Korea! On the weekend I went to Jinhae's Cherry Blossom Festival! It was absolutely beautiful there. It was a breath taking place and I truly enjoyed every second of it. However, I did not like the waiting at the bus terminals in Sasang (Busan) and then again in Jinhae. I waited in line at Sasang's bus terminal for 1.5 hours before my friend Soko and I were able to get on a bus. The bus ride was only 1 hour and 10 minutes. On our way back to Busan, we waited in line for 2.5 hours. It was brutal. Thank goodness we got in line at a reasonable time. The line was super long (as you can see from the picture), and the line was still like that after Soko and I got on the bus. Anyways, enjoy the wonderful cherry blossom pictures! On Sunday, I went to Dalmaji Hill and took more local cherry blossom pictures. Cherry blossoms were always my favourite kind of trees, well after mango trees, but they are indeed pretty. Too bad Canadian weather is not appropriate for these lovely trees. If it was, I would recommend every home buyer in the future to buy a cherry blossom tree for their backyard! The pics from Dalmaji Hill were really good and less crowded. This last picture shows the cherry blossoms on my school mountain. Like I said, it's everywhere and I like it a lot! Overall, it was a fantastic weekend of exploring!

Namhae Excursion

On Saturday, March 31st, 2012 I went to Namhae with 7 other friends from Busan: Nav, Yana, Soko, Karen, Victoria, Jay, and Jeongeun. The bus rides from Busan to Namhae and back was 2 hours each way and it was a great way for everyone to bond together as a group. This was my first trip in Korea since my trip to Daegu with Jay. I took so many photos as you can see. We attended a ceramics class and walked through the German village. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay longer to check out some hiking destinations but we did have a lot of fun. I would certainly come back again to this place if I were to stay back in Korea for another year. However, I am not going to renew my contract so my experiences and memories from Namhae will be everlasting through these images. On Sunday, I stayed at home and got a lot of things done for school. I also watched a Tamil movie called "Vaanam" (which means sky), cleaned my room, washed dishes, and I got everything prepared for the upcoming week. Next Saturday, I am going to go to Jinhae for the cherry blossoms. I can't wait to take pictures there because I have seen so many nice photos on google and from previous EPIK teachers who have been there already.

Checkpoint: 9 months

Three fourth of my teaching contract has been completed. In 3 more months I will be back in Toronto, Canada. This weekend I went and played Capture the Flag at Igidae park with bunch of people who I hardly knew. It was fun though. Tiring because it was on a mountainous park. The rest of the weekend I just went out for dinner with friends and just hung out. Nothing special because everyone was quite busy with other activities happening in and around Busan. I decided to enjoy the wonderfully warm weather and relax.

In the next three months I hope to have saved up enough money to pay off some of my debts from back home, explore many places in Korea as much as possible and book my flight ticket some time in late April. I need to look for a job when I am back in Toronto and I might even consider teaching abroad in another location if I don't get a job by the end of August. Teaching in Korea has given me a different perspective of education, the different cultural values and expectations of students and teachers, and of course the experience the deal with many issues that happen in everyday life that I would normally not face in Canada. Communication, understanding and social situations are drastically different from Toronto but Busan has its perks, such as cheaper cost of living, no tipping, cheaper taxi rides, cheaper to eat out than cook at home, and an efficient subway transportation system that makes TTC look like a medieval invention.

Anyways, I am looking forward to the next few months to enjoy my working vacation in South Korea but I am equally excited about coming back home!