Saturday: A Week In Review

Date 10/29/2010
Breakfast a Ringdong Donuts 11.39 am

So it's my first Saturday in South Korea and the first week has been a doozy.  I haven't even done any postings for Friday (which I had both my school festival and I did Korean Singing Room with some of my teachers)!  But, I'm going to go backwards for a moment: Saturday first and then Friday.

I woke up this morning, and it was my second night at my apartment.  And I could wake up at my leisure because I didn't have to go to work (woot!).  And I realize that I had left my computer and coat in Ms Kim's car last night.  She had taken me to the teacher's dinner and I didn't want to carry my computer and heavy coat into the restaurant so I left it in the car.  But I was then invited to go to the Korean Singing Room (aka karaoke) with a few of the other teachers, and I did not drive home with Ms Kim.  So I figured I'd walk to school and, if I was lucky, I could pick up my computer and, if nothing else, I could walk the distance to school and learn a little bit about my apartment's location in relation to everything else in Gunsan.  It was a win-win.  

So I get dressed and put on my walking shoes.  I think it's about a 15 minute walk to school and I realize I am really glad that I have some new Merils with the super inserts for my high arches (Thanks, Mom!), because I am going to do a lot of walking in the next year.

Here are some photos I snapped during my walk from apartment to Seohung Middle School:

A lady drying her fish for her street vendor shop.

Another street vendor with dried fish or squid drying.

On one side of the street there are a bunch of gardens.  I loved the juxtaposition between the massive high rises on one side of the street and then on the other, gardens and shorter shops/homes.

I also pass this dancing pig.  I know it's silly, but this thing really creeps me out...

I make it to school in about 15 minutes.  It's an easy walk, basically down one street, across a couple big roads and then, bam!, at my school.  This is what Seohung Middle School looks like:

I was in luck!  I caught Ms Kim before she left and was able to get my computer, coat, and some hangers that she gave me.  It was a good thing I brought my backpack because I could carry all of the things.  

On my way home I decided to stop and get breakfast.  There were a couple places I could have choosen, but I wanted some coffee so I stopped at this place: 

This was my breakfast:

 It was quiet cosy inside:

 I actually ran into a couple of my students while I was eating my donuts.  There is school on Saturdays, in the morning.  And I had arrived to school just as they were getting out, so I actually walked back to my home with a couple of groups of Seohung Middle Schoolers.

It was a good morning.  I will probably got to Lotte Mart or Angel-in-us Coffee for lunch/dinner.  Look for the updates (after the Friday updates, of course!)