Gunsan will be COOL

Nov 22, 2011

Gunsan will soon be cool.  Here's the proof:

 Can we get an AMEN!

Not that Gunsan needs another coffee shop.  Seriously, they are worse in Korea than back at home.  There is one on every street corner--if not like three or four on a block.  But, Gunsan's mayor is trying to make Gunsan a Place To Come.  That means an international school, a English village, a major hospital, shopping center, parks, tourist economy (out on the island of Seonyudo), and so on and so forth.  And, so far, he's been pretty successful.  In four years they've built over half the city.  It's impressive.

So, now, in honor of their great move towards Places TO Be, we welcome a starbucks.  Big Smiles.

I really hope they have pumpkin lattes, or chai tea.  Been missing those...

And with that, I'll leave you with some of the coffee's I've recently had the pleasure of drinking.

This started out as a leaf, but morphed into something infinitely much cooler as I continued to drink it. 

Coffee Love

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!)