A Good Weekend

This was a good weekend but it sure went by quickly. Friday night a few of the guys from work went out for barbeque, which is just fantastic here. Saturday was a busy day. Another one of the teachers and I went downtown to wonder around and do some shopping. We hopped on the bus and took off. The bus to downtown is pretty cheap (1500 won I think it was one way) but it took us a good 20-25 mins to get there. It's worth it though in the beginning. It allows me to get to see some of the city as we head downtown. Once we got downtown we started wondering around. There are a lot of shops and its seems we walked by them all. We checked out a huge department store downtown and wound up finding a really nice little coffee shop on the top floor. We stopped for a drink before heading out to do some more shopping. We found a bookstore with a few shelves of books in English and both picked one up. I got 1984 by George Orwell, and cant' wait to start it right after I finish the one I am reading now, The Street Lawyer by John Grisham. We walked all over downtown, and at one point got off the beaten path so to speak. We found a few side streets where the "locals" would shop which turned out to be quite interesting. They had everything from Army surplus stores to electronics and little cafes. I was on the look out for funny signs, well funny to me anyway. Some of the store names are very basic and are humorous to the English speakers. Check out my flickr page for the group titled Downtown Daegu for the pics of the signs I saw. We both wound up picking up a few gifts to send home and called it a day after about 5 hours downtown.

I don't know the going rate, but smiles are on sale!

After a long day of walking and shopping, I came back home, grabbed a little gin mandu, and rested for an hour or so before heading out again. Rich, one of the other teachers on my floor was having a poker night at his place. So I headed over there to meet up with a bunch of the Foreign teachers. I met several teachers from the other Avalon branch who were from Scotland and Canada. Several of the guys played a game of poker while me and some other broke out the Scrabble. This has to be my worst board game of all time, and of course I would wind up last in both games. Neither game was much of a contest as the resident Scrabble pro from California Erika wiped the floor with us. It was a lot of fun though as we hung out and chatted into the early morning hours. It was a long day but a good one so I headed home to crash.

Sunday has been a little more laid back. I went downtown to Gorilla Burger for lunch after hearing how good it was. It was good for Korean beef but did not compare to what I was used to at home.

After heading back home from downtown, I decided to head up to the 15th floor of my building to take some photos of the neighborhood. I got some good ones too. I tried getting up on the roof so I could get the whole area and the sunset, but all the doors leading up there were locked, so I was relegated to taking photos from the 15th floor.

All in all it was a good weekend. I want to go hiking next weekend as I think the weather is going to warm up a bit. I also start teaching this week, so that should be fun. I know I'll have to fumble through my first few days but I am looking forward to it. Anyway that is all for now.

'Till next time,
E

Trip Downtown and Health Check

I have been lazy the past few days and not updated anything. It gets to be a pain to walk down to the internet cafe to do email, blog, etc.. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have internet in my apartment which will make things easier.

So Sunday I decided I would go downtown to check it out. I set out looking for a restaurant that NET (I have learned this means Native English Teachers) hang out at. It's called the Holy Grill and many claim they have good Tex/Mex, even if it is run by Canucks. I didn't get to judge the food because I never found it. I made it downtown okay and was wondering around looking at all the shops and whatnot when it started to rain. After it started coming down a little too hard to walk in with no umbrella, I ducked into McDonalds for some lunch. I was curious how similar it was to what you get in the US, and found out it was very similar. I got a Big Mac and noticed no difference than that from the US. As I sat eating my lunch two guys sit down next to me and start talking to me. They are Korean and one knows a little English. He asks me the normal questions of where are you from, how long have you been here, etc... I can barely eat my lunch he is so inquizitive. After a short time it gets a little annoying and I move to make my escape.

The downtown area I went to was very nice. There were many shops of brands I reconize from the US as well as places like the golden arches, Burger King, and Bennigans. I didn't get time to look at too many of the shops with the rain but over all it was a good day.

Monday came and I awaited to see if I would do my medical check up that day. They told me Monday or Tuesday so I was unsure. Sure enough they come knocking on my door Monday to take me. I was taken to two seperate places. At one I did a blood and urine test. They check for things like AIDS and whatnot. At the other place they did a swab of my throat looking for the flu virus. They are very cautious of the swine flu here. Walking a few blocks you will see many people wearing the surgical masks out of fear of catching the flu. They seem to have done a good job controlling it however, but it is almost to panic levels it seems.

So I passed the health check and today is the end of my week long quarantine. I finally get to start work tonight which is exciting. I have only met 1 person I will be working with and that was very briefly on the street the other day. I still have not met any of the other foreign teachers, but that will come once I start work.

Well that is all for now. Till next time,
E