It was the start of spring and so it's blossom season which is fleeting to say the least. All the trees come into bloom at pretty much the same time and the trees are all different shades of white, pink, red and yellow for about a week and a half to two weeks. Then all the blossom falls all turns green for summer. So you'll see many random pictures of flowers where I've desperately tried to get a nice picture of flowers that I won't see again for another year.
Tuseday 24th April
This was our monthly hiking trip with all the faculty at our school again.
Wednesday 25th March
This day was a school trip to an educational environment centre for kids in 서천 (Seocheon). I chose to go with my 4th grade students purely because they're my favourite.
Friday 26th - Sunday 28th April
This was the weekend I went to the Jindo sea festival. Basically was a festival centred around a naturally occurring parting of the sea, along with it's associated legend. First I travelled to Daejeon on Friday night, and then I got the KTX (Korea's answer to the bullet train I guess), to Mokpo. There I stayed with one of my Korean friends who is a staff Sargent in the army. He actually lived in a really cool old style Japanese house which I wanted to take photos of just because of the layout and architecture style but I didn't want to be all like, "Hey can I come into your house and take photos of your home." but maybe next time. The next day we travelled to Jindo and we bumped into some of his English friends on the way and we all spent the day together.
Now, I've made it quite clear that I don't like spending too much time with foreigners in Korea, and this trip was no exception. At first everything was fine and I was enjoying being with like minded people who enjoyed shared a sense of humour, but that's as far as it got. the problem started with the alcohol. When English people say festival, they think of Leeds or Glastonbury festival, which is tents, alcohol, drugs, mud and loud music. to Korean people a festival is family and culture time. So all these guys brought their own booze, and progressively drank more throughout the day. At first they weren't so bad, but it got to the point where I was involved with THAT crowd of loud obnoxious foreigners and I was embarrassed to be around them. Not only that but they also stole something from one of the stands, and I was horrified. Never the less, I was there for the sea festival not for them so I tried to just enjoy my time.
That night me and "Seosamh" went back to his place in Jindo where I met his grandmother, who didn't speak a word of English but I liked her none the less and I spoke enough honorific Korean to her so i think she liked me too.
Anyway, the next day, He showed me around Mokpo and we did a little bit of mountain climbing before I had to leave.
From Mokpo I then got the KTX back up to Iksan. There I met another one of my Native Korean friends who is a student in his final year studying to be a mechanic. I definitely enjoyed my time here! His friends were all lovely and I really enjoyed being around other students again. At the moment I really feel like I get along with Koreans more than westerners. My only close western friend at the moment is Sai. bar her they're all Koreans. I didn't get many photos here, but we went to a Buddist lantern exhibition at the university campus on Sunday night. Then on Monday he showed me around the campus, and we went for a little shopping before I had to leave that night.
and alas...I then had to be back at work on Tusday 30th April. But! then I had another day off on Wednesday 1st May. I had not a great deal to do other than head to Daejeon again to run some errands and get some paint to finally start decorating my apartment. Though, a local foreign girl got in touch with me about going for a picnic since the weather was good, and where they were planning to go was pretty much the last place in Korea with blossom left. So I thought why not, I can go for a nice picnic in the morning, then go do my chores in the afternoon and be back for tea. I think I must have hit my head or just completely forgotten what the Saturday before was like with foreigners.
So we arrange to meet and get the bus station and get the 11am bus, naturally one of them is late, so we have to wait an hour for the next bus pushing back my schedule. I then had to spend an hour with them being loud in public which i thought was ok because soon it would end and we would be away from Korean people where they can be loud all they want, only I get into an argument with some american girl (who had been in korea for years) about Korean vocabulary. It didn't take me long to realise that many, including this group of foreigners don't socialise with native Koreans at all. They don't understand nor care to try to understand their culture, and don't bother to try to speak the language. they just stick to their little western bubble.
In any case we got the bus where naturally, they were all loud and knowing bus etiquette I sat a little away from them, and naturally an old woman told them to shut up. When we got to our destination I was much happier. The scenery was pretty and apart from the Americans complaining about how hard it is to walk whilst panting for breath, I was more comfortable being around them when I wasn't around any Korean people. When we got to where we were going to have lunch, we were all supposed to bring things to share korean style...like one other person besides myself brought some kimchi, and that's it. everyone else brought beer or candy for themselves. and when they all saw real food, they all tucked into my food. >.> not happy. I cut things short and left them to climb the rest of the way on their own.
got a couple of nice photos though...
And that's me. Hopefully my next blog will be a little less ranting about how much I really don't like foreigners in Korea.
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