Market

There's a traditional market just down the street from our apartment. There was one in our old town, but it only came every five days. Vendors are at this market every day, and it 's really busy in the evening... The market's the best place to find fresh, cheap produce.

These are all different kinds of snacks. Most of them are fishcakes
(thin patties made from ground up fish.) People can buy them and stand there and eat,
using the sauces in the bowls.

Grains and garlic. (Onions too!)

The bottom row are squid - very popular here.

Crab and other sea critters...



These are usually translated as rice cakes. They're made out of glutinous rice,
and are a traditional dessert. They're not very sweet,
and kind of remind me of a dense, extra chewy noodle.


Most Korean meals are served with a variety of pan-chan (pronounced pon-chon loosely side dishes in English.) The pan-chan are mostly vegetables, and sometimes seafood that have been seasoned/marinated. They're delicious eaten alone or with rice. This vendor sells a huge variety of them, I can't imagine who makes them all!
The same vendor sells kimchi, and it's so popular, it's made in even bigger portions.

Dried roots and mushrooms. The things that look like sticks wrapped in red ribbon
(up and to the of the red bowl) are cinnamon.

A women mixes a huge dish of ddeok po ki. Ddeok po ki is made with rice cakes (shaped like long and thick noodles) and a sweet chili sauce. There's also usually green onions, fish cakes and a hard boiled egg mixed in. It's really popular with school children.

These women are enjoying some ddeok po ki at a street stand in the market.

Park

There are a dozen of these little parks throughout the apartment complexes. Some are only a few benches in a green area. This is a larger one with all sorts of exercise equipment.

This is a skate park I found in the opposite direction.
The kids seemed more interested in skating around the ramps then on them.

Return of the English Teacher

I'm back in Korea. I'm teaching English at two middle schools in Gimhae (in the southeastern part of the country.) I survived my first week. I had to get used to going to work again (poor me!) All of my co-teachers are really nice. I work at Jangyu Middle School and Hallim Middle School. They're both considered "rural" schools because they're out of the main Gimhae area. The Jangyu area is pretty built up though. It's very fast growing. Hallim is in a less populated area, surrounded by mountains.

On my third day a camera man from Gimhae News came to record one of my classes. It was a little stressful since it was only my third day! My co-teacher (Korean English teacher in the classroom with me) and I taught the class together, so that was helpful. I felt so sorry for the students, they really didn't want to make any mistakes in front of the camera, and it was my first time meeting them!. I've heard that it will be available on their website next week. I'll post the link when I get it. The news clip with my class in it is suppose to be on the local channel 18 times next week!

I'm adjusting to being back here. I'm getting used to certain aspects of the culture again such as things not getting done when I'm told they'll be done, and the hectic level of activity. There are a lot more foreigners here than in our last town, so we've seen them quite a bit. Okay, on to the photos...

We went to find Hallim Middle school, and saw all of this squash
growing on top of a collection of motorcycles and old tires.

Down the street from our apartment.

I went to a restaurant up in one of the mountains surrounding Gimhae.

A small part of a larger temple on Imho Mountain. Imho Mountain
is within walking distance of our apartment.

Peppers drying near the temple.

Figurines placed along the cliff next to the temple.

View from the temple.

View of Gimhae from the temple.

View in the direction of our apartment.

HanGuk Apartments

The kitchen (bigger than our last kitchen, or maybe it just has smaller appliances...)

Bedroom

View from the doorway. The bedroom is on the right,
and the living room on the left.

Doorway and bathroom.

The view from the back window.

The view out our front door.
(Getting the idea of what our building looks like?)


The view to the right out our front door.