Busan

This weekend was excellent! I think the best of my time in Korea so far. We went to Busan, which is a city on the south coast of Korea. When we got there, we went and walked around this fish market for a while (snapped some pictures) and then we headed to the beach. I love the beach. I love the sun, the water, watersports (but then, not necessarily the man in the thong riding around on his 'sea-doo').... so maybe I didn't like "everything" ;)

Needless to say, the reason for Busan: Shark Diving! My sister had talked about doing this, and given that it's something I've never done, I thought it might be fun. And it WAS :) We got to the aquarium on sunday morning and then went with an instructor who taught us the basics of scuba diving, and then we suited up in wet suits and headed into the tank.....which was funny, because it was actually a tank at the Busan aquarium....Korean's watching us in there from all directions...in with the sharks! Mwahaha! I was a total ham and was waving back etc. etc....it was funny :)

Anyhow, I'm now sitting here, back in Cheong Ju, washing my clothes and gearing up my bag for my flights again tomorrow.....Africa! I had this moment yesterday where I was trying to remember the details when I last was in Uganda, and I remember that lots of moms handed their babies to me....mostly at church functions. I'm looking forward to that again :) A couple named Sean and Jamie Davis are picking me up at the airport and I'm going to be in Kibaale for the first couple weeks.......for interest sake.....

And lastly, photos from this weekend. The last one was taken with the instructor's underwater camera......from the left: Adam, Heather and Me. And no, I do not have a picture of me WITH a shark, but I can assure you: Those things swam within a couple feet of my face ;)

Just some Kiddos!

So, I've had a few days to visit my sister's classes. She's teaching here in Korea and I've visited her kindergarten class twice. She gave me the 'go-ahead' to take some pictures yesterday, so I took advantage :)

Little did she know I'd also post the pictures the next day ;)

Confessions....

from Cheryl: The shopaholic ;)

So my first week in Korea has gone by quickly. I've gone with my sister and brother in law to a lot of different restaurants and yesterday we went to a place called Songnisan - It is a big park that is home to a buddha that is 5 stories tall and worth about 4 millions dollars. Needless to say, it's buddha's birthday on May 1st, so there were colorful lanterns everywhere. It was really pretty ;)

In the meantime though, I must comment on the shopping here. I didn't think that I'd end up buying much (given that I believed 'hello kitty' might make an appearance on each and every shirt or skirt that I saw), but MY GOODNESS....the shopping is quite fun! There are a lot of vintage-y floral dresses and hats and scarves and other little gems that are quite CHEAP. But then again, maybe not so cheap when you load up on the stuff (as I have). I also like this store called 'skin food' that sells natural soaps and lotions etc. etc. I've yet to buy anything there, but I still have another week and a bit ;) And today, Heather, Adam and I were walking downtown and it was really hot so we planned on getting these waffles with whip cream and strawberries (which I realize is far from Korean), but we submitted to getting these soft serve cones (also not korean). Notice the shopping bag on my right arm. Truth of my shopping disability... And I'm also apparently VERY excited about the ice cream. Heather and Adam: Excited about the ice cream but NOT so excited that I wanted a picture of them with their cones ;)

I think that's about it for now. I've tried some different foods, and I'll post pictures of other random things, but I think that's about it for now. Hope you're having a great easter weekend ;)

Korea!

I'm here! In Korea that is. I had a 3 hr lay over in Hong Kong in which I decided to take a nap in the terminal and woke up to a ton of korean's surrounding me....I was most definitely the tallest (by at least a foot) and blondest of them all ;) And although it may sound wierd, the thought went through my mind "Oh, I've missed this travelling stuff!" There is just something to be said about a) Being in a different culture and b) Being out of your element :)

Needless to say, I got into the Seoul airport at about 430am, where my sister and brother in law picked me up. We spent this past weekend in Seoul, went to a market where I bought a cute hat for $7 and a scarf for $3....I like this kind of shopping :) We also went for some korean barbeque, which was cool because you basically cook your own meat on a small barbeque in the middle of your dinner table (they have similar stuff in canada), and then wrap it in a lettuce leaf with rice/kimchi/red pepper sauce etc. etc.....it was yummy.

Yesterday (sunday), we went to a palace called Gyeong Bok Gung (try and say that three times fast!) and then took the 1.5 hr bus from Seoul to Cheong ju where my sister/brother in law have been teaching. I am presently sitting in their apartment with their wee dog on my lap. I'm not usually an animal lover but this dog is kinda cute. She's actually missing an eye, but that's another story :)

For now though, I'm going to have a bath and then read a bit. Oh! I am hoping to become very familiar with the concept of relaxing in the next little while. North America has it's way of sucking the life out of you at times....and I do realize that this period of rest will last for only a while. So I will take what I can get right now :)

And with that, I hope you enjoy the pictures! Oh! And it's actually monday right now....not sunday like the post says ;)