Paragon Busan

... of the French film "Sisters."<br><br>The venue was massive and completely packed. The heavyweight belter who played Effie in the recent Korean production of 'Dreamgirls' sang a few tunes prior to the film. Her Koren language rendition of "Cabaret" sent shockwaves through the air, but it was a bad idea for her to take on Beyonce's "Listen" in English. She should have sang the Korean version that was ...

... a swimsuit on, it was covered up by some ginormous t-shirt. they also don't like getting tan so they're all hiding under an umbrella. back in the day, dark, tan skin meant that you were poor and worked out in the fields and pale, light skin meant that you were rich. so i look like a field worker. the second day in this country, my aunt's neighbor said to my aunt "oh, she's really dark" and my aunt replied with, "oh he ...

... though the waves are no more than 3 feet), and it just feels more like a beach town than anywhere else. Growing up in SoCal may make me a little opinionated as to what makes a good beach town, but I do have to say that this beach feels more like home. <br><br> <br><br> My friend Matt, and owner of another popular bar in Busan, jumped on a chance to rent a space right on the beach for his new bar, Blowfish. I painted his ...

... knowing th*t I h*ve been trying to come see him, *nd th*t for the p*st few weekends, it h*s never worked out. I give it *bout 2.5 seconds of contempl*tion *nd *gree inst*ntly. Next we decide how it will best work out. He is t*king * 5-hour tr*in ride down *t 0700 S******y morning, *nd *sks me if I could meet him *round noon in Bus*n. I run over to the help desk *t the community center th*t I *m sitting in, *nd get * quick piece of *dvice. Kuns*n ...

... in the purchasing of these items. Last Saturday, one of my co-teachers and I went to an English Learning bookstore, and went crazy buying everything in site!! Textbooks, reading books, workbooks, audio, visual, games, dictionaries, etc. SO much fun. Really! My lesson plans were decent last year, but I felt like I was really limited in resources. Last year wasn't my first time leading a classroom, but it was the first time that every lesson was up to me ...

... salad and the cheesecake was a hit. A typical way of eating Korean food, is to pile a small sample of everything onto a piece of lettuce, and then shove it in your mouth. It's generally pretty tasty with Korean food--bbq pork, veggies, etc.... When I saw some of my students attempting to do the same thing with their Thanksgiving meal, I cracked up. Some were taking a slice of ham, piling potatoes, beans, AND the snicker ...

... and the surrounding areas. One girl I chatted with is heading to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro. On the way out we chatted with the owner of the hot dog stand, a cool Korean who slipped me some of his special hot as hell chilli sauce. Back at the hotel the Matt's and I passed out and unconsciously tried to out do each other in a symphony of snoring. James arrived later and upon hearing the multiple pigs that were being killed in the room he headed ...

... put to work the morning after we got here, and have been working ever since....we don't need an orientation now... Sigh... We just don't want to go this weekend....<br><br>Anyway, I just wanted to post a few pics of what I see on my way to school every day. It's really pretty right now because the cherry trees are in bloom. Nothing too special, but I thought I'd share :) I'm going to try and take some pictures at school soon as well.

... an overnight ferry to Fukuoka in Japan to get our work visa for the coming months. I also mentioned that Nick, one of my students in camp, would be meeting us in Busan and that Nick, we assumed, would be doing his best to extend to us the Korean hospitality we've become accustomed to over the past few weeks. Well, that's pretty much what happened for the day and a bit we found ourselves in Busan. We were ...

... no cocktails to be had so we made do with buying smoothies from the local coffee shop (on our second round he gave us a discount) and adding Soju to them. Yummy! The night carried on in a similar vein to Gangchon, watching the world go by, dodging fireworks (there seems to be a fairly lax attitiude to setting them off and indeed one missed John's head by centimetres) and chatting to locals - we spoke, or attempted to speak, more Korean that night than we have done on ...