Done and done.

My first "real" week = finished. Booya! I survived lesson plans, kindergarteners, giving my first real test, and living in the big city.

My weekend was rather uneventful as I am trying to stay low budget until my paycheck, but I still got out and had some adventures. Today I took an amazing walk! Most of the streets look like this:

Very colorful, lots of big signs, and the busier streets are crowded with vendors selling fresh fruits and veggies, prepared food, clothes, shoes, you name it. Another interesting thing you'll often see is outside of seafood restaurants. Huge tanks filled with eels, squid, crabs, lobster, fish, etc. are showcased outside, and when someone orders something an employee comes out with a net, catches it, and takes it back to the kitchen. Sorry, this pic isn't that great in quality... but you get the idea.

I'm sorry I don't have much else to report... it turns out that having a real job is pretty restrictive as far as being a tourist is concerned. I had all these grand ideas about becoming fluent in Korean, checking out every corner of this huge city, and really getting in to Korean culture, but the reality is much different (isn't it always?). I'm pretty tired when I'm done with work and often don't get home until after 7 pm. Then I need to prep lessons for the next day, grade papers, and fit in other important stuff like cooking, hitting the gym, and working on the 30 pounds of musical scores and text books I toted over here with me. It's all good, though. I'm digging the little routine I've started to create and working hard feels good after a super lax final semester of school and relatively uneventful summer.

I miss you all! I can't wait for visitors because this place really is pretty amazing. I leave you with a couple final photographs: the first one is the outside of my school and the second is one many of you have asked about... the view from my apartment window!