It has been so long

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

I know it has been ever so long, and I have gotten a hint or two to get on it and post another blog, I have just been busy experiencing and enjoying my life here.
Well as much as I can anyways. It seems to be a case of a love/hate relationship with this country and its people. I am still at odds as to whether or not MY hogwan is the exception to the rule here. The director is the strangest man I have ever met, and the list of things that I am enduring here as a consequence seems to grow daily. If it wasn't for the fact that I made a choice to enjoy my life away from the hogwan, I most certainly would have packed it in ages ago.
Can you believe it? It has been 7months now! 7MONTHS! Holy crap and a pile 'o' poo! I have come to realise that I will never really leave Calgary, it seems to follow me round whereever I go. Glasgow was a British version of Calgary and now Ulsan is the Korean version. ACK!
Which brings me to my latest news, spending time in Seoul! Which I absolutely love by the way. What a wonderful city. I think most of my problem is that I really am a city girl and enjoy a place that doesn't really shut down more that one that does...Seoul seems to have something happening or something to do always...it is green and old and really quite beautiful. Why? OH Why? I always seem to make the oddest choices. But, with that in mind, my newest plan is to stay on for another year but this time in Seoul or thereabouts.
I feel armed and and equipped with knowledge. I can see why so many stay on for another year. It really is a learning experience for the first 7 months, and then suddenly it becomes quite easy and clear. I know that with the experience I have thus far, my time in Korea can be so much more rewarding the second time round.
Well...I suppose I should really get on to what has been going on with me the last month or so.
My last post was before I had gone to Busan, or anything like that. April, Dean and I ended up going to Busan one day, it was a bit eye opening as far as my living situation goes. Busan is quite lovely and has much more to do than Ulsan. It has Starbucks and all that! Over here that is just brilliant, let me tell you! I never thought I would be so happy to see it! But well, there it is...I can admit it. There is a lovely beach with a fantastic view. We had a pretty wonderful Vietnamese dinner as well. All in all, it made me realise how little Ulsan has and how much I want out of the small hick town I live in. Hahahaha...ok, it isn't quite like that, but really!
I have been really trying to get out and sketch, photograph, and explore. I have managed to see some amazing and astonishing things. There are lovely temples and palaces, ruins etc. And just the regular sites, backroads and all that.

I managed to catch an exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci...really wasn't mind you, but it turned out to be rather interesting. It was similar to a documentary type thing in two parts. The first was about Anne Frank and the Holocaust, basically some prints of the public records, books, photos etc...quite moving really. Then it kind of merged into a Leonardo Da Vinci documentary type thing. There were massive silkscreens of many of his works and then reproductions of his inventions...It was all very confusing but intriguing nonetheless. As I was wandering about taking pictures I was approached by a Korean woman with passable English, asking me what I thought of the show. Then I met the "artist"...her husband. It was really quite interesting...he was telling me about his concept (something about how DaVinci's work is still so instrumental and really one of the most commercially used) he had a bunch of the pop art that was reproduced using Da Vinci's images etc...and was reproducing it himself...I think there was some correlation between that and his emphasis on the inventions...though I still don't get the relationship with Anne Frank.

The night ended with Starbucks...oh what a treat!
Since then (that was some time ago now), I have been back to Busan and to Seoul. So I will just include some of my favorite photos...

The first bunch of photos are Busan





The next set are of an officials residence in Ulsan from several hundred years ago...people come here to play the popular chess type game and is quite a lovely oasis in the midst of Ulsan city.




There is photos of sunset on top of a "mountain" (more like a big hill really) that boast some ruins of some palace.
A photo of the man that got on the bus to Busan so that he could try and sell something...dunno what really.

Lanterns set up for Buddha's birthday. They were everywhere...and really quite beautiful