so i have to start wearing a disguise coz i get off the bus from downtown in my neighbourhood after school and a girl from my school runs up to me at the bus stop, knows my name, and tries to talk in english! i had no classes monday so i snuck out after lunch to goto the immigration office to get my registration card finally. this means now i can get internet and cable tv at home, and the school can pay me the 300,000 won ($250) settlement allowance. no pay yet or flight reimbursement, and i've been living off the cash i brought and trying not to withdraw from atm, but suddenly all the money will come in at once, next week i hope!

after the immigration office i try to go across the river to a gate i was trying to get to on saturday in the rain. the road bridge was a long walk in the sun and i see a pedestrian foot bridge halfway, which will get me to the shade on the other side. at first i wasnt sure what it was as nothing was moving on it? then i see a booth with a guy charging admission. in bad english it said 'one man, one way, one man come back'. i was hoping it didnt literally mean a one way trip and would collapse on me midway! so i carefully and slowly start to walk across as it starts to vibrate and sway from my movements. even some of the planks were suspect. luckily, nobody else was coming to rock the bridge until i was about 3/4 way a lady came from the other side but i think she was waiting for me to pass as she didnt like the rocking either.

a further walk down the other side i find a tourist info booth. poor lady has to sit in the sun all day. there were a couple of monuments and a weapons gallery which was closed today but i saw the pics in the brochures she gave me. the other side of a foot bridge crossing the highway was the gatetower i was trying to reach. this is one of the old city wall gates, similar to the gatetower i saw in xian china earlier this year. one of the locals even tried to give me a tour and tell me where to take the pics.

this is a gate from the 16th century city walls but was destroyed during the japanese occupation, so this is a recreation. also, one of the americal bases is closeby so it was very noisy from the camoflaged fighters. forgot to mention i also stopped by Tongcheonsa Temple (pics included) before the immigration office so overall a productive day off school!............ i try to make every spare day like a day on the amazing race!!!

tuesday we had the school trip to woobang land which is a big amusement park. it also has an observation tower which was included in the ticket price. there wasnt much to see from the top due to the haze. at the foot they have the city aquariam which included baby sharks, aligators, penguins, and a snake chewing on a chicken for lunch!

they do things differently here. they told the kids to take a local city bus to the park and we will meet them there. as a former liability insurance underwriter many things here just leave me speechless but its much nicer to be somewhere where everyone is honest and trusts each other. none of the kids went 'missing', got lost, or decided not to show up, and everyone was present. try that back home with 300 kids!

just discovered spicy tinned tuna, tastes like fish curry to me!! :)
found a trailer for the movie we watched during orientation about the king and street performers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh_YVgnM 9J0
these are the kind of masks they will have at the andong mask dance festival

my devil possessed children have all decided they want after school classes on fridays, the same day the board is offering free korean classes downtown so i cant go... :-((
i was really looking forward to going and very dissapointed. they even gave them a choice of wednesdays or fridays and they insisted on coming fridays. maybe they have other classes during the week. i went the first nite to get the book so i can ask one of the teachers to try teaching me after. the lesson was actually very good and i was starting to read some words.

afterwards, was hanging out late with some friends and decided to take the bus back which i thought would not be a problem. after all if all the bars and clubs are running late night buses should be too.... wrong!... at 11.30pm the bus driver stops and tells everyone to get out. so i am somewhere at night in a foreign country, where i dont speak the langauage, the area wasnt too busy, and way too far to walk home.

this is when the korean education system pays off. the only other guy on the bus spoke some english and happened to be going in the same area coz i told him i wanted to goto chilgok homeplus. by this time a third guy arrived and we flagged down a cab and got in together.... this is what living overseas is all about, getting in a cab with two total strangers at midnite, barely speaking the language, in the middle of nowhere!!! i think i made a new friend coz the first guy was saying he tutors some of the kids from my school so he will try to find me after.

next mount apsen hike....