Hello from Pohang

I arrived here last night to spend the summer break with Fred.  I left Suji around 11 am and headed out to Seoul on the subway.  I had been on the subway for about 5 minutes when this man started talking to me.  He wanted to know where I was from, if I liked teaching and if I liked Bush.  If people here speak English, they want to practice with you and ask tons of questions!  Then he left and another man started talking to me.  He was telling me which subways to take, I had to transfer, so it would be the fastest.  He ended up getting off of the subway and leading me to the transfer point.  Then he went back where we had just left.  On the second subway another man started talking to me.  He wrote down "Express Bus Terminal," where I needed to go, in Korean for me in case I got lost.  Then he decided it was too hard so he got off and walked me there.  We needed to exit the subway and just walk a little ways.  He even showed me what track to go to.  Everyone said "God Bless" and went on their way.  The Korean people are so willing to help you and really want to speak to you.

Once I was on the bus it was smooth sailing.  I had my own seat on the passenger side which was nice because it only had 1 seat and the drivers seat had 2.  Across from me was this lady, upper 20s, and her son, under 2.  We had stopped for a little break about 2 hrs outside of Pohang.  I was sitting back on the bus when the lady came back on.  She sat her son down and they gave me this bag filled with these Korean pastries.  They were really good.  She didn't speak English but was so nice and proud that I liked them.  

When I got here Fred and I went out to this place on the beach.  His apartment is under a 10 minute walk from the ocean.  At the restaurant you sit kind of outside.  The 3 walls are like tarp ed off but not solid walls so you can see the water (or pretty much just the gigantic steel company POSCO.)  Anyway, the tables have this open pit in the middle where they bring you your own fire pit.  It has a grill top and you cook your food.  They really only serve clams.  We had tons!  They came two ways, one with like a marinara sauce and cheese and one with jalapenos and onions.  They give you tons of sides to go along with it.  The people also come over and cook it for you so you don't have to.  We learned that they are not too happy if you try to do it yourself.  They laughed a few times at me when I tried to pick up carrot pieces with my chopsticks.  Not easy!  We had 3 ladies come up and talk to us.  They had had a little Soju (Korea's version of Vodka sort of and everyone drinks it like water) and were very talkative. They wanted to know what school we were at, where we were from ect.  Then one guy came up and grabbed them and said "Bye bye."  Its pretty crazy how fascinated people are with us.  

Fred showed me his school.  They have this really cool banner in front of it and has the teachers pictures on it and their info: Fred Jordan, Minnesota USA ect.  Fred doesn't have one yet but he will.  His school looks very different from mine.  It is its own building not jammed in a high rise like mine.  You can tell you are in a city of only half a million now very easily!  

Today we are going to the market in town.  It is also suppose to be one of the largest seafood markets in Korea so I am sure we will see some crazy stuff.  Tonight Pohang has its annual firework festival and the city is filled with people from all over Korea.  It is suppose to last like 90 minutes.  Koreans love their festivals and there is always at least one going on somewhere.

More later!