Settling In

Hey Everyone!

So I've been here for half of a week or so and I am starting to settle in a little. I've at least gotten adjusted to the time difference by now. Alyssa has already started work but I do not begin until October so I have been unpacking and trying to get things straightened out at the apartment. Good news, I have started taking my camera out and will have pictures to post, most likely later today! The food has been really good but without being able to speak Korean, Alyssa and I are pretty much left at the whim of whoever is serving us. Many a meals involve us looking at a menu for pictures and being unable to find any. When that is the case, the waiter usually says something to us in Korean to which we agree and await to see what we just ordered. Most of the time, we have ordered some sort of meat that we cook on a little grill in front of us or that is prepared in the kitchen, combined with some rice and many Korean side dishes ranging from kimchi/pickled vegetables to spicy squid to seaweed to garlic cloves and plenty more. This type of meal also comes with lettuce for us to make bite-sized wraps of meat/rice/veggies and it is delicious. Alyssa tells me it is called "sam" which I believe just refers to food wrapped in lettuce. I haven't explored Yangsan too much but it is a surprisingly beautiful place! Obviously, I had never heard of Yangsan (or even Busan) at this time last year but it has a very unique beauty that could definitely be talked about alongside plenty more popular travel destinations. As Alyssa mentioned, there is the Yangsan river which runs very close to our house and the city is surrounded by huge, incredible mountains covered in trees. It is quite the site to see huge apartment complexes that look so big on their own, completely dwarfed by the mountainscape behind them. We will be uploading some pictures of our apartment and the area soon! Yesterday, we visited the Buddhist Beomeosa Temple (pronounced Po-mo and "sa" means temple in Korean but the signs said both "sa" and "Temple"...) which was awesome! Originally constructed in 1614 up in the mountains of Busan, it was quite an experience. More info and pics to come. Also got some food pictures so you can follow along as we "Eat Our Way Through South Korea" :)

B