job site

As you may know I am an After School elementary ESL Teacher where I work at 2 different schools. I work everyday in Allack-dong which is a small district in Yeonsan-dong. (The biggest area of Busan) and one day (Wednesdays) near Centum City. The Cosmopolitan side of Busan.
I haven't really worked in Centum city though since they have had 2 vacation days and a snow day since I have been teaching. Thats all the times but 3.

Yeonsan-dong is beginning to be robotic in nature. I walk out of my house a little bit before 1pm. I enter the subway and go to Suyeong i order to transfer. I get into the car headed for Daejeo to the tune of " happy Metro, please continue riding on this subway, its comfortable, its fast blah blah blah,..its all in Korean and after a short break for the transfer to take place we are on our way. 8 minutes later I am pushed out the gate for Yeonsan.



Now, the interesting part... Yeonsan-dong is a very interesting place to me. Its a busy intersection and a place where many things are happening. There is a phenomenon that happens almost everywhere I go in Busan but especially here in Yeonsan-dong. When going up the escalator to leave the subway people are funneling their way in order to get onto the escalator. I hate it because people are so blind by the need to hurry the F*&* up that they forget bedside manners. Old women (people over 65) have a certain self-righteous aspect to them and feel they need to get out first.

I may seem to have a condescending attitude but I am sick of watching people treat others terribly. As I said the elderly feel that since they have been through hell and back they can push their way around all the time.

Another instance, today I saw a motorist nearly hit a little girl and her mom because he had to ride on the sidewalk. Chicken express coming through... I swear if someone gets their chicken 5 minutes later it may be just a little warm and then the company should be fined for be slow and giving cold chicken... that would be a great ironic story.


Enough complaints...

I got to my school, taught my 4 classes (with no prep time or lesson planned in advance) My colleague lost her voice and I am sick so teaching kids is quite tricky at times. At 6 I walked home.

This concludes the 5 days a week and now I look forward to returning to my alma-mater Nampo-dong! Tomorrow at 8am I will leave so excited!

Busan Metro System

Here is a map of the Busan Subway system. This is how I generally get around Busan through the use of my MyBi travel Card.

Down below is a list of the hotspots I travel to on a regular basis

Subway Line 3
Yeonsan-dong
This is a transfer station and where I actually get off in order to go to Allack-dong. Anmin elementary is located within 20 minutes walking distance from the subway station.

Gupo
This is a train station where we go in order to depart from Busan or when arriving back to Busan. Its a little cheaper for us to leave from this location since its 15 minutes closer to Gumi than Busan Station.


Subway Line 2
Geumnyeonsan station is my home. and next to that is Gwangan.
These two places are both situated on the beach. I never take a subway to Gwangan because its within walking distance. The beach is one of the most popular destinations in Busan.

Centum City
home of Shinsegae and Lotte Department Stores. A shoppers heaven and a place to waste money.


Kyungsung University- Home of two Universities and a chance to go drink coffee at the Starbucks close to both campuses.Starbucks is a franchise throughout Korea and this includes 3 within my district of Gwangan but we never go out for coffee only on occassion do we go out and this district is one of them.


Daeyeon- The third YBM Center is located here and we may end up working there later this year.


Seomyeon- Transfer Station Center of Busan and a place we rarely visit.

I have never been east of Seomyeon on Line 2 There are 24 subways stations past Seomyeon---In my opinion over half the city of Busan is located past Seomyeon.

Line 1
Saha-gu
Sinpyeong Hadan Saha Goejeong
I used to work in the Jangnim district Industrial factory area. Its not pretty and its quite far from any main source of nightlife, recreational hotspot etc.


Nampo-dong
Home of YBM, the old Center of Busan A Lotte Department Store created in December 2009. Nampo-dong was my old home as well. I was able to walk to work in under 5 minutes each day. gook-jae market is also here which is an outdoor market that sells anything you can find. There are many International products available


Two stops away is Busan Station. If we are going away for an extended time we usually taking the mugungawha or Sammauel train out of Busan Station. The plaza is huge and its actually a beautiful downtown district in my opinion.


Next up the line past Seomyeon is Busan National University. The only University in Busan that cracks the top 10 in Korea. It has wonderful Samgyapsal that is quite cheap (college area) and is close to Beomosa and a Botany area where you can view nice plants found around Busan and Korea.

After eating dinner we can go on a nature walk that follows the Oncheonjang river and can go all the way to Gwangan where we live. I love it here because it reminds me of Missoula.


These are the only hotspots in Busan that I have been to. Later I will enclose more information about each place as the events unfold.