Sping brings cherry blossoms

It's finally looking like spring in Korea! The country is grey for a good portion of the year, but not this week! Every corner of town greets it's people with soft hints of pink. There are cherry blossom trees blooming across the country and Ulsan. Chris and I took full advantage of the beautiful weather and the cherry blossom trees this weekend by making a trip to Geyong ju (Korea's Culture City). There was a cherry blossom festival going on, and I have to admit the cherry blossoms warmed my heart! Geyong ju has lots cherry blossoms, and all the stereotypical Korean things like temples, museums, parks, etc. We mainly enjoyed the park and nature today, as it was a beautiful day to be outside. We had already experienced Geyong ju in the fall, and we did a lot then. Today, we acted like Koreans, which means we walked around and took pictures of anything and everything! It's so nice to capture the beauty in nature after the cold winter is gone. Chris, on the other hand, was not too enthused with the cherry blossom trees. He goes, "You mean we have to travel an hour to look at the same trees I can see outside of my bedroom window?" Agghhh...he just doesn't get it! "Yes, Chris we do!" We took so many good pictures, but I hate to bore you with all of them. So, here are a few of my favorites.

The highlight of Chris's weekend was not the cherry blossoms, but a new sushi bar discovery we made on Saturday night. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty excited too! This sushi bar had such a relaxing and chilled atmosphere, and the taste of the sushi was similar to what we have back home. I'm so curious what the sushi will be like in Japan. When we were planning to come to Korea, we thought that the sushi would be amazing. However, after arriving and trying out a few sushi restaurants, we decided that the sushi in the states was what we preferred. I guess Japan will be the true and ultimate test of sushi. I'm really hoping that the "real deal" is more like the stuff from back home, but I'm guessing Korea has taken some tips from it's neighbor. Don't worry, I'll be sure to give you all the down low on what we think of true Japanese sushi....I'm sure it will be wonderful!!!
The only other news I have is something that the world probably has absolutely no interest in hearing, but sometimes I have to include memories of Korea that I want to preserve for myself. As we were out and about this weekend we saw a girl who is a new employee at our school. OK...we saw her, but she didn't see us :) I'm not gonna mention her name. However, she seems nice, but I don't really talk to her much. The funny thing is she always seems to be clinging and flirting with whatever guy is around or giving them some kind of really uncomfortable seductive eye...YES, at work!!! I guess I shouldn't be surprised that when we saw her she was again hanging on to the arm of some guy, and not any of the guys from our school! I say all of this not to point fingers at one particular person, but to leave myself with a reminder of how Korea and it's culture (eight months in) is still a mystery to me. Korea claims to be a reserved culture, but females wear little to no clothes, there's one park in particular dedicated to the anatomy of the male body (if ya know what I mean), and couples are extremely affectionate in public and I'm talking young couples. Maybe my perspective is off, but I just don't sense that the culture is anymore reserved than back home.

I'll leave you with my favorite picture from the weekend. This little boy was so cute with his rice cake. His mom kept trying to take pictures of him, but he just wanted to stare at us foreigners... PRECIOUS!