And we have finally arrived to Pusan, or is it Busan... I think the guy in Vancouver told us they spell it with a B now because that is the Korean way of pronouncing it. Either way, this city gives quite the first impression. The drive through the city to our apartment took us through a good part of it, giving us a peek at what seemed to be most of Busan. High rises, some lesser looking neighbourhoods and then the beach front that is across the street form our Korean palace now feel real and are not some place in the far east and in our imagination. The apartment is old but has lots of quirks and charm. The living space is larger than our Ottawa palace and our view of the ocean is super. Our bathroom is also our shower and drain for the washing machine... And thankfully Amanda found the switch to turn the hot water on which made the showering process much more pleasant. We are settled in and very happy with the place. In our immediate surroundings we have the beach - although swimming in this part of the Sea of Japan is apparently not all that safe - a fresh fruit and fish market and a couple of grocery stores. I have tried all foods thrown my way and am so far enjoying most of it. Most of the time I am not sure what I am eating but as long as I enjoy the taste I will continue to try new things. Amanda is still wrapping her brain around eating local food, although she has no problem with the rice! Bread and peanut butter are filling in quite nicely for her...well, for both of us!

Work begins on Monday and we both agree that that is a good thing. It will give us a little sense of purpose and more to do than adjust to our new surroundings. We saw the school yesterday after arriving and are both excited to see the kids and get started.

Most of the time we are thrilled to be here. We certainly have our mometns when we wonder what we are doing here, but these are normal jitters for both of us this early into anything new. We have already had one visitor, Sang Min from Pohang whom we met at our village last July in Ottawa. Such a nice, generous guy who took us out to a Korean bar and not an American one. A great place to spend our first evening here.

A presto...