I need a 'I <3 ILSAN' shirt

Hi everyone,

Sorry I am such a bad blogger! Blogging is suprisingly hard when you don't have internet. So its another sleepy Thursday today because here I am at work with not too much to do until 3:30 when my classes start. Today I had a little more to do because it is Testing time next week so I am trying to figure out the best way to make all the kids cry. No I really hope they dont cry, I would probably start crying if one of my sweet little kids started crying. Could you imagine that? Ya anyways to the topic at hand.

So I have about 30 minutes max to write this and a crap load to say because Ilsan is my favorite city ever right now and I want to tell you all about it.

Lets start with Lake Park. It is soooooooooooo beautiful that it really really makes me wish I had a girlfriend to take to it. As it is, I just go and walk around it or sit down on some nice green grass under trees full of noisy mannys. So basically it is a lake about 2 - 3 times the size of lake poway which is surrounded by really beautiful walking paths (many of them not just 1). There is one that goes real close to the water and over these big beautiful asian arcitecture bridges. Then another that is a little further back from the water and it goes around the whole entire lake. Then there is a bike or scooter whatever one that I haven't done yet because I haven't rented a bike yet.

Here is more about Lake Park:

But Lake park has no fishing or boats (kinda a bummer but it keeps the place beautiful) and a huge stone plaza which overlooks the center of the lake and is where you can always find Korean teen agers and many couples hanging out more so during the night.
Then there is a little zoo with some funny looking birds and the only bird I know is an ostrige which really enjoys sticking its head in the ground.
There is a rose garden which, 'no I am not gay' but I will say it is very pleasant.
One of my favorites is that there is a old style asian castle home and it is awesome, I really really wish i could upload pictures at work because I have good ones.
After that there is a few buddhist asian small temple like structures that you can always see people sitting and relaxing in. The arcitecture is done with very intricate designs and paints.
There is loads of free exercise equipment everywhere which is commonly used and of pretty decent quality.
There is a waterfall side of the lake that is beautiful.
There are pieces of modern artwork, like sculptures positioned around the 3 walkways and they are very interesting.
Then there are basketball courts and some other sporting things.
There are many play structures for kids.
There is a great beautiful hill on one side that is all natual like rain forest like trees and growth that you can hike up and it has like trials area where you can do things like walk across pointed concrete with your bare feet.
The lake has area's with lots of lilly pads and other water plants which are really pretty especially at dusk.
There are docks with people feeding the ducks.

The best parts of Lake Park for sure are these:
During the day you can see hundreds of familys camped out under the trees on the grass all around the whole lake so it isn't crowded AND you can see lots of families riding bikes around the lake. Normally the bikes are the tandem ones with the 2 seats on one bike or have different wheel sizes or just really small wheels or random things (and normally flat tires) but it is just too funny to see and it looks like loads of fun.

Also! in the evenings people are getting exercise much more so than the days and it isn't wierd for some 70+ year old asian woman to be powerwalking hardcore in full exercise equip and they always overtake me even when I am trying to get a work out.

The best part of all is the Music fountain.
This i have over 30 pictures of. At one end of Lake Park there is a gigantic fountain that does shows on the weekend for free with lights and fire and music. It is super awesome and possibly extreamely romantic. I actually did end up there with an expat girl but that story will have to wait. Anyways there are literaly thousands of people that come to see it evey night and it is totaly free in a huge stone plaza in to lake park. I can't even describe the scene at the music fountain or lake park because it is sooo amazing.

Also the people here are really nice. One night, as is often do, I went to lake park and was hanging out by the music fountain reading and watching the hundred of people riding in circles around the fountain or playing badmitton. I was alone and watching all the families play together and a kid from a nearby family came up and had a very basic conversation with me. We both wanted to say more but the langauge barrier was too great. So a few minutes later he came up and offered me a can coffee that he bought from one of the vending machines and then ran back to his family. Canned coffee here is pretty good. Later he came up and offered me a badmitton raquet and I played badmitton with him and his family. Koreans dont play with nets or points, its just hit the birdie back and forth as long as you can. I was enjoying myself. Finally I figured out what was going on; the family just thought I looked lonely by myself so they were nice enough to include me.

This really amazed me and I have had other similar things happen with very nice Koreans. I really love this country and these people. I haven't met many Korean's around my age but I know lots of expats around my age so I mostly hang out with them but I would love to meet some Koreans my age too. Mostly I have become good friends with children and old men. The old guys here are really really nice which i didnt expect at all.

Sorry I wrote so fast and sloppy, I wrote all this in under 30 mins and I skipped like 90% of what i wanted to say. OH and lake park is 100% artificial but it is super nice.