yellow dust and my birthday

See that nice dusting of yellow on the sidewalk? That's yellow dust and I had no idea it existed until I came to Korea. I remember, during my first year, my co-teachers asking me if we had yellow dust in Canada, of course I said no, but at that time it was a foreign concept to me. Yellow dust flies on in from China and is fantastically horrible for your health if you breathe in a whole lot of it. I was advised by my initial co-teachers to wear a face mask and avoid being outside during prime yellow dust times.

And yesterday was my birthday! I had a nice long break in between classes so I opted to take a relaxing trip out to Jungangtap park (which I visited before here) and spent my time just enjoying the weather.

I happened to notice all of the ongoing construction (how couldn't you?) in preparation for the 2013 rowing championships. It's the biggest thing we've got happening here in Chungju!

Makguksu 막국수 seemed to be the most popular option available at the restaurants by the park, so that is what I went with for lunch. Makguksu is buckwheat noodles in cold broth with gochujang (pepper paste), vegetables and half an egg. You also had the option of adding vinegar and mustard. Similar to bibim naengmyun or mul naengmyun, but not so chewy.

And then I returned for the rest of my classes, which resulted in this awesome drawing. Sure, I teach university kids now, but they can still churn out some pretty awesome drawings. This is a drawing of me and my students celebrating my birthday, the food is (kinda) vegetarian in my honor, and they added in all kinds of animals (naturally including a unicorn) cause they know how much I like animals. It now proudly hangs in my cubicle/office.

 And then it was on to jello shots. I poured the jello/vodka mixture into gutted out halves of oranges and let them set and then sliced them up. In the end, quite a bit more work than they're worth, but hey at least they looked really cool.

Then Slobbie time, a bar-esque place that really should be called snobby. And then drinks by the lake. I keep taking pictures of it, even though it's the view from my window and I see it all the time.