Welcome to Gaya, Haman

Welcome to Gaya-Eup, Haman, my new home in Korea - 20 odd minutes from the coastal city of Changwon. The best set of directions I could give you is to drive away from Changwon until you see a giant watermelon slice suspended above the road. You see it? You think it looks odd too?
Well done... your in Haman!

A view of the river from Gaya.

Admittedly, at first I was a little shocked by my placement. Ever tried to google Haman? There really isn't much to find. Any photos I could see through a quick internet search, were of farm land and watermelons. Explaining that I would be teaching at 4 different schools, my co-teacher laughed and congratulated another fellow native teacher on a better placement than mine. I hadn't even arrived, and I was already worried. Where on Earth was I going?

On the way to Gaya-Eup

Looking back on it, I should have remembered the same stressed and lost feeling I had had on my drive to Yeongju, two and a half years ago. I had been fine before, I would be fine this time around as well. Sometimes this sort of thing just requires a little faith.

Jumping ahead nearly a month to the day, I can quite happily say I'm pretty settled in Haman.
I work at 4 schools that let me teach as I see fit and I get to change my scenery each day.  Most of the schools I visit are set against green rolling hills, with pot plants lining every hallway. My Thursday school rests along a riverside and my Friday one overlooks an orchard. To think, an initially preferred job in Seoul would have seen me commuting to work each day by subway.

Stairs up to my Friday school

Walking to the cafeteria during lunch break.

A view from the parking lot. 

A look out of my classroom window at the mountains and crops.

Luckily, my apartment is huge in comparison to the last one, I am going to buy a sleeper couch and dinning table with my first paycheck. I cant wait to make it more of a home. There are also 4 other foreigners in my building and about 12 in Haman alone. Its not quite as isolated as I had thought.

My apartment when I first arrived

This time I get a full on kitchen.

Whats more, it turns out that Haman is realistically only 20 minutes from quite a big city (greater Changwon) and Busan is only 45 minutes away. I have a scenic mountain view on the way to work each morning, but can also eat Pizza Hut and watch a 3D movie any day of the week. I think that's a pretty good compromise.

A view of Busan at night- a city 45 minutes away. 

Finally, and more importantly my faith has been renewed in wanting to be an educator. 3 months ago I felt totally lost in what I wanted to do with my life. Scanning through lines of coding and online task panels, there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully, coming back to Korea has made me realize that this is definitely where I see myself in the future. As a teacher.
I'm thankful that I made the difficult decision to come back after nearly a year away.

My English class at my Tuesday school.

A flower given by the students for teachers day.

Looking forward to the weeks ahead and finding out more about the area and an exciting few months ahead.