Vacation

It seems it's been a while since I've posted. I suppose catching up would help explain why. 

Back in July, we got a 5-day summer vacation. Andrew and I decided on Beijing as our destination. Before we even left, it was stressful. We were working with a company which had relations with our academy in order to secure visas to enter China. (We'd already come to terms with the fact Americans had to pay $190 while Canadians had to pay $50.) They were also going to help us with flights and hotels. Yet, as so often happens here in Korea, plans changed at the last moment and we were forced to plan it ourselves with a week left. 

The good: Being able to see the Forbidden Palace, tobogganing down the side of the Great Wall, eating Peking duck, walking around the hutongs, seeing the Temple of Heaven, meeting some great people. 

The bad: The sold-out bus to Incheon airport in the back with the heat of the engine and a vomiting child in the seat next to us, the 5-hour wait before even checking in, the 100 degree heat, 100% humidity, and extreme smog; the scammers constantly hounding us to take their tours of the Great Wall, the salespeople at stores grabbing you with their sweating hands in order to get you to stay and buy something, and the inability to get a cab without being scammed out of your money. 

When we returned, everything went wrong. Out of the foreign teachers, 3 didn't return in time for their classes. Furthermore, after a couple days of dealing with the aftermath, one of those teachers ran away in the middle of the night. Because of this, the other foreign teachers took on a bigger classload during the Intensive session, when we already had too many. We were also put under watch and scrutiny and made to feel like unloyal, immature children. Since then, I haven't felt like writing. 

I became very discouraged with this experience, and tired, and disappointed in people. That's not to say that good hasn't happened, but overall, I didn't feel like keeping up with this. 

That changed with this vacation. It's currently Chuseok, Korea's most important holiday which is the equivalent of Thanksgiving. We were given a 6-day break. Instead of planning another trip, we decided to stay in Korea to relax and de-stress. 

We kicked off Friday night with drinks and a norebang (a karaoke room) with great people until 7 AM. After relaxing on Saturday, we took an early bus to Busan and headed to Haeundae. We ate amazing Mexican at FN Tacos, found a love motel* to stay in, and went back to FN Tacos again before heading the to beach and the Busan Aquarium. After that, we went back to take a nap, then set out to find Senora's, another Mexican restaurant in the area. It's a tiny little place with only 5 stools to sit in, and only room for about 7 people in all. The walls and ceiling are covered in post-it notes from people who have visited.  If you're ever at Senora's, look for the sticky note with the Busan otter. They had some of the freshest burritos I've ever had, but it didn't compare to FN Tacos. After filling up on more Mexican, we got some coffee and sat on the beach. The rest of the vacation could have been a disaster and I still would have called that the best vacation ever. 

In the morning, we got up and went to get lunch at FN Tacos again. Then we navigated the metro to head to Bujeon market to look at THE place for musicians shopping in Korea. On our way back to Haeundae, we stopped at the Museum of Modern Art to see Busan's Biennale, and it was relaxing and fun. To round off the day, we gorged ourselves at Outback and spent the rest of the night feeling guilty. 

Before leaving on Tuesday morning, we tried FN Tacos once again, but the chef wasn't ready to start cooking, and we didn't want to wait. We'd already been there 3 times in 2 days :) We then went to the bus terminal and had to wait 3 hours for our bus because it was the day for traveling in Korea. We ate some bibimbap and relaxed at a coffee shop in the air conditioning. Despite everyone's warnings against traveling during this time, we ran into no troubles and were back in Gwangju before we thought we'd be. 

Now I'm spending a relaxing day with TV, wondering if First Nepal is open today. I never thought a vacation could flip everything back around. Now I look forward to the next one :)

*A final word on love motels: Korea pretends to be a conservative culture, and I get hateful looks from the old women and men if I even wear a tank top, yet love motels abound wherever you go. If anyone finds out I live with my boyfriend unmarried, it's frowned upon. Yet those love motels...You can tell them from their interesting exteriors and the flashing neon lights. And if you're ever unsure if you just checked into one, you'll be sure if you're handed a pack of condoms. The rooms are fun, but if you turn on the "fun" lighting, you'll immediately feel like you're in a bad porn movie even if you're watching Toy Story 3 in flannel PJ's. You even get a porn channel with horribly awkward scenes of Asian love. They're cheap, interesting, but infuriating because Koreans won't relinquish their traditional ideals about relationships even when the neons are reflecting on their faces. 

Yeosu and Odongdo

Oh, the neverending opportunities for day-trips is one of the best thing about living here. This Sunday we were off to Yeosu after an already great start to the weekend.

Yeosu is on the very southern coast of ol' SoKo, and it's pocked with islands. From the Gwangju bus terminal, it's a 9,400 won ticket and takes about an hour and 40 minutes, though the signs at the terminal tell you it's two hours. After a nice bus nap, we hit up the Yeosu terminal for some drinks, and get an extra bottle of water thrown in for free. (This will become more pertinent, promise!)

We were heading for Odongdo, which is one of the islands of Yeosu connected to the mainland by a bridge. We were going to take a taxi, but the signs were easy to follow and we decided to walk. About a kilometer in, we see another sign that says Odongdo is 4 km away. We tried to calculate how long it would take to walk, and figured we'd do it. Despite the horrible overcast sky and the humidity, it was actually a nice day.

As we were getting closer, we saw signs for the 2012 Yeosu Expo, which is advertised all over the city on everything from high-rise apartment buildings to the pedestrian bridges.

They've constructed a really nice exhibition hall showing everyone what the plans are for the expo. Yeosu has this goal to create a sustainable marine environment by 2050, complete with underwater aquarium tubes and floating patches of different marine environments. It looks pretty bad ass, and I figure I can come back when I'm 60 to see it fully completed. 

I had to take a picture with their adorb mascots, and then we trekked on down to Odongdo. 

The forecast had said there was a chance of rain and we were holding out hope that we'd missed it so far. After all, we finally made it to the island.

And then as we crossed the bridge, the downpour began. By the time we got on the island, my shoes were filled with water and Andrew's pants were soaked. Luckily, we just bought little travel umbrellas and got to use them!

The island was gorgeous, and we walked through the forest taking pictures of all the frogs hopping across the path. We ventured down to the Cave of Dragon, where we met a nice guy whom we exchanged photo-taking responsibilities with.

There's also a footpath on the island that was famous enough to make it into our guidebook. You're supposed to walk on it barefoot, and it alternates between small, pointy stones, big rocks, triangle stones, and wood blocks. It's supposed to help your pressure points or something, but I did it with only one foot and was in terrible pain. Ouch!

We got some snacks, caught a taxi where the driver asked us questions about our lives and then gave us Brazilian coffee candy, and journeyed on to find lunch. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant, which wasn't the best in the world, but it certainly was filling. There were also two men in there that I think were from either Greece or Russia.

When we got back to Gwangju, we picked up another bottle of water, and got another free bottle. I don't know if the associates thought we were poor or something because we were paying with change and thought we couldn't afford two, but two times in one day??? Very curious. 

Now it's back to another tiring week at work!

Chincha? Really?

Fascinating, despicable, and heartbreaking.

You can spare 15 minutes for this video.

A Look Inside North Korea

Damyang

Finally. After two weeks of wanting to go but first being deterred by poor weather and then me getting sick, we made it to Damyang.

The town is famous for bamboo, and a huge tourist destination is its bamboo forest.

It's only 13 miles north of Gwangju, but the bus ride takes about 40 minutes. They've finally turned on the air conditioning on most public transportation now, so it felt good to sit under a cold breeze. 

We walked through the forest, ate some street food, and hung out with the pandas. 

However, the best part of the entire day was the cab ride home from the bus terminal. The cab driver and his car reeked of body odor, he ran people off the road and flew through red lights screeching his horn, and blared this song and two others by the same music group. Priceless. 

Korean Medicine

After two weeks of a nasty cough and terribly runny nose, my face erupted into intense pain Thursday morning. After a quick check on WebMD, I diagnosed myself as having a sinus infection. When I woke up Friday morning in even more pain, I decided to go to the doctor.

Two of my friends had been sick when I arrived, and so told me to go to the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor they went to. They told me he spoke English and gave me the directions. I followed the directions they gave me, and did end up at a doctor, but it was a pediatrician. And SHE spoke at intermediate level English.

Anyway, after the nurses tried for a good 5 minutes to figure out what my first, middle, and last name were from my registration card, I went to see the doctor. Once I was out, I paid, went downstairs to the pharmacy, got a prescription for 3 days, paid for my meds, and left. All said and done, it took 30 minutes for about $25 for the visit and the medication. If I turn in my receipts, I will get reimbursed for most of it. I love Korea.

Childhood

In class, one of my brightest students grabbed my hand and was admiring my painted nails. She then said "My mother says painting your nails is..." and she said the rest in Korean, which made them all laugh. When I asked her to explain, the gist that I got was that her mother doesn't think a child should waste their time with trifling activities. If they have the time to paint their nails, they should spend it studying.

This girl is only 11, and though I find it somewhat sad that she has spent her 11 little years working really hard studying, it's sure paid off for her.

In Korea, the kids have adult-level pressures on them to constantly learn and succeed. In America, I don't think children have nearly enough. Maybe both countries should find a happy medium.

Tequilaz

It's been three months since my last burrito and margarita. So when I found out a Mexican Cantina opened in Gwangju in February, I rallied the troops to go find this holy grail.

It's about a 10,000 won cab ride away from us. If you live in Gwangju, tell the cab driver "Chundehumoon" and he'll know what you mean. Take a right at the Dunkin' Donuts and it's in the second alley to the right.

The food wasn't bad, nor were the margaritas.

However, when you want to make Mexican food in Korea, you do the best with what you got. Thus, the food had a homemade taste to it. I got a strawberry and a cherry margarita throughout the night, and neither tasted like it's flavor. But they were pretty smooth and filled the void in my Korean life. 

Speaking of Korean life, this is drawn on the wall of the Speakeasy, the foreigner's bar downtown. I thought you might enjoy it :-)