9/11

I have never felt as old as I did today.

In one of my more advanced classes, we were reading an article about face-recognition technology being put into airports and public places to stop crimes before they happen. The beginning of the article mentioned the terrorists who hijacked the planes on September 11, 2001, and if that technology would have done anything to stop them. Just off-hand I asked if they knew what happened on 9/11, not thinking for a minute I would get so many blank looks.

I spent the next 15 minutes explaining to them what happened on that day. I told them about how I was in my Freshman high school taking a biology test when I watched the second plane hit the towers.



I realized that when this happened, they were only 3 years old. I had one ask me why they would even know about it if it happened in America. They were completely unaware of the shockwaves it sent across the globe.

Blossom Festival

The Gwangyang blossom festival takes place in the Maehwa village every March. The village has the largest concentration of apricot trees in South Korea, and the village is very proud of this reputation, so they hold a festival when the trees start blossoming. The festival originally began to bring in revenue to the village, and now it’s a huge tourist attraction. People come from all over Korea to see the trees.

Knowing all this, Andrew and I decided to take our first journey out of Gwangju to see the blossoms. We went to the Gwangju bus terminal and got a ticket straight to the Maehwa village. We had to wait about an hour for a bus, and almost got on the wrong one, but we made it. It took the bus about half an hour to work it’s way into the village because there were so many people there.

I thought it would be a little festival in someone’s apricot orchard, but that’s not what it was like at all. The streets were lined with vendors pretty much selling the exact same foods and products. There were stages set up for music and performances. We saw a drum circle, a string quartet, Korean rock music, a man singing with 10 guys in chef uniforms behind him, and an over-acting pseudo male stripper.



We hiked up the streets on the sides of the mountains and up numerous paths throughout the village where the blossom trees were. Unfortunately, because it’s been unusually cold this Spring, a lot of the trees had just started to bud. There were a several that were in full blossom, but not as many as I had hoped. That being said, no one seemed to care much about the lack of blossoming trees. The Koreans scoped out the fullest ones for the photo ops, and the festival was still packed.




There was a building set up to buy little trees and plants, pictures, and other goodies. I wanted a plant, but I tend to kill them all so I passed. I went near a table eyeing some artwork that I considered buying, and two or three Korean women took my arm and pulled me over to an area where children were playing with a canvas. They were all smiling and laughing and pointing to the steps showing me how to draw a flower with a big brush. It was a beautiful flower, if I do say so myself, and they all clapped and smiled when I completed it.

So we had been there for a couple of hours, and though we had apricot ice cream, we were starving. We went near one of the many festival tents where we saw a large pig roasting on a spit. Two of the women came over and pointed and said “barbecue” so we agreed to have some. It was absolutely fantastic. Beyond fantastic. Happy with our purchase, we go to pay, and end up paying an OBSCENE amount of money for a plate of pork and some spices. 31,000 won. 31,000 won for one plate of food. That’s about $26. Now that it’s written, we never want to think about that again.

When we got back, after being helped by multiple Koreans, one whom we’d heard speaking English to her son fluently, we went downtown to meet some friends. We went to their favorite restaurant, First Nepal, and had absolutely incredible Indian food. Beyond incredible. Then we went out to some foreigner bars and had a great time.

Today, we’re focusing on being lazy and doing laundry. We should be set up for actual Internet tomorrow and posts will become more frequent, with more picures.

Written a week from today's posting.

THREEDAYWEEKEND!
THREEDAYWEEKEND!
THREEDAYWEEKEND!

We still don’t have Internet or a cell phone, but we just our alien registration cards so those should come soon. We’re still living in the temporary apartment, but should move this Thursday. It’s getting a little chaotic living in a 20x10 foot room with three suitcases we can’t unpack, but we make due. All the junk food we are buying helps! (I’m currently eating a Cheeto that shares nothing in common with the American Cheeto besides the name, btw. Oh how badly I want a bright orange Cheeto now that I can’t have one.)

Without boring you with details of our week, let me just outline a few things:

On Tuesday we were taken to downtown Gwangju to the sprawling Chosan University Hospital for a battery of tests for our alien registration cards. Hearing test, eye test, dental check-up, chest x-ray, urine test, and last but not least, the blood test. From which I almost passed out. The two Korean guys who work at the front desks of two of our schools looked so worried. I felt so embarrassed.

I started teaching on Thursday for Katherine, who I am replacing. The new semester starts Tuesday. I teach a lot of elementary classes and two middle school classes. The kids are pretty awesome. Some are little brats, but most of them are so adorable. And funny. While discussing why they might become wax figures in Madame Tussaud’s museum, one little girl said she will solve World War 3. “Oh really? How will you do that?” I ask. “I kill everyone” she says and proceeds to giggle her head off. Another boy becomes a wax figure for becoming leader of the world. And stealing all the money of the world. It’s difficult not to laugh at some of the things they say.

We also figured out that when we’re hungry, we can’t go that wrong with just pointing at something on the menu and eating whatever comes out. Just standing around and observing what everyone else does helps us figure out what to do, too.

And speaking of food, there is a pizza place on the corner near our schools (which are directly across the street from one another) called Nanta pizza that is just fantastic. If the rain doesn’t get any worse we’ve got to get some tonight. If I could get garlic dipping sauce with it, I would say it’s as delicious as Papa John’s.

It’s now Saturday. Monday is a holiday that the Koreans aren’t even really sure of. Something that has to do with something that happened in the 50’s when Japan invaded. Or so we were told. Moral of the story, the kids don’t have school and we don’t have work.

Today we took a journey to E-Mart in Sangmu, which is just another district in Gwangju. E-Mart is a 4 story department store which stands out due to it’s gigantic orange sign with a Greek-looking ‘E’ on it. Right across the highway was a hiking path up a little mountain with a three-story pagoda thing on it. It was a very beautiful view at the top. The whole city of Gwangju is surrounded by mountains. Not Everest-sized by any means, but still lends a great vista.



We also visited a memorial to the May 18th Student Uprising that occurred in 1999, I believe. It was pretty impressive, if you take away the 4 or 5 teens dressed up as Japanese Anime characters posing for pictures within the tall metal poles.

The city is MUCH bigger than I thought it was. We haven’t even scratched the surface. Katherine left me a tourist map of the city and there are many cultural places to visit in just this one city. I can’t wait until we’re more settled so we can begin traveling more.


Next weekend:

Andrew and I went out bowling Friday night with some other ex-pats from the neighborhood. One of them was telling us about a place downtown called The Underground Grocer (as in the London underground, we discovered!). It's a store run by a Canadian who came here 15 years ago to teach. Now he has a Korean wife and daughter. There are a lot of American products that are super expensive, about $19 for a big box of Cheerios, but they have stuff to make tacos! And speaking of tacos, he just opened up a restaurant next door with a small menu of comfort food for all the foreign teachers from the UK, US, and Canada in the area. There are tacos, chicken and dumplings, a burrito, and some other things on the menu for now. It was a soft open, so he asked us to make some suggestions on his Facebook page. Right across the back alley is a restaurant just opened by a Chinese guy with real Chinese food, not Korean-Chinese, which we have heard is terrible. So now we know where to get what we need to be able to survive those hard times. The tacos were really good, but at about $3 a taco, we won't be eating there every weekend.

PC Rooms

I have a post all ready to go on the laptop back at the apartment about the previous week which I will post as soon as I can, but I'm currently at a PC Room down the street. They're gaming rooms that you will find all over the place. Computer games are huge over here, (Starcraft even has it's own channel dedicated to it, like an ESPN kinda thing) so we asked to use a computer for Internet instead. The guy at the counter spoke enough English to get what we were wanting, but put us at the back of the room at the very last computers with big monster monitors and cigarette burns on the tables. The other 54 computers have nice new flat screen monitors. I know those babies must be connected to the Internet too. :-I.

Today is the very first day that I have been on the verge of selling all my possesions for some tacos and guacamole. I have 365 days to go. How will I make it without? Maybe I will start up my own taco stand in Korea and be famous for bringing them their new favorite food...