Gwangju

Last weekend Sara and I decided that it was time to take off and explore another city of Korea.  After minimal research I discovered there was an International music festival taking place in Gwangju, with the promise of live music we were sold.  Our friend Charles was also feeling the travel itch and decided to join us on our adventure across the country.  Gwangju is the SW province of Jeonnam-do, and thanks to a big mountiain smack dab in the middle of the country it took our bus about three and a half hours to get there.  Charles had a bit further to travel but thanks to some generous co-workers he was able to get out early so we all met at the bus terminal around 10pm.  Our first  task was to locate a place to stay for the night, we going to head downtown but after the help of a few friendly locals we were directed just a few blocks away from the terminal.  Between the rain, cars and overtired silliness that came upon us, we had quite the laugh trying to find a place to stay - but eventually settled on a motel just a few blocks from the station.  It wasn't the most beautiful place i'd ever seen but you couldn't really beat the price (25,000 per night).  Not really feeling up to making the trek downtown we decided to see what was nearby offering food and drinks.  We found a small bar/restaurant with an extremely friendly waiter, who spoke near perfect English. We caught up while sharing stories and laughs over a pitcher of beer and snacks, but soon decided to call it a night as we all had long days. I think getting back to the motel was among our biggest challenge of the weekend. 

So Many Naked People

It's crazy how fast my time in Korea has been flying by, I remember last spring talking to friends about wanting to go to the Daegu International Bodypainting festival and now it's been over a week since I've been there done that.  The festival took place the first weekend of September and was held at Duryu park in Daegu.  Caitlin and Joonwoo picked me up around 10am and we made our way into Daegu (woo hoo for not having to take the train) arriving just in time for what was supposed to be the opening ceremony. Turns out there wasn't any type of actual ceremony, 11 o'clock was rather just the time all the painting started.  The park was pretty empty but it was cool to see all of the models and artists getting ready. 

A New Semester

Start of the new semester means only one thing - more staff dinners and lots of soju.  I knew there would be changes at school, my main co-teacher taking off to have a baby being one of them, but I did realize there were a few other teachers that were also leaving. One of the teachers that sat kiddy corner to met in the office was offered a promotion to VP at another school, I found this out the day before he left as we all gathered for dinner. I hadn't really talked to him much but he would always greet me with a warm smile and friendly "안녕하세요" (hello) when I walked in the door every morning. Of course, after a few soju's at dinner he expressed to me (with help from my co-teacher) how much he wished we could talk more and that he's sorry he doesn't know more English.  I was near speechless trying to convey to him that he made me feel welcome no matter how many words we shared. During dinner one of my co-teachers asked me if i'd be joining for 노래방 (karaoke) after dinner. To be honest I barely wanted to join for dinner so I was not to excited about the prospect of signing and drinking afterwards.  My new co-teacher and I had plans to escape (which a few others had already done) but one of the other women said to wait, that she would drive us.  We were getting ready to leave but upon entering the parking lot were met by most of the male staff who pointed to the 노래방(conveniently located right next door - there would be no escape).  

Back to the Swing of Things

Since returning from my summer vacation in Taiwan I seem to have adopted a new weekend habit. (okay it's only been two weeks, but still).  The last two weekends have been filled with good friends, good food, lots of dancing and of course a few drinks.  Then by Sunday I try to restore some of the damage i've done to myself by exploring my city by bike.