Okay, so time to get back on the horse. My apologies, I haven't blogged for a good week, and my internet has been out in my apartment for the last 3-4 days. So just to keep things moving swiftly, I'll try to cover a few weeks at a time. My school introductions are finished, so here are some stories and pictures from my first weeks in Hampyeong and Gwangju!
My blog is so out of date, it's hard to even nail down the exact weekend I took these pictures, but here are a few from another weekend with waygooks in Gwangju. A usual Friday night rendezvous point, at least for the guys, seems to be Aaron's apartment in the northeastern part of the city. It's about a $5 cab ride from the bus terminal, and the most popular guests have thus far been myself, Erik, and our friends Monti and Zach from Haenam--in case I hadn't mentioned these dudes yet, Monti is a big, jolly, fun-loving dude straight out of Chicago (the accent really gives it away) spending his first year in South Korea. He's 26, I think, and had a few solid business jobs back home before starting his teaching abroad in Thailand recently. After South Korea, he's looking at teaching in South America. Zach is (and I mean this in as endearing a way as possible, Zach), the most prototypical and proud Texan I've ever met in my life, short of actually bringing his cowboy boots and hat along for the journey. He's a stud graduate of Texas A&M University, and I believe he is 25 years old. This is also his first experience in South Korea, and as far as I can tell, he's really digging it.
So the 5 of us usually meet up at Aaron's apartment, on your average Gwangju weekend, sometime around 8:00 pm. Erik and I are, more often than not, the last ones to roll in, as buses from Hampyeong don't roll into Gwangju as early and often as we'd like. But here's a sample of the shenanigans we partake in before heading out for the night, and a solid introduction to our man Monti:
Here's Monti getting an impromptu taekwondo lesson from our friend, E.T., a University student studying solar physics in Gwangju.
Here are a few pictures taken when we meet up with some of the waygook ladies, who more often than not teach in the Suncheon/Gwangyang area, about 50 miles southeast of Gwangju near the sea. These first few were taken at First Nepal, which boasts of downtown Gwangju's finest Indian food. Even though I got a little sick after this meal, everyone else seemed to really enjoy it. And it was pretty damn good, I must say:
'Da boys. This is our Texan friend Zach on the left, Hampyeong stud Erik Gray in the middle, and Master of Ceremonies in Gwangju, Aaron on the right. And that is a large mug of beer.
Here's most of the gang at First Nepal. From left to right: E.T., our buddy Mike from Ottawa, Julia, Sam (lady Sam), Sam (me Sam), Zach, Erik, Aaron, Nichole, Toni, Mackenzie (friend from California), Megan, and Monti.
About half of our usual nights out in Gwangju on the weekends start this very way--dudes drinking at Aaron's, followed by a nice dinner with other fine folks in town for the weekend, and eventually a few bars or clubs of our choosing (although, to be fair, as you've seen...we're found our few that we tend to stick to). Here's a good look at what downtown Gwangju might look like on your average Friday or Saturday night:
Oh yeah, and on this particular occasion, there happened to be a parade of costume-clad serial killer look-a-likes. Standard procedure downtown.
Here is a picture from a nice Saturday evening in the city. We found out about some live music, some traditionally Korean and some more Western-oriented, not far from this whole busy downtown area, and decided to check it out:
Digging the tunes and some outdoor drinking. From left to right: Zach, Erik, myself, Nichole, Toni, Megan, Sam, and Julia.
Hopefully this will show up on my blog, but here is a sample of some of the music. This ditty happened to sound familiar, and it just might to you as well: it's "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" by Journey. Could've sworn I was home for 5 minutes:
Again, this might not work, so I'll figure out a way to make that happen at a later date.
There's a little bit about a quick, average weekend in Gwangju--this is more characteristic of those first days, as many of us still hadn't figured out all the cool places to go, all the easy ways to get around, all the hot nightlife spots, etc. I promise to keep the weekend descriptions more exciting as the blog moves along, but there are other cool things to get to!
...Like showing you a little bit more about where I live. Here are some photos from a hike we took in Hampyeong after school one evening in September. Erin, Erik and myself decided we needed a little exercise and needed to explore our surroundings a bit while the sun was still high enough in the sky to hike around after work. And we saw some pretty cool stuff, all on the edge of town.
We started walking down one of about 3 main streets that all lead out of town, and came across some cool things. This first one was a little gazebo structure that closely resembles what Korean houses looked like as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries. Nice.
Dinner.
Some great looking kimchi pots. If these really are kimchi pots, and they certainly could be, I was a little too scared to open them up and smell the STANK. Or the deliciousness.
Here's something that might surprise people about Korea, or might not: there are generally dogs running around everywhere. On a typical 15-minute walk to the bus terminal in the morning, I can see up to about 10 random dogs digging around garbage or old food. These two were, strangely enough, chained up and pissed off.
We started walking up a very steep path about the width of a bike path, where we were certain no cars could actually travel. We came across lots of stone posts like this, the descriptions of which are all in Chinese characters. Erin, being the resident East Asian language expert, helped translate a bit for us.
This was a very private residence we came across at the top of this hill. We wanted to continue hiking, as the yard turned uphill a bit more, but we figured there was someone very important that lived in this beautiful complex, and decided pictures would suffice.
Here's a nice little pond and tree at the base of the beautiful yard.
And this picture, for whatever reason, just feels AWESOME. We hiked up about 200 tiny stone steps to get to another place we probably shouldn't have been...what seemed to be a private family tomb. There were some cool burial mounds and, as usual, plenty of exclusive Chinese characters, so we couldn't fully understand what we'd stumbled upon, but it was really cool. Erik and I felt like studs.
Some of the beautiful September foliage on our hike.
Here's the very edge of town, looking down on a windy road that marks the beginning of my bus's trek to Sonbul and Sonbul Seo every Wednesday and Friday. There is a terraced farm, with a nice pond at the bottom and the beginning of Hampyeong's larger mountains in the background.
My camera was a trooper. Here is a nice moonlight shot of a flower in the front yard of a shop in Hampyeong.
I'll leave it at that for now...since my internet is out, I'm on a nice routine of spending a few hours each night at a local coffee shop and borrowing some wireless, so I'll be back tomorrow with at least a post or two about weekends later in September. Soon enough, folks, you will be up to date. It's kinda nice being behind, though, because it reminds me of all the cool stuff I've done and seen so far, and surprisingly how much I can remember from all these great experiences. At the same time, I think of what I have yet to do, and the list builds and builds.
Cheers to all, especially family and friends, as we get closer to the holiday season. It's only going to get more awkward here in Hampyeong as the holidays draw closer and the weather gets colder. Hope everyone is happy and healthy back home.
The last thing I thought of is this: I have been here, as of tonight, more or less, exactly 3 months. I am over 25% finished, folks! How wild is that? Time's flying here, but it's not, but it totally is, but it totally isn't. Still so many new things happening every day, good and bad, but I wouldn't trade it.
Lots of love, and all the best,
Sam Teacher
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