Oh yeah. I know what you're thinking. Sam Hurd has broken his record for Blogger productivity, with 2 posts in the last 24 hours. Take this one for what you will and get psyched to get caught up on my life, because things are only getting better.
Although I should give you some sense of where I'm currently at: tomorrow (Wednesday, December 21st) is the final day of my first semester here in Korea. I would normally work my 5-day week, but my Thursday and Friday schools, being finished with all their material and having experienced the antics of my soda-infused elementary kids firsthand at the first annual Sam Teacher Christmas Party, decided no school was a better option. There's one school that hasn't yet experienced any end-of-the-semester fun with Sam Teacher, and that's Sonbul Elementary, tomorrow's school. They're in for about $40 worth of soda, candy, and snacks. It's gonna be a good time.
That being said, there is by no means a "Christmas break" of sorts here. It just so happens that Christmas falls on Sunday this year, a day I'm off of work anyway; had that been a weekday, it would be up in the air as to whether I get that day off, and I would certainly report to school the following day in any scenario. As it turns out, winter English camps begin for nearly all of us in Jeollonam-do province on Monday, the 26th. So I will really have to live it up while I feel as though I have a Christmas break of my own!
Now that you know a little bit about where my schedule is headed, I'll get back to telling you about stuff from my rich past here. Our journey will start at the Hampyeong market, which operates near the bus terminal, on every day of every week ending in a -2 or a -7 (so, every 5 days, more or less). It is bigger than expected, given the size of the town and the county, and fully stocked with your usual batch of market stuff--fruit of all kinds, plenty of fermenting vegetables, some fresh (and some not so fresh) fish, plenty of clothes, shoes, blankets, pillows, and general Korean swag and merchandise. There's not a whole lot of it I personally need or tend to buy, but it's always nice to pick up little things for the family (I promise you guys, you'll be getting all of your Christmas/year-long gifts in one giant box come August or so). That being said, let's kick off the tour:
This is a long aisle of clothing--everything from visors and hats which might be of us to those out in the fields, to flannel and trendy stuff for (mostly) older women to wear. Note the tent that tends to cover everything, at least in warmer weather.
Here's a good picture of the traffic--as I said, this market tends to operate consistently based on the efforts of (and for the commercial benefit of) elderly women of Hampyeong. They love chirping at each other about produce, favorite clothing, and price bargaining in general.
Here's one angle of a vendor's stash of mostly fish. In the foreground, in those red bowls, you can barely make out various sizes of minnows and fresh, salty little fish--these are often used as side dishes in restaurants and sometimes served in soups. Beyond that, it's hard to make out much, but rest assured the seafood selection is prime.
As evidenced here. This man was in the middle of chopping up what seemed like 5 or 10 pounds of fish fillets. Can't imagine how sharp the knives must be; he slices and dices like its nothing, and promptly puts it in a plastic bag, where it then goes out for purchase (again, to probably be put in soups), most likely less than 24 hours after it was caught. Pretty cool!
Here's another look at the selection. Toward the upper left of the tables, you see the fatter fillets of a fish that I can't completely identify. In the middle/front, we have the dried carcasses of pollack--Koreans love their fish dried as much as anything here, and pollack tends to be a popular choice. It tends to taste like a rich, salty jerkey. Then we have some extremely thin, bony and fragile fillets that sort of hang over the edge of the table--again, it's difficult to identify those. One thing I can PROMISE you is indeed here is the dreaded Hongae-heo, the fermented meat of a skate fish that smells and tastes like pure, grade-A ammonia. Hampyeong's specialty, or so I'm told!
Another look down a shady aisle of the market. Food on the left, shoes on the right. Elderly women (Koreans would generally refer to them as "ajummas") everywhere.
You can guess what these are. Still alive, of course, ready for soup.
And here's a photo that provides a stark contrast to what you just saw. This is a nice, typical Friday night scene of lights and people in downtown Gwangju. Wa Bar, featured on the left, is a foreigner-friendly bar we often check out.
And here is a pretty spectacular light show put out by the one venue we cannot seem to steer clear of upon entering Gwangju for a weekend--the much maligned but always beloved Bubble Bar.
A sunny Saturday afternoon spent in the Chonnam National University neighborhood of Gwangju, not far from where our friend Aaron lives. This area is full of various coffee shops, small pubs and soju rooms, and good eating options.
And, without warning, we jump right back into the market scene. This is Yangdong market, Jeollanam-do province's largest of its kind (nestled in a busy part of Gwangju, near the downtown area of shopping and dining). And these...are fresh octopus.
Came to the market a little too late, so here's a quiet shot of one outer alleyway of Yangdong market, as it begins to close down for the night.
...And here we are again in downtown Gwangju. Saturday night this time. So many people, so many options for dining, shopping, boozing, you name it.
On this particular night, we settled for some BBQ and some drinks, but decided (at least us boys, as we had a big hike on tap the next morning, which you will soon see some pictures from) to indulge in more food than drink and opt out of Bubble Bar for a night. That always proves a controversial decision. Nonetheless, the food was delicious and came to us on the recommendation of my Wednesday co-teacher, Kim Ju Hui. Here are, from left to right, Erik, Aaron, and Gina.
And here is just a well done wrap if I do say so myself. What you're looking at is barbecued beef soaked in some sesame sauce, wrapped in a nice romaine leaf, joined by sesame-sauced onions and grilled garlic and a hint of red pepper paste.
And speaking of Ju Hui, here she is! Happy to have met up with her on a weekend night--she lives in Gwangju, but not particularly close to the downtown area.
And here are the 5 of us at Ethnic Cafe, which is an indescribably cool place set in the basement of a building in Gwangju's bright, busy downtown. It's all set to more or less look like a cave, or a temple, with candles to light the entire place and nothing else--there is a pond with a small, quiet waterfall trickling in the middle of the establishment, and private, comfortable floor seating all around. They even serve long islands!
Here's a better look at what I'm talking about. It's a very intimate setting where many couples go to get all romantic. Candles and lanterns everywhere, lots of pillows and blankets, good drinks, so why not?
So there's another post in the books for all of you. I'll be right back tomorrow with new one, as I feel like I'm starting to turn a leaf and update you folks more and more. Thanks as always for reading, and we'll be out of October and into November soon enough. All the best, and love to all,
Sam Teacher
No comments:
Post a Comment