Death Cab for Cutie

An observation: When stepping into a cab in Gwangju, remember you are literally taking your life in your hands.  Red lights, pedestrians laws, speed limits, signs and signals hold no sway over the experienced taxi drivers. I'm not even sure if there IS a speed limit, but I'm quite sure that they are exceeding it. Every ride is like a starring role in another Transporter movie. Red lights mean only that you slow down a bit and honk your horn a couple times while running it. 

Maybe it's cause I'm not from a big city... or maybe Korean cab drivers are actually insane. I dunno.

And the delivery drivers on their motorbikes are even worse. They follow no laws at all! I wonder if there's a statistic on delivery driver deaths. I'm surprised the streets aren't littered with them dying by the side of the road like inner city roadkill.

Ohhh the things you'll do.

Week 3 has been a little crazy.

A word or two on the food here. I thought I wouldn't adjust well to the food here. But really the biggest obstacle has been the language barrier. If 1)you don't speak Korean (like me), 2)the menu doesn't have any English or pictures, and 3)Your waiter speaks Korean only... you're pretty much on your own or at the mercy of your phrase book. So most of the time I've been eating pretty terribly or not eating at all. What I have tried though has been great. Some dishes are too spicy, but in general the food is good. There are however a few strange things I've come across so far.

This is from a restraint named Mr. and Mrs. Potato. Everything you order is french fries with some sort of topping. Oh yeah, except not ketchup. This one is like a weird "Italian" cheese. I can't remember the name, but at the time it seemed the least repulsive choice. Not my favorite.

This was my first Korean style barbq dinner. Great food but not so great side dishes. You grill your own meat and wrap in in lettuce - yummy! The side dishes included some sort of bug larva that I didn't have the guts to try.

Wednesday I went to my first Ice Bar. Your beer comes in a mug made of ice. After you drink it you smash your mug at a target. I'm not bragging or anything... but I nailed it on my first try. I won a pair of sweet man socks.

That same night we sang some karaoke across the street. It was super fun. I sang some Journey and Queen and met these guys.

This is the guy on the left.

Today we hung out around downtown. There is a subway system in Gwangju, but I havne't had a reason to use it yet. Mostly I just use the bus. The bus can be very uncomfortable if you don't get a seat. Sometimes though it's too full and your only option is to stand like a sardine pressed against 30 other strangers. Not my thing.

This picture is from the underground shopping area that runs along the downtown area. I cound't figure out what they were doing, but when they saw me take this picture they approached me. They were from the Red Cross and were having people fill out surveys on giving blood. Since a few of them spoke English I was able to fill one out.

Some creepy manaquines....................................................................

You can find these claw grabber machines on every street corner. The difference here is that they are waist high so it's easier for the kiddies to play. Or in this case for me to have a photo opp.

Also today I went to a pet boutique... I don't know the name for them. But basically you pay 5,000 Won ($5 aprx) and you can play with kitties and dogs. Some of them had dyed cheeks, paws and ears all wearing cute little outfits. I really miss my kitty... :( so this was therapeutic for me. I think we stayed for a couple hours.

Next on the list was the sticker photo place called the Magic Castle. There were about 30 booths. It took us a few minutes to even figure out how to work the damn things, but we did it (once again the language barrier was a big problem!) After we took our photos I swear it took us 15 minutes to print them. It was really sad and funny at the same time. My goal is to have one set from each of the other 29 booths by November. Hwaiting!

And lastly for tonight, a few random photos:

Annyong!

Look at how adorable this is. I couldn't resist buying them. They're picture frames, but I think I'll keep them the way they came.

Friday night Bethany and I were downtown just trolling for food and found a Burger King. Nothing beats a good old fast food burger. Look at the poster! Isn't it cute?!!! He's a little cowboy. Anyway... randomly while we were in line, Bethany felt a tap on her shoulder. When we turn around it was someone we knew. A dude we met earlier this week when we were at our teacher training class. He was meeting some of the other teachers at a foreigner bar right around the corner. So we decided to join. We had a great time and after, we went to a small club to dance.

Here are some other pictures I took this week.

   

This is a summertime snack made with green tea ice cream, corn flakes, red beans and some sort of gummie things. Yummy!

It's really late now so bye!

Zombie game O_o ?

Sometimes the kids in my class get bored... I mean who wouldn't? We make them repeat English phrases over and over again until they (and we) want to puke. Today, at the end of one of my classes, the kids wanted to play a game. They were shouting GAME! GAME! GAME! GAME! too loud to ignore. Soooooo I asked them what kind of game. They wanted to play the Zombie Game. I don't know about you... but I've never heard of the Zombie Game. Since I was curious I asked how it's played. They showed me that it's like a game of It (as in you're it!) only the person who is "it" has to close their eyes and hold their hands out like a zombie. Oh also they have to moan like a zombie too, you know, to bring some legitimacy to the character. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when they demonstrated. Sounds like a really fun game.

Umm oops

So yesterday Bethany and I decided that we needed to figure out the bus system from my house to hers. We've been using taxis till now and it can get expensive at $5 a ride. I knew that bus 30 went by my house, so from her house we hopped the 30. Unfortunately it was going in the wrong direction and we ended up ridding the bus all the way to the end of the line where we pretty much had to get off the bus. We looked around and walked towards the bus driver's lounge hoping to find someone who could maybe help. But.... have you ever seen how pigeons will scatter when a human approaches... anyway that's kind of what happened to us. No help from that quarter lol.

AND on top of that we didn't have enough small change to get back on a bus going back in the direction we came from. So we set out on roughly a 3 mile walk. By the way, at the end of the bus line there is nothing nearby... no cafe, no taxi, no corner store, no people, nowhere to ask for change. So after our little walk we finally made it back to civilization and were able to catch a cab. But hey, at least we got some exercise...

Korea Week 1

Ooooooo I haven't had time to really think. I arrived in Gwangju on Sunday after a 16 hour plane ride and a 4 hour bus ride. Monday morning I had 3 hours of "training" then had to go teach a full day of classes 2:30 to 8:20. It's been full time teaching ever since. I wasn't expecting to start this soon... I don't think that was the original plan. I think I was supposed to be at another school, but they needed someone at this school right away...and I got volunteered. To be honest I was really mad the first day because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I mean it would have been nice to actually sit in on at least 1 class just to see how it's supposed to work.

Today was my 4th day teaching and I'm surprised to find myself feeling much better about the whole situation and even enjoying the classes. I mean it's not easy, and my feet hurt at the end of the day, but the hours are awesome, the kids are cute, and the day flies by.

My apartment is brand spanking new. I will post some pics of it later when I have everything put away (hopefully after this weekend). I have this cool buzzer where I can let people in on the 1st floor if they call up to me on the 4th floor. It has a camera and everything. It's a constant source of amusement for me. So is Korean TV by the way. Since my apartment is new the boiler wasn't plugged in and I just figured that out today so YAY FOR HOT SHOWER TOMORROW!

Anyway that's all I have to say right now. So on to the pictures!

This is in and around my neighborhood: Yangsan-dong and a little bit further down the way.

This is a noraebang - the Korean version of karaoke. "Bang" means room (I think lol). These rooms are everywhere. I haven't had a chance to check one out yet.

I found this poster yesterday. Couldn't resist this photo op!

There are soooooooo many cute little characters on everything! The power line, the police hut, and on all the restaurants. Here's one a block away from my house.

Bethany and I ate at TGI Fridays tonight at U Square which is this HUGE bus terminal slash mega mall.

hite is Korean beer. Mheee... and it's wearing a little napkin doo-rag lol.

I had a Hawaiian Volcano that was *amazing*.

Here's part of the menu. Funny seeing it in a foreign language.

And now for my final picture of the night. This is what I like to call a "squatty potty". Bethany found this one in the park near her house. Before you ask... no I didn't use it.

Annyong for now!

Erin

I'm rich Be-otch!

Not really lol... it's only about $200 USD, but in WON (Korean currency) that's 210,000. It's going to take some getting used to!