Downtown Gwangju

Annong Haseyo!

Downtown Gwangju is crazy. It's kind of like the mild version of Seoul, but it looks exactly the same. The streets are super narrow and all cobble stone, at least the parts that aren't being redone. Vendors and little stores are every where...like millions and millions of them. I don't think I've seen so many shoes in my life! And of course none are my size. Sadness. Oh well that just means I get to go to Itawan (the foreigner's mini city in Seoul were you can buy everything)!

Ok back to downtown... So you're walking down the street and the ground is littered with flyers either for a love party or prostitutes (basically the same thing), music is blaring from little shops and bars, old women are selling dried squid, hot dogs covered in who knows what, and barbecued chicken(there is a ton of street food everywhere). Stores are still open at 1:00 in the morning. There are streets that go on forever lined with cheap goods. Earrings for 1$, T-shirts for 5$, and pursers for 10$.

Apparently it's really cool to wear anything at has English writing on it. I saw a little old lady with a shirt that said "kiss of death" and an eight year old with one that read "the keggerater is tapped" ...if her parents only knew...lol. Another big trend is heels. All of the women wear high heels all the time! At the beach...heels. Grocery store...heels. What goes with a baseball cap...? Heels of course what else? What do the guys were? T-shirts with snoopy and mickey mouse on them. Why? I have no clue. With what? Designer jeans and matching shoes, what else...haha. All of the young people are all about fashion here. Guys can usually be spotted clutching their girlfriend purse as well. Boyfriends are expected to carry their girlfriends purse at all times. If you're lucky you might even see some couples wear! "Couples wear" is when a boyfriend and girlfriend wear the same outfit. All of the foreigners hate it, I on the other hand absolutely love it! If a guy has enough balls to wear matching pink Polo's and green plaid shorts he's got my vote.


Me and Jill

Downtown with the girls

Still here

I'm alive! Sorry for the lack of posting lately. The Internet and I aren't getting along so well.

So I finished my first week of teaching! My voice hurts, I'm tired, and I've decided I'm stuffing one of the little kids into my suitcase when I leave. I already have a favorite...he's so freakin cute!

"Teacha teacha, diss a...dissa a like (then he acts out whatever the new word is)...ok ok." Sooo cute!

So now I have a week off again...which sucks because I only get two weeks off a year. I think we're headed to Busan, but who knows. All I know is that I want to hit up a beach asap!

Teaching and Pics of the Apartment

Hi guys!

So I started teaching today...scary. I have eight freaking classes! OK that's probably normal, but that's still a lot. My schedule for the intensive summer course goes from 9-12 and then from 2-5, so classes are only 40 minutes. I know I know, it could be a lot worse. I don't even want to think about how many hours the Korean teachers put in. Lets just say it's way more then the foreign teachers. By the way, the little kids are sooo cute! Well, at least when there not hitting each other with their backpacks or trying to get you to say bad words in Korean...lol. A lot of the students were pretty shy today, I guess they just need a little time to warm up to me. The classes are pretty small also so that's good. My biggest class had 12 and my smallest had 3. All of the kids are around the 9-12 age range.

I also finally got my couch today! It's pink. Everything the directors get me is pink, WTF? It's cute though. It's way more comfortable then the bed, which basically feels exactly like the floor.

Last but not least, this past weekend! It was crazy. I met a lot of really cool people and a lot of really crazy stupid people. Apparently there are a lot of really crazy stupid people in Korea. Here are a couple pics of downtown Gwangju and more of the apartment including the new addition to the bathroom. I wish the one with the old drunk man would have come out better but it's still post worthy :)

<-- This is the crazy old man at like 2am.
Downtown Gwangju
My kitchen
New addition to the bathroom...
My washer! All in Korean! I just hit a bunch of buttons until it starts to fill up with water...lol.
Although there is hardly any crime in South Korea I still get a bad ass door that automatically locks behind you. I love not having to worry about keys!
Here is the new pink couch...very retro.

Hits

Woohoo!! Over a thousand hits! Cheers!



This is Chris and I at Speakeasy in downtown Gwangju. I finally found the other foreigners!

E Mart

Ok E Mart is also like a big Fred Meyer's. I've decided that I never want to go to this place again (at least not without a Korean friend, which I plan on making very soon). I hate E Mart. Picture this...

You walk into a store after a short walk from your apartment where pretty much everyone you passed along the way stopped to stare at you (on a side note I've learned I get stared at less if I have my hair pulled back). Once in the store you become somewhat overwhelmed so you decided to start from the fifth floor and work your way down. You skip over the sporting goods, car accessories, furniture, bedding ect., and make your way down to the clothing. You decided to look around a little, something maybe catches your eye and then bam! Before you know it you have your very own little Korean side kick. By this I mean some crazy Korean lady who works there and until you actually leave that department will literally be right next you the whole time. Literally I mean, get out of my bubble crazy close. It's so creepy. She just smiles at you and you have no idea how to politely tell her to go away. So being somewhat freaked out you head down to the next floor for groceries. I should have learned my lesson the last time. After a few aisles you get a huge headache from painstakingly having to examine every box or bag to try and figure out exactly what is you might be buying. By the way really loud annoying Korean music is playing the whole time. About every five minutes you hear bells and some Korean lady comes over the intercom making some announcement to everyone in the store but you. A couple of little kids run up to you and yell "Hello," so you say "Hello" back and then they laugh and run away. You walk around for a little bit longer and then decided to give up because your eyes are starting to go blurry. You go to check out...this part is never that bad. The clerk says "kompasuminda," and then you repeat whatever shes says back and smile. You bag your groceries and then you get the hell out of there. By the way people are staring at you the whole time.

Sounds fun eh? This is why I need a Korean friend stat! ...lol. I've decided to stick to the market at the bottom of my building and the 711 for the time being.

Seoul

I've been in Seoul for the past two days and now I'm really sad I don't live there! I love it there. There are people everywhere, so much to do, and crazy shopping. I think I spent a majority of my time in the subway looking for good deals...lol. I wish I would have snapped a picture because this place was insane. No worries though because I'm planning on going back to Seoul a lot! I found an awesome leather travel bag for only 10,000 won and it's huge! I also went to visit the Namsan Tower. Before I actually went to Namsan I thought it would be really boring, but the view is absolutely amazing. It's crazy to be that high, look in every direction and never see an end to the city. They say the population in Seoul has now grown to 14 million.

Here are a couple pics I stole from other sites to give you an idea, although the underground subway shopping is by no means justified. I would post the few pics I got from the tower but due to "haze" they didn't turn out so great.

The Bathroom

Here are the pics of my bathroom. Just to clarify after the messages I've received on myspace I do not use the green hose to shower...lol.

More pics of the apartment are on the way, I'm waiting for my couch to arrive to give the full effect. I did just get my washer the other day which was pretty exciting. No dryer though...sigh. It's the old hang dry method over here. Anyway the last pics is of the view from my room. It looks even better at night with all the lights but i have yet to get a good image of it.

Bar Food

This is the crazy bar food I was talking about earlier. No pretzels and fries like back home, nope here you get a dried fish cut in half (I'm pretty sure the eyeballs were included) with dipping sauce. Yum! So far I've only seen this once, usually the free food you get is actually pretty good.