The rest of the weekdays in Gwangju were pretty standard with the first week. The only real exciting events were the one day weekends where we, as a group, usually took full advantage of our time off. I just checked my previous posts and noticed that I never mentioned the people that I work with. There are six English teachers in all, 4 foreigners and 2 Korean, and 6 Korean teaching assistants. Of the 4 foreign teachers, 2 were a British couple, Jonny and Jessy, who were spending a year traveling the world together (so cool, here is their blog: http://www.globenotes.com/travel-blog/jonnyandjessy/1684/1/) and two Americans, me and a married older guy from Oregon, Peter. The first weekend started with a traditional Korean BBQ on Saturday night (which is essentially our Friday). Only four of us went, Peter, and I along with two Korean TA’s Suji and Amy. The Korean girls helped us order everything, and I had to snap a photo because of all the side dishes that accompanied our meal (hopefully I can figure out how to insert the photo in the blog).
The food was so delicious, marinated pork and was a lot of fun to eat . . . until my amazing chopstick skills landed a piece of meat on the shoulder of my white polo! This would foreshadow the many stains to show up in the upcoming weeks! The BBQ place was also where I first was introduced to and began to love sesame leaves, which have a little peppery flavor to them. You are supposed to wrap a piece of meat and some other accoutrements (haha, I’m so refined using that word) in the leaf and eat it, but I enjoyed eating the leaf plain. Weird, I know! Then there’s the story of me eating and finishing the ‘salad’ at the table only to find out it’s actually what you’re supposed to put in your leaf wraps and not the salad, oops!
After dinner, some of the other TA’s joined us for drinks and karaoke, or as they call it in Korea Noraebang (literally translates to singing room). Not gonna lie, I gave it a go singing I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. I can’t remember my percentage scored but it doesn’t matter, right? It was actually pretty addicting singing.
I also learned you can make beer/soju/coke shots, hmm! The night ended kinda early, I suspect because the TA’s had enough English speaking for the day, and because we, the teachers, had to be back to the dorm by midnight—curfew, haha! Interestingly, one of the TA’s offered to give us a ride back, which we gladly accepted. We all of a sudden stopped at an intersection and were just waiting. I was a little confused, but didn’t really want to ask questions since she was on the phone. Turns out her mom picked us up and gave us a ride, whoa! Anyway, ended up really working in our favor as they offered to scoop us up again Sunday morning and show us around the area! We said, “Hell yeah!” (not those exact words despite the quotation marks) and attempted to head to bed early to rise early!
I actually got ready on time and headed downstairs early to meet our guides for the day. However, I went to the wrong meeting point and eventually ended up being late. So it seems my punctuality is forever doomed. Anyway, our TA, Tiffany, her brother, and her mom drove me and Peter all over Gwangju and the surrounding areas. They were amazing hosts for the day taking us to so many places and not letting us pay for anything despite our repeated offers. We finally snuck in the tab for some coffees and teas, which made Peter and I feel a little better! Some of the highlights of the day were amazing bamboo and zen gardens, eating steamed corn on the cob, coffee/tea at a hotel spa, the Gwangju Democratization Uprising Memorial, a canopy of trees park complete with bike ride, and an amazing dinner of fish and mixed rice baked in bamboo! The memorial was a very sobering experience and very well nicely done. The short story is that starting on May 18, 1980 for a period of 9 days, the people of Gwangju rose up against a military dictatorship. They were ultimately defeated by the army but they are forever seen as heroes of democracy and ultimately their actions helped restore it. In 2002, they created a memorial for them. The casualties and atrocities committed during this time, including a pregnant woman being shot, made me quiver. It turns out that many of the soldiers that committed these crimes were actually told by their superiors that these people were actually barbaric/evil and not innocent.
A much happier place was in an area called Damyang which had a walking trail with a canopy of trees where you could rent bikes or mini power vehicles and just ride along a path. It was quite entertaining to see grown adults ride these mini power vehicles obviously designed for children.
Before heading back for the day, I had some Minute Maid aloe vera juice that was super delicious!
*All my photos can be found on my FB account
