So, you found me! Perhaps on your own, but more likely after I subtly but not so subtly dropped this link on you! Doesn't matter, I'm happy you are here to share my adventures!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Rest of the Weeks in Gwangju – Weekends Two through Four

I’m not even sure anyone is reading this blog anymore since I’m so damn slow in writing it, but I shall keep going. It’s funny because I’m actually sitting in the Philippines writing about quite a few months ago, to properly document this for me and my 2-3 (maybe 0) followers I will continue. So, the rest of my weekdays with the English camp were like the first with only the weekends to really differentiate the weeks (keep in mind it’s one day weekends, too).

I did notice certain matters of interest that anybody who has lived in Korea will probably recall the first time seeing them and being a bit surprised. Now, of course, it’s nothing new and possibly quite boring. However, here I go: people run red lights in Korea, stopping at them is optional and often times discouraged, as I drove some months later I, too, was encouraged with the words “go go go, what are you waiting for” so off I went through the red lights; interestingly, there are lots of traffic cams that monitor your speed and where you park but interestingly not if you are going to run a red light, hmmm; almost every restaurant has a call button, you need something you push the button, it’s easy, it’s efficient, I love it; couples love to match each other hats, clothes, shoes, even purses; brings me to my next point, some men in Korea have purses, not the manly satchel thingies but proper purses, some look like bowling bags, some look like large makeup bags, but ALL look like purses; Korea takes their recycling seriously with most public places having 4-5 different containers, the challenge lies in reading the Korean text and figuring out what to put where, I’m a fan of all the recycling, though; Koreans advertise by throwing flyers on the ground, this doesn’t really make sense to me since they are pretty big about recycling but it is what it is and is a bit upsetting to me; there is no open container law in Korea so many people buy beer and drink outside the convenience store or wherever they please; everyone has a GPS device and they are so advanced many people drive and watch TV, yep, figure that one out (coupled with people running red lights, too); if they aren’t watching TV on the GPS, they are watching it on the mobile phone, they can also video chat on their mobile phones, pretty neat; their internet speed is blazingly fast, I hear you can download hundreds of MB in a few minutes, not too shabby! There are plenty of other things, but I’ll let you come to Korea and experience them for yourself.

Since I couldn’t read Korean at this point, when my colleagues and I went out for dinner we would just randomly pick one item each at various price ranges and share them. We successfully did this on 3 or 4 occasions never really getting anything we didn’t like. Pretty damn lucky if you ask me! Other highlights include me successfully staining each one of my white work shirts (4 in total) by various methods, most of which are food related. On the other end of the spectrum, I setup the dorm shower room to provide me with a 4 showerhead shower. I can tell you there isn’t quite anything like it! The remaining weekends included seeing the Boseung Tea Fields, the southern tip of mainland Korea, hiking up a mountain then wading through a river, and a trip to the Indian restaurant buffet. Each class had to put on a final presentation for the rest of the camp and their families. My classes had to perform Cinderella where in one of the two performances Cinderella was played by a boy. It was very well received, surprisingly, haha! The last Saturday of the camp was a huge celebration for us all, but mine had to be cut short since I had to report to another camp up in Seoul the next day . . .

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