Upcoming Festivals

April 07-09 (Saturday): Jindo Sea Parting (or Sea Miracle) Festival

Every year, the difference in high and low tides causes the sea to part, allowing visitors to walk from the mainland to a nearby island. The phenomenon creates a 2.8-km long road measuring 40-60 meters in width. Shirley and I are going to dress up as Moses and the Pharaoh.

April 01-10 (Sunday): Jinhae Gunhangje (Navel Port Festival)

Photo Courtesy of CNN

The small town of Jinhae is home to the world's largest number of flowering cherry trees. This is the largest cherry blossom festival in Korea and recommended as one of the 50 must-see places in Korea by CNN. In Jinhae, the cherry trees form a tunnel around the train tracks, so when the train whizzes by, the sky rains cherry blossom petals. It's going to be beautiful!

April 13-15 (Saturday): Nonsan Strawberry Festival

Photo Courtesy of Google Images

Nonsan is Korea's largest strawberry-producing region. Enough said.

April 18-22 (Saturday): Cheongdo Bullfighting Festival

Who knew that Korea had a long history of tradition of bullfighting? Certainly, not me. Normally, I am completely against the use of animals for entertainment purposes. I think it's wrong and unethical like the circus and Jersey Shore. But since I am in Korea and this is clearly something that I would never do, I might as well check it out for the cultural experience. I'll leave my PETA shirt at home.

April 27-29 (Saturday): Gwangalli Eobang Festival

This festival celebrates the Spring and the ocean and is located in Busan aka the beacchhh!!!

SPRING IS HERE

Spring is finally upon us in Jeollanam-do. The weather is in the 50s and climbing by the week. On my walk to school, I'm starting to see butterflies flutter by, black flies lingering in the air, and lizards dashing into the bushes. Today I left my windows open for the first time in 6 months and busted out my aviator sunglasses. Can't wait to break out the shorts!

Current Songs on Replay:

"Call Me Maybe" performed by Carly Rae Jepsen

"Boyfriend" performed by Justin Bieber

"We Are Young" performed by Fun feat. Janelle Monae

"Young Blood" performed by The Naked and Famous

Currently Watching: Modern Family, The Walking Dead

Currently Awaiting: The Season Premiere of Game of Thrones Season 2

Currently Reading: A Song of Ice & Fire: Game of Thrones

Upcoming Events: Jindo Miracle Sea Festival (April 7-9), Joanne & Nari's Birthday Bash in Busan (TBD)

Busan Breeze

After several days of rain, the sun warmed our spirits on Shirley's 22nd birthday in Busan. I haven't been there since our cultural trip in October, so it was good to be back.

I painted pink and black zebra stripes on Joanne  :)

Fierce!

A few of us met up at the Gwangju Bus Terminal, grabbed Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, then took the 10am bus to Busan. Shirley and I listened to "Call Me Maybe" on loop. Can't get enough of that song. We arrived at Sasang (사상) Station, then took the subway 25+ stops to Haeundae (해운대) Station. We met some friends there and booked rooms at the Blue High Motel. The motel was walking distance from Haeundae Beach. The weather was in the 50s, breezy, and chilly enough for most people to keep their jackets on ... but not me~ Every sliver of sunlight was an opportunity to advance one shade darker  B)

Breezy at Haeundae Beach

Hello sunshine!

Blue skies, wind in our hair, sunnies on;
City, sand, and sea on our heels;
Just the beginning of fun times to come   :)

Cali cool   B)

Korea cool~~   ^_^v

Lunch at the Shinsegae Centum City Department Store.
This location is registered in the Guinness World Record Book 
as the largest shopping complex in the world!

At Shinsegae, we hit up Spa Land. The luxurious 찜질방 (jjimjilbang) was tucked away on the same floor as the cosmetics, but opened up to a huge play spa ground for guests to rest, bathe, get massages, eat, and overall enjoy quiet time. The open air foot spas were nice. We sat outside on wooden stools mounted over steaming pools of natural hot spring water. One of our friends, Bri, had her tarot cards read for ~$7. Joanne sat beside her to translate what the teller had to say about Bri's love life. We sat in the massage chairs for 20 minutes. We also ate some smoked eggs, which Joanne and Shirley were raving about on the way to the spa. In the preparation process, the eggs hardened like boiled eggs, but turned brown. The egg whites felt more dense and rubbery than usual. It was like eating a Dr. Scholl's insole ... with salt.

We returned to the motel to get ready for dinner. Shirley, Joanne, Bri, Jasmine, Alex, Jin, James, Andrew, and I ate at a Mexican restaurant by the beach called Fuzzy Navel. I ordered a vegetarian burrito, which looked identical to the vegetarian burrito I ate at Dos Tacos in Hongdae, but tasted pretty plain. Regardless, Joanne and I drenched our burritos in tabasco sauce and a mystery salsa. Afterwards, we went to a nearby 노래방 (noraebang) and sang until we lost our voices.

Our friends surprised Shirley with an apple pie birthday "cake" from Costco!

There was more than enough pie to go around, and it was delicious!
First slice of apple pie in ages.

On Sunday, we bid Busan farewell. The day was gorgeous, and my favorite clouds blotched the sky with their wispy fringes and silver linings. It was like Melbourne all over again.

We ate lunch at a restaurant that was famous for their 돼지국밥 (pork soup). Truth be told, it was pretty bland. Coming from 전라남도 (Jeollanam-do), where the flavors are stronger and the food is known to be better, all other foods in Korea pale in comparison. At least, it was a good culinary/cultural experience!

돼지국밥 (pork soup)

The ride home took 5-6 hours. We caught a direct bus from Sasang Station to Mokpo (instead of the bus to Gwangju then Mokpo), but little did we know that this intercity bus would literally stop at every bus terminal on the route back. Nari caught a bus 2 hours before us. Then a few hours into our trip, she messaged us that her bus was stopping at every terminal, with another 50 minutes to go. That meant another 3 hours for us. It was a nice little tour of Jeollanam-do; we essentially rode all the way east (Gwangyang) to West (Mokpo) as the sun set over the endless farmland and countryside. It wasn't like we had anything else to do, but lesson learned. Next time, we're taking the bus to Gwangju first.

Hooked on Phonics

The temperature is peaking in the high 40s and climbing to the 50s by next week. Salvation! I can't stress enough how my Cali ass has felt cold since October. I hardly know what the sun feels like on my bare skin, which is now a sheltered, milky tint. Where be my Cali tan?! My arms and legs see the light of day the light in my room twice per day when I change. This has been going on for 6 months.

It's been dreary and raining for the past couple days. They take Spring showers seriously in Korea.

The annual plan for this semester was due today. I didn't do it. I was warned about it being due this week, but I didn't get the template until Tuesday. Forgot to e-mail it to myself until Wednesday. Didn't bother opening the document until Thursday. On Thursday, the English teacher told me that it was due on Friday. She realized, "oh, that is tomorrow..." I went home and discovered that the file was in the Hangul Word Processor (or .hwp) format, which my computer can't read. I downloaded the .hwp viewer, but I still couldn't modify the document or copy the contents into a Word document. I forgot to bring home the phonics books, so I didn't have material to plan anyway. Difficulties. Well it's fixed now. I copied the template into a Word document at school and e-mailed it to myself. No one solicited me for the plan, so I'm sure it's not a big deal.

I've been teaching the kids phonics, which is successful 60% of the time or 3 out of 5 days because that's when I have a translator. The other days, the younger kids are running around the class, pouncing on the desks, poking away at their cell phones, talking, playing hand clapping games, fighting, touching everything all while I am trying to teach. Even with name tags, it takes me 10 minutes to take roll. Some kids refuse to wear their names. Other kids break their name tags. Some kids try to trick me by switching their names. Other kids just won't sit still long enough for me to mark them present.

What drives me crazy is when the sound of talking children comes from all directions. I'll turn to tell one group to be quiet and realize their mouths aren't moving. So I'll turn the other way and tell the other kids to be quiet. As soon as they're quiet for a nano-second, the other group will start talking again...and then I'll know for sure that the talking was coming from that direction. But in reality, the sound is coming from all directions and it never stops.

This week, I decided that I shouldn't have to deal with this. I ended my 1st grade class 10 minutes early and kicked the entire class out. I even confiscated a couple phones during class. My 3-4 class was no better. I took away a couple items and made everyone put their heads down for 5 minutes after class. Kept the boys for 2 minutes longer because they continued to talk. You don't piss off the Chonga and get away with it!

Let Me Do Your Nails!

My Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art History & Visual Arts is good for one thing: Nail Art!

Leopard Print (Joanne)

French tip with Golden Sparkles (me)

Pink Princess French Tip (Joo)

Spring Flowers with a Morbid Edge (me)

Food Poisoning & the Flu

Came down with the flu last Wednesday. Patiently sat through a dinner with the teachers/staff called a 회식 (hweshik). We ate at 전복 마을 (Abalone Village), a seaside restaurant located in Mokpo. If we had sat on the floor as we usually do, I think I would have died. I don't know how all these old people can sit on the floor for hours without collapsing from aching back or joint pain. I'm normally fidgeting and cringing by the end of the meal because the floor is so uncomfortable. Anyways, we sat in chairs this time and dined on various kinds of sea foods including abalone. I don't have any pictures of it, but it was sliced up nicely on a plate. The texture was chewy and crunchy, at times it was gritty like sand. It was gross, but other people seemed to enjoy it.

 

 

Happily filled with beer & soju, the teachers and staff wanted to go out for 노래방 (noraebang / karaoke) after dinner. I declined and got a ride home. I went once, and it was really awkward. They sing a bunch of Korean folk songs that sound sappy and dated. Not doing that again...

I didn't sleep well. My body ached, I had chills, and I had a splitting headache. I woke up feeling more sick, but went to school anyway. I had a slight 99^F fever, which the school nurse gave me medicine for. She kindly offered to take me to the hospital --in Korea, going to the hospital means getting a ~$5 miracle booster shot-- but I declined. 

Thursday night was worse. Another sleepless night and a bigger headache than before. There was no way that I was going to teach on Friday. I went to the nurses office, asked her to take me to the hospital, and laid down in the bed. We went to a hospital in 삼호 (Samho). No one spoke English. I tried to communicate my symptoms in broken Korean, while pointing at places on my body. They only took my temperature, which I already knew was 103-04^F. They didn't take my blood pressure. Didn't ask to look at my throat. Didn't listen to my breathing. Didn't give me a miracle booster shot. Just printed out a prescription, which we took to a nearby pharmacy. I took the bus home and stayed in bed for the next 3 days.

I put myself on this amazing thing called the bread and soup diet. I also took 3-4 different mystery pills 3x's per day for 3 days. After the first dose, my headache disappeared. It was a miracle.

 

 

I still have a cough and congestion, but it's manageable.

On Tuesday, I went out for dinner with Joanne and Nari at the Emart food court. Joanne and I ate 알밥 (rice topped with raw fish eggs). Never again. Both of us got food poisoning probably because the eggs or veggies weren't fresh. I woke up at 2:30AM feeling digestive discomfort. I experienced some temporary diarrhea and spewed the rest. Joanne wasn't so lucky with the vomiting. She had bowel issues for the next day or two. No bueno.

알밥 (albab)
Photo courtesy of Google Images

Suanbo Hot Springs & The Gosu Cave

28 February - 01 March 2012 (Tuesday - Thursday)

I planned a ski trip with my buddy, Shirley. We both had the end of February off, so I maximized on our free time and planned a trip to the Sajo Ski Resort in 수안보 (Suanbo) followed by a dip in their famous hot springs. I drew up an itinerary with turn-by-turn directions. It was 7AM, and we were up and ready to go.

Double-checking which buses we could take from 
Shirley's apartment in Gwangju to the Bus Terminal.
We ended up taking a taxi.

We're off to 청주 (Cheongju), not to be -- but soon-to-be -- confused with  충주 (Chungju)

At the  청주  (Cheongju) Tourist Information Center, we discovered 2 things:

1. We needed to take another bus to 충주 (Chungju) in order to get to 수안보 (Suanbo)

2. Ski season was over

So we just traveled 2.5 hours north with a couple more hours to go until Suanbo, where there would be hot springs but no skiing. Decisions decisions. We ate lunch in a nearby food court to brainstorm our options. What trip would be complete without Baskin Robbins? We also had ice-cream to soothe our sad souls.

Well we came all this distance; there was no way we were going back to Jeollanam-do without experiencing the ancient Korean hot springs. By the end of the day, we found ourselves in Suanbo, a seemingly deserted village with more restaurants serving pheasant & rabbit than there were local residents. Needless to say, we were pheasantly surprised by how Suanbo flaunted the bird like a town mascot.

One of many pheasant statues populating the village

We gonna eat you

Looks like the bird from the movie Up

The bird from Up

Little House on the Prairie Pheasant

A Walk in the Snow Pheasant

Charlie's Angels Pheasants

Shop Keeper Pheasant

Pheasants in a Western Featuring a Rabbit

And then we got lost....

A puppy ran up to say 'Hello!'

He had the thickest fur coat & was so adorable~

Suanbo Park Hotel ----->

We finally spotted the huge, sky blue sign directing us to the Suanbo Park Hotel located at the top of a very steep hill. We picked this hotel because it is the only resort with outdoor hot springs and a view overlooking the city. It was a small price to pay --well, it wasn't that small-- for the experience and the perspective. We stayed in a Korean-style bedroom, where we spread the bedding on the floor. The room was minimalistic: mini fridge in the corner, flat screen tv, bathroom with towels, but no soap or shower curtain. All I can say is at least we had the OnStyle channel.

This picture looking back down doesn't do the hill justice.

After booking a room --I swear we were the only guests at the hotel-- we trekked back down the hill seeking a traditional pheasant dinner. How many people can say that they've eaten pheasant in Suanbo? Not too many. Literally. There wasn't a single soul in the entire town, so "not too many" is a modest overstatement. 

We didn't wander far because we wanted to bathe in the hot springs before they closed at 9PM. 

We dined at this fine restaurant.

There isn't too much to be said about pheasant other than that it is a small, game-y bird that doubles as an overpriced meal. Shirley and I shared an order fit for 2-3 people. We didn't even come close to finishing it between the pheasant and the rice and the noodles and the side dishes. I think we were so tired from traveling all day that eating was an obstacle in itself.

Pheasant Shabu Shabu

Pheasant with Korean side dishes

The water from the Suanbo Hot Springs infiltrated up into the indoor and outdoor jacuzzis. The temperature bubbled up at about 53^C containing dozens of minerals that were supposedly good for the body. The standard protocol was for guests to remove all of their clothes, but Shirley and I brought garments to wear in the water. We freely rotated between the hot pool, the cold pool (~70^F), and the sauna (~95^F). It was pretty relaxing.

The next day, we made plans to see the ancient Gosu Cave in Danyang. In order to get there, we took a 40 minute bus back to 충주 (Chungju), then caught another bus going back in the direction that we just came for approximately 2 hours to Danyang.

The bus rides were long and tedious, but the views were gorgeous.

The river is still frozen over.

Frozen river

The ice is starting to crack.

We finally arrived in Danyang, another sleepy town just as quiet and deserted as Suanbo. The weather was surprisingly warm. We peeled off layers as we wandered into town seeking a local bus to the cave. We stopped for directions. A local told us quickly in Korean that we could walk to the cave. Our dilemma was whether to eat lunch in town, then take a cab to the cave ... or take the bus to the cave and risk not eating lunch. "What if there's no food by the cave?" "Let's just eat first." We stuck to what we knew and ate 비빔밥 (bibimbap). "Oh look, they have pheasant soup." "Are you going to get that?" "Nah..."

비빔밥 (bibimbap) 

The Gosu Cave was a short cab ride away over a bridge and past what would have been a confusing fork in the road. I'm glad we didn't walk.

At the entrance of the cave

Ready to explore the cave -- Indiana Jones style

The Gosu Cave is a massive limestone cave formed over 450 million years ago. It used to be inhabited by prehistoric people. Now metal walkways and steep metal staircases weave through the caverns of the cave for the tourists' convenience.

Shirley and I commented on how the inside of the Gosu Cave looked like a phony theme park attraction. The cave looked artificial like the set of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland or that one ride at Universal Studios. "This looks man-made ... but it's real ..."

Steep stairs lead into the caverns of the cave

T'was like an Indiana Jones adventure

Deep within the Mines of Moria ... Smeagol! I mean, Shirley.

VIDEO #1: Deep inside the Gosu Cave

VIDEO #2: Deep inside the Gosu Cave 

Hot & tired. Craving convenience store ice-cream.

Wilderness Explorer

Hmmm ....

Walking up a slope. Also tired, craving ice-cream.

Artsy wilderness photos

More artsy wilderness photos 

We found a 3.5 hour direct bus back to 청주 (Cheongju),
so we didn't need to travel to  충주 (Chungju) first.

Good-bye frozen river

We traveled 3.5 hours to 청주 (Cheongju) arriving after 6PM. We still had another 2.5 hours to get to 광주 (Gwangju) ... and another hour after that for me to get to 목포 (Mokpo). We had an hour and a half layover in Cheongju because the bus leaving within the same hour only had one seat left. We ate dinner at Lotteria and perused Olive Young, a cosmetic store selling make-up and other health products. Spent a fair bit of time sampling Clio Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil Gel Liner thinking about which color(s) we would get the next time we walked into an Olive Young. "I can't decide between the teal and the purple ... maybe I'll get both!" The pencil is made in China, but manufactured in Italy. The second main ingredient is synthetic wax, which explains why the make-up applies smoothly and remains waterproof. We were so fascinated that we almost lost track of the time and missed our bus.

 

 

 

That day we clocked 8-9 or more hours traveling on 4-5 different buses. That doesn't include the 11 hours that I accumulated from the 5 days prior to that. So much traveling. The warmer weather should present more opportunities to explore over the weekends. Festivals are reemerging throughout Korea celebrating everything from butterflies to cherry blossoms to the parting of the sea. So much to see and so little time!