Last weekend I spent in Gwangju with my friends. I haven't been hanging out in Gwangju as much and instead have been staying in Naju, in my own home, really doing nothing. Yes, it's boring. Sometimes I wish my apartment was still in Gwangju so I could go downtown whenever I want or hang out with friends and not worry about catching the last bus back to my place. But, I'm still happy here and my job is awesome, so I can't complain. Last Saturday was a beautiful day. I really had no plans so I just hung around downtown. I got my hair trimmed, bought a new pair of shoes and visited my friend, Misub. Eventually another friend met me downtown for coffee and we spent the afternoon chatting. It was nice to catch up with her, I feel like time goes by so quickly and I don't get as much time to catch up with friends. It just so happened that this particular weekend was our good friend, Bryan's birthday weekend. We all headed downtown in the evening for some drinks. It was an overall good evening that ended about midnight when Jolean and I headed home to bed.
It's amazing how much has changed since my first year in Korea. The nights out my first year would turn into mornings out, heading to bed at the wee hours of 4, 5 or 6 am. I don't know how I lasted that long. Now I go out for drinks and I'm tired as soon as I get downtown, opting to head to bed at 1 (most of the time earlier!)
Sunday several of us got around and headed to the edge of town to play paintball. This is maybe the 3rd or 4th time we've played paintball. It is so much fun. The guy that runs it is really cool and he always give us extra games. We played for about 2-3 hours of paintball, getting in 5 games. We have a lot of laughs and high fives during the game. Sometimes there are complaints from the pain and battle wounds to go with it. This is the first time I got a bruise on my leg. I also took a few shots to the side of the head. All in good fun! It was an amazingly beautiful day so it made it that much better running through the woods. After our great game we headed to Chonnam University to hang out in the park. We talked, played some name games and relaxed before heading to dinner. For dinner we went to a meat buffet, where you can pick all types of meat and get extra sides. It was A LOT of food.
This past week we had a random Wednesday off. It was the day to vote for government officials, which meant no school and a day of fun. I was REALLY excited for elections to be finished. If there is ever an annoying time in Korea, it's election time. They do things really different here with the promotion of candidates. Each candidate has a number and color. Supporters will be out on street corners DANCING to silly songs holding posters of their candidate or their number. But it doesn't stop there, there are trucks that are driven around with large screens and the candidates giving speeches on the screen. They blast the sound and will stop to hand out little cards. Imagine, trucks of blaring music, speeches, people dancing on street corners to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it" The speeches feel like they go on forever, when all you want is peace and quiet in your apartment, but instead you hear this obnoxiously loud Korean talking.
My Wednesday was spent on a day trip with Lonely Korea led by the awesome leader Pedro Kim. Pedro is a great guy from Korea who loves to travel. He started his own group and promotes it on facebook. Many foreigners in Gwangju opt to travel with him. He tends to go to places that aren't easy for foreigners to find or get to alone. He adds extra things in the day to make it more enjoyable and get the most out of the day. He is really friendly and I enjoy spending time with him on those trips. On Wednesday he took a small group to Hadong to the 5km Cherry Blossom road. SSangysea (I think is the name) is, as stated a 5 km road of Cherry Blossoms. It's believed that if you walk hand in hand with your lover you'll end up getting married to that person. This is why the road is also known as the 5km Wedding Road. It started off as a rainy, foggy morning. I woke up wishing I didn't book the trip because I really just wanted extra sleep, especially on a rainy day. But I got my butt moving and headed to Gwangju. I met the others on the trip and we were off. Our first stop was the Moon Bear Research Center at the base of Mt Jirisan. Jirisan is the first national park in Korea and has the highest peaks. There are now 20 Asiatic bears living on the mountain thanks to this research center. We were able to see 2 of the several bears that they are getting ready to re-introduce into the wild.
After the bear center we headed to a part of Mt. Jirisan that is Pedro's favorite spot. We had a picnic on these large rocks next to a stream. It was a bit chilly and windy, but a great location. Pedro sat next to me and told me that during the Korean war it was a dangerous location for the soldiers. When the soldiers would get thristy they would come out of the woods to get a drink and would end up getting shot. Sad story, but a beautiful location. We hopped back into the van and headed towards our final destination. Of course, it took awhile because of the one lane road in each direction. It's a favorite spot for Koreans, so the traffic is usually pretty heavy (though it would be 10 times worse on the weekends). Eventually we made it to the road and were able to get out and walk up and back down the road. The trees were stunning and thankfully the sun came out just as we got to the road. I was able to get some great shots. The best part about this road is that it's surrounded by beautiful mountains AND tea fields. There's beautiful places in Korea and this has to be one of the top spots.
This weekend I spent in Gwangju again. I hung out with Josh Friday night and most of Saturday. Saturday night I had plans with Dan, my co-worker from last year. We haven't hung out at all this year, which if you remember last year we were really, REALLY close. So it was kind of a big bummer that we didn't hang out or really talk as much. Not going to lie, it made me sad a lot. A lot of things happened that made me want to hate him, but I guess I'm a big softie because I wanted to see him before he left. We have a lot of history together from that first year of knowing each other, I'm happy we were able to get together and end on a good note and remember the good times/talks we've had. It's nice to be reassured that we really will always be friends.
We decided to meet in Ilgok-dong, where we use to live and work. We thought it'd be a great ending to walk around and see the places we frequented together, in a stress free environment. We had dinner at the burger place across from our school, the place we went to anywhere from 2-3 times a week, depending on how angry we were that week. We walked by our school, talking about how easy we have it this year and how it gets boring, but how much we deserved this AWESOME job the 2nd time around. We went to our first school location, walked into the grocery store where we went everyday for snacks and to get away from our boss. It brought back a lot of good memories for the both of us. All the talks we had, the built up anger we had towards our boss, the laughs and tears. It was nice to finally talk to him and see him again. We headed to a park, where not making the best decision played on a spiny thing with children and immediately regretted the decision because we were so dizzy and wanted to throw up. We shared a bottle of soju while talking about the year before heading downtown for more fun. It was only 7:30 pm but I was already getting tired, again that whole staying out thing doesn't work for me anymore. We went downtown to meet 2 of Dan's old Korean gym buddies KM and Chan Woo. I really enjoy these guys, they are so friendly and really funny. We hung out a few times our first year in Korea, Christmas eve being one of them. Another time we spent a good portion of the day playing xbox together. We sat at a quiet bar, talking and hanging out. It was really great to be able to hang out with them again. I'll miss Dan, but I believe we'll see each other in the future.
