Entry: The Fifth

As I mentioned in my previous post, I happen to have a wonderful Korean co-teacher with a fun family, and they invited me on a family outing last weekend. So while they were swimming I took some time to wander up the mountain road, to see how close I could get to Jirisan National Park on foot. Turns out I could very much get there, and decided that while I wanted to check it out, it would be more worth my time to wait until I had a whole day to do so. Here are a few pictures from my wanderings, like a Jirisan teaser.

These were taken at the swimming spot just under a bridge part way up the mountain. You can have lunch on bamboo platforms sitting in the water if you want, and a few families were, stoves and everything. 

Sadly it was a pretty bright day out, so as I made my way up the mountain my pictures got pretty washed out looking. I adjusted a few things, but at the end of the day the best angles happened to have the sun shining directly at me, and I didn't want to spend four hours calibrating everything. My laziness is truly your loss. 

Instead, allow me to post some photos from around the sports fields an river in Gurye.

 That's an add between two hot air balloons, just sorta floating around over the river

Yea, no big deal, that's just like 2 minutes from my apartment. There're rubber (yea the paths are all made of that rubber cement material they use for track and field circuits) walking/biking trails all along the river too, for miles apparently. Might be worth getting a bike soon. 

Entry: The Fourth (and a half)

So I left off talking about my final days of orientation, and how that all wrapped up, more or less. Well, much akin to an adopted puppy, I was picked up by my Korean co-teacher and a couple of representatives from the school board. My co-teacher, Monica, speaks excellent English, so the two hour car ride wasn't at all as awkward as I had assumed it might be. It's a funny feeling being 24 years old and being so utterly dependent on someone to walk you through processes that you could do without thinking about in your own country. After leaving the orientation centre we went to apply for my Alien Registration Card, which allows me to get everything from a Korean bank account, to a phone plan, to the internet in my apartment. Monica was and is my saviour in all things. As a mother of three, she has a lot to do between her full time job and her family, so I'm basically being added on as a somewhat useful man-child who needs help doing laundry and turning on my gas stove top. Her family is wonderful as well, and her husband speaks pretty good English, as well as her eldest son (11 in Korean years), who's friendly and once arrived at my door in the morning to read a note in English by his mother which stated that they were inviting me on a family picnic. It was funny, and also a pretty good day all in all.
After arriving in Gurye, we met with the superintendent of the area, and he's a pretty fly fellow. Myself and another English teacher (Yvonne) went with our co-teachers to meet with him and have tea in the superintendent's office. He has an awesome coffee table surrounded by eight or so big leather chairs, looking sophisticated as hell. The tea was served by his female secretary in fancy china cups, and from looking around his office in between questions, I gathered that his main occupation was reading the newspaper and drinking tea made by his secretary. He was a nice guy though, or I think maybe he was, because I stopped paying attention about halfway through because I couldn't understand any of what was being said anyway.
So before I head into pictures of my place, and all that, I'll briefly explain why I specified "Korean years" earlier. In Korea, you are one year old the moment you are born, and turn two upon the new year, whensoever that may happen to be. So if you're born on December 31st, you're going to be two years old the very next day. I'm twenty six in Korean years, being twenty four in actual years and having been born late in the year of 1988. What this means for me, is that upon my return to Canada I will return to being two whole years younger than I am here. So I can say with full confidence that in two years, I will still be handsome as fuck. Twenty six is a good year for me, and I get to do it twice. Onto some pictures.

My Apartment:

This is my hallway

This is the first bedroom (of 3!) - It contains a Christmas tree, two novelty stuffed animals, a space heater, the torso of a mannequin, several ballet-themed posters, a rice cooker that sings to me when it finishes cooking my rice (many appliances here sing or play music), a set of weights, two tea tables, an empty bed frame, a mosquito netting tent, a wardrobe full of musty old bedding, and no less than two sets of scuba gear. Score. 

My bathroom, free of centipedes or any form of undesirable life (much like all of my apartment, oddly enough for Korea). 

My living room/kitchen, which gets a lot of nice natural light during the day.

My Greek statues, because that's what a home is for.

My bedroom, which is large, maybe too large, with a queen sized bed that's probably made out of a slab of marble, because holy hell is it ever firm. If I put my whole body weight and strength into pushing down on it, I can indent it a whole one inch. 

My fan and air conditioner, which also plays music.

And finally, the view from my balcony/laundry room:

15th floor, top of the heap, and damn, it's nice. It's a bit foggy in these pictures, so I'll post better ones some day when the weather is clearer, but the mountains are incredible when you can see all of it. 

Tell me how jealous you are. 

I already know. 

Entry: The Third

Well, orientation is done and I'm currently in my apartment in Gurye County, putting my life together piece by piece. Before I put together a post on that however, I'll just finish up with some of the last bits of my orientation session in Gwangju. All in all it seemed as though everyone was growing a bit restless, though the regular meals and a place to come back to after a night in town was nice. One of the final major things we did during orientation was a trip to a bamboo forest somewhere outside of Gwangju.

There's not a whole lot to see in a bamboo forest besides bamboo and the occasional panda bear statue with uncomfortably human facial features:

There were a few buildings dispersed here and there however, some with foot massagers for some reason.

So that was the Sunday, with two traditional Korean meals thrown in, one including an incident with a hot pepper that reduced me to a crying, snotting, sweating (somehow more than usual) shadow of a man. I tried to play it off, hold up a conversation, maybe pretend like I had planned it all along. It didn't work really. On the upside I found solace in a bottle of traditional rice wine called makgeolli. It's got some light carbonation and a milky sort of consistency, and it's dirt cheap. I bought another bottle later on for about $1.50. Actually, shopping for your own food here is pretty expensive, but liquor in all its shapes and forms is unbelievably cheap. Making alcohol my main source of nutrition may prove to be the wisest financial move I've made in years.

Entry: The Second

I haven't written anything new here for a few days, between adjusting my sleep schedule and taking advantage of a few of the oddities of South Korea in the spare time I do have outside of orientation sessions. I'll just do a bulk posting with this one, throwing in a few pictures and whatnot to last the next little while as I make yet another shift into my apartment and working life this coming Thursday.

First and foremost, cicadas are loud as hell, and there're a lot of them. If you find yourself surrounded when they start to go off, it can be a bit unreal. Much like every form of insect life in South Korea, they're larger than back home. Also Korea doesn't have animals other than birds. I haven't seen one yet. I've been told not to expect to. Something about them all being eaten during the Korean War. I don't think they were joking.
It's also a constant effort to stay hydrated. I drink about 3 liters of water a day. I've taken a leak about four times since I've been here. I kind of like that. It's low maintenance.

That's Gwangju from atop a mountain nearby where I am. Hiking is awesome here, with more trails than you'd know what to do with, and they're all awesome. Lots of mountains. Everything is a mountain here. Thought that was an old lady waiting for the bus over there across the street? You were mistaken. It was a mountain all along.

That's downtown Gwangju, and the blurriness actually makes it more authentic in a way. This place is a neon zoo, and everything moves fast, usually right toward you.

Liquor is cheap (or free if the owner likes your North American stylings), and it's cool to see the difference of atmosphere between local bars and ex-patriot bars. It's like a little haven for western folks, often filled with drunk Irish people.

 Also Korea is a little bit funny about certain things. There aren't any public trash cans here. You just leave stuff on top of other stuff. Like cars, ledges, or statues dedicated to like, orphans or something.

Also phones are huge here. I mean in a physical sense. They're basically a bit smaller than a tablet. People don't put phones in their pocket here, it's kept in a case that doubles as a wallet/purse, and may or may not be designed to look like a furry animal. Actually that might explain where all the animals in South Korea have gone.

The First Entry

So this is the first day that I officially find myself in South Korea. The weather is humid, the spiders are enormous (Spencer, you'd love it here, I tell you), and I had kimchi for breakfast. Aside from being long, the flight was pretty comfortable, with free movies, a bit of leg room, decent food, and unlimited scotch. The scotch part was pretty important. Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to taking any pictures yet, as we were travelling through the country on a bus for most of the evening. Stopped off on a highway rest stop though, complete with K-Pop beats coming from an old lady's stall, and almost no English signage to be seen. Also every surface here perspires. It's damp. Like I said, no pictures that I've personally taken so far, but here's a delightful piece of some local art for your enjoyment: