Life in Gwangju

It is really hard for me to believe I've been here almost a week! I sometimes wonder where the time goes.

I've gotten out of my neighborhood a fair bit this week. I've been meeting my friends Alex and Allie, Brian and Emily, and Gabe often for dinner, and we use that time to catch up about our apartments, schools, and co-teachers. I think our group is a good mix of personalities, and we get along really well. We typically meet at the YMCA downtown because it is close to everything. When we go out for dinner, the prices are really good. A plate at a restaurant will cost anywhere between 4,000 won to 8,000 won. And the food is delicious!

Going downtown is a lot of fun because there are so many people, sights, and lights. It has a completely different feel than in my corner of town. I just located my neighborhood on Google Maps, but my area is so new that it still looks like green fields, even though it is built up with many high rises now. I tried to do a print screen, but Korean computers are hard to use! Anyway, the narrow pedestrian streets downtown always seem to be busy, even on weeknights. The clothing stores stay open late, and there are many restaurants, bars, and Noribangs (karaoke bars).

To see pictures in my Facebook profile, look here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2202874&id=59501140

This weekend our Gwangju group is getting together Friday evening to go downtown, but I just found out I'm going out to dinner with my co-teachers that night also. Koreans tend to mix business with pleasure a lot. My co-teacher Mihey and I get along great, I know a lot about her, for example, that she just got set up on a blind date and when I asked if she would go, she said "Of course! Why not!" Saturday our group is planning on going to the market, and then going around to each others apartments to check them out. Sunday we'd like to make it down to the coast and islands, hopefully we can figure out how to get there.

Everyone of my friends seem to have similar experiences to mine, yet somehow they are completely different. One of my friends got spit on by her principal and thrown out of her office all the while being screamed at, another friend got asked out by a 4th grader in a love note and is constantly being climbed on by 3rd graders, and someone else learned how to drink Soju properly with his principal (its not actually a shot, you're supposed to sip it!). Everyone in Gwangju has two schools we work at because they are so desperate to learn, and when we talk about our schools it is hard to keep every ones stories and experiences separate.

Gabe from New Zealand and I are going to Incheon next week to visit the other half of our orientation group. We'll see Evan, Patrick, Joe, and Sophia. Not sure what the plan is exactly, we first need to figure out how to get there. Train is cheap, about $25 for a 2 hour ride cross-country. Should be a great weekend.

My landlord brought me dinner again last night (similar to corn dogs), and I told her the Internet was set up but it was really really slow. As in, when I woke up in the morning today, my homepage (CNN) had still not loaded! Definitely slower than the Internet in rural Cambodia. She said she would have someone look at it today. We'll see how that goes!